LuckyDog

Hang on, this kid is 18. The conscription age was just lowered to 25. He has 7 years to make a few kids and basically be exempt until he's in his 40's.
This whole thing looks like a complete nothing story. What is he even complaining about? He can cross the desertion bridge if Ukraine drop their conscription age down to 18.

That Vladimir Putin makes bad decisions from our perspective is not the same thing as him making irrational decisions.
In that light, I think you should ask yourself whether or not the Russians would have preferred the US to be still mired in Afghanistan while also trying to support Ukraine. And you should ask yourself whether or not Putin would have preferred a safely pliant Ukrainian government (being coerced not just by the Kremlin but also the White House) over the risks associated with going en banc with a full attempt at conquest. Finally, please come up with a single evidenced example of Trump giving Russia or China pause in their foreign policy behavior. This claim is often made yet nobody can point to one…though moments of pause and dismay abound among American allies during the same time period. 
Putin’s timing wasn’t about losing the restraining hand of what we are supposed to imaging was an intimidating Trump administration vis a vis Moscow…it was the recognition that a window of opportunity was closing. Indeed, events have shown Putin didn’t realize it already had.

To restate the points I made earlier in this thread:
Bolton and others have said directly that Trump had planned to pull out of NATO in a second term and there is no evidence that he now intends the contrary. Trump has also quite publicly rejected the Pentagon’s top generals who restrained him from this direction in the first term and there is no constituency in Trump world that has a stake in European stability. Quite the opposite, in fact, as they can anticipate making enormous amounts of money off of the Russian oligarchy should the US swing into acquiescence to a Russian dominated Eastern Europe. Don’t kid yourself. If he wins, NATO is very likely to die.
It is also a canard that Putin was holding back on Ukraine before Trump left office. The reality is that Putin’s regime was involved in a full court press to pressure Ukraine into subservience with the willing assistance of political appointees in the White House. Russia hasn’t gone to war because Putin didn’t think he needed to and clearly the Russian government expected Trump to win a second term. War was decided when it became clear that Biden had won and the immediate focus of American power was going to be on containing Moscow. Putin’s clique imagined that the US was still too shaken politically from the previous four years and too involved in Afghanistan to reorient rapidly while the Ukrainian military wouldn’t be able to put up significant resistance. Virtually wrong on all counts. 

The US Congress added an amendment to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act requiring consent from 2/3rds of the Senators or an Act of Congress in order to leave NATO ( Congress passes bill to prevent the president from leaving NATO without approval (msn.com) 
A President could sort of leave by not co-operating, I suppose.  

Who stole my barn? Anyway the french got there first

and US aid is back on track for now

If I did this right, I gifted the article and it gave me a gift link (I think), for those who want to read it. If it doesn't work for you PM me and I'll try to get it right.
https://wapo.st/3vZhk1f
Dave

If I’m Putin, I want to grab as much territory as possible, at whatever the short-term cost. Putin knows tanks + apcs likely won’t be of much use in defense, and is betting that mobiks and mines and trenches and drones will maintain the defensive, just like last year. The calculation he is making is that however costly it is to obtain this territory, it will be costlier for Ukraine to take it back. In addition, it is better to get this territory before US supplies arrive, making offense much costlier. Also, in order to reverse-Maidan, it needs to happen April-May-ish. With these conditions, he hopes to break Ukraine and the West’s will, and thus force negotiation or withdrawal of support.
The way his calculus fails (IOM) is as follows:
Ukraine can maintain it’s attacks on Russia’s oil infrastructure, crushing the Russia economy and logistics and thus the ability to attack Ukraine is able to mass sufficient drones to deny defense on a sufficiently large front (say 40km wide) that it is able to not only clear lanes through minefields, via drones or otherwise, but also clear trenches with minimal boots-in-trench.

your attempt to play the both-siderism game is pathetic and shows an incredible amount of ignorance, both in historic and in current events.  What Gingerich did was completely unprecedented.  What McConnell did was completely unprecedented.  And Trump is off the charts for breaking both norms and laws.  ANd where on the left are the insane ones that are wielding power?   Where's the dem Matt Gaetz?  MTGreene?  American democracy is on the brink and it is due to one side and one side only.  Guess what --  Biden won't attempt to throw the country into a civil war to unlawfully try to cling to power.  Trump's been doing that for last 4 years, including a full on mob-coup attempt that left people dead.  So just WTF are you even talking about?  Clearly you've been watching Hannity or some other bull**** monger and now you are parroting their bulls--t.
So stop watching Fox & newsmax.  It makes you look like a damn fool.
Oh, and please respond by telling me how it's the dems fault the GOP held up UKR aid for 3 months.  Dems aint the ones on Putin's payroll.  
 

I stumbled across this article about using face-hardened and RHA armour, specifically for the Panther. It seemed to align with my basic knowledge, but I wanted to pick the group's wisdom on whether the article was accurate and your thoughts on the site's quality overall. Thanks!
https://tankhistoria.com/wwii/panther-armor-quality/

Some time ago this was biosphere reservation "Sribnianskyi forest" (Kreminna area). Complete devastation. Filmed by "Azov" brigade on retaken positions.
CM should have this type of trees after period of intensive shellings - just a standing or falling down barrels without branches and leaves. 
 
