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Source: Financial Times https://www.ft.com/content/bba68661-6c9b-41b5-ab74-d573b3a27c54 US urges China to help curb Red Sea attacks by Iran-backed Houthis Demetri Sevastopulo and Felicia Schwartz in Washington and Wenjie Ding in Beijing Yesterday The US has asked China to urge Tehran to rein in Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea, but has seen little sign of help from Beijing, according to American officials. Officials have repeatedly raised the matter with top Chinese officials in the past three months, asking them to convey a warning to Iran not to inflame tensions in the Middle East after Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing war. US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his deputy, Jon Finer, discussed the issue in meetings this month in Washington with Liu Jianchao, head of the Chinese Communist party’s international department, according to US officials. Secretary of state Antony Blinken also raised it, said a state department official. But US officials said there was little evidence China had put any pressure on Iran to restrain the Houthis, beyond a mild statement Beijing issued last week calling on “relevant parties” to ensure safe passage for vessels sailing through the Red Sea, a critical shipping route for global trade. On Wednesday, the Chinese foreign ministry said Beijing was calling for a stop to “disturbance to civilian ships” and had “been in close communication with various parties and worked actively to alleviate the tension in the Red Sea”. However, in veiled criticism of the US and UK attacks on the Houthis, the ministry urged the “relevant parties to avoid adding fuel to the fire”, adding that the UN Security Council had “never authorised the use of force by any country on Yemen”. The Red Sea tension was also a “spillover” from the Gaza conflict, which should be ended as soon as possible, the ministry said. The diplomatic push on Beijing comes as the US and allies continue to bomb Houthi positions in Yemen in response to at least 33 Houthi attacks on commercial vessels transiting the Red Sea since mid-November. The US and UK carried out widespread strikes again on Monday. The Houthis are backed by Iran, which has enjoyed deeper commercial and diplomatic ties with China in recent years. One official said the US would continue to raise the issue of Iran and the Houthi attacks with Beijing but was not particularly optimistic that China’s attitude would change. Another US official said there had been “some signs” of China engaging on the issue, but not in a significant way. “I wouldn’t want to overstate either how much they’ve done or what impact it has had,” the official said. John Kirby, National Security Council spokesperson, on Tuesday said Washington would “welcome a constructive role by China, using the influence and the access that we know they have to . . . help stem the flow of weapons, ammunitions to the Houthis”. Liu, who is viewed as a top candidate to become Chinese foreign minister, travelled to Iran in December. His visit came days after US President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, held a summit in San Francisco. US officials had hoped Beijing would take action because it viewed the Houthi attacks as a menace to its own commercial interests, given that the Red Sea was a critical route for Chinese exports to Europe. Ahead of the San Francisco summit, US officials repeatedly urged China to use whatever leverage it had with Iran — whose proxy groups in Iraq and Syria have also targeted American military bases — amid concerns that the Israel-Hamas war could spiral into a broader conflict in the Middle East. Dennis Wilder, a former top CIA China expert now at Georgetown University, said Beijing had “worked assiduously” to court Middle Eastern nations, including Iran, for economic and geopolitical gain. But he said it would be “very reluctant to use its limited influence with the Islamic state in a way that it perceives advance US interests without benefit to China”. US officials have also pressed the effort at the UN Security Council, where China is a permanent member, according to a second state department official. The US has launched eight rounds of missile strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen over the past two weeks in response to the attacks on shipping, including the joint strike with the UK military on Monday. Suzanne Maloney, head of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, said she had discussed the issue with Chinese experts and had not detected any serious appetite to help. “I think what they’ve calculated . . . is that this is a crisis that’s bogging the US and its partners down and it has not had a significant impact on Chinese shipping.” Ma Xiaolin, a professor at Zhejiang International Studies University, said he believed Liu’s visit to Iran in December was not coincidental and that he would have conveyed Chinese demands regarding the need for security. Ma, an expert on China’s relations with the Middle East, said: “China wishes for the restoration of peace in the Red Sea region and for international shipping to be secure, which aligns with the interests of all parties because this is an important global trade route.” The Chinese embassy in the US said it had no details about the exchanges with Liu, but that China was concerned about the “escalating tension” in the Red Sea. The embassy said it served the common interests of the international community and that China urged “relevant parties to play a constructive and responsible role in keeping the Red Sea safe and stable”.
