Free Republic

A Russian military expert stunned Kremlin hawks when he revealed that Ukraine's army currently enjoys a significant advantage over Putin's army. There is growing confidence among Russia's pro-war faction that Vladimir Putin can achieve all his military goals in Ukraine. Western analysts believe that Putin's aims have not changed since he launched his full-scale invasion of the neighbouring country, and that he is more than ever determined to seize all of Ukraine. With Donald Trump seemingly unwilling to get tough with Russia, many Kremlin supporters are starting to smell victory. However, Andrey Klintsevich warned that Ukraine's army was still a...

Several top Veterans Affairs officials in Tennessee resigned as an internal investigation and a broader congressional probe into alleged sexual misconduct intensified, Breitbart News has learned. Congressional investigators discovered that one man who resigned, whose name they would not tell Breitbart News but sources familiar say was a bargaining unit biomedical employee, had dozens of sexual relationships with women who worked at the Mountain Home VA medical center in Tennessee. In fact, the congressional investigators told Breitbart News this one man slept with no fewer than 32 different women who worked there—and the man and several of the women bragged...

The High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) supplied to Ukraine by the US has been “completely ineffective” on the battlefield due to persistent Russian jamming. This is according to a classified Ukrainian weapons assessment seen by The Washington Post, exposing more flaws in some of America’s most sophisticated weapon systems. According to the report, Kyiv had to pause or scale back its use of some US-supplied weapons because of targeting issues caused by Moscow’s electronic warfare (EW) capabilities. One source said the HIMARS sometimes misses its target by more than 50 feet (15 meters). Apart from the Lockheed Martin missiles,...

The Florida man who allegedly murdered his pregnant boyfriend and stole the life of the victim’s unborn child has a lengthy history of terrorizing the people in his life, as indicated in court documents. Riley John Groover, 26, shot and killed himself after carrying out the homicide, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office in Florida said. His mother identified the victim as Camdyn Rider, 21, a transgender man who was eight months pregnant, according to WTSP.

Rybar 🇬🇧🇺🇦 Interruptions in work with Starlink in Ukraine may be related to field tests of the Tirada electronic warfare systems , designed to suppress enemy satellite communication lines, conducted this week. RIA News Ukrainian troops are complaining about disruptions in the Starlink satellite communications system owned by American billionaire Musk, the Financial Times writes, citing sources. A senior Ukrainian government official told the publication that some of these outages resulted in "catastrophic" loss of communications and caused panic. Problems with the operation of the devices