 

Here’s a question: Of the truck-based artillery, which is better, Caesar or Archer? Archer sounds great from the whole shoot and scoot perspective and automation (and thus less injuries carrying stuff and TBI), but Caesar appears to cheaper and lighter.

Yet you do!!! Time again you do!
What has it to do with Ukraine?
🙄

It's currently being reported that the House has passed the Ukraine aid deal 311-112.
https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/house-vote-ukraine-israel-taiwan-aid-04-20-24/index.html

How to bypass a government not doing what you want it to do.
Not sure it would work in America.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68843542
 

Made a post a while back after (almost) finishing the Soviet campaign. I got to the last mission, got burnt out, frustrated and ceasefired to get a tactical defeat and beat the campaign. I think I gave fair feedback on the prior five missions but my notes on the last mission were mostly whining.
I couldn't stop thinking about it though, I had spent so much time and this last mission was a pebble in my shoe (see what I did there?). After taking a break I fired up a fresh save and started again...

I realized the biggest issue would not be M60's hiding in the trees but infantry. The first go around I attacked the junction with no artillery support and it went about as well as you would expect. My infantry couldn't build fire superiority by themselves and the tanks around Outskirts Junction Two would plaster any vehicles that tried to support them. Not to mention, spending longer than a couple turns would invite the USAF and artillery.
Also, I learned that the 1st Battalion on the left could not move out of position until the tanks around Outskirts Junction Two were dealt with. Smoke(at least when they have thermals) and artillery do not work against dug in tanks. This meant 3rd Battalion on the right would need to do most of the work. I love this campaign but it's a crime to get all these BMP's and not get use them until the end!
To accomplish this task we get the motherlode of artillery and air support. Has there been another mission with this much artillery? Another lesson though, you can't use the aircraft until a good portion of AA is dealt with. Sending them in at the start is a suicide mission.
With that in mind, where do we put this artillery. My motto is "better to use too much on too little than to use too little on too much" so we will focus an unholy amount of firepower on a few key locations. (yellow for artillery and purple for air support)
Junction - I used all three 122mm batteries and a couple mortar batteries. I didn't want anything to slow me down here Industrial Yard - After shelling the junction I moved all artillery except for the mortars and cluster munitions here to make sure my attritted 3rd battalion could quickly secure the objective and make way for 1st Battalion Above Outskirt Junction Two - I left the cluster artillery on call in case I found an M60 I wanted to take out. In hindsight I should have just added it with the rest. It didn't take out the one tank I wanted but it sure destroyed everything else! Eurdorf - Before moving on the final objective my air support would be clear to soften up the town. Junction Objective
After a massive bombardment my tanks and BTR's moved up and dismounted on the south side of the highway junction. My infantry took out the few remaining stragglers. Next, I brought up AT-7's and engaged the tanks in the tree line around Outskirt Junction Two and used my BTR's to rush the TOW vehicles on the flanks. With the objective secure I moved the infantry to the trees west of the Highway Junction and began to spot TOW vehicles around the Industrial Yard. I brought the T-62's up behind them and using the infantry spots my M-60's were able to take out the TOW's with only one loss. At this point there were three M60's left (two a little north of Outskirt Junction Two looking south west and one farther north west looking south) and I was starting to get a feel for the defense. There was a strong concentration on the East and West objectives but what about in the center?
Industrial Yard Objective
I scouted forward with a couple unmanned BTR's and only found an AA vehicle blocking my way. A couple T-62's dealt with it and my BTR's ventured to the top of the map and to the west with no contact. I had found gap I needed. I kept two tanks of the company slightly south of Outskirt Junction Two looking north to catch any tanks venturing out of the forest and moved the rest to swing behind them. Meanwhile, I brought up the infantry and dismounted them to the east of Outskirt Junction Two to flush out the tanks and bring them into my tank's sights. The flanking tanks soon got in behind the tank in the far north and the rest looked south as my infantry flushed out the two remaining tanks from the forest. It was far too satisfying seeing reverse into the sights of my T-62's. My remaining infantry and a platoon of tanks soon mopped up the Industrial Yard
US Counterattack
I have a confession. I got to this part and an entire company with most of my anti tank platoon was sitting in the Highway Junction when the counterattack occurred. They were all destroyed before I could react. I'm a coward and went back a few saves to make use of my towed anti tank guns. I caught them in a trap and made pretty short work of them.
Eursdorf
At this point I moved the 1st Battalion out of it's hiding place and prepared it to assault the final objective. After all the work I did I still lost two tanks coming down the hill. Those M60A3's are no joke. 
3rd Battalion began to clear the forest in the center of the map and found a few HQ teams then moved across the river to engage targets around Eursdorf. I brought three tanks across the river as well and sniped three M60's and an AA vehicle from their rear. I brought some AT-7's but they could never get any spots. 
At this point the air support arrived and started to pummel Eursdorf while 1st Battalion was getting their first scouts into the outskirts of town. I was looking forward to using my remaining tank ammunition to flatten the town block by block but the Americans decided to throw in the towel. 

