Peregrine

Portraying this sort of dumb stuff when extreme fringes scream at each other on social media as how normal western society functions is disconnected from reality.

There would be blood in the streets?

It is like a dolphin cross-bred with a narwhal then wrapped itself in RAM for halloween.

And in the ISW takeaways: The Russian Supreme Court ruled on May 18 that Russian military personnel who voluntarily surrender on the battlefield will be prosecuted under treason charges Got to love civilian courts feeling the need to inspire military discipline.

Me too. I have a basket that I attach to my tin foil hat.

The below is an exert of an ABC News (Australian) story about Wagner. Most of it would not be new to readers of this forum but it did have descriptions of small unit tactics that I hadn't really seen anywhere else. The initial wave of 2 groups of 8 are "new" fighters (prisoners / recruits post conflict start) and the old or professional fighters are those with experience prior to Ukraine. The story isn't overly long but I have pasted the interesting bit below after the link. Vladimir Putin needs Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner Group mercenaries in Ukraine more than anyone else. "The Ukrainian special forces officer explained to me that the way the Wagner fighters have been operating has been in groups of eight. A team of eight will run, crawl and zigzag towards the Ukrainian line, he said. The team consists of a team leader, a drone operator and six "mules". The mules carry as much ammunition as possible, including rocket propelled grenade launchers and machine guns. Once the team of eight advances 20 or 30 metres — if indeed they survive — they then try to dig a trench which will form the beginning of the new Russian frontline. They then try to hide themselves and their weapons in this trench. Then a second wave of Wagner fighters will join them and try to make this trench deeper and longer. If they survive and establish this new frontline, then professional Wagner fighters – the "old Wagners" will join them, or, sometimes, professional Russian fighters may take over these new positions."

Picture wasn't Sparrow. It was HARM (non-pointy tailfins) or a non-western weapon.

The "lives of Vanyas don't matter" seems to be standard in all situations. No conspiracy there.

Keep an eye out for little green men. They may not be leprechauns.

When it comes to Russian competence with things that go boom I guess there is no bottom. A bunker buster does seem a reasonable guess but why is it armed over friendly territory? Bizarre.

Can't explain why it exploded like that but it does now make a bit more sense. I think in Western aircraft you have to arm two different things to make the ordnance live so I couldn't quite understand how it being released over friendly territory could make such a big mess.

Don't forget France and Australia made the list too.

I think an obvious but unasked question so far is if this is the sloppiness of distribution and access it is amazing that it doesn't happen more frequently.

No quite the same but "gamey" similar things happen when playing CM battles (more so WWII). My infantry has bled too much it is time to do something risky/stupid with a tank and see what happens.

NATO would have had an air campaign that if successful would have been unrelenting and hideous for those on the ground. The interdiction that would have happened after this would have been super ugly. When Ukraine won land battles outside Kyiv, then Kherson, Kharkiv that resulted in significant withdrawals the Ukrainians didn't have the interdiction capabilities to turn these wins into routes or multiply the casualties many fold with Falaise or Highway of Death style violence. I suspect they may still not have them and any delays to the expected offensives will be to make sure as much of this capacity is available. None of these assets are immediately available in a volume that would make a significant difference in terms of air power. ATACMS would be something that is in the ballpark but I don't really understand it's effectiveness in this context well. More tanks as well. Difficult to judge but at times the impression exists that Russian AT defense is inconsistent.

Agreed. FFS. What have the Romans ever done for us? I am sorry I just couldn't help myself.

They are a graphs with numbers. Analysis would be explaining why at different times the population increased and decreased. At no point on any of those graphs was Ukraine a country not at war with a democratic government with corruption trending downwards. And if that is analysis it basically saying a median estimate is the Ukrainian population is heading towards 20 million. Great news for the taxpayer as you can basically start dismantling schools, hospitals and infrastructure now.

Opposite but similar from Australian engineers. One of my brothers friends said he lost count of how many times he "died" practicing disarming buildings rigged in various way. He said it was a little dispiriting.

Jury is still out on Nicholas Cage.

They should have found +1 horse and -1 minus shirt for the photo op. That would be dialing it up to 11.

Xi is starting to look the same in many ways. He is now looking like leader for life when he probably shouldn't be. Strong vote result in his favor, 2952 - 0. The ruling party is littered with loyalists. Personal loyalty is the most important trait. Competence is left by the wayside. No contest of ideas. At the same time they are repeating the same mistakes dictatorships everywhere make. Manufacturing internal and external enemies even when they don't really exist. Do this often enough and it becomes reality that is acted upon. Only problem for the rest of the world is that when they go nuts internally or externally 1.4 billion people will be involved.

I noticed and thought for cameras then maybe is it for drones?

I have been to Ireland (from Australia) and later when I started with a bunch of Irish guys told them about my trip the first thing the locals from County Cork said was "FFS, please tell me you didn't kiss the stone." for the above reasons. Right of passage in the area apparently.

It sort of makes sense that seeing their things go boom should produce more money but if defense spending is linked to GDP (sort of) in the manner Western leaders speak of it then defense spending is a part of the overall economy as well and fluctuates in line with that. I started to spend a little time to quantify this but bailed as it was going to take too long but even a quick glance it is hard to see any trends.

Unless your the pilot. Then you have a great vid of yourself smashing 30 million dollars worth of someone else stuff then walking away with a shrug.* * Barring any damage to your jet.