Aragorn2002

Not to dispute the general direction of this post, but I have to set some things right:
- no one is using solar panels instead of fences in Germany. But some people have installed solar panel as(!) fences. That did occur, but is very rare
- Germany has willingly killed her own solar industry herself about 10 years ago. Mostly by ****ing up subventions which went to China instead of European manufacturers. Germany basically paid for the creation of the solar industry in China, and we lost 5-figure jobs here. Thanks to the ignorance on the side of the Merkel government which believed that solar (and wind) had no future
Now China owns the market and the US is paying immense subventions for solar factories so that companies relocate there. Currently, it is pointless for Germany (and Europe in general) to push money in that direction because that would only end in an economic fight with the US & China.
OTOH if China would embargo solar panels that would be annoying but would mostly hurt China itself. The biggest market is the West.

what a goddamn useless sham, 2 months of waiting for literally the same version as the Senate bill.

Watch this, everyone. THIS is the reality.

That attitude is a huge mistake - this is what keeps the ranks of the West's enemies are always full. If the only ones who are worthy of support are those who share the - rather unique-  views of the West on social issues such as homosexualism, religion, ethnic minorities etc. then it is no wonder that finding allies in places such as Africa and Asia is difficult. Kabul University tweets about graduation of the gender studies class a couple of months before the Taliban stormed Kabul come to mind. It is an unforced own goal on part of the West.
If the aim is to defend the post-Cold War order against an attempt to change borders by force of arms, then every victim of aggression deserves to be supported, regardless of his social policy. Think Kuwait 1990-1991.
 
 

To me it seems that the trend is changing. Europe try to take the initiative in the war since the USA shown reluctance about supporting Ukraine. Which is i think the way to go. USA is more concerned with the pacific theater and Europe need to build up force to not rely the USA that much anyway.
This war is now a grind because of the state of warfare in present day, therefor the critical factor can be psyops. Nato states should actively hunt for russian influencers and speed up the propaganda machine against the russians. Also there should be a constant effort to influence the russian population with every tool available.  There should be a constant stream of war is terrible propaganda aimed at the russian average Joe and Jane. Hacked TV stations, abusing VK algorithm to show the pointless and cruel end of the russians in Ukraine. Constantly, everyday, beating in to their head that this is pointless, terrible and can be stopped by them.
 

This is ‘PART 4: Techniques – methods of undertaking movement tasks by tanks in combat’ of the short longer than originally planned series giving an overview of the tactical fundamentals and principles behind WWII German tactical drills and combat formations commonly used in 1944 using examples from Combat Mission Red Thunder to illustrate key points. 
In Part 4 we look at the specific ‘battle drills’ and associated movement techniques used by the German tank platoon to gain superiority in a firefight with enemy forces.
Part 5 will be looking at training programmes etc and jeezo, was that a rabbit hole...
Hopefully this will be of use to both players and thsoe interested in this time period. It was originally intended to complement the tank tactical problem series I created.
As an aside when you start digging into this is becomes even more painfully clear how a dogged emphasis doctrinally and values wise on "unexpected, concentrated and determined attack; aggressive leadership and daring operations." coupled with increasingly minimally trained crews (and training hampered by lack of resources both human and material), and just as importantly, tank and small unit commanders, would only lead to needless losses. 

+1
Oh, how I wish we could like your posts right now...

However it certainly seems to be hardening. 

We're at the very, very beginning.  As far as I've seen so far, both sides are doing all this with a very conventional sensor set (Vis/IR cameras and GPS, mostly) and and haven't really ventured into RF or chemotaxis.  And we've seen only tiny bits of autonomy where it looks like it's "last 100 meters" kind of autonomy, more than "deny this volume indefinitely".  There have been a few US/European demos of RF-chasing drones.  Once those sensors and autonomy get more widely distributed it's going to be massive swarms of drones against drones.  
 

Looks more like Gypsy King.
Very interesting occurence anyway. Similar armoured charges from Chasiv Yar are also quite impressive... they are reminescent of Vuhledar.
 
Meanwhile, another country is slipping slowly off Russin hands:
https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-launch-new-e270-million-plan-bring-armenia-fold-russia/?utm_medium=social&utm_source=Twitter

While the delay in approving further American aid for Ukraine is regrettable and has likely resulting in Ukraine losing more ground and infrastructure lately, does any else feel that a positive outcome of all of this is that it has spurred Europe to act more decisively in bringing forward their own aid and future commitments?

In the long run, that seems to be a very positive development.

Mit Karacho!

dammit can we please stop the israel/hamas stuff here?  Go start a new thread, which will immediately go wrong and get locked.

Cheap-thing-takes-out-expensive-thing is not exactly a fresh hot take. Kipling was writing about that well over a hundred years ago.
https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poem/poems_arith.htm