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Jan 24, 2024 23:15
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fizziester posted:Source: Financial Times Ms Suzanne Maloney is deeply mistaken. fizziester has been informed by the mostly highly authoritative sources that Ansarallah are indiscriminately opportunistic terrorist pirates whose statements that "we are only targeting Israel and its allies because of their role in the genocide of Palestinians" can't be trusted or believed.
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Jan 24, 2024 23:24
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Source: Haaretz https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news...03351#925403351 Houthis launched rocket at U.S. warship in Gulf of Aden Reuters 9:05 AM The Iran-aligned Houthis launched a rocket at U.S. warship Lewis B. Puller as it sailed through the Gulf of Aden on Sunday, the group's military spokesman said in a statement on Monday.
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Jan 29, 2024 10:49
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DancingShade posted:Seems like the UK citizen army is going well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKIw0copK70 Source: Guardian UK https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/04/british-army-would-exhaust-capabilities-after-two-months-of-war-mps-told British army would exhaust capabilities after two months of war, MPs told Jessica Murray Sun 4 Feb 2024 10.32 GMT The UK’s ability to fight an all-out war would be marred by the armed forces’ capability, stockpile shortages and a recruitment crisis, MPs have been told. The Commons defence committee heard that the “hollowing out” of the armed forces since 2010 had undermined the UK’s war fighting resilience, and the army would exhaust its capabilities “after the first couple of months” in a peer-on-peer war. Jeremy Quin, the chair of the committee, said operations and continuing commitments meant the military was “unable to devote sufficient training and resources to high-intensity war fighting”. “While able to deploy at short notice and to fulfil commitments, our inquiry found that readiness for all-out, prolonged war has received insufficient attention and needs intense ongoing focus,” he said. “The high tempo of operations and unrelenting pressure on our services has led to a drop in retention, compounded by a period of low recruitment and difficulties introducing and maintaining capabilities, thereby creating a vicious cycle.” The panel suggested the “unrelenting pressure” on personnel had exacerbated the crisis in recruitment, with more people leaving the armed forces than joining. The committee’s report also said the military needed to be “strategic about the resources we have, including how to maintain and replenish stockpiles”, and ensure equipment did not go to waste. Efforts by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to tackle the problem were not “being carried out at the required pace”, the report said, adding that readiness “is essential to effective deterrence to our adversaries” at a time of heightened geopolitical instability. Last month the defence secretary, Grant Shapps, said the world was “moving from a postwar to prewar world” and the UK must ensure its “entire defence ecosystem is ready” to defend its homeland. He insisted the size of the army would not dip below 73,000 under the Conservatives, amid growing concerns about further cuts to troop numbers. About 20,000 UK service personnel will take part in the largest Nato exercise since the end of the cold war this year, testing the ability of the alliance to quickly deploy forces. However, the departure of Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth to lead the exercise has been cancelled at the last minute after an issue with a propeller shaft was spotted during final checks. The setback comes 18 months after its sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, broke down off the Isle of Wight after it sailed for the US having suffered a malfunction. That ship will now be readied to take the place of the £3bn fleet flagship on the Nato exercises, which will involve more than 40 vessels. The MoD has been contacted for comment.
