Posted on 05/02/2022 9:54:10 AM PDT by Alas Babylon!
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany—Within days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, U.S. European Command stood up a 24/7 operations center to coordinate the rapid delivery of defense assistance from dozens of nations to the front line inside Ukraine.
For the first time, the Defense Department described how the EUCOM Control Center Ukraine (ECCU) works during a briefing for journalists covering the Ukraine Defense Consultative Workshop at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on April 26, signaling a rapid evolution to changing battlefield needs.
“Quite simply, it’s a near soup-to-nuts of all things security systems [to be] delivered,” a senior defense official said of the Stuttgart, Germany-based ops center. “It’s a combination of a call center, a watch floor, meeting rooms. They execute a battle rhythm to support decision-makers as well as 24/7 engagement and coordination around the globe with about 40 to 60 people at any given time.”
Large rooms at EUCOM have been converted to the active watch floor, which tracks logistics, movements, timing flow rates, and communications with military commands such as U.S. Transportation Command.
A U.S. two-star Naval officer from EUCOM’s J-4 logistics directorate runs the ECCU with staff from 15 donor nations. Since March, it has worked in parallel with the United Kingdom’s International Donor Coordination Center (IDCC), run by a British one-star officer.
Ukrainian military liaisons also make up “fewer than five” of the ECCU staff.
“This robust, fast-evolving international effort has focused on the speed of delivery that ensures a credible, resilient, and combat-capable Ukraine military,” the defense official said.
Prior to President Joe Biden’s call for a $33 billion Ukraine supplemental security package April 28, the President had signed eight presidential drawdowns and provided $4 billion in defense aid. The ECCU worked with TRANSCOM to move each of those orders of war material from Defense Department warehouses in the United States to staging grounds in Europe and onward to NATO eastern front positions, where the material is trucked across the border into Ukraine.
Often, that has meant C-17s departing from Dover Air Force Base, Del., landing at Ramstein, and then repackaging to smaller C-130s for flights to front-line airfields. That way, the larger aircraft can quickly return to the U.S. and refill with additional defense assistance, an Air Mobility Command official told Air Force Magazine.
Initially, flights departed every other day, but the pace quickly ramped up to eight to 10 flights per day.
“At some points, it has spiked to nearly double that as we ramped up our coordination and logistics efforts to ensure that we’re meeting the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in near real time,” the senior defense official said.
“Our support has also expanded from a single path via air to a multimodal effort [including] air, ground, and rail over multiple routes,” the official said. “Once it crosses that border, [the Ukrainians] have a very diverse route—paths to getting their equipment to the fight—and they clearly seem to be very effective.”
The last point has taken on outsize importance recently. Following the visits of Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken by rail to Kyiv, Russia bombed supply routes, hitting five rail stations in central and western Ukraine.
Another senior defense official at Ramstein told Air Force Magazine that as of April 27, the railway attacks had not impacted the transfer of defense assistance.
Defense and humanitarian assistance is known to flow through southeastern Poland, northern Romania, and Slovakia, although apart from the Poland route, it is not public to what degree the U.S. coordinates transfer through the other NATO countries bordering Ukraine.
The ECCU official said initially there was concern the assistance would fall into the wrong hands as it is not tracked once it crosses the Ukrainian border. But force protection and operational security are “baked into the equation” and have ensured timely delivery to the battlefield.
The front line, however, has shifted to the easternmost region of Ukraine, some 800 miles from the Polish border, to the Donbas region. The most recent $800 million in U.S. defense assistance to Ukraine announced April 21 includes 72 155mm Howitzer artillery pieces and 144,000 artillery rounds, along with 72 tactical vehicles to tow the weapons.
Despite the distance, the defense official was optimistic the Howitzers would be firing on Russian targets in short order.
“If you’re not seeing Howitzers shooting in the eastern part of Ukraine within a week, then there’s a problem. But I’ll bet you’re going to see them shooting within a week,” the official said.
