Previous day’s thread: https://freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/4153818/posts
Patriot Missiles Won’t Save Ukraine - National Interest - May 9, 2023
Patriot systems are limited to pinpoint defense of major assets and are designed to operate in tandem with air defenses engaging targets at higher and lower altitudes. Without these additions, Patriot will have too many threats to engage and the result will either be porous coverage that doesn’t protect its defended assets, or coverage that quickly subsides when Patriot runs out of interceptors. Moreover, Patriot systems are themselves vulnerable. Operating a Patriot radar system gives away its location, making it an open target for Russian attacks. This means that Patriot is not a one-stop-shop for defending Ukraine’s military assets or its people.
Those facts were proven last night.
War Monitor @WarMonitors - 1:23 UTC · May 16, 2023
⚡️I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but after careful review of this video, it appears that the air defence battery (most likely patriot) tried to save itself, but failed. It most probably got toasted.
Those were expensive two minutes for the 'West':
Fennec_Radar @RadarFennec - 1:45 UTC · May 16, 2023
I counted 30 Patriot PAC-3 MSE launches here.
The FY2024 costs of these per missile is about $$5,275,000
That was $158,250,000 fired in about two minutes. And as we see, the battery or something else likely got blown up. So it failed in its mission.
All night long, Russian Forces 'worked' on Ukraine using a wide range of weapons
— Missile strikes were carried out on Odessa and its suburbs. Warehouses and industrial facilities where weapons and equipment were stored were hit.
— After the missile attack, Geran drones and decoys were used, explosions were heard in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.
— A new missile strike hit targets in Kharkov, Kramatorsk, Pokrovsky district of the DPR, Kirovograd and Cherkassy regions.
— At 2 am, air-based missiles were launched from strategic bombers, hitting targets in the Poltava and Vinnitsa regions.
— Guided air bombs were used on targets in the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.
— In the morning (at about 04:00) "Calibers" were launched on targets in the Khmelnytsky, Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions.
The end of the air raid sounded only at 6 am (MSK).
Cyberspec News TG Channel reported
Lots of speculation and rumors around status of General Zaluzhny. Something happened but don’t know what.
@visegrad24 27m
Italy has announced it will start training Ukrainian soldiers in Italy.
Italy will also send military instructors to train Ukrainian troops in Poland, Belgium and Germany.
Free Tatarstan! Kazan finally out from under the Muscovy yoke!
The collapse of Russian influence is widening
BY JONATHAN SWEET AND MARK TOTH, 05/18/23
https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4007441-the-collapse-of-russian-influence-is-widening/
“As Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” continues its downward spiral in Ukraine, the future of Russian-occupied or dominated territories is becoming a subject of interest, beginning with Kaliningrad.” (Poland and the Baltics officially reverted to using their pre-Soviet names for the area)
...”it could foreshadow the near future for several Russian-occupied territories, should the war in Ukraine end in a resounding defeat. As the weight of Russian oppression diminishes, Crimea, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria may press for reunification with their motherlands, allowing Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova to become whole again.”
...”if you were to overlay the domino theory of U.S. Cold War policy, substituting “getting out from underneath Russian oppression” for “the spread of communism, Russia could experience another event akin to the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. That original event led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union. If Russia cannot keep its occupied territories in line, what would it mean for the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization, which currently includes Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, and Tajikistan?”
(Putin did this.)
@NOELreports 36m
“The U.S. Air Force assessed that it would take only four (or five) months to train Ukrainian pilots to operate F-16 fighter jets, a far shorter time frame than what has been repeatedly cited by Pentagon officials.”
Yahoo News has obtained a U.S. Air Force assessment of two Ukrainian pilots who outperformed stated Pentagon expectations over two weeks in a flight simulator at a U.S. air base.
(Read the leaked 23 March memo here, which reports the assessment of Ukrainian pilots on F-16 simulators earlier this year):
Ben Hodges @general_ben 20m
Great thread. One of the reasons I overestimated Russian capabilities was that I failed to appreciate the depth and impact of corruption in the Russian MoD. A liberal democratic government with proper oversight and transparency will defeat an autocracy every time.
