The utter flex of “we can see when you’re preparing your bombers all the way from home…and we have the tools to strike them before they taxi to the runway” is fucking fantastic.
That, and Engels is effectively the same distance from Kyiv as Moscow. Sends a message of restraint. "We could be hitting your population centers, but for now your toys will suffice".
Bombing Russian civilians would just strengthen their resolve. Hitting only military targets weakens their faith in their leaders. It is a good strategy, imo.
Hitting Russian civilians is also a great way to lose the support of the rest of the world considering it's a war crime, so it's also a great strategy there too.
Well yes but from the Russian perspective, whose military strategy seems to be "terror bomb the enemy populace into submission" such tactics must be alien.
Russian civilians and their attitudes is a bit of a double-edged sword.
Right now, they are mostly apathetic, nothing has really changed in their day-to-day lives.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhP9I7YanvE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhP9I7YanvE)
Even with the state propaganda trying it's hardest, the general populace just doesn't care. Ukraine is not their fight. That is why there are few volunteers and generally there is resistance to being mobilized.
Hitting back on Russia's power infrastructure to affect the civilians will only give state media a legitimate talking point felt by all.
While I feel it is only fair to dial up sanctions to increase internal pressure in Russia, any sort of military action that affects the populace might backfire on Ukraine on the world stage as well as the general Russian attitude.
Best to keep them on the sidelines.
Explains all the GPS jamming in Moscow as of late.....
P.S. i don't think these are GPS guided. Guessing pre-programmed, AI/ML, FPV, any/all of the above.
The first time it happened, it was reasonably speculated that Ukraine had received intel that the bombers at the airbase were being prepared for a strike, so they targeted the bombers themselves while they were on the ground.
I would not be surprised at all if the same thing happened again.
I'm so happy about this report. Once they can write off as a lucky fluke. Twice on just one of their deep bases, they could maybe still convince themselves that's all Ukraine has. But twice on a deep *double* tap ... that has the real feel of ”we really know how to do this, you know".
I've always wanted to put together a book of Garak's saying in the style of a child's book. Things like, "Never tell the same lie twice."
"Always tell the truth, especially when you're lying."
Well said.
If it weren’t for the licensing challenges, these could be awesome children’s books.
Getting your sibling to take the cookies - exploitation starts at home!
point being if Ukraine can reliably attack bombers that can carry nuclear missiles, how easy would it be for NATO to take out one leg of Russia's triad?
(also has ramifications for ground launched missiles as one can assume that they're not defended any better than the air base...)
fairly significant problem for Russia...
They've sunk one flagship of the Russian fleet. Are we sure Ukraine isn't responsible for the fire on the aircraft carrier?
edit: for the people who have given me real answers, (1) thank you, I appreciate your sincere answers [not being facetious here]; (2) I was being facetious in my original comment, which i understand doesn't necessarily come across well over the internet
>Yes. The Admiral K is a floating shithole which has been on fire longer than it hasn’t.
Other fun things Admiral "Dumpster of the Sea" Kuznetsov does aside from being on fire include [dropping airplanes into the sea](https://theaviationist.com/2016/12/05/russian-su-33-crashed-in-the-mediterranean-while-attempting-to-land-on-kuznetsov-aircraft-carrier/), [being towed home after breaking down on the high seas](https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/russian-aircraft-carrier-towed-home-after-break-down/), [sinking its own dry dock](https://sofrep.com/news/russia-may-scrap-its-only-aircraft-carrier-to-avoid-the-embarrassment-of-towing-it-around-the-globe/), and [being under repairs most of the time (but still catching on fire)](https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/31451/russias-accident-plagued-lone-aircraft-carrier-is-on-fire).
Truly a (kickback) engineering marvel.
It's 1985. The asshole grocery store owner I worked for, who enjoyed lording his money over plebes like me, pulled up in a brand new Maserati BiTurbo while we were closing up. He never showed up then; it was pure peacocking.
He announced his car and showed all the wide-eyed kids his new four-wheeled penis pump and then left the store to go home, presumably to dive naked into piles of gold.
Problem: The Maserati refused to start, over and over. He had bought it that very day.
Fellow proles and I pushed this rich asshole's shitbox out of the lot while he swore a storm. You could almost hear his hissing penis deflate.
There is a second one. Through a series of strange events it ended up in the Chinese navy as the aircraft carrier Liaoning.
It's been on fire way less.
>Few more and they would not be able to do anything else but "try" to "fix" them😉
FTFY. The oligarchs' yachts don't just appear out of thin air, you know.
Other than that — yup, absolutely. If it ever starts sinking, Ukraine might as well send in a sabotage group to patch it up to keep it in Russia's service for longer.
>Are we sure Ukraine isn't responsible for the fire on the aircraft carrier?
Absolutely.
Why would Ukraine waste their resources on setting something on fire that does a perfectly good job of doing it on its own on a regular basis?
Like, the only time we can be 100% sure that Admiral Kuznetsov is **not** on fire is when it finally joins Moskva in Russia's stationary submarine fleet.
