Friday, June 16, 2023
Micron will invest over 4.3 billion yuan ($603 million) in its packaging and testing plant in China...says this shows it unswerving commitment
US based but Chinese biased. Sanctions aren't the answer. Tariffs are. Dump all the products you want on our shores but you're gonna pay a price. Free trade is dead. Fair trade is essential and within the continental US should be based on OUR needs not the needs of other countries.US memory chip giant Micron will invest over 4.3 billion yuan ($603 million) in its packaging and testing plant in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, in the next few years, a move which the company said "showcased its unswerving commitment" to Chinese business… pic.twitter.com/DY55swL4Uv
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) June 16, 2023
Ukraine War Could Last a Decade, Top Ukrainian Official Says
This would be worst case scenario but one I expect. A lingering low grade war in the heart of Europe. The sad thing? The longer this drags on the harder it will be to turn it off and the more destructive it will be for all involved (not just the countries fighting but also those supplying gear).Ukraine War Could Last a Decade, Top Ukrainian Official Says | The deputy minister of digital transformation is working to cut red tape and attract foreign investors to homegrown defense startups. https://t.co/ELqKa5ZkBW #ukraine #DigitalTransformation
— Defense One (@DefenseOne) June 16, 2023
War in Ukraine so far favors the defense
via Japan Times
Nearly a week after the Ukrainian counteroffensive began in earnest, the Russian defenses are largely holding, and it’s clear that the Ukrainian military cannot count on another rapid, sweeping success akin to last fall’s Kharkiv region offensive, which saw up to 12,000 square kilometers of territory liberated.
This doesn’t mean the counteroffensive is failing or even faltering. Ukrainians have made clear tactical gains on at least one of the attack axes, and they may be helped in the future by the collapse of the Kakhovka hydroelectric plant’s dam as the Dnipro becomes shallower and easier to cross upstream from the flood zone. The lack of unity among Russian commanders is another potential success factor.
But now is still a good time to recall the assertion of some military theorists that modern technology has shifted the offense-defense balance in favor of defense. This school of thought provides a ready explanation for Ukraine’s surprising success at repelling the Russian invasion, but also suggests that the much-ridiculed Russian troops may have a natural advantage as they face the current Ukrainian onslaught.
As Seth Jones, Alexander Palmer and Joseph Bermudez point out in a recent brief for the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, technological developments that increased mobility historically favored the attacker and those that boosted firepower helped the defender.
If the introduction of the stirrup in the 8th century didn’t quite bring about feudalism in Europe, as U.S. historian Lynn Townsend White suggested in the 1960s, it did enable crushing cavalry charges that subsequently won many a battle. The tank enabled the most spectacular offensives of World War II. By contrast, the machine gun, the anti-aircraft gun and infantry anti-tank weapons all made it easier to repel attacks.
Most recently, defensive technology has arguably made the greater advances. U.S. military theorist Amos Fox has argued convincingly that maneuver is dead as a military strategy because modern war is increasingly fought in cities and the modern battlefield is saturated with surveillance technology that reduces mobility and the element of surprise. With drones hovering everywhere, it’s hard to move in open terrain without quickly attracting artillery fire.
These factors have contributed to Ukraine’s successful defensive campaign. So did the abundance of infantry antitank devices such as the U.S.-made Javelin and the U.K.-produced NLAW, as well as the use of long-range artillery (especially U.S.-made HIMARS with guided missiles) and relatively strong air defenses. Some of these components of success have been relatively cheap: A tank, even a Soviet-made one, costs much more than a Javelin or an entire swarm of commercially available drones.
The relative Russian helplessness in the face of modern defensive technology robbed the invading army of its expected freedom of maneuver, made it appear ponderous where speed was of the essence and thus enabled the Kharkiv breakthrough. Confused and demoralized by the formidable resistance it met, the Russian military had failed to pay proper attention to its own defenses.
Frank Hoffman of the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University has called on the U.S. and NATO to adapt their strategies to these changing technological conditions:
The massive employment of guided weapons, including rocket and missile artillery, in Ukraine is instructive. The combination of pervasive surveillance and deeper strike systems afford a defensive but operationally relevant advantage that NATO should base its defensive strategy around.