Conclusion
This was a very satisfying mission and like the best scenarios it taught some valuable lessons:
Soviet artillery should be used in mass at built up areas like towns - The Soviets wanted freedom of movement above all and these built up areas will slow you down, restrict your movement and force your precious infantry to dismount, opening them up to artillery. Each unit should support eachother from squad/squad on to battalion/battalion - The first battalion will take over 50% casualties getting off that hill if it isn't supported but the 3rd battalion is in a great position to flank the units watching that hill. Always be looking for a gap in the enemy lines - Even the lowly T-62 can take out an entire platoon of M60A3's from behind. Know the enemies' order of battle. If you know the American tank platoon has 5 tanks but only see four, you will be looking out for that tank rather than an ignorant player who figures they know where the entire platoon is. This was a very fun campaign and really cements my preference of playing the Russian faction in Combat Mission. They have a totally different style compared to any other faction and I find playing with inferior equipment more interesting than sitting an Abrams or Tiger on a hill and watching it rack up kills. You really have to earn your victories whether it's Red Thunder, Cold War or Black Sea.

well this should make your day.  
Freedom Caucus' New 'FART' Team Sparks Avalanche of Jokes, Memes (msn.com)

Another question I don't know the answer to. The consensus of the Thread so far has been that a NATO imposed no-fly-zone poses unacceptable escalatory risks (because it would involve NATO assets shooting down Russian planes). Does that escalatory logic hold now that essentially all (all?) of the Russian incursions into Ukranian airspace are unamanned? Is there strategic room for a more nuanced ruleset - something like, "We, NATO, will shoot down all unmanned aerial objects that are within 10km of a large conurbation or civilian infrastructure target west of the Dniper?

https://forbes.ua/ru/news/ukrainskiy-virobnik-gotue-seriyne-virobnitstvo-analoga-dji-mavic-shmavik-forbes-diznavsya-yogo-kharakteristiki-ta-tsinu-17042024-20603
Via: https://mastodon.social/@kravietz@agora.echelon.pl/112296332321909985
I still don't know why Ukrainians allies don't seem able to get projects like this on the way. The cost of development is a fraction of the cost of a leopard... Peanuts to what else is being sent. 

Many different sources official and unofficial, Russian TG and UKR ATESH underground in Cimea give different information about results. We should wait satellite images. 
Here is General Staff posted a mixed video - at the start we can see probably ATACAMS launches (on one of videos, filmed by locals clearly sounds of multiple cluster minitions explosions are heard), then intensive flashing burning - likely SAM missiles detonate. 
FIRMS map of fire on the airfield

Allegedle (but unverified) photos of destroyed launchers on airfield

Total claimed losses of different sources:
3 S-400 launchers + radar, 2 S-300 launchers, staying under repair in repairing units on airfield, 2 Ka-52 and 2 Mi-28 helicopters seriously damaged, about 30 of personnel killed, 80 wounded. 
GUR claims: 4 S-400 launchers and 3 radars, AD control post, "Fundamnet-M" automatized control complex. 
Russian TG claims: "nothing what can fly wasn't hit"
Last one is on the photo:
 
"Fundament-M" allows to coordinate actions of SAM regiment autimatically in repelling of aerial attack. There are no enough information in open sources about this stuff. First time this system appeared on armament of AD in 2015.

Hmmm we in the UK have personal experience of this and it has cost us dearly. A very expensive mistake...
I hope for the world's sake America takes note that tearing up years of work and cooperation doesn't magically solve anything and creates problems no one was told would happen...

What I find truly amazing are the inconsistencies people are willing to hold so deeply.  For example:
"We can't let in all these immigrants!  They will destroy our nation!"
"Tear the whole system down!"
So on one issue we have to preserve the system while on the other we need to tear it down.  So the real issue is "who" is tearing it down and power distribution post-teardown.  This inconsistency demonstrates what this whole thing is really about and there is little honorable or aspirational about it.  When extremist/reductionist narratives spark up they are filled with these sorts of inconsistencies and paradoxes.

It is potentially worse than that.  This sort of dysfunction does nothing but feed anti-democracy sentiment.  Democracies die due to abandonment, history demonstrates this quite well.  If the system is seen as "unworkable" democracies often choose suicide.  This is the threat to the US and global stability.  Trump and Greene are symptoms of something far deeper and dangerous....apathy that leads to despair.

These fools want the power and respect of being a global superpower and absolutely none of the responsibility. I'm convinced that if Russia rolled into the Suwalki Gap tomorrow that half of the House GOP would refuse to fund the military.

I hereby swear that if M Johnson actually allows for big aid package to Ukraine that I will not call him any more bad names.  Until the next UKR aid package he blocks.  UKR needs this so badly.  I wonder how long before US 155mm & patriot ordnance is actually on site at the front?