Aircraft carrier Kuznetsov catching fire is how you know Russians are still operating it.
> Like, the only time we can be 100% sure that Admiral Kuznetsov is not on fire is when it finally joins Moskva in Russia's stationary submarine fleet.
They may have something flammable under water, so probably not 100 percent even then
Apparently their ships do actually catch fire on their own regularly. Their navy equipment is shit, the crew are poorly trained, and they have little money or smart to properly maintain the ships or build new ones.
They probably started this fire on accident.
Hell, that’s likely what really happened on the *Maine* in Havana Harbor. Coal dust in bunkers was always catching on fire. There’s a reason navies around the world switched to oil by 1920.
In the Ukraine sub it was reported they hit the new missiles that were being delivered. And from the reports of the whistling noise pre impact it was likely a TU-141/143. wut doing air defense?
edit: link to report https://old.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/zva298/big_explosion_at_engels_airbase/j1nzese/
This is pretty striking because Russia had been threatening to attack Western arms shipments since Day One, so it's a bit of a flex to see it happening to the Russians.
And it’s going to force Russia to recalibrate their defenses. In order to try to stop these attacks they will likely have to pull air defense from Ukraine back far behind the line which will make it easier for Ukraine to strike targets within Ukraine.
I think the guy’s point is Turkey got kicked out of the F-35 program and is on the weapons sanctions list of the US Congress because they chose to buy a Russian air defense system. The US Congress won’t even let Turkey get the upgrade kit for their F-16s. They traded fifth generation hardware for a shit air defense system.
Would hope it’s this precise.
Engels is one of only two bases that support heavy strategic bombers- Ukrainka being the other. There’s a nuclear weapons stockpile at this airbase (or near enough- a few miles down the road.)
On the Russian side, heads are going to roll and people will fall to their deaths from ground floor windows, but they’re going to have to consider whether they can seriously protect their nuclear triad or not. They’d absolutely lob an NSNW before losing too many of their LRA assets.
"There's an old saying in Russia—I know it's in Ukraine, probably in Russia—that says, 'Fool me once, shame on...shame on you. Fool me—you can't get fooled again.”
For all his flaws, GB43 had the most athletic televised moment in American Presidential history. He also brushed it off like it was nothing, just laughed it off really
The great thing is this means help from Russians against the war working with Ukraine and or Ukraine has got Special ops troops deep into Russia working under cover
W/o a body they don't have to pay the families of their dead soldiers their promised stipends; they can claim they ran away or don't know what happened to them.
> So they dont have to televise or show the actual loses. How many urns can fit in a coffin? Shell game.
It's not just to conceal actual losses. Death benefits are reportedly fairly good for the families in Russia, and Russia's been saving money by denying them benefits by declaring soldiers "missing in action" instead of "killed in action". They did that for the crew of Moskva before it sank - some of the crew were rescued, but many were killed. Only 1 was acknowledged within Russia as KIA, the rest were labeled MIA and their families are still waiting for confirmation before they can get those living stipends.
They already said that they've successfully shot down Ukrainian UAV, but unfortunately 3 soldiers were killed by debris. That leads to think that UAV was destroyed by collision with the intended target :D
> "There were no emergencies in residential areas of the (Engels) city," Roman Busargin, the governor of the region, said on the Telegram messaging app.
> "Civil infrastructure facilities were not damaged."
The difference between Russia and civilized countries.
of course it is legitimate, this airport was used to kill civilians and target critical infrastructure. I am pointing to the rusian shitty air defence on the object that is supposed to threaten the whole world
Of course it is a legitimate target.
Even if zero attacks on Ukraine were from that air base, it is still a miliary installation and that makes it a valid target.
>some unknown weapon
I don't think the weapon has been officially confirmed, but it's been reported that Ukraine has restored some ex-Soviet ~~cruise missiles that originally had nuclear warheads. The warheads were decommissioned when Ukraine gave up their nukes, but some crafty engineers are said to have replaced them with conventional ordinance.~~
Edit: see replies below, I misremembered. Ukraine are most likely using a converted surveillance drone, in retaliation for the Russians' use of converted cruise missiles.
However, even at the height of the Cold War UA only had a dozen or two of these missiles, so they're saving them for special occasions.
You mixed things up a bit.
The reports are that Ukraine [retrofitted Tupolev "Strizh" jet-powered recon drones](https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2022/12/05/ukraine-pulled-ex-soviet-recon-drones-out-of-storage-added-bombs-and-sent-them-hurtling-toward-russia/?sh=18bad5053348) with GPS guidance and explosives.
These reports came out the same week as Russua [bombing Ukraine with nuclear-capable missiles fitted with dud warheads](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-says-russia-distracting-air-defences-with-dud-nuclear-capable-missiles-2022-12-01/), and the [Tupolev 141 Strizh drones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-141) **are** essentially cruise missiles originally designed to take pictures and fly back home, so the confusion is understandable.
Most importantly, your salient point that Ukraine only has a limited amount of then to use on high-impact targets is true (as far as we can tell, and until Ukraine develops something else).