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Feb 4, 2024 15:50
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Source: CNN https://edition.cnn.com/2024/02/19/politics/us-army-ukraine-support-pressure/index.html US Army under increasing pressure as it foots bill for Ukraine support By Haley Britzky and Natasha Bertrand, CNN 5 minute read Published 12:00 AM EST, Mon February 19, 2024 As funding for Ukraine faces an uncertain future in Congress, the US Army has been left to foot the bill for hundreds of millions of dollars in support for Ukraine’s war effort against Russia over the last few months — and Army officials are increasingly concerned that without new funding, they will have to begin pulling money from other critical projects to continue supporting Kyiv. Since October 2023, the beginning of the fiscal year, the Army has spent over $430 million on various operations, including training Ukrainian troops, transporting equipment, and US troop deployments to Europe... ... So far, that bill has been paid from the Army’s Europe and Africa Command. Without a 2024 budget approved by Congress, and without additional funding specifically for Ukraine, the command has roughly $3 billion to pay for $5 billion of operations costs, a second senior Army official explained. That includes not only the operations related to Ukraine support — training and ferrying weapons and equipment to Poland and Ukraine — but other operations for the US command throughout Europe and Africa. If Congress still hasn’t passed new funding for Ukraine within a few months, Army officials say they will have to start making hard decisions and divert money from less critical projects, such as badly needed barracks construction or enlistment incentives amid record-low recruiting... ... “If we don’t get a base budget, if we don’t get Ukraine supplemental [funding package], if the government shuts down, if we get nothing else and nothing changes from today … we will run out of [operations and maintenance] funding in May,” the Army official said. Those operations include training exercises for Army forces in Europe and Africa and equipment moving into the theater. Contracts also wouldn’t be paid on time and would garner penalty fees, he added.
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Feb 19, 2024 13:17
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Access to expedited processing and assistance for citizenship application for Special Forces Ranger Marine Seals who lead a brigade on a military base in a disadvantaged community for at least three years.
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Feb 20, 2024 11:00
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Have the Houthis already learned why the US doesn't have free healthcare?
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Feb 27, 2024 12:15
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Troop forum modding sure is something.
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Feb 27, 2024 15:43
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Source: Guardian UK https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/01/sweden-nato-unprepared-vulnerable-attack Sweden is joining Nato, but it’s hopelessly unprepared for war Martin Gelin Martin Gelin is a Swedish journalist based in Paris and New York, and the author of the forthcoming book Rules of Attraction: Why Soft Power Matters in Hard Times Fri 1 Mar 2024 07.00 GMT The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 came as a rude awakening for Sweden. Across the country people suddenly realised that national security vulnerabilities were everywhere. The entire public transit rail network in Stockholm, for example, is operated by MTR, a Hong Kong-based company with ties to the Chinese Communist party... Sweden is set to join Nato this year... This is a historic shift: after more than two centuries of peace, neutral Sweden will have to rapidly adjust to a belligerent new world. ... Too often, the private companies which took over formerly public infrastructure have prioritised profits over safety, and many of the most vulnerable coastal regions in Sweden lack basic assets for civil defence, such as shelters. Recent reports by the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI), and independent analysis by trade unions and business groups, suggest countless examples of conflicts of interest between long-term national security and the short-term interests of businesses and municipal governments eager to bring new jobs to post-industrial towns. For the most part, this conflict has been resolved by ignoring the national security concerns... ... In Timrå, the municipal government’s security official Johanna Hillgren recently resigned over the city’s decision to allow a Chinese battery factory to be sited right next to the Midlanda airport, which has been deemed a critical national security asset. Almost a quarter of all new wind turbines in Sweden since 2017 have been built by Chinese companies, which could jeopardise Swedish energy supplies in a scenario of increasing EU-China tensions. “Sweden is still about 10 years behind when it comes to realising that China’s ambitions are global,” says Oksanen. Decades of austerity and deregulation have also left Sweden with a severe lack of preparedness and civic infrastructure... ... There is also a lack of reliable defence shelters. Huge new facilities, such as the most expensive hospital in Swedish history, Nya Karolinska, in the north of Stockholm, have been built without a single space for shelter. The government agency tasked with inspecting the national network of 64,000 shelters – with space to accommodate 7 million people – currently has just two employees. The pair are supposed to visit all 64,000 locations... ... there has been a mostly bipartisan consensus about selling off public assets, while eagerly inviting Chinese businesses to invest in factories and critical infrastructure. ... But increased funding for civil defence and the military is often undermined by anachronistic regulations, or decentralised systems involving multiple private actors and local communities. The national rail network, for example, is operated by 60 different corporations. The FOI is not allowed to test its recently acquired defence drones outdoors, but instead has to hire a private sports stadium to do trial runs. ... A further symptom might be a particular Swedish vulnerability to external propaganda, disinformation and hybrid warfare... ... China has also successfully tempted “alternative media” to share Beijing’s narratives with gullible Swedes....
