Small White Dragon posted:

What is the state of Independent Russian media? To be honest, I thought there wasn't really any left.

Dwesa posted:

Considering various news that some German officials (including chief of their cybersecurity agency) have ties to Russia, they might have worries that their partners in investigation might be compromised.

Baronjutter posted:

Since the start of this my big worry has always been Putin's ideological allies gaining power in enough western countries to cut Ukraine off from aid. I'm still terrified of this happening, specially in the US

quote:

McCarthy, who could be House speaker if Republicans triumph, indicated that that could end in a GOP-led House.

“I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine,” he recently told Punchbowl News. “They just won’t do it.”

McCarthy suggested that Americans want Congress to focus on issues closer to home.

Hieronymous Alloy posted:

It'll be autonomous ai controlled swarms against each other. Friendly fire isn't acceptable in a self driving car but as long as it's minimal It'll be acceptable in war. Front toward enemy.

quote:

Launched in 2017, the OFFensive Swarm-Enabled Tactics (OFFSET) program aims to develop an ecosystem of unmanned ground and aerial vehicles available to small infantry units that can be deployed as swarms of up to 250 units towards the accomplishment of various tasks in complex, urban terrain. The final goal is the development of a system of “swarm tactics” responsive to human commands enabled through algorithms. The whole swarm would fall under the command of a single team consisting of a “swarm commander” and an operator.

The project’s manager, Timothy Chung, was very positive about the advancements made over the past four years and about the test itself. He stated that the test and wider program demonstrated that “these swarm capabilities are rapidly nearing availability for future operations”. Chung also emphasized that the program developed not just advanced capabilities but also a swarm capability community.

John Watson, who leads the Fort Campbell Directorate of Plans, Training, Mobilization and Security, provided additional details on what the capabilities demonstrated by the field test will mean for future soldiers.

“If a unit is coming up into a densely populated urban area, they could use a swarm of unmanned aircraft systems to go and do a reconnaissance. Instead of having to send soldiers in there and spend manpower and other resources, you can send your drones in there to do that reconnaissance and validate threats. […] To do a reconnaissance of Cassidy would probably take a company plus of soldiers to do, or a battalion minus, whereas if this technology is fully developed, one soldier is all it takes to control the swarm and do the reconnaissance. And one of the future technologies they’re talking about is being able to pair human and swarm teaming and use part of the swarm to breach a door, so if you think there’s a threat in the building you can use them to breach the door instead of a soldier.”

Northrop Grumman Mission Systems and Raytheon BBN Technologies participated in the test as Swarm System integrators; their role was to develop open architecture which enables the swarm operations concept. Sentien Robotics and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, meanwhile, demonstrated platforms that can be integrated as part of the swarm. The Michigan Tech Research Institute virtually demonstrated new “acoustic spoofing payload and see-through-wall sensing payload capabilities” which are expected to be further tested in early 2022.

Menschsein posted:

Unfortunately I'm paywalled on the e-paper, but have the paper version (haven't had a chance to read it yet). The source is entirely legit, It's the only Estonian weekly doing investigative reporting. The same paper recently published a longform consisting of interviews with acting and former Baltic counterintelligence officers. It's been translated, I'm sure it popped up here as well. If you haven't read it, absolutely take the time and do. It's grim reading.

I have no doubt the above article will be translated as well in due course.

https://twitter.com/kajakallas/status/1582038329578516480

Chalks posted:

Do we know if Russia is going to be able to jump right back in to sabotaging the grain shipments like this now they're agreeing to the deal again?

Also, what exactly does Russia get by delaying the grain shipments? The west stopped caring about the shipments once the deal was signed, so doing this has all the down sides but without any of the leverage?

Bar Ran Dun posted:

2000 lbs -short ton, ST
2240 lbs - long ton, LT
1000 kgs - metric ton, MT, 1 m^3 of water at 1.0000 apparent density in air at 15C
Cargo Carrying capacity in MT at summer marks - DWT
100 cu. ft internal volume - 1 gross register ton (which isn’t a weight but is a volume
GRT - non cargo spaces = NRT

NRT and GRT are now technically unit less though.

Nenonen posted:

Incredible if they're really gone. What a way to betray the 87% of people who voted for annexation to Russia!

It would be really good news if the city was saved from fighting. Although as the Russian strategy is to destroy Ukrainian infrastructure, would they really leave everything intact as they left...

Kavros posted:

Hey, I'm hearing news that biden managed to get Brittney Griner freed from russia in a prisoner swap, supposedly in exchange for Viktor Bout

Knightsoul posted:

Scratch Monkey posted:

Why? Do they actually believe Moscow is somehow in danger or is this just for show?

Rad Russian posted:

EU: You can't sell your $10 widget for more than $2!

Russia: Ok, my widget now costs $1 (plus $10 for shipping and handling)

EU: Who could have foreseen this?

Burns posted:

I am absolutely loving the name Rail Force One.

Kallikaa posted:

Coincidently

Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade Johan Forssell visits Türkiye in connection with the earthquake disaster

https://swedish-presidency.consiliu...quake-disaster/

the holy poopacy posted:

I'm not really sure about that. It's in China's best interest for the war to be over yesterday and it doesn't particularly matter if it ends on Russia's terms... but China definitely does not want the West to score an unambiguous win. If China can strongarm Russia into a genuine compromise (that isn't a total capitulation) and get Ukraine to go along with it then it would be a huge diplomatic score for China.

Baronjutter posted:

Offer to help rebuild the russian economy, do the same economic imperialism in russia as they do in africa.

quote:

Going all with Russia is going to kickstart a much more serious cold war between China and the West and I don't see how that's possibly good for China.