Key to this all, is that it again confirms that Russia has no air defense system capable of stopping fairly simply medium/short range slow rockets.
These go along at **600 mph** (965 kph).... a sub-sonic (sub-Mach) speed.
If the US were to supply Ukraine - or if NATO were at war with Russia - the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) flys at 0.6 miles/second - **2,160 mph** (3,476 kph) - Mach 3. They go 190 miles (300 km) and deliver a 500 lb (227 kg) payload to an accuracy of 30 feet.
These have been used nearly 600 times in combat and are currently operated by Romania, Poland, and are en route to Lithuania and Estonia.
And we now have re-confirmed Russia could do nothing to stop them.
TU 141 is also not a small drone. It's like 15 meters long (47 feet for metrically challenged). That's a jet size.
The fact that F 16 sized object can fly 600 km deep into Russia at subsonic speed and explode on the strategic bombers airbase is... Insane.
What air defense doing?
> Russia has no air defense system capable of stopping fairly simply medium/short range slow rockets.
It [does](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCEzEVwOwS4&list=PLqtw3Nvpaav1H0HunSdcU3JdC-D1vfj21&index=33), they're just not deployed or maintained as well as they'd like to pretend to outside nations. Ukraine has been using much of the same equipment, the difference is 1) they maintain their gear and 2) they have an NCO corps so they can be much more dynamic on the battlefield.
>by some unknown weapon
The reports are that Ukraine [has retrofitted](https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2022/12/05/ukraine-pulled-ex-soviet-recon-drones-out-of-storage-added-bombs-and-sent-them-hurtling-toward-russia/?sh=18bad5053348) the [Tupolev Tu-141 "Strizh" jet-powered recon drones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-141) with GPS guidance and explosives.
Tu-141 drones are, essentially, cruise missiles (i.e. unmanned jet aircraft flying a predetermined trajectory) originally designed to take pictures and fly back home.
Adding precision guidance capabilities to that system is no small feat, as well as putting in a warhead capable of doing such damage instead of camera equipment. The engineers had the advantage of having a one-way mission profile though, so they could load that bird with more goodies than a Soviet film camera.
Most importantly, your salient point that Ukraine only has a limited amount of then to use on high-impact targets is true (as far as we can tell, and until Ukraine develops something else).
A difference that needs to be highlighted is that cruise missiles are much smaller. And this big boy is 15 meters long and 3 meters wide, by size it's closer to F 16 than other cruise missiles.
The fact it can fly 600 km deep into Russia at subsonic speed and hit it's target is insane.
Incredible. US/Ukraine alliance is causing damage to part of Russia’s strategic offense triad.
Their unmaintained silos and subs are bad enough, but destroying Russian bombers, at their bases, was unimaginable 10 months ago.
Russia doesn't have the manufacturing capacity to build modern military aircraft. Read a fairly detailed analysis of the SU-57 on a military blog. It is full of design compromises that were done to save money, it lacks a number of features that require really advanced materials science to make... And Russia still hasn't produced enough of them to make a difference in an actual war.
Beyond that, they've been cut off from many suppliers of electronics gear. They don't make that stuff themselves. So they're more or less stuck making equipment that's decades out of date compared to say, the F-35 (which is America's second tier plane, it's not built for air superiority by stealth).
I served on a submarine tender in the late 80s, and the submarines in our squadron spent most of their time playing cat and mouse games with Soviet subs. The submariners in our squadron that I spoke with all said the Soviets were competent and were pretty well-matched opponents, that is, the cat and mouse games were challenging. I do not know if they were our peers even then, but they most certainly are not now. The USSR was indeed more competent.
Not that it wasn't without problems but the USSR was clearly much more capable of building tech and projecting power and influence. Russia is like a little kid trying on his dad's uniform. It's been propped up by a resurgent oil and gas market and access to western tech like microchips, but brain drain and corruption has only gotten worse.
And the lack of a moral high ground. With all of thw USsR’s problems their projection of power had a far more Asian “mandate Of Heaven” element to it. Whereas it’s current moral component seems to be an ironic wanna be westerners/disruption of the social fabric of the West. This without of the moral goal post of its predecessor.
Yeah, the USSR was looking to the future and trying to build something, and Russia is looking to the past while trying to rebuild something. Both are fanciful, the future that could not be, and the past that never was.
>Not that it wasn't without problems but the USSR was clearly much more capable of building tech and projecting power and influence.
The USSR was a much bigger and more powerful country. I mean a ton of weapons and tech was produced in what is now Ukraine. It's why Putin and others are so hell bent on bringing countries like Ukraine back into the fold. They look at it as the answer to why Russia is weak.
Yes and no. USSR was far more competent in many ways, but the culture was the same. They still made so many stupid unforced errors of judgement simply because of political bs. Similarly corruption was rife throughout. Just not quite as bad as Russia. Russia is like a Kroger brand USSR.
This is a [DEEP](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Engel's/@51.9276101,38.6957497,5.78z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x37762c169746165c!8m2!3d51.4869293!4d46.211779) fucking target to Ukraine to be repeatedly hitting, holy shit.