Except that terrorist acts aren't committed with a specific reaction in mind.  Terrorist acts are committed with a specific goal in mind.  The goals of Hamas are not comparable to the goals of ISIS and there is no possible reconciliation between Israel and Hamas.  Hamas doesn't need to create acts of terrorism in order to gain Palestinian recruits.  Polls, for what they are worth, show that Hamas has somewhere upwards of 70 percent favorability to the citizens of Gaza so they don't need to convince anyone.  Everyone in their neighborhood is already signed up.  No, the only people Hamas needs to recruit are non Palestinians to buy what they are selling so that they can continue to attack Israel and convince the international community to condemn Israel for defending itself.  Therefore the goal of Hamas is to attack Israel, claim that Israel is filled with genocidal Nazi colonizers who rape and pillage for entertainment, and hope that eventually either they can remove Israel from the face of the earth themselves, or that the international community will do it for them.  The only way Israel can end the cycle is to completely destroy Hamas and replace them with a government structure that's more amenable to compromise, because if they don't Hamas will just attack again as soon as they are able and we'll be right back where we are again today.  ISIS isn't concerned so much with Israel.  Their goals are more comprehensive.   How does an attack inside Russia advance the goal of the restoration of the caliphate I'm not really sure, but they have launched attacks in Iran recently too and Russia has / had troops in Syria so maybe it's not all that complicated.  I don't want to get this thread sidetracked though and I know how badly this topic can spin out of control so I think I'll just leave it there. 
3. What are Hamas’ aims?
What Hamas plainly seeks is the establishment of a Palestinian state. Where there is doubt is over the territory in which it envisages the establishment of the state, since it initially called for a Palestinian state occupying the West Bank, Gaza and the space now occupied by the state of Israel. In fact, they violently opposed the 1993 Oslo peace accords between the Palestine National Liberation Organisation and the State of Israel. Accordingly, they initially refused to form part of the Palestinian National Authority, which was beginning to gain international –though not unanimous– recognition as the legitimate Palestinian authority and the blueprint for the future Palestinian state.
4. Does Hamas recognise Israel?
Although public statements by Hamas leaders vary, its denial of the legitimacy of the state of Israel has been a constant point of friction in the region.
 
Important doctrines of ISIL include its belief that it represents the restoration of the caliphate of early Islam, and that all Muslims are required to pledge allegiance to it;[9] that a "defiled" Islam must be purged of apostasy, often with bloody sectarian killings,[10] that the final Day of Judgment by God is near and will follow the defeat of the army of "Rome" by IS;[2] that a strict adherence to following the precepts "established by the Prophet Muhammad and his earliest followers" is necessary, surpassing even that of other Salafi-Jihadi groups.[2]

I think some people still don't quite get how important drones will be for the future of warfare. I'm guessing Euan focused on the dollar figure in his recap of Arthur's thread because money is what most people understand. We are seeing some exciting naval history be made on the Black Sea thanks to drones. 🙂
Lets be honest after all this time we are still kinda impressed when we see Ukraine take out expensive RU stuff with cheap drones and disappointed when RU can do the same with expensive Ukrainian stuff. No matter how many times we see it.
 
 

Given the ever increasing efficiency of totalitarian repression, I have serious doubts about rolling back any gains Xi and 
 
Send several hundred of them at every refinery in Russia, and then start on airfields, electrical substations, and train control boxes.

Interesting visualization of a propaganda projection process. 
 

😆

It's because they are all familiar with the default Combat Mission UI and think that rifles should be green. They are probably wondering if it turns yellow when the owner is injured.

If the guys they are parading around with missing bits, broken bones, and worse are in fact the guys that did it? Then my only question what were they thinking letting themselves be taken alive? The scary thought is that the guys they are more or less publicly torturing to death are four random guys they grabbed off the streets who had the misfortune o resemble the guys in the video. That would be uhm...BAD.
That said the treatment these guys are getting in Russian detention is no different than what they have done to tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of of thousands of others in both Ukraine and Russia. They are just posting video of it in real time. That of course is the reason why Russia is going to get to pay a thousand casualties for every square kilometer of Ukraine they even temporarily occupy. Because the Russians have demonstrated beyond clearly that giving up is just not an option.
Edited: for clarity
 

Been a minute since i dipped my toes into this thread, but I have questions about the Moscow attack I cannot figure out.
 
So, according to one of the Tajiks confessing after a thorough beating, he was a rando contracted for the attack via Telegram two weeks ahead of time and subsequently armed for it by persons unknown to him.
But recalling the video of the attackers entering the hallway calmly and at a steady interval, I am somewhat dubious these are randos with a mere two weeks notice. The behaviour just doesn't line up with what I would expect from a bunch of untrained strangers roped into the attack. To me, it looks like trained fighters who know what to do and are familiar with each other.
And then, in a rare act of competence, Russian security services manage to identify and find the guys involved (who I remind you seem to have had no previous terrorism ties!)  and who aren't lying low or heading to the Stans but headed to a place they'll stand out more than in Moscow.
 
Now, Russia grabbing the first ethnically appropriate patsies to beat a confession out of is hardly unheard of, but that might become inconvenient if ISIS-K starts parading the actual perpetrators around. So that doesn't make sense.
My other line of thinking is that ISIS are not known for working directly but via middlemen. What if the middlemen were Russian? But then, what exactly is their play? Sowing chaos? They hardly needed terror attacks to get their security services more power to do whatever they want.
To blame Ukraine? Maybe, but then ISIS-K claims it and taints that scenario, even though clearly they are trying to play the Ukraine card anyway. But it seems a lot of trouble to go through for dubious payoff. Not that confusion isn't bread and butter of Russian PsyOps.
 
I don't know what to make of it all except that assuming the Russians are lying scumbags capable of any depravity has so far served me too well to start believing their official line.

Damn! What a huge BOOMs I heard! At least three. Russians launched something fast from Crimea and this something tried to hit center of the city and probably Kyiv hydro energy plant north from the city. My wife has seen SAM launches. This couldn't be Iskander -  too far for Crimea, either N.Korean sh...t or Onix-M (800 km). Reportedly all missiles were intercepted, debrises of onе of them fell down in central part of Kyiv. 

Once again proving that everything is funnier when there's a duck involved, no matter how unfunny it is at its core.

How To Enjoy Hassle Free Convoying in CM. 
https://youtu.be/3Lz97ZDXSWs
The video uses Red Thunder but techniques shown apply equally to all the CM games.