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Mar 1, 2024 15:52
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Why doesn't China want to help the Houthis find out why American don't have free healthcare? ______________________ Source: Voice of America https://www.voanews.com/a/where-is-china-in-the-red-sea-crisis-/7510435.html Where Is China in the Red Sea Crisis? By Carla Babb March 01, 2024 4:11 PM ... Last week the U.S. and British militaries launched their fourth combined operation against the Houthis since mid-January. The U.S. has also carried out near-daily strikes to take out incoming Houthi missiles and drones, along with weapons that were prepared to launch. Noticeably absent from the coalition is China, even though about 40% of trade between Europe and Asia goes through the Red Sea and Suez Canal. “We would welcome a productive role for China to play, but to my knowledge, at this stage they have not offered nor are they conducting any type of operations to help safeguard mariners or international shipping,” Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder said in response to a question from VOA on Thursday... ... During a Senate hearing this week on security issues in the Red Sea, Republican Senator Mitt Romney of Utah was visibly frustrated as he asked administration officials why China wasn’t putting pressure on the Houthis or Iran. “We're out there with our flag flying and our men and women in harm's way. China is the nation that I would presume is most impacted by closing off trade to the Red Sea, and yet they're sitting on the sidelines pretending like they’re everybody’s friend,” he said. Republican Senator Todd Young of Indiana added during the hearing, “Here we are in the midst of a real security crisis, which is for so many an economic and diplomatic crisis in the region, and China's nowhere to be found,”... ... But since the Houthi attacks began ramping up in mid-November, U.S. special envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking says the administration has seen a “certain degree of freeloading” from China and others. “That is absolutely unacceptable. When we talk about an international problem that needs an international solution, we need the Chinese much more aggressively engaged,” Lenderking testified during the hearing... ... Ely Karmon, a senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism and a professor at Reichman University in Israel, told VOA that China has been one of the biggest sufferers since the Houthi attacks began. But O’Hanlon notes that while China has “substantial skin in the game” in terms of Red Sea shipping, China is also able to tap into its access to Russia and the Pacific for trade. “Even if some big fraction of world shipping does normally go through the Red Sea, it's not that hard to divert it, and it's not that expensive to divert it,” he said. fizziester has issued a correction as of 17:45 on Mar 3, 2024 |
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Mar 3, 2024 17:35
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When ponies show signs of agitation, it indicates that they are nervous about their master's increasingly visible shortage of carrots and sugar cubes.
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Mar 8, 2024 12:20
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DJJIB-DJDCT posted:They spent all their money training mlmp in sophistry. mlmp trained themselves in sophistry, to show that they could train others in sophistry if they wanted to.
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Mar 8, 2024 15:46
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Ponies play bridge with horses, to show that they could play other card games with hooved mammals if they wanted to.
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Mar 8, 2024 23:57
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Source: CNN https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/10/politics/russia-artillery-shell-production-us-europe-ukraine/index.html Exclusive: Russia producing three times more artillery shells than US and Europe for Ukraine By Katie Bo Lillis, Natasha Bertrand, Oren Liebermann and Haley Britzky, CNN 6 minute read Published 12:00 AM EDT, Mon March 11, 2024 Russia appears on track to produce nearly three times more artillery munitions than the US and Europe, a key advantage ahead of what is expected to be another Russian offensive in Ukraine later this year... ... US and Western officials insist that although Russia has been able to jump-start its factory lines, in part because it has the advantage of being a managed economy under the control of an autocrat, capitalist western nations will eventually catch up and produce better equipment...