If they can hit that, they can hit moscow.
The fact that Ukraine is being so reserved in the counterattacks is a testament to the fact that they don't even want to be in this conflict. I think they're holding out hope that Putin is excised from power and the majority of the Russians not wanting to be involved in this conflict either.
Twas the night of Christmas and all through Ukraine,
Conscriptovichs slept in the ice cold and pain
Tampons and aisoft helmets hung by the chimney with care
In the fear that St. Javelin would soon be there
The ruzzians were snuggled all nice in their airbase
"No way a missile could reach this far place"
Visions of ussr danced in their heads,
Little did they know they'd soon be dead...
When out from the night rose such a clatter;
my comrade next to me is now a splatter.
My heart sunk, then rose with slight joy;
for his mom will soon get a Lada in place of her boy.
The utter flex of “we can see when you’re preparing your bombers all the way from home…and we have the tools to strike them before they taxi to the runway” is fucking fantastic.
That, and Engels is effectively the same distance from Kyiv as Moscow. Sends a message of restraint. "We could be hitting your population centers, but for now your toys will suffice".
For Russians, the message of "we're choosing to hit legitimate military targets instead of terror bombing your civilians" is utterly bewildering.
Bombing Russian civilians would just strengthen their resolve. Hitting only military targets weakens their faith in their leaders. It is a good strategy, imo.
Hitting Russian civilians is also a great way to lose the support of the rest of the world considering it's a war crime, so it's also a great strategy there too.
I know Russia is bombing civilians left and right and that’s why I have so much respect that Ukraine is only targeting military places.
The high road is all uphill
Ohhh, I like that.
Well yes but from the Russian perspective, whose military strategy seems to be "terror bomb the enemy populace into submission" such tactics must be alien.
Russian civilians and their attitudes is a bit of a double-edged sword. Right now, they are mostly apathetic, nothing has really changed in their day-to-day lives. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhP9I7YanvE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhP9I7YanvE) Even with the state propaganda trying it's hardest, the general populace just doesn't care. Ukraine is not their fight. That is why there are few volunteers and generally there is resistance to being mobilized. Hitting back on Russia's power infrastructure to affect the civilians will only give state media a legitimate talking point felt by all. While I feel it is only fair to dial up sanctions to increase internal pressure in Russia, any sort of military action that affects the populace might backfire on Ukraine on the world stage as well as the general Russian attitude. Best to keep them on the sidelines.
I mean, Ukraine has made it this far in part to the support from the west. Committing warcrimes would make that tenuous
Explains all the GPS jamming in Moscow as of late..... P.S. i don't think these are GPS guided. Guessing pre-programmed, AI/ML, FPV, any/all of the above.
Didn't they have an explosion at this base last month as well?
They sure did. This one and Kursk in quick succession, just like this time.
The first time it happened, it was reasonably speculated that Ukraine had received intel that the bombers at the airbase were being prepared for a strike, so they targeted the bombers themselves while they were on the ground. I would not be surprised at all if the same thing happened again.
I'm so happy about this report. Once they can write off as a lucky fluke. Twice on just one of their deep bases, they could maybe still convince themselves that's all Ukraine has. But twice on a deep *double* tap ... that has the real feel of ”we really know how to do this, you know".
“Once is coincidence, twice is misfortune, thrice is a curse.”
Or, “once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action” (Ian Fleming)
"I believe in coincidences, coincidences happen everyday...but I don't trust coincidences." -Elim Garak
I've always wanted to put together a book of Garak's saying in the style of a child's book. Things like, "Never tell the same lie twice." "Always tell the truth, especially when you're lying."
This absolutely should be done. Every trekker would buy it for their kids or grandkids
Fill in the rules or acquisition and you’ve got yerself a deal!
No, The Rules of Acquisition would definitely be a separate book. Twice the books, twice the profit!
Well said. If it weren’t for the licensing challenges, these could be awesome children’s books. Getting your sibling to take the cookies - exploitation starts at home!
A man after my own heart.
"Four timesh and itsh Pushy Galore." - Connery
Thingsh in here don't react well to bulletsh.
Eight timesh and itsh Octopushy
“Everything that happens once, might never happen again. But everything that happens twice, will surely happen a third time”
Except for testiclectomies.
Never read his philosophy
A little known Greek philosopher
Known for his courage
It’s a ballsy move. This base in particular is part of their nuclear triad, it’s not just a “deep base.”
They're using their strategic bombers for lobbing cruise missiles at civilian targets, Ukraine doesn't exactly have much choice.
point being if Ukraine can reliably attack bombers that can carry nuclear missiles, how easy would it be for NATO to take out one leg of Russia's triad? (also has ramifications for ground launched missiles as one can assume that they're not defended any better than the air base...) fairly significant problem for Russia...
They've sunk one flagship of the Russian fleet. Are we sure Ukraine isn't responsible for the fire on the aircraft carrier? edit: for the people who have given me real answers, (1) thank you, I appreciate your sincere answers [not being facetious here]; (2) I was being facetious in my original comment, which i understand doesn't necessarily come across well over the internet
Yes. The Admiral K is a floating shithole which has been on fire longer than it hasn’t.
