The_Capt Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 4 minutes ago, Combatintman said: Our vision is to be the recognized leader in full-spectrum airborne intelligence solutions. We take a long-term view of our relationships within the industry, partnering with our customers to rapidly identify, develop, and deliver tailored solutions for airborne intelligence requirements. Our culture attracts and retains the very best talent, and we thrive in dynamic mission environments. Whether we are providing flight test support for the development of a new collection aircraft; operating a high-priority deployed unmanned aircraft system; or providing post-mission collection analysis for special operators, we follow through and deliver results, every time. We never lose sight of our customer, maximizing the full potential of our end users. Our capabilities span three business units: Engineering & Technology, Flight Operations, and Intelligence Solutions. Through this combination of end-to-end services, we provide agile and customized approaches to the full spectrum of airborne intelligence collection needs. Our team supports projects both large and small, including turn-key Contractor-Owned, Contractor-Operated (COCO), Government-Owned, Contractor-Operated (GOCO), and Contractor-Owned, Government-Operated (COGO) services to the DoD, other government agencies, and commercial businesses. The sun never sets on AEVEX operations, with deployments in North and South America, Africa, Europe, the Pacific Region, and the Middle East. Our valued end-user customers are diverse, including Air Force Materiel Command (AFMC), Air Combat Command (ACC), Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (ARDEC), U.S. Forest Service (USFS), Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), Special Operations Command Africa (SOCAFRICA), Special Operations Command Europe (SOCEUR), as well as seven Unified Combatant Commands. We also support allied foreign defense customers and numerous commercial aerospace and defense partners in pursuit of our vision. If the above is too much of a read here's what it says ... "we make UAVs and flog them to the military." To which I would add "we used to sell them for hitting terrorist but we want in the big game". 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
womble Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 7 minutes ago, Combatintman said: Writing bollox or making UAVs? Depends if you're writing the script for one of those Russian agitprop talkshows or making a living out of battlespace intel... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Combatintman Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 8 minutes ago, The_Capt said: Maybe but let's for argument sake that Russia pulls back and digs in and claims all lands south of the Dnipro cutting a line to Donetsk - the famous land bridge. And then that hunk south of the Oskil, so roughly, and for arguments sake: By my math, that is an area roughly the same size as Ireland above and beyond the old DNR/LNR and Crimea lines. Why not just call that, plus Mariupol and be done with it? Victory, Peace in Our Time...now if anyone mentions it again, they get a free trip to a shallow grave. I mean the Ukrainians are going to hack away at that but if you need a 9 May "win". It is untidy but can certainly be sold as a win to the important internal target audiences but Ukraine and the ROW is another matter. We are certainly living in interesting times. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan/california Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 8 minutes ago, Combatintman said: Writing bollox or making UAVs? I am the one writing bollox, very hopeful they are ACTUALLY making UAVs, or at least rebranding ones that actually work, and translating the control systems and manuals into Ukrainian. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Capt Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 2 minutes ago, Combatintman said: It is untidy but can certainly be sold as a win to the important internal target audiences but Ukraine and the ROW is another matter. We are certainly living in interesting times. Considering the Russian military has been throwing up on itself for nearly two months straight now, I think "tidy" is off the menu. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlsatianFelix Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 52 minutes ago, TheVulture said: I'm not sure this can be said with 100% confidence, but it's still amazing that it is even something that might be true, given the force disparity at the start of the current invasion. When I said 100 pages ago that at loss/capture rates of March Ukraine would have more tanks than Russia in 18 months I meant the entire stockpile of tanks for both sides. In-country, I suppose, is the more important measure. Still...I am surprised. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlsatianFelix Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 (edited) Today, the Aerospace Defense Research Institute in Tver Russia had an explosion and burned to the ground. They did Iskander and S-300 (?) research and development. Also today, the Dmitrievsky Chemical Plant in Kineshma, the largest producer of chemical solvents in Russia, had a major fire. Hmmmm....... Edited April 21, 2022 by AlsatianFelix 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holien Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 36 minutes ago, Desertor said: Watching putler’s right hand clutching the table corner in his last tv images conforts my opinion that he had a brain stroke after the Moskva get lost in sea. We need to see more to be certain but the left side of his body was more interesting to watch, looked like he had no strength? He certainly looks in trouble and reminds me of my father who had strokes. The grip goes so maybe why he was filmed from that angle? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der Zeitgeist Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 2 minutes ago, AlsatianFelix said: Today, the Aerospace Defense Research Institute in Tver Russia had an explosion and burned to the ground. They did Iskander and S-300 (?) research and development. Also today, the Dmitrievsky Chemical Plant in Kineshma, the largest producer of chemical solvents in Russia, had a major fire. Hmmmm....... Terrible accidents. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hapless Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 One alternative on the political front is that Putin isn't actually in power anymore: that there's been a quiet coup behind the scenes. The new bosses have all the power, but they're keeping him in position to soak up the failure while they try to bring an end to hostilities. Probably tremendously unlikely, but that video of him talking to Shoigu seems so off. Slouched, unhealthy Putin gripping onto the table for dear life, tapping his foot with his shoulders up by his ears. Shoigu in a suit and not his uniform. The tiny table and the uncomfortable proximity. Looks like the same room that Putin gave his hour long history lesson from just before the war started (the one with the Kremlin screensaver and the array of 70s phones)- but he's not behind the desk in a position of authority here, he's out in front face-to-face with Shoigu. I mean, I've only seen a short cropped video but it definitely doesn't has the same vibe as the pre-war stuff. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FancyCat Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 I’m thinking insurance scam more than sabotage. If it was sabotage, false flag? oof, feeling bad for the Russian defense industry, all these videos make terrible selling points. Ukraine should definitely keep their defense industry online, I could see a ton of money being made on those Neptunes. (Taiwan anyone?) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rocketman Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 17 minutes ago, Holien said: We need to see more to be certain but the left side of his body was more interesting to watch, looked like he had no strength? He certainly looks in trouble and reminds me of my father who had strokes. The grip goes so maybe why he was filmed from that angle? I’m thinking onset of Parkinson. Gripping the table to hide tremors, which typically affect one hand in the first stages of the disease. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huba Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 (edited) 7 minutes ago, rocketman said: I’m thinking onset of Parkinson. Gripping the table to hide tremors, which typically affect one hand in the first stages of the disease. He looked reasonably OK during the public event on the stadium, around a month ago. For sure he looks stressed in this today's Shoigu video, but Parkinson/ stroke/ whatever is a bit too much of a speculation in my opinion: Also regarding the numbers, more BTG inserted into Ukraine Edited April 21, 2022 by Huba 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesertFox Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, AlsatianFelix said: Today, the Aerospace Defense Research Institute in Tver Russia had an explosion and burned to the ground. They did Iskander and S-300 (?) research and development. Also today, the Dmitrievsky Chemical Plant in Kineshma, the largest producer of chemical solvents in Russia, had a major fire. Hmmmm....... The russians already had some bad luck with accidental fire aboard the Moskva and now that?...what a pity...Their tanks seem to be prone to spontaneous combustion too... Edited April 21, 2022 by DesertFox 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DesertFox Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeyD Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 (edited) I recall after the stadium rally Steve had speculated that Putin was undergoing chemo treatment, judge from his puffy appearance. Also, the cameras notoriously cut away from him in mid-speech, an unusual move. Edited April 21, 2022 by MikeyD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holien Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 8 minutes ago, Huba said: but Parkinson/ stroke/ whatever is a bit too much of a speculation in my opinion: Maybe, let's see some more live meetings with him from today onwards but he certainly looked crap and it was filmed at an interesting angle. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desertor Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 If his hair fell suddenly is chemo, hand trembling Parkinson, and loss of mobility in half of the body stroke. Hope he dies slowly! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dan/california Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 Was he live at that stadium, or on some sort of piped in video? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huba Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 (edited) 7 minutes ago, Holien said: Maybe, let's see some more live meetings with him from today onwards but he certainly looked crap and it was filmed at an interesting angle. That's true. It looks like they filmed him from his "bad side" on this video. Either there is no such thing, and he was just grabbing this table out of stress, or this is on purpose. I go with option one, but if anybody feels particularly tinfoilhatty today, this video is a great fodder for conspiracy spotting. Edit: or maybe it is not stress, maybe he was just so pissed at Shoigu for being a failure, but had to congratulate him for the propaganda After the video he punched him in the teeth. Edited April 21, 2022 by Huba 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 And still we in the west subsidize Russia's war on Ukraine. Until this trade is stopped there is no reason to be optimistic about the hopes expressed for Russia's implosion: https://www.worldstopexports.com/us-uranium-imports-by-supplying-country/ https://sports.yahoo.com/us-must-stop-importing-uranium-150024558.html "Seventeen percent of the uranium used at U.S. nuclear plants is imported from Vladimir Putin's Russia. In fact, half of our nation's uranium imports come from Russia and two of its satellites, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan..." Also re gas and oil: "...an opaque market is forming to obscure the origin of that oil. Unlike before Russia invaded Ukraine, oil buyers are worried about the reputational risk of trading crude that is financing a government that Western leaders accuse of war crimes." "Oil from Russian ports is increasingly being shipped with its destination unknown. In April so far, over 11.1 million barrels were loaded into tankers without a planned route, more than to any country, according to TankerTrackers.com. That is up from almost none before the invasion. One reason to obscure the origin of Russian oil is that countries desperately need the crude to keep economies going and prevent fuel prices from surging even further. But companies and oil middlemen want to trade it quietly, avoiding any blowback for facilitating transactions that in the end provide money for Moscow’s war machine. The use of the destination unknown label is a sign that the oil is being taken to larger ships at sea and unloaded, analysts and traders said. Russian crude is then mixed with the ship’s cargo, blurring where it came from. This is an old practice that has enabled exports from sanctioned countries such as Iran and Venezuela." 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kraze Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 9 minutes ago, dan/california said: Was he live at that stadium, or on some sort of piped in video? There are no live broadcasts in Russia. Hence why that "live" video suddenly and abruptly jumped to old fart singer mid-song with putin teleporting back to his bunker. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huba Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 Comparing the scale of the economies, this is more then the whole US support so far. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billbindc Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 2 hours ago, The_Capt said: Agree, however, at this point there is nothing that Russia can do beyond this above. Russia can not shoot its way out of this larger "loss" with respect to political/diplomatic isolation, western perceptions, actual concrete regional influence or gains in context of Ukraine itself. That ship sailed about 2 weeks into this thing to be honest. So all Putin has left is shoring up domestic support and internal power structures aka staying in power. So we are back to "why do this whole drama, when you can make up whatever end state you like...Vlad?" There is a conversation out there about the end state Putin needs to stay in power and a fear that therein lies the potential for use of nuclear weapons to finish it on terms that Russia can live (sic) with. Personally, I don't see any way in which nuking Kyiv doesn't multiply rather than simplify Russia's problems but given the isolation and opacity of Putin's decision making process it can't be entirely ruled out. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kraze Posted April 21, 2022 Share Posted April 21, 2022 https://m.censor.net/en/news/3335768/russians_storm_azovstal_advancing_into_continuous_ruins_butusov Not a surprising non-twist. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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