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Mar 11, 2024 10:58
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Source: Voice of America https://www.voanews.com/a/pentagon-needs-10b-to-replace-weapons-already-sent-to-ukraine-officials-say/7523377.html Pentagon Needs $10B to Replace Weapons Already Sent to Ukraine, Officials Say By Carla Babb March 11, 2024 9:32 PM PENTAGON — The Pentagon has a funding shortfall of about $10 billion for U.S. military weapons needed to replace those already sent to Ukraine, a shortfall that requires additional money from Congress to fix, top Defense Department officials said Monday. “We don't foresee a likely alternative outside of the supplemental funding [bill] or having that money added into an appropriations bill in order to achieve the replenishment that we need,” Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks told reporters. “We are probably looking at about $10 billion to replace everything, everything that we’ve given in terms of supplies to Ukraine,” one official told VOA. Pentagon officials expected to get the funding to replenish those stocks in a supplemental request from the Biden administration, which included billions of additional dollars in aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. However, Congress has yet to pass a supplemental aid bill because of arguments on spending and U.S. border security. The shortfall is tied to the way the Pentagon has accounted for the aid sent to Ukraine. Last June, the Pentagon said it overestimated the value of weapons sent to Ukraine by about $6.2 billion over the past two years. When calculating its aid package estimates, the Department of Defense was counting the cost incurred to replace the weapons given to Ukraine, while it said it should have been totaling the cost of the systems actually sent, officials told VOA at the time. The error provided the Pentagon the legal cover needed to send more aid to Ukraine, but the problem remained that more funds would be needed to replenish U.S. military stockpiles with newer, costlier weapons. Failing to replenish U.S. stockpiles would negatively affect the military’s readiness, another defense official told VOA. The department still has about $4 billion in authority to send aid to Ukraine, but Pentagon officials have told reporters that sending additional aid without the ability to replenish U.S. weapons stockpiles would be a risk the Defense Department is not willing to take at this time....
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Mar 12, 2024 10:27
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drilldo squirt posted:I think I could have a fun conversation in this one. Seems like the Houthis still haven't managed to learn why Americans don't have free healthcare. ____________________________________________________ Source: Guardian UK https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/11/houthi-attacks-red-sea-yemeni-authorities-west West won’t stop Houthi attacks unless it works with Yemeni authorities, say experts Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor Mon 11 Mar 2024 12.01 GMT Western efforts to stop Houthi attacks on shipping in the Red Sea will fail unless the US and its allies build stronger intelligence and military relations with the UN-recognised government in Yemen, politicians and experts are warning. Yemen’s ambassador to the UK has warned the Houthis have to be confronted and driven away from Red Sea ports such as Hodeidah. Similar calls were made by members of the Yemeni government coalition when they visited London last month. At present, American and British diplomats are reluctant to draw the Aden-based government closer into its Red Sea operations, fearing this could reignite a civil war that has been on effective hold since April 2022.... ... But they also acknowledge there is little sign US-UK strikes on Houthi positions along the coastline have had a full deterrent effect, and other options have to be kept on the table. That assessment was underlined at the weekend when a multiple Houthi drone strike on western ships early on Saturday morning forced US, French, UK and Danish ships to become involved in a complex and largely successful operation to shoot down more than 35 Houthi drones and missiles. Four were aimed at the already stricken bulk carrier True Confidence, which was being escorted by the French frigate Alsace after being hit on Wednesday, killing three sailors. British and Danish ships both shot down drones in their vicinity.... ... Since 19 October, the Yemeni movement has launched 403 missiles or drones against 61 ships. As many as 15 missiles have struck targets. The three most serious incidents have been the sinking of the Rubymar, the capture of Galaxy Leader and its crew, and the serious damage inflicted on True Confidence. The Houthis, keen users of social media, also screened on Sunday a video of a mock Yemeni attack in the Negev desert in southern Israel, in which buildings displaying US, UK and Israeli flags were attacked. The US has admitted in congressional hearings that its intelligence about Houthi activity is limited.... ... Different branches of the badly divided Aden-based government were in London last month, arguing the western position had been too reactive, and lacked an overall vision for how Yemen could fit into a new Middle East... ... The Aden-based government is in a quandary in that the Palestinian cause is popular in Yemen, and many see the Houthis as at least standing up to Israel in a way that other Gulf leaders have avoided. One expert claimed the Houthi actions in the Red Sea may have helped it to recruit tens of thousands of new fighters. The Aden government is fighting back by claiming the Houthis actions including the sinking of the Rubymar will bring famine and a marine environmental disaster that will damage fishers’ lives for generations. The information minister, Moammar al-Eryani, said the disaster would lead to the proliferation of algae, forming a cover over the surface of the water and blocking light from it, leading to the death of coral reefs and marine animals. In the absence of greater cooperation with the anti-Houthi bloc inside Yemen or any troops on the ground, western forces have limited other options apart from hoping more attacks on Yemen missile launch sites will finally degrade the Houthis’ effectiveness, or that upon a ceasefire in Gaza the Houthis will stick to their promise to end the attacks and there will be a revival of the peace process. But that requires diplomats treating the Houthis after the past four months as credible partners for peace. The US has not ruled out targeted assassinations of key Houthi leaders, while US senators want the US to sink an Iranian ship, Beshad, that for months has been cited as a spy ship in US intelligence reports.