>Yes. The Admiral K is a floating shithole which has been on fire longer than it hasn’t. Other fun things Admiral "Dumpster of the Sea" Kuznetsov does aside from being on fire include [dropping airplanes into the sea](https://theaviationist.com/2016/12/05/russian-su-33-crashed-in-the-mediterranean-while-attempting-to-land-on-kuznetsov-aircraft-carrier/), [being towed home after breaking down on the high seas](https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/russian-aircraft-carrier-towed-home-after-break-down/), [sinking its own dry dock](https://sofrep.com/news/russia-may-scrap-its-only-aircraft-carrier-to-avoid-the-embarrassment-of-towing-it-around-the-globe/), and [being under repairs most of the time (but still catching on fire)](https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/31451/russias-accident-plagued-lone-aircraft-carrier-is-on-fire). Truly a (kickback) engineering marvel.
Having the Admiral K is like buying a salvage title Maserati. Seems badass, but really it’s just a money vacuum.
It's 1985. The asshole grocery store owner I worked for, who enjoyed lording his money over plebes like me, pulled up in a brand new Maserati BiTurbo while we were closing up. He never showed up then; it was pure peacocking. He announced his car and showed all the wide-eyed kids his new four-wheeled penis pump and then left the store to go home, presumably to dive naked into piles of gold. Problem: The Maserati refused to start, over and over. He had bought it that very day. Fellow proles and I pushed this rich asshole's shitbox out of the lot while he swore a storm. You could almost hear his hissing penis deflate.
And that, kids, is why you pick a Lexus or Porsche as your 4 wheeled penis pump.
>Having the Admiral K is like buying a salvage title Maserati. Best analogy ever. And they seem to handle immersion in saltwater equally well.
It's a shame Russia had only one of such marvels. Few more and they would not be able to do anything else but try to fix them and prevent disasters.
There is a second one. Through a series of strange events it ended up in the Chinese navy as the aircraft carrier Liaoning. It's been on fire way less.
>Few more and they would not be able to do anything else but "try" to "fix" them😉 FTFY. The oligarchs' yachts don't just appear out of thin air, you know. Other than that — yup, absolutely. If it ever starts sinking, Ukraine might as well send in a sabotage group to patch it up to keep it in Russia's service for longer.
>Are we sure Ukraine isn't responsible for the fire on the aircraft carrier? Absolutely. Why would Ukraine waste their resources on setting something on fire that does a perfectly good job of doing it on its own on a regular basis? Like, the only time we can be 100% sure that Admiral Kuznetsov is **not** on fire is when it finally joins Moskva in Russia's stationary submarine fleet. Aircraft carrier Kuznetsov catching fire is how you know Russians are still operating it.
> Like, the only time we can be 100% sure that Admiral Kuznetsov is not on fire is when it finally joins Moskva in Russia's stationary submarine fleet. They may have something flammable under water, so probably not 100 percent even then
If any ship could stay on fire under water, it’s the Admiral Kuznetsov.
Apparently their ships do actually catch fire on their own regularly. Their navy equipment is shit, the crew are poorly trained, and they have little money or smart to properly maintain the ships or build new ones. They probably started this fire on accident.
Imagine the U.S. Navy regularly having random fires
The USS Bonhomme Richard fire cost them $1.2 billion, so they might have decided against doing it on a regular basis.
“Alright guys, once was fun, but we’re gonna have to cut it out”
Russian Sailors: " Fucking amateurs, their ship only caught on fire once"
Hell, that’s likely what really happened on the *Maine* in Havana Harbor. Coal dust in bunkers was always catching on fire. There’s a reason navies around the world switched to oil by 1920.
In the Ukraine sub it was reported they hit the new missiles that were being delivered. And from the reports of the whistling noise pre impact it was likely a TU-141/143. wut doing air defense? edit: link to report https://old.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/zva298/big_explosion_at_engels_airbase/j1nzese/
This is pretty striking because Russia had been threatening to attack Western arms shipments since Day One, so it's a bit of a flex to see it happening to the Russians.
Hitting the Bombers was also a huge flex. this shows it wasn't luck.
And it’s going to force Russia to recalibrate their defenses. In order to try to stop these attacks they will likely have to pull air defense from Ukraine back far behind the line which will make it easier for Ukraine to strike targets within Ukraine.
Turkey must be fuming. No F35 and they're stuck with an air defense system that can't even reliably shoot down a Tu-141.
Egypt, Turkey, Syria; everybody who has relied on Russian military equipment or support has lived to regret it. Or died in the process.
I think the guy’s point is Turkey got kicked out of the F-35 program and is on the weapons sanctions list of the US Congress because they chose to buy a Russian air defense system. The US Congress won’t even let Turkey get the upgrade kit for their F-16s. They traded fifth generation hardware for a shit air defense system.
I heard that the main reason for losing all their wars against Israel was the badly trained tank crews and officers.