As a direct consequence of the Ukrainian success at defense, however, Russia itself has been put on the defensive as it tries to hold on to captured territory. Now, the advantages afforded by surveillance technology and long-range artillery play into its hands. Russian troops in the field often have been as inventive as their Ukrainian adversaries in putting to use makeshift drone technology and the Russian artillery is at least no weaker than the opposing side’s. Gen, Sergei Surovikin, who, in his brief time as the Russian military operation’s supreme commander, surrendered the city of Kherson because he correctly assessed it as indefensible, proceeded to spend months planning and constructing several lines of defense, sometimes scaring Russian soldiers by how far into the rear the fortifications were being erected.
A defending Russian army also brings to bear air defenses that have adapted to Ukraine’s use of Western-made guided missiles and a formidable electronic warfare capability. According to a recent report from the U.K. Royal United Services Institute,
Russian electronic warfare remains potent, with an approximate distribution of at least one major system covering each 10 km of front. These systems are heavily weighted towards the defeat of UAVs and tend not to try and deconflict their effects. Ukrainian UAV losses remain at approximately 10,000 per month. Russian EW is also apparently achieving real time interception and decryption of Ukrainian Motorola 256-bit encrypted tactical communications systems, which are widely employed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In a way, both the Russian and Ukrainian militaries are more in their element when defending rather than attacking. The first week of the long-delayed Ukrainian assault has shown that the Ukrainian military failed to exploit an element of surprise anywhere it tried to apply pressure. And while Russian soldiers were apprehensive about the new Western tanks and other armored vehicles newly supplied to Ukraine, the first losses of German-made Leopards and U.S.-made Bradleys have shown these are hardly indestructible.
Demoralized or not, the regular Russian military didn’t run at the sight of the advancing Ukrainians, who had trouble breaking through even the first defensive line. The one significant exception so far is the erstwhile Vremivka Salient that jutted out into Ukrainian-held territory in the southwest of the Donetsk region. According to official Ukrainians reports backed up by Russian Telegram feeds, it has been all but erased as Ukrainians retook several villages, pushing the invaders to their second line of defense. Ukrainian forces also have advanced slightly in the vicinity of the town of Bakhmut, only recently claimed by the Russian forces.
The Ukrainian military’s only hope of acquiring an element of surprise lies in the rapid terrain changes following the destruction of the Kakhovka dam. The Russian defensive plans do not appear to have incorporated such a scenario.
Ukrainian Bukovel electronic warfare equipment destroyed by Lancet.
🇺🇦🇷🇺ランセットに撃破されるウクライナ軍のブコベル電子戦装置。
— daikibokougeki/大規模攻撃🐜 (@daikibokougeki) June 16, 2023
電子戦装置のスペックは80～100kmの距離でUAVを探知し、15～20kmの距離で制圧することができるという。 pic.twitter.com/Y7V1OoKknS
Ukrainian Bukovel electronic warfare equipment destroyed by Lancet. The electronic warfare equipment specs say it can detect UAVs at a range of 80-100km and suppress them at a range of 15-20km.
I remain convinced that electronic warfare is the way to keep loitering UAVs at bay.
Don't understand how they're being used though.
Any grouping of vehicles makes them vulnerable to artillery strikes but single vehicles are vulnerable. Crews have to do maintenance, rest/sleep, etc...
Being distributed apparently helps. Being too greatly distributed seems to make individual units/soldiers easy pickings too.
M60A3 Main Battle Tank, modernized with the Modular Armored Tower (MZK) developed by Roketsan (Video)
Roketsan tarafından geliştirilen Modüler Zırhlı Kule (MZK) ile modernize edilen M60A3 Ana Muharebe Tankı, Türk Silahlı Kuvvetleri’ne teslim edildi! pic.twitter.com/4KiGNHkcqb
— SavunmaSanayiST.com (@SavunmaSanayiST) June 15, 2023
Weird War. Kadyrov’s Chechen fighters have arrived in the Belgorod region to battle Ukraine's Russian Volunteer Corps
Weird. Borderline insane. Chechens are fighting Russians while the Chechens are being backed by this group of Chechens and the Russian Volunteer Corps is being backed by Ukraine. I've said it before and I'll say it again. THIS IS A CIVIL WAR.Kadyrov’s Chechen fighters have arrived in the Belgorod region of Russia, where they will be fighting against the Russian nationalists from the Russian Volunteer Corps (who are fighting on the side of Ukraine)
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) June 15, 2023
Chechens vs Russian nationalists up next… pic.twitter.com/a5TcpLWLm1
Russians surprised by the poor quality of Leopard 2 roof armor?