@ChrisO_wiki 2h
1/ A major corruption scandal is reported to be unfolding in the Russian Ministry of Defence that implicates several generals and ministers, concerning the hugely expensive construction of Russia’s National Defence Control Centre (NDCC) in 2014.
2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports that an embezzlement investigation concerning the installation of software for ballistic missile and cruise missile detection radars has spawned another major investigation relating to corruption in the construction of the NDCC.
3/ The lavishly designed NDCC, located in central Moscow, is the supreme command and control center of the MOD and the Russian Armed Forces. Its purpose is to provide centralised control of the armed forces and coordinate military operations.
4/ It was opened in 2014 after huge cost overruns – it reportedly cost over 40 billion rubles ($500 million), which VChK-OGPU says was spent on “beautiful sofas, armchairs, televisions and computers for fabulous money (bought at several times higher than the market value).”
5/ The sprawling case reportedly began when the Military Department of Investigation of the Strategic Missile Forces uncovered an incident of petty bribery. An employee of RTI Systems was arrested for taking a bribe to employ a person in the company’s military acceptance office.
6/ He struck a plea deal under which he agreed to talk about other crimes in exchange for a suspended sentence. As a result, he implicated Colonel Marchukov, the MOD’s military representative in RTI Systems. The company is a leading supplier of radar and communications systems.
7/ The colonel was “charged with the same episode of bribery for employment, as well as two other episodes of bribery (for general patronage and in the form of an apartment), and was also accused of machinations in installing software on radar complexes.”
8/ Marchukov was reportedly bribed with the gift of an apartment by Sergey Datsko, the head of the Dubnensky Machine-Building Plant (DMZ), which develops and produces UAVs and the Moskit, Kh-22 and Kh-55 cruise missiles.
9/ The bribe is said to have been in exchange for Marchukov overlooking corruption in the MOD. Marchukov was in turn granted leniency by investigators seeking to find out who was involved in corruption at more senior levels.
10/ He reportedly gave testimony implicating Major General Vyacheslav Lobuzko, whom VChK-OGPU describes as “one of the “fathers” of the Voronezh SPSV radar, designed to detect ballistic and cruise missiles”.
11/ Lobuzko was the former division commander of the 3rd Independent Air Defence Army. He moved to RTI in 2000 after his retirement from the armed forces and worked for the company until 2019 as a senior manager in Sistema’s defence division.
12/ While employed by RTI, he oversaw the construction of the NDCC. The Moscow garrison court has reportedly placed him under arrest. If convicted, the 68-year-old general faces a lengthy prison sentence.
13/ The case may not end there. A VChK-OGPU source “believes that Lobuzko will also be forced to make a deal with the investigation,” which could lead to the senior MOD leadership.
14/ The channel speculates that he could implicate, among others, Major General Oleg Stepanov, head of the MOD’s Department of Military Representation; and former Deputy Minister of Defence Mikhail Mizintsev, who formerly headed the NDCC.
15/ The scandal may potentially reach as far as Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu himself. He created the NDCC and is known for his lavish spending on luxury properties, such as this Asian-style dacha near Moscow. /end
Pencil whipping the accounting sheets, to send a few more boatloads of gear to the Ukraine. More change from between the sofa cushions at the Pentagon, just in time for the counteroffensive... Surprise!
“WASHINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) - The Pentagon overestimated the value of the ammunition, missiles and other equipment it sent to Ukraine by around $3 billion, a Senate aide and a defense official said on Thursday, an error that may lead the way for more weapons being sent to Kyiv for its defense against Russian forces.”
@ChuckPfarrer 4h
"BIG DAY: On 17 May the UKR Air Force launched 20x air strikes on concentrations of RU troops and military equipment. Eight Suppression of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD) strikes targeted anti-RU aircraft missile systems using NATO-supplied AGM-88 anti-radiation missiles."
Does anyone recognize this airport, is it Afghanistan?
NATO soldiers in Ukraine
https://twitter.com/UltraDane/status/1659312711338176513