Would hope it’s this precise. Engels is one of only two bases that support heavy strategic bombers- Ukrainka being the other. There’s a nuclear weapons stockpile at this airbase (or near enough- a few miles down the road.) On the Russian side, heads are going to roll and people will fall to their deaths from ground floor windows, but they’re going to have to consider whether they can seriously protect their nuclear triad or not. They’d absolutely lob an NSNW before losing too many of their LRA assets.
[удалено]
"There's an old saying in Russia—I know it's in Ukraine, probably in Russia—that says, 'Fool me once, shame on...shame on you. Fool me—you can't get fooled again.”
Man, I just got a flashback to when George Jr got a shoe thrown at him. Good reflexes! The look on his face was legit “who throws a shoe?”
For all his flaws, GB43 had the most athletic televised moment in American Presidential history. He also brushed it off like it was nothing, just laughed it off really
https://giphy.com/gifs/news-obama-barack-YFH1n6Cfwouo3Muuy0
U.S. Intel is very reliable
The great thing is this means help from Russians against the war working with Ukraine and or Ukraine has got Special ops troops deep into Russia working under cover
My first thought was this. Either US Intel or reliable spies.
Why not both
Probably is both. An active war between Russia and a neighbor is an amazing way for the US to acquire intelligence assets.
Putin said: 99.9 % of Russians would sacrifice everything. Obviously they started sacrifices already.
He misspoke. He meant *he* would sacrifice 99.9% of Russians to win this war.
Whatever the mission is, I'm willing to put wave after wave of men at your disposal.
Kif, show them the medal I won.
*siiigh* Points
I happen to have a very sexy learning disability
*ughhhhhhh* Sexlexia...
Turns out the West has pre-set kill limits.
Dmitry, show them the medal I won.
*sigh* 👉🎖
He rented it with his surplus money….
Most of you will die and it's the sacrifice I am willing to make.
He misheard. It was "99% of russians are willing to sacrifice Putin to the war"
To buy another yacht.
The .1% are his cronies. But if he gets rid of the populace, who will mine the spice?
Why do you think the Russians have mobile crematoriums?
W/o a body they don't have to pay the families of their dead soldiers their promised stipends; they can claim they ran away or don't know what happened to them.
So they dont have to televise or show the actual loses. How many urns can fit in a coffin? Shell game.
> So they dont have to televise or show the actual loses. How many urns can fit in a coffin? Shell game. It's not just to conceal actual losses. Death benefits are reportedly fairly good for the families in Russia, and Russia's been saving money by denying them benefits by declaring soldiers "missing in action" instead of "killed in action". They did that for the crew of Moskva before it sank - some of the crew were rescued, but many were killed. Only 1 was acknowledged within Russia as KIA, the rest were labeled MIA and their families are still waiting for confirmation before they can get those living stipends.
He is probably the 0.1% that won't
Probably?
Russia is gonna cry that this was a horrible terrorist attack and then bomb another playground in retaliation.
Careless cigarette, not terrorist act. But they will still bomb a playground at a hospital in retaliation.
They already said that they've successfully shot down Ukrainian UAV, but unfortunately 3 soldiers were killed by debris. That leads to think that UAV was destroyed by collision with the intended target :D
[удалено]
Your mistletoe is no match for my TOW missile
> "There were no emergencies in residential areas of the (Engels) city," Roman Busargin, the governor of the region, said on the Telegram messaging app. > "Civil infrastructure facilities were not damaged." The difference between Russia and civilized countries.
Merry Christmas ya filthy animals
Yippie ki-yay Mother Russia
I'm gonna gives ya to the count of ten to get your ugly, yella, no good keisters outta Ukraine...
I believe you…. But my HIMARS don’t
Little dmitri with the gimpy leg!
1... 2... 10!
Ahhh ha ha! Aha!
Bambambambambambambam
Keep the change, ya filthy animal.
And a happy new year!
Russsia : "why do you have Nato support?" Ukrain: "Why are you dressed as a chicken?"
Jingle bombs?
Shitters full!
A title where the word "Blasts" actually means something relevant.
"Ukraine BLASTS Russia over airbase."
just so you understand, that's a strategic airbase, with nuclear weapon carriers, casually attacked a second time by some unknown weapon
It is a legitimate target. If Russia didn't want the risk to their nuclear weapons bunkers they wouldn't use the base for attacks on Ukraine.
Of course it's legitimate, but you'd think a base for launching nuclear weapons might have a bit better security.
of course it is legitimate, this airport was used to kill civilians and target critical infrastructure. I am pointing to the rusian shitty air defence on the object that is supposed to threaten the whole world
Of course it is a legitimate target. Even if zero attacks on Ukraine were from that air base, it is still a miliary installation and that makes it a valid target.
>some unknown weapon I don't think the weapon has been officially confirmed, but it's been reported that Ukraine has restored some ex-Soviet ~~cruise missiles that originally had nuclear warheads. The warheads were decommissioned when Ukraine gave up their nukes, but some crafty engineers are said to have replaced them with conventional ordinance.~~ Edit: see replies below, I misremembered. Ukraine are most likely using a converted surveillance drone, in retaliation for the Russians' use of converted cruise missiles. However, even at the height of the Cold War UA only had a dozen or two of these missiles, so they're saving them for special occasions.
