paxromana

Comedy Gold! As Ye Sow. so shall Ye Reap!

North Korea? Iran> Nutjob Terrorists? Good luck with that ...

Fingers crossed.

I'm guessing, but AIUI Radio (and TV) Jamming is done on targetted frequencies because a wide spectrum Jammer would simply require too much power ... I suspect the current problem is that a lot of drones are commercial, and use the same narrow band of frequencies, and that even the militarised ones do as well. I suppose that Drones could be equipped to do Frequency Hopping, but that would, presumably, add to their cost to some degree.

Unidentified Floating Objects!

Indeed. One thing not widely known outside of select military circles is that even near misses and repeated damage to refineries have a cumulative effect ... repairs can be done but the damaged/stressed components become increasingly vulnerable. Of course, that was with much bigger bombs and lots of them. Still, repeated hits with smaller bombs which are much more accurate than WW2 attacks will probably have similar long term effects. The other thing, one the Germans found in WW2, Oil Refinery equipment is all special order stuff with a limited number of suppliers ... so it's sorta like artillery tube/shell production bottlenecks. If you can do enough damage the Russian ability to repair it is severely compromised in terms of timeframe.

"Children nowadays are tyrants. They contradict their parents, gobble their food and tyrannise their teachers." -Socrates “They think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it.” - Aristotle I was a High School Teacher for 40 years and my colleagues would occasionally come up with comments about how standards of behaviour/study/anything at all had changed dramatically for the worse ... nope. Not in my experience. And, as you can see, this sort of complaint has, shall we say, a long grey beard and should be put down with extreme prejudice. YMMV

"Dictators are good at getting stuff done. They're not so good at deciding whether stuff should be done in the first place." Prince Harry (paraphrased slightly as its from memory and bowdlerised ... he doesn't actually say 'stuff' but uses another four letter word starting with s), Axis of Time series, John Birmingham

And this, at least on the face of it, gives the US a huge edge ... it is a net exporter of food (and even with climate change probably won't end up suffering from famines) while China is a net importer and could well end up, demographic cliff or not, in serious food shortage territory due to climate disasters. And buying up agricultural land in far off places will do them no good since the locals have actual physical proximity to said lands and China has no realistic way of forcing them to starve so China can be fed.

Operating out of Kazakhstan, perhaps?

Slowpokes! its 15:31 1 JAN 24 here in Sydney!

Yeah, just deluded murderers.

Or, much more likely, read the Riot Act to Xi ... that there would be direct and real consequences to China if they didn't. I suspect the only undertaking he would likely have given re Taiwan was ... don't even effing think about it, though probably in diplo speak

Zelensky is a brave man ... Putin is, as we say locally, a gutless wonder. Even Stalin vowed to remain in Moscow as the Germans approached and is reputed to have said he would die fighting. Vlad would run away in sheer panic.

They would be Pirates not Privateers. The countries they were basing in would have to turn an active blind eye ... and there aren't many non-western countries that would do that (probably not any that are reliablly corrupt ... stay bought) and western countries have this silly thing called 'the ruie of law' ...

Abolished by the ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Declaration_Respecting_Maritime_Law ... since 1856, We've had discusssions about why Ukraine needs to adhere to International Law even when Russia flouts it. So not gonna happen.

Hopefully they'll soon be able to use F-16s to make the Kerch Bridge go boom-crash-sink!

They've just changed to the Gregorian Calendar for Christmas, so for most Ukrainians it IS the same as for us.

But probably not the BAM (Baikal-Amur Mainline) ... or anywhere near bridges or tunnels.

Teenage Mutant Ninja ... Badgers! Bring 'em on I say!

Well, it took from 1914-1918 to strangle the Germans in WW1 and from 1939-44 to do the same in WW2. Economic warfare simply isn't an overnight thing. Note, however, the copious evidence that Russian airlines and their stolen aircraft are in free fall, operational numbers wise. And that the Kremlin spent more on thingsa military this year than their whole budget for everything ... and it won't get better next year. Even Dictatorships can't do deficit spending forever ... that's one of the reasons WW2 broke out in 1939, Hitler's Germany was fast reaching the end of its ability to rob Peter to pay Paul and the next four years were the Nazis raping the economies of each of their conquests to fuel their economy. Putin hasn't got any conquests to rape.

And this. too, has been a failure ... all those potential targets are looking at the Ukrainians absolutely gutting Russias military and calculating ... just how little chance the Russians have of actually rebuilding those losses in the mid term future and the even more miniscule chance the rebuilding will be 'fit for purpose' in the face of what these potential targets will be able to buy from the West when Russia won't be able to and has shown an inability to do without.

Rather like Aircraft in the years immediately prior to WW2 - so majorcombatants were fielding open cockpit and/or Biplane fighters as frontline aircraft (amongst other things). Tanks also, to a lesser degree.

Yabbut ... what about a fixed wing drone with in wing ducted rotors capable of full up/down thrust selection to supplement the regular propeller ... purely and simply to provide the ability to 'jink' in such situations? Should be easy enough to implement at less than the $gazillion cost of Lasers ...

Get shot down only slightly less easily? I thought we'd agreed that Attack Helicopters ... indeed, any Helicopter near the front ... was now more a liability than an asset?