Yet

US leaving Nato is MEGFTFT, not MAGA (MEGFTFT = make europe great for the first time)

1 million drones /year 2700 / day 1 operator can make... say 5 flights/day? that would come down to 540 operators. over 500km front (not counting Africa) does it still sound so impossible? Maybe identifying enough targets might be the bottleneck.

I agree with @Tux, in addition: the Western leaders or nationalist that in the past spoke positive of Putin dont 'like him' or 'his Russia'. they envy !parts! of his leadership style or policy. They like his strong leadership or his nationalism, or his mediaouting barechest on a horse, or his 'fck the rest i do as i want- mentality'. That doesnt mean they love or support him, RU, or the war. Also the ones that ever said positives about Putins RU, often now sing a different tone. Ps. This goes for quite a few Euroos (Meloni, deWinter, Wilders, LePen), I am not so much into Trump, but as much as i see/read I assume this also goes for him.

https://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/buitenland/artikel/5427435/oekraine-rusland-poetin-zelensky-oorlog-nederland Dutch chieff of defence and former chieff of arms declare that Ukr should get also long distance rockets to hit RU on RU territory. 'Ukr cant stay in the boxing ring with 1 hand tied on its back'.

I never spoke of Leopards, nor of the average German citizen. We might (wanna) think that politicians do everything for the perception of its inhabitants... but that is wildly untrue. Its a game of politicians and lobbyists, where politicians want to hear a good story and want to feel good and strong. Where they (often wrongly) assume looking good might reap future benefits and where the most powerful people are reduced to weak humans of flesh, blood with all their flaws exploited, while it makes them feel like the Terminator. They dont always act for the people... they mostly act out of their gut feeling which is highly influencable, covered by a mild fear for negative media (or action group) outings which is a main weapon. There are different types of politicians on how they best can be influenced. But with your silverware on the table the poker games gets a lot more interesting, and it gets a lot harder to fold when youre not losing.

Very true from a military punt of view. on the other hand... (from a lobbyist point of view). Western nations got dedicated to the UA war by sending their own stuff. France, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, all got dedicated into this war by sending their high end stuff. if they would have sent only money or some cartboard for drones, these nations would never feel so attached to the war. Ofc if summer offensive would have been very succesfull.. think about what stories would be up to pull all these nations head deep inside.

aaaand there go our 'proven concepts' out of the window.

RU bought 92 (civilian) airplanes. these Airbus and Boing planes were confiscated by RU government and are now legally bought. (in Dutch) https://www.upinthesky.nl/2023/12/25/rusland-koopt-bijna-honderd-westerse-vliegtuigen/

soooo. Wrapping up the last 50 pages: about anti-mine brainstorm -no bad ideas- except that all ideas are bad Breaking the minefield doesnt solve the main problem. The first one that denies ISR (lower airspace) to the opponent can start to think breaching and offense. And without enemy drones in the sky all mine-breaching ideas are good again. Back to improved jammers, swarms, and anti-drone. and... strength too all the chaps at the front & Merry christmas

the number of lost drones strikes me. Id expect it to be surely in the double numbers compared to the rest. Are they not being used? not being targeted? or not being downed?

raw elite meat? isnt that just Steak Tartare?

not needed to pop up. see Hill60 (WW1)

if heat and sound are no issue, might as well add hoovercrofts in the equation with jetpacks.