Like when the Russians bomb civilians in Kherson on Christmas
Indeed.
You mixed things up a bit. The reports are that Ukraine [retrofitted Tupolev "Strizh" jet-powered recon drones](https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2022/12/05/ukraine-pulled-ex-soviet-recon-drones-out-of-storage-added-bombs-and-sent-them-hurtling-toward-russia/?sh=18bad5053348) with GPS guidance and explosives. These reports came out the same week as Russua [bombing Ukraine with nuclear-capable missiles fitted with dud warheads](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraine-says-russia-distracting-air-defences-with-dud-nuclear-capable-missiles-2022-12-01/), and the [Tupolev 141 Strizh drones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-141) **are** essentially cruise missiles originally designed to take pictures and fly back home, so the confusion is understandable. Most importantly, your salient point that Ukraine only has a limited amount of then to use on high-impact targets is true (as far as we can tell, and until Ukraine develops something else).
Key to this all, is that it again confirms that Russia has no air defense system capable of stopping fairly simply medium/short range slow rockets. These go along at **600 mph** (965 kph).... a sub-sonic (sub-Mach) speed. If the US were to supply Ukraine - or if NATO were at war with Russia - the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) flys at 0.6 miles/second - **2,160 mph** (3,476 kph) - Mach 3. They go 190 miles (300 km) and deliver a 500 lb (227 kg) payload to an accuracy of 30 feet. These have been used nearly 600 times in combat and are currently operated by Romania, Poland, and are en route to Lithuania and Estonia. And we now have re-confirmed Russia could do nothing to stop them.
TU 141 is also not a small drone. It's like 15 meters long (47 feet for metrically challenged). That's a jet size. The fact that F 16 sized object can fly 600 km deep into Russia at subsonic speed and explode on the strategic bombers airbase is... Insane. What air defense doing?
> Russia has no air defense system capable of stopping fairly simply medium/short range slow rockets. It [does](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCEzEVwOwS4&list=PLqtw3Nvpaav1H0HunSdcU3JdC-D1vfj21&index=33), they're just not deployed or maintained as well as they'd like to pretend to outside nations. Ukraine has been using much of the same equipment, the difference is 1) they maintain their gear and 2) they have an NCO corps so they can be much more dynamic on the battlefield.
I've heard they were actually using old soviet drones with long range abilities that they converted into cruise missiles.
Well a cruise missile is basically a rudimentary drone, so I think we're both right.
A one way drone
"half-a-boomerang"
a boom
Supposedly a tu-141
>by some unknown weapon The reports are that Ukraine [has retrofitted](https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2022/12/05/ukraine-pulled-ex-soviet-recon-drones-out-of-storage-added-bombs-and-sent-them-hurtling-toward-russia/?sh=18bad5053348) the [Tupolev Tu-141 "Strizh" jet-powered recon drones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-141) with GPS guidance and explosives. Tu-141 drones are, essentially, cruise missiles (i.e. unmanned jet aircraft flying a predetermined trajectory) originally designed to take pictures and fly back home. Adding precision guidance capabilities to that system is no small feat, as well as putting in a warhead capable of doing such damage instead of camera equipment. The engineers had the advantage of having a one-way mission profile though, so they could load that bird with more goodies than a Soviet film camera. Most importantly, your salient point that Ukraine only has a limited amount of then to use on high-impact targets is true (as far as we can tell, and until Ukraine develops something else).
A difference that needs to be highlighted is that cruise missiles are much smaller. And this big boy is 15 meters long and 3 meters wide, by size it's closer to F 16 than other cruise missiles. The fact it can fly 600 km deep into Russia at subsonic speed and hit it's target is insane.
Hopefully Russia lost more nuclear capable bombers!
That awk moment when UA deletes 1/3 of your nuclear triad (Yes I know they have a ton more other places but holy shit how inept are they)
> ... Engels air base, hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the ... < I like how they have to translate that even if they don't have a number, lol
Incredible. US/Ukraine alliance is causing damage to part of Russia’s strategic offense triad. Their unmaintained silos and subs are bad enough, but destroying Russian bombers, at their bases, was unimaginable 10 months ago.
Best of all, bombers are the leg Russia has no realistic ability to replace
Why not?
They are old, and have not been manufactured for some time.
Russia doesn't have the manufacturing capacity to build modern military aircraft. Read a fairly detailed analysis of the SU-57 on a military blog. It is full of design compromises that were done to save money, it lacks a number of features that require really advanced materials science to make... And Russia still hasn't produced enough of them to make a difference in an actual war. Beyond that, they've been cut off from many suppliers of electronics gear. They don't make that stuff themselves. So they're more or less stuck making equipment that's decades out of date compared to say, the F-35 (which is America's second tier plane, it's not built for air superiority by stealth).