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Mar 12, 2024 11:22
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drilldo squirt posted:You're literally a tankie.
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Mar 13, 2024 11:10
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drilldo squirt posted:You don't have to like any of them even if what you are saying is true. Which it isn't. Who's your favourite member of the Azov Brigade?
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Mar 13, 2024 11:55
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stephenthinkpad posted:What Deng offered to Taiwan was a loose confederation type union, maybe like what Canada is to the US, or Canada was to the UK when they still had queen on their money. Taiwan/ROC would only need to give up diplomacy and probably the navy and they get to keep local government elections and law and everything else. They have to call themselves Chinese of course. "Confederation" implies a certain degree of equality in status, but Canada is a full-fledged vassal of the US in all but name.
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Mar 14, 2024 14:00
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Died with nuclear radiation, not of nuclear radiation.
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Mar 20, 2024 10:42
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Source: Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/03/21/russia-titanium-exports-sanctions/ Two years after start of Ukraine war, Russian titanium keeps flowing to West By Adam Taylor March 21, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT Western firms bought hundreds of millions of dollars of titanium metal from a Russian company with deep ties to the country’s defense industry following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to a review of Russian export data. The purchases illustrate how the West remains dependent on Russia for certain products despite pledges to break economic ties with Moscow. In the case of titanium, that dependence raises security concerns, industry and defense analysts say, as the metal is vital in the manufacturing of both commercial and military airplanes. “Russia could shut off the flow of these … materials and leave companies critical to national defense and civil aviation scrambling,” said William George, director of research at ImportGenius, the company that supplied the trade data gathered from an official Russian database to The Washington Post. After more than two years of war in Ukraine, Russia continues to export oil and gas that eventually reaches the United States and its allies, and Russian firms are still able to sell everything from diamonds to uranium because the West wants the goods and allows carve-outs from sanctions. The titanium firm, VSMPO-AVISMA, has not been placed under sanctions by the United States or the European Union despite being partly owned by Rostec, a defense conglomerate that owns hundreds of companies and is under U.S. and European sanctions. Rostec is led by an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Sergey Chemezov, who has been personally sanctioned since the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Roughly 15,000 tons of titanium worth $370 million were exported by VSMPO in 2022, the vast majority of it sent to Western nations that supported Ukraine, according to the export database, with Germany, France, the United States and Britain topping the list. VSMPO, which essentially is a monopoly in Russia, then exported at least $345 million in titanium in 2023, according to more-limited data for that year seen by The Post. Russian trade data was difficult to acquire in 2023, with the available data lacking most of the details that showed transactions with Western firms. George said ImportGenius could not comment on why certain details were no longer in the data... ... Ukraine is the only country to have placed the Russian firm under sanctions. In September, the U.S. Commerce Department imposed export controls on VSPMO, stating that it was “directly involved in producing and manufacturing titanium and metal products for the Russian military and security services.” Those controls prohibit exports of goods to the company in Russia, not of its titanium to the United States, however. “We think sanctioning titanium from Russia would be sanctioning ourselves,” Airbus Chief Executive Guillaume Faury told reporters in June 2022. While no sanctions prohibit the purchase of Russian titanium for commercial purposes, the use of specialty metals for the U.S. military is regulated. This can cause costly problems: In 2022, the discovery of a Chinese alloy in the assembly of F-35 fighter jets led to a production halt and investigation. The Pentagon later issued a waiver for the alloy.... Struggling to find alternatives to Russia Titanium’s importance comes from an array of factors. As strong as steel but 45 percent lighter, it’s also more resistant to heat and corrosion, and can be used in multiple products from paint to body implants. Its most critical modern use is in aerospace as the industry has pursued ever-lighter aircraft. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Western governments encouraged aerospace firms to do business with VSMPO, which had enormous capacity after the end of the Cold War, and until 2022, the Russian firm was estimated to supply roughly a third of the high-grade titanium used by the aviation sector globally. Only after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, did Western companies begin to break these ties. Most significantly, Ural Boeing Manufacturing, a joint venture of Boeing and VSMPO, was canceled in 2022. In a statement, Boeing said it now “sources titanium predominantly in the U.S.” Major suppliers for Boeing have continued purchasing Russian titanium, however. The Safran Group, the French aerospace company that works on engines and landing gears for aerospace companies, including Boeing, saw its imports from the Russian firm rise in 2022, hitting over $20 million compared with $8.6 million the year before. As recently as November of last year, Russian trade documents stated that exports to France were going to the Safran-made LEAP 1B engines used in the Boeing 737 Max airliner. In a statement, Safran said that its purchases had increased in volume in 2022 but that “the share of Russian titanium in our purchases did not increase.” Executives with Rolls-Royce, a British company that produces engines for both Airbus and Boeing, said in the spring of 2022 that they would stop purchasing Russian titanium. Trade data suggests that imports from VSMPO continued throughout 2022, increasing from $5 million in 2021 to $6.7 million in 2022, with VSMPO deliveries marked for Rolls-Royce as recently as April 2023. “Rolls-Royce strictly adheres to applicable export control and sanctions requirements and we are securing alternative supply chain capacity to deliver our transition,” the company said in a statement. The continued reliance on Russian titanium by European firms is shown in European Union trade data. The bloc imported $244 million worth of Russian titanium in 2023, only 20 percent down from its highest-ever volume, in 2019. U.S. trade data for 2023 shows $47 million worth of Russian titanium purchases, almost 80 percent lower than the 2019 peak. Analysts said Western companies were probably struggling to find alternatives to VSMPO. One American who worked with VSMPO before the invasion of Ukraine, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations, said Russia’s lower overheads meant VSMPO could also offer discounted prices. “They have the scale that allows that cost of production to go way down,” the American said. ... While U.S. titanium firms can create aerospace-grade metal, after closures in 2020, they have been reliant on imports of titanium sponge, the first stage in making the metal. Roughly 80 percent of titanium sponge used in the United States comes from Japan, which has struggled to keep up with demand... ... Willy Shih, a Harvard Business School professor who specializes in manufacturing, said that the U.S. titanium industry could certainly fill the hole in the global market left by VSMPO, but that it would require significant investment and probably the embrace of new technologies to create cleaner, more-efficient titanium. “We tend to be short-term-focused and price-focused,” Shih said. “But if you really think of these things as being strategic, then you have to play the long game.”
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Source: Kyiv Independent https://kyivindependent.com/uk-general-admits-that-military-couldnt-fight-russia-for-more-than-a-couple-of-months/ UK general admits military 'couldn't fight Russia for more than a couple of months' by Nate Ostiller March 27, 2024 12:51 PM 2 min read U.K. General Rob Magowan admitted in a committee meeting on March 26 that the U.K.'s military "couldn't fight (Russia) for more than a couple of months because we don't have the ammunition and reserves of equipment to do it." The striking admission was the latest warning from U.K. defense and military officials cautioning that the country is unprepared for armed conflict. Officials from other NATO countries have repeated similar concerns. The U.K.'s parliament released a bipartisan report in February 2024 that said the armed forces have yet to break the "vicious cycle" of equipment and manpower shortages that continue to hinder its preparation for a high-intensity war. Magowan's acknowledgment on March 26 went even further as he responded to a direct question from lawmaker Mark Francois about the ability of the U.K. to fight Russia. "We are not ready for an enduring war, do you accept that?" Francois asked, to which Magowan responded, "Yes, absolutely." "We could not fight an enduring war against Russia, drop all these euphemisms about peer adversaries," Francois continued. Magowan conceded that government spending on defense "does not meet, in all areas, the threats that we face." At the same time, U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said that a situation in which the U.K. would fight Russia alone is unlikely. "For people watching, and hearing that the U.K. isn't ready for war exclusively with Russia, it’s important to understand that because we are in NATO and Article 5 (mutual defense clause) exists, (so) we would never be in that situation."
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Mar 27, 2024 14:50
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