As Ukraine’s defense needs have shifted to long-range weapons, the official told Air Force Magazine that while air defenses such as Stingers are still “part of the mix,” they are being requested “at a lower priority level.”
The defense official pointed to the 40 nations meeting with Ukraine’s defense minister and senior military in a nearby room at the Ramstein Officer’s Club that same day, noting the constant evolution of the ECCU to respond to the perceived next phase of the war.
“Needs-based is important, but staying ahead of the problem is really important,” the official said.
“They need this aid,” the official added of Ukraine’s war effort. “There’s a lot of capacity in the Russian military, even if they’re performing badly. There’s a lot of depth there.”
They did a surprisingly good job even in 2014 in the east despite the miserable condition Putin's stooge Yanukovych left the Ukrainian military in.
“For us nuclear war is so unthinkable that we dismiss it.”
That’s the public. On the military side it’s definitely a last option but there are definitely options on the table for nuclear response and whenever things get interesting those options get dusted off, updated, and people start thinking about implementing them.
Like right now things are moving around just in case a response is indicated.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/u-s-french-u-k-nuclear-submarines-rendezvous-in-scotland
“U.S., French, U.K. Nuclear Submarines Rendezvous In Scotland”
“HM Naval Base Clyde – commonly known throughout the Navy as Faslane – is the Royal Navy’s main presence in Scotland. It is home to the core of the Submarine Service, including the nation’s nuclear deterrent, and the new generation of hunter-killer submarines. The Royal Naval Armaments Depot at Coulport, 8 miles from Faslane, is responsible for the storage, processing, maintenance and issue of key elements of the UK’s Trident Deterrent Missile System and the ammunitioning of all submarine embarked weapons.”
In short, the three subs picked up nuclear weapons that they likely didn’t have on board for routine patrols.
And now they’re no longer conducting routine patrols. Instead they’re likely heading up to the Barent’s Sea to take positions just in case they get an order to launch on Russian targets.
Putin’s nuclear threats are being taken seriously.
A five megaton blast could vaporize almost the entire area contained in the Washington Beltway:
And that would be a bad thing, right?
[possible Russian response]
Dear Tanker Owner:
Your tanker was seen by our satellite systems bring fuel to a country supplying lethal weapons to killers of Russian soldiers.
It is suggested that you correct your faulty navigation.
V. Putin
We want freedom. They want freedom.
It should be possible to make a deal.
LOL - Trump was right.
That said there are worthy causes but when democrats control the levers of power huge amounts of money and equipment will be ‘lost’ to graft and corruption...
I wouldn't be surprised if some US soldiers aren't the ones pushing the buttons(pulling the trigger) on those drones.
Does anyone really think the Ukrainians got proficient with US/EU/UK weapons that fast?
12 missiles is... enough.
What struck me was the maddenly way we have to sit through a protocol reading before we tell you THE FREAKING BAD NEWS.
Second, I don’t know of course, but my understanding is we stopped anti-missile deployment with the ABM treaty, and only have 40 (?) missiles on the west coast and Alaska - none on the east coast.
You could say the ending is trite, but at that point, is there anything that isn’t?
You missed the point completely. Yeah, of course we deploy subs etc. But we’re doing nothing to stop antagonizing them to the point that they may actually do it, That’s because deep inside, our command staff and leaders think they can be deterred sufficiently by a counter force, and we can continue menacing them conventionally.
For most normal people responses and retaliation is essentially meaningless.
Sub deployment and chest thumping does no good for one main reason. Everybody over there already knows that if they launch on us, that retaliatory response is coming. So that is factored in. The other part of the equation to them is “What happens to us if we don’t launch?”.
We are working hard to destroy their government and economy. We openly say so.
The wildflower childish and political leader ship their game, they deep inside do not believe anyone would actually ever use a nuclear weapon. Problem. Everything else they do is just posing. If they did believe it, they wouldn’t keep the provocation going.