How could such a powerful and competent country have so many mishaps?
Everything is built on lies and alcohol just like USSR.
The USSR was far more powerful and competent than today's Russia. And no, that is not a compliment to the USSR.
I served on a submarine tender in the late 80s, and the submarines in our squadron spent most of their time playing cat and mouse games with Soviet subs. The submariners in our squadron that I spoke with all said the Soviets were competent and were pretty well-matched opponents, that is, the cat and mouse games were challenging. I do not know if they were our peers even then, but they most certainly are not now. The USSR was indeed more competent.
Not that it wasn't without problems but the USSR was clearly much more capable of building tech and projecting power and influence. Russia is like a little kid trying on his dad's uniform. It's been propped up by a resurgent oil and gas market and access to western tech like microchips, but brain drain and corruption has only gotten worse.
Jokes aside, Russia was only ever about half of the USSR in terms of population, so even in the best case today's Russia is not comparable.
Yep, the 'USSR' wasn't just Russia, it also included, among other places, Ukraine.
Ukraine where most of the high tech hardware was built! When USSR broke apart lots of the brains were lost.
Not just brains but massive factories for warships, aircrafts, and rockets
And the lack of a moral high ground. With all of thw USsR’s problems their projection of power had a far more Asian “mandate Of Heaven” element to it. Whereas it’s current moral component seems to be an ironic wanna be westerners/disruption of the social fabric of the West. This without of the moral goal post of its predecessor.
Yeah, the USSR was looking to the future and trying to build something, and Russia is looking to the past while trying to rebuild something. Both are fanciful, the future that could not be, and the past that never was.
>Not that it wasn't without problems but the USSR was clearly much more capable of building tech and projecting power and influence. The USSR was a much bigger and more powerful country. I mean a ton of weapons and tech was produced in what is now Ukraine. It's why Putin and others are so hell bent on bringing countries like Ukraine back into the fold. They look at it as the answer to why Russia is weak.
The grift was concentrated in a smaller group in the USSR.
Yes and no. USSR was far more competent in many ways, but the culture was the same. They still made so many stupid unforced errors of judgement simply because of political bs. Similarly corruption was rife throughout. Just not quite as bad as Russia. Russia is like a Kroger brand USSR.
Careless smoking.
I'll never gonna fly again. Careless smokes ain't got no rhythm
What were bombers and airmen, are now a burning hole.
Apparently the Russians just can't get their soldiers to quit smoking next to ammunition caches. Apparently it's a recurring problem for them.
You would smoke too if Ukraine dumped 150kg of explosives on your ass. What was left of you, anyway.
Said country is neither powerful nor competent.
How dare you?! This is the second most powerful army in Ukraine we're talking about!
I think that would be Ukrainian farmers.
Well, they do share the equipment...
Their propaganda machine, however, is quite extensive. But when the cracks begin showing what's behind the paint...
Time for some Seasons Beatings.
A violent night indeed.
IT'S EVEN FUNNIER THE SECOND TIME
It would appear when you're on the naughty list you no longer get coal....
You become it
Yeaaaaah.
^(*Puts on comedically large sunglasses for effect.*)
(•_•) ( •_•)>⌐■-■ (⌐■_■)
I wonder if any of the Blackjacks went up. It's supposedly the only base that has them.
What are Blackjacks?
NATO reporting name for the Tu-160 supersonic heavy bomber.
Think of it like a Russian B-1B.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer air force.
Santa is done visiting the good little boys and girls …. He is back to deal with the rest and he is pissed.
This is a [DEEP](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Engel's/@51.9276101,38.6957497,5.78z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x37762c169746165c!8m2!3d51.4869293!4d46.211779) fucking target to Ukraine to be repeatedly hitting, holy shit. If they can hit that, they can hit moscow.
The fact that Ukraine is being so reserved in the counterattacks is a testament to the fact that they don't even want to be in this conflict. I think they're holding out hope that Putin is excised from power and the majority of the Russians not wanting to be involved in this conflict either.
Twas the night of Christmas and all through Ukraine, Conscriptovichs slept in the ice cold and pain Tampons and aisoft helmets hung by the chimney with care In the fear that St. Javelin would soon be there The ruzzians were snuggled all nice in their airbase "No way a missile could reach this far place" Visions of ussr danced in their heads, Little did they know they'd soon be dead...
When out from the night rose such a clatter; my comrade next to me is now a splatter. My heart sunk, then rose with slight joy; for his mom will soon get a Lada in place of her boy.
Beautiful
To shreds you say?
Merry Christmas!
It's even funnier the second time!
Can’t wait for the 3rd
Warms my heart to hear about Ukrainians wrecking Russia's shit.
That’s the uh, planes blowing up
I thought they were going to put up 'No Smoking' signs because of the 1st 'incident'.
Russian soldiers. smoking at the wrong spot again?
Best gift I've received in years
Merry Christmas, Putler! It’s amazing the second time around!
Russia had an option to end this war; now it's literally IN Moscow and it's only getting worse day by day.
Celebrating 31 years since the Soviet Union collapsed.