mila kunis posted:

You start out in 1927 by saying, “socialist, socialist, socialist.” By 2016 you can’t say “socialist”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, authoritarianism, human rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about opposing sending tanks into Hungary to crush resistance to Soviet communism in 1968, and all these things you’re talking about are totally theoretical things and a byproduct of them is, socialists get hurt worse than other leftists.… “We oppose tankies this,” is much more abstract than even the human rights thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “socialist, socialist.”

mila kunis posted:

Soapy_Bumslap posted:

Lmao what will the end of the ukraine war do to these people's brains

Jon Pod Van Damm posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0he-LZNzVg0

They'll descend further into the fantastical Russiagate hoax and conspiracy theory. Putin's reach has no limits. He already controls the Iranians, the Hungarians, the Yemenis, the Palestinians, the Indians, the Armenians, the Saudi Arabians, the Koreans, the Syrians, the Bolivians, the Venezuelans, the Chinese, the Cubans, the Western Far Left, the Western Far Right, Polish farmers, French farmers, German farmers, the German establishment, many organized crime groups, the Republican party and Donald Trump.

fatelvis posted:

Did they not do something similar either exocets/Argentina for the British?

Edit: no, looks like they just cutoff supplies

DJJIB-DJDCT posted:

It also appears, I would have to look into this more, that the French built some kind of backdoor into the Iraqi air defence system they had designed and installed.

www.seattletimes.com - Tue, 12 Mar 2024 posted:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon will rush about $300 million in weapons to Ukraine after finding some cost savings in its contracts, even though the military remains deeply overdrawn and needs at least $10 billion to replenish all the weapons it has pulled from its stocks to help Kyiv in its desperate fight against Russia, the White House announced Tuesday.

It’s the Pentagon’s first announced security package for Ukraine since December, when it acknowledged it was out of replenishment funds. It wasn’t until recent days that officials publicly acknowledged they weren’t just out of replenishment funds, but $10 billion overdrawn.

The announcement comes as Ukraine is running dangerously low on munitions and efforts to get fresh funds for weapons have stalled in the House because of Republican opposition. U.S. officials have insisted for months that the United States wouldn’t be able to resume weapons deliveries until Congress provided the additional replenishment funds, which are part of the stalled supplemental spending bill.

The replenishment funds have allowed the Pentagon to pull existing munitions, air defense systems and other weapons from its reserve inventories under presidential drawdown authority, or PDA, to send to Ukraine and then put contracts on order to replace those weapons, which are needed to maintain U.S. military readiness.

“When Russian troops advance and its guns fire, Ukraine does not have enough ammunition to fire back,” said national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in announcing the $300 million in additional aid.

The Pentagon also has had a separate Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, or USAI, which has allowed it to fund longer-term contracts with industry to produce new weapons for Ukraine.

Senior defense officials who briefed reporters said the Pentagon was able to get cost savings in some of those longer-term contracts of roughly $300 million and, given the battlefield situation, decided to use those savings to go ahead and send more weapons. The officials said the cost savings basically offset the new package and keep the replenishment spending underwater at $10 billion.

One of the officials said the package represented a “one time shot” — unless Congress passes the supplemental spending bill, which includes roughly $60 billion in military aid for Ukraine, or more cost savings are found. It is expected to include anti-aircraft missiles, artillery rounds and armor systems, the official said.

The aid announcement comes as Polish leaders are in Washington to press the U.S. to break its impasse over replenishing funds for Ukraine at a critical moment in the war. Polish President Andrzej Duda met Tuesday with Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate and was to meet with President Joe Biden later in the day.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has so far refused to bring the $95 billion package, which includes aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, to the floor. Seeking to put pressure on the Republican speaker, House Democrats have launched a long-shot effort to force a vote through a discharge petition. The seldom-successful procedure would require support from a majority of lawmakers, or 218 members, to move the aid package to a vote.

Ukraine’s situation has become more dire, with units on the front line rationing munitions as they face a vastly better supplied Russian force. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly implored Congress for help, but House Republican leadership has not been willing to bring the Ukraine aid to the floor for a vote, saying any aid must first address border security needs.

Pentagon officials said Monday during budget briefing talks they were counting on the supplemental to cover the $10 billion replenishment hole.

“If we don’t get the $10 billion we would have to find other means,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said. “Right now we’re very much focused on the need for that supplemental.”

This is the second time in less than nine months that the Pentagon has “found” money to use for additional weapons shipments to Ukraine. Last June, defense officials said they had overestimated the value of the weapons the U.S. had sent to Ukraine by $6.2 billion over the past two years.