Joe Potato-Brain wants to show how tough he is, and is employing the tactics he used beat "Corn Pop".
He fails to grasp and understand that unlike Corn Pop, russia and Putin are NOT imaginary characters.
“We are working hard to destroy their government and economy. We openly say so.”
What did Russia think was going to happen? That the world would be so impressed by their brave attacks on Ukraine that we’d beg them for mercy and hand over Eastern Europe like they demanded on Decmeber 10th?
Russia overplayed their hand and now they’re going to pay. That’s just how it is.
But in no circumstance does this scenario play out with Russia forcing NATO to give up Eastern Europe, Finland, Sweden, etc. nor does this play out with Russia conquering Ukraine and then expecting us to go back to normal relations.
Too much water under the bridge at this point.
By fall the European energy market will unhitch from Russia. And then who does Russia sell to? China? China will own Russia if that’s what happens.
The other issue here is how much of Russia’s nuclear forces are inoperable? I suspect quite a bit.
The Mayak facility that builds their nukes hasn’t built squat since 2017 due to some sort of accident that some analysts suspect was a ‘fizzle’...meaning a nuke cooked off but didn’t detonate.
The Russians were trying to build a replacement facility but that effort stopped due to sanctions and etc.
In the forseeable future Russia will no longer have any functional nukes. It’s simply a matter of time.
No kidding. By 2030 there will be no Russian nuclear forces. That’s a mathematical certainty.
The only way forward for Russia now is to capitulate and leave Ukraine, Georgia, and hand back the Kurile Islands and Japan’s portion of Sakhalin. Probably the land they stole from Finland, too. Then they can get back into the world market and secure the things they need for their nuclear program.
Or not.
Again, it’s all up to Russia.
And if the Russians want to burn over Ukraine then so be it. That’s what will happen.
All so a sick and dying Putin can try to emulate Stalin before he dies.
12 is only enough to ensure you get to full retaliation from our missile and bomber forces you left intact and our sub forces you couldn’t find anyway. If they decide to go, they will hit us and all our nuke friends with all they have except for enough to deter China.
The northern hemisphere would be toast.
BTW, every nuclear war movie in the Cold War started with increasing tensions and a conventional war in Europe usually. You hear the radio or TV in the background discussing it blandly just before it goes high order.
BTW 2, I think it’s dead accurate on them reading the protocol. Yes, as an ICBM was screaming in at 15,000 mph, they would waste 60 seconds telling you to stand by for an important message, telling you that this message is under the authority of US Code #82-3264, etc etc.
They would burn your time exactly like that!
Has anyone ever even attempted to locate corn pop? To prove he ever existed outside Biden’s imagination when he went to the ghetto pushing gangsters around?
If Trump told a story like that, they would unleash an army of reporters to scour the East coast looking for him.
Where to begin. What they expected to happen was that eventually they could demonstrate some friendship for the west. They tried every approach imaginable for over 20 years.
In the last couple of years, we managed to convince them that absolutely nothing except western control of the government and economy would ever allow them to enter the normal family of nations. And that it was absolutely the intent of NATO to expand right up to their border.
Our direct support and encouragement of actual honest to God nazis was a bridge too far. We refused to even discuss it and flipped them the finger. They either accept Nazis on their border, or go to war. And here we are.
Since it’s so hopeless then there’s no downside to NATO supporting Ukraine through to final victory against the Russian invaders.
Yeah, that’s the lesson. Being a chest bumper to someone who didn’t see you as an enemy has pissed them off. So you might as well support eastern Euro modern Nazis and see if you can get Russia to nuke you.
Lemme guess, DC type or maybe USAF?
“Lemme guess, DC type or maybe USAF?”
DC is too humid. Does bad things to my hair. And the chair force was never my style.
They been fightin that civil war in donbass regions since 2014. Yes it’s still a slav civil war even tho Rus intervened
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