And it's our job to get out ahead of them and stop it. Which is the whole point of that RUSI article I posted. It CAN be done, if western nations (i.e. NATO) will put a few sharp project managers on the job, and will break down the "silos" that each country reflexively builds around their intelligence operations.
Forgot that I posted that RUSI link on another thread. (administers dope slap to self)
https://static.rusi.org/methodology-degrading-arms-russia-rusi-op-june-2024.pdf
“...that each country reflexively builds around their intelligence operations.”
Whose would you like to break down? If you remember, after deert storm, UNSCUM, whose objective was to track down, seal and break down NBC stocks that Iraq had. The pattern was always the same. They’d identify a location in the sand, set up a reconnaissance team, and go there only to find the place clean enough to eat off. But that’s what yhou heard. Ther was more and is still sensitive.
Between 1991 and 1995, UN inspectors uncovered a massive program to develop biological and nuclear weapons. A large amount of equipment was confiscated and destroyed. Iraq by and large refused to cooperate with UNSCOM and its inspections as mandated by UN SC Res. 687 until June 1992, ten months after deadline, at which time the Iraqi government submitted “full, final and complete reports” on all of its weapons of mass destruction programs. These reports, however, were found to be incomplete and deficient, and at the same time UN inspectors were subjected to harassment and threats on the part of the Iraqi regime.
Wwe still don’t know how much was buried oit there. But to give you an idea, Col. Rob Baker, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 1st Armored Division, said Friday that the Hunters found 123 pounds of C-4 explosive, 47 rocket-propelled grenades, seven grenade launchers, 3,000 rounds of 7.62 mm ammunition, machine guns, AK-47s and 20 pounds of gunpowder — all neatly wrapped and recently stored in holes dug in a palm grove outside one of Baker’s forward operating bases.
“Nuke Parts Unearthed in Baghdad Backyard”
https://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=129615&page=1
Soldiers operating south of Baghdad reported finding another dozen weapons caches in searches over the weekend, including one that contained an ominously large string of aircraft bombs.
https://www.stripes.com/migration/soldiers-find-several-weapons-caches-south-of-baghdad-1.55201
I personally talked with a tanker that had a blip while working in northern Iraq and when they challenged the blip, and it did not respond, they fired on it wasting part of it and when they got to it, they found two dozen buried tanks.
Saddam sent his air force to Iran to hide it and they never gave them back.
During the Persian Gulf War, most Iraqi pilots and aircraft (of French and Soviet origin) fled to Iran to escape the bombing campaign because no other country would allow them sanctuary. The Iranians impounded these aircraft after the war and returned seven Su-25s in 2014, while putting the rest in the service of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force – claiming them as reparations for the Iran–Iraq War. Because of this Saddam Hussein did not send the rest of his Air Force to Iran just prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, instead opting to bury them in sand. Saddam Hussein, preoccupied with Iran and regional power balance, is reported to have commented: “The Iranians are even stronger than before, they now have our Air Force.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Air_Force
This type of espionage is Dick and Jane compared to today’s operations as it was over 20 years ago workings. So finding the arms and getting sorties out to them is like looking for a needle in a haystack that is running faster than we can see them. They might be at sea, underground, in Russia or Venezuela or Cuba. We won’t find enough to stop them. But as they fly the balloons over the US, we know they’re lookng to.
wy69