Read the entire twitter threadAs the #Russians started to study #Leopard tanks they were surprised by the flimsy construction and poor quality.
— Arthur Morgan (@ArthurM40330824) June 16, 2023
Leopard armor: in some places the thickness of the roof of the #German tank is 20 mm (up to 15 mm) it appears to have increased brittleness of steel🔽 pic.twitter.com/uO0tyaq0lO
Thursday, June 15, 2023
How Army Jungle Soldiers Are Training For A Possible War With China
The 25th ID is coming hard. Jungle Soldiers are transforming into Air, Sea, & Jungle Soldiers.
General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces is pushing wheeled vehicles for its battalion of the future?
 |
| Is that a Nexter Titus? Didn't even know the Poles were interested in this beast. It supposedly has great mobility even cross country and an impressive load carrying. I think (not sure) that only the Czechs have it in service. |
Koncepcja #FutureTaskForce - batalionu przyszłości, zainicjowana przez szefa @SztabGenWP, stanowi kompleksową odpowiedź na potrzeby przyszłych działań, w których wiodącą rolę odgrywać będzie nowoczesna technologia. pic.twitter.com/ZAHzBdirUR
— Sztab Generalny WP (@SztabGenWP) June 15, 2023
Live Fire Exercise 'Ramming Bull'
Live Fire Exercise 'Ramming Bull' is on going: 🇩🇪 #soldiers of the #eFP BG 🇱🇹 practice their shooting skills with different weapon systems at the shooting range. We train to increase #interoperability with our #Allies and to maintain readiness. We are #StrongerTogether. 🤝 pic.twitter.com/2oeL2qKxfl
— NATO eFP Battle Group Lithuania (@efp_lithuania) June 4, 2023
Perhaps you'll be labeled a villain not while you live but after you die...
Kissinger’s Betrayal uses historical documents and analyses to show that ignorance, prejudice, and malice contributed to a notorious military defeat, and the rise of a dictatorship, in Vietnam. @RealClearNews @rcpvideo https://t.co/NsflWCM2OA
— RealClearDefense (@RCDefense) June 6, 2023
Floods as a weapon of war
The Chinese government deliberately flooded a vast area of its own territory in 1938, successfully halting a Japanese advance, but the price was massive causalities and damage to its own resources and reputation.
— Dan Snow (@thehistoryguy) June 7, 2023
Flood as a weapon of war. Thread. 👇 pic.twitter.com/yd84ockEpC
Wednesday, June 14, 2023
3d MLR Marines Conduct Scout Screener
U.S. Marines with 3d Marine Littoral Regiment, 3d Marine Division, conduct a pistol marksmanship lane during a scout platoon screener at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, June 5, 2023. The screener evaluates Marine’s abilities to execute basic skills, learn and retain information, and improve scores over repetitious evaluations to identify Marines who will be successful in the future scout platoon.
This makes no sense. They just ended weapons plt with the idea that any infantryman can be taught to fire any weapon proficiently.
Now they're doing screeners for scout plt? Fucking why? Are they gonna insert in a way that is totally different from the rest of the unit?
Are they expected to perform at a higher standard than the rest of the unit?
This is glorified bullshit.
The Marine Corps has had a series of ass kissing, ineffective leaders that all wanted to reshape the Corps in his image and ended up leaving the institution in worse shape than they found it.
I don't know what the Marine Corps is except reverting to the junior member of the Dept Of The Navy.
The JOINT FORCE means that all of the services integrate with each other. This hyper integration with the Navy should signal to the bean counters that the Marine Corps should no longer have a chair on the JCS. Hell if I was leading the US Army and was watching this bullshit I WOULD DEMAND IT!
Every General in the USMC should be on his or her knees praying to God that a war with China comes. If it doesn't then this organization is over. If a war comes somewhere else and its on land, the USMC will be looking like idiots while shouting like a bunch of bitches that we're organized for the pacing threat while the Army is stacking bodies and doing work.
Hit me straight? In its current form why do we need a Marine Corps? Recon/Counter Recon? Sats and UAVs can do that. YOU DON'T NEED AN ENTIRE SERVICE TO DO THAT.
Stand In Force? WHAT DO YOU CALL ALL THE FORWARD DEPLOYED UNITS THE ARMY HAS IN THE MIDDLE EAST, EUROPE, S. KOREA and parts unknown.
Berger, his boy Smith and everyone associated with Force Design 2030 is full of shit.
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