At the time, Pentagon officials said a review found that the military services used replacement costs rather than the book value of equipment that was pulled from Pentagon stocks and sent to Ukraine. The discovery resulted in a surplus that the department used for presidential drawdown packages until the end of December.

The United States has committed more than $44.9 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration, including more than $44.2 billion since the beginning of Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.

The Pentagon is $10 billion overdrawn in the replenishment account in part due to inflationary pressures, and in part because the new systems the Pentagon is seeking to replace the old systems with cost more, such as the upcoming Precision Strike Missile, or PrSM, which the Army is buying to replace the long-range Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS.

The vast majority of those munitions have come from Army stockpiles due to the nature of the conventional land war in Ukraine.

The months without further shipments of U.S. support have hurt operations, and Ukrainian troops withdrew from the eastern city of Avdiivka last month, where outnumbered defenders had withheld a Russian assault for four months.

CIA Director William Burns told Congress that entire Ukrainian units have told him in recent days of being down to their last few dozen artillery shells and other ammunition. Burns called the retreat from Avdiivka a failure of ammunition resupply, not a failure of Ukrainian will.

Jon Pod Van Damm posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0he-LZNzVg0

They'll descend further into the fantastical Russiagate hoax and conspiracy theory. Putin's reach has no limits. He already controls the Iranians, the Hungarians, the Yemenis, the Palestinians, the Indians, the Armenians, the Saudi Arabians, the Koreans, the Syrians, the Bolivians, the Venezuelans, the Chinese, the Cubans, the Western Far Left, the Western Far Right, Polish farmers, French farmers, German farmers, the German establishment, many organized crime groups, the Republican party and Donald Trump.

Soapy_Bumslap posted:

Lmao what will the end of the ukraine war do to these people's brains

Pistol_Pete posted:

Are you nerds still fighting? Pack it in and get back to making extremely long posts about the mechanics of artillery and materialism as it relates to modern warfare: they're much more interesting to read.

BULBASAUR posted:

Sad I missed drilldogenes

Grilled Beef posted:

Also, America cancelled the M1299 program this morning, due to barrel issues (excessive erosion)

it was a 155mm replacement for the M109 155mm Howitzer.

It was supposed to be able to shoot its new shells 110km, and did so in December 2022 with its XM907E2 cannon and a XM1155 sub-caliber projectile.

catch though is that the XM1155 uses an onboard ramjet that kicks in after it is fired, the same way the XM1113 uses an onboard rocket to assist it

Good Soldier Svejk posted:

yeah we're gonna "let" our vassal states pay tribute in the form of weaponry


though a pretty good way of finding out all your conquered allies were actually waiting to watch you fall on your rear end is when you try to launch a bunch of duds they "accidentally" made

Pistol_Pete posted:

Are you nerds still fighting? Pack it in and get back to making extremely long posts about the mechanics of artillery and materialism as it relates to modern warfare: they're much more interesting to read.

Soapy_Bumslap posted:

Lmao what will the end of the ukraine war do to these people's brains

gradenko_2000 posted:

https://twitter.com/wgdunlop/status/1767603551633650037?t=WY0mgVxTWqP8hB-EH0YeAw&s=19

FuzzySlippers posted:

before the tedious guy derail that article posted about tank crew suicide rates was pretty crazy. American tanks haven't faced opposition since I guess Vietnam (Iraqi target practice and GWoT ieds don't count), but our weapon systems and supply chains are so good that just maintaining minimum readiness levels and keeping tanks out on the global 'buy US tanks' tours is enough to grind the crews to despair? I can't imagine how well all of this would stand up in any kind of actual war.

gradenko_2000 posted:

https://twitter.com/the_engi_nerd/status/1767333629112258896?t=DrzouU8h_48EpnQpMIDOJA&s=19

Danann posted:

The M109 replacement is a Ford F350 with a 777 mounted on it.

Danann posted:

The M109 replacement is a Ford F350 with a 777 mounted on it.

Danann posted:

The M109 replacement is a Ford F350 with a 777 mounted on it.

gradenko_2000 posted:

https://twitter.com/wgdunlop/status/1767603551633650037?t=WY0mgVxTWqP8hB-EH0YeAw&s=19

mila kunis posted:

Crazypoops posted:

Thinking about the third war the US is in now and how I feel like this would be the right time to stab

Danann posted:

https://comptroller.defense.gov/Budget-Materials/Budget2025/

2025 budget is out



there's just a little inflation happening

drilldo squirt posted:

You're literally a tankie.

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

(USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)

gradenko_2000 posted:

https://twitter.com/wgdunlop/status/1767603551633650037?t=WY0mgVxTWqP8hB-EH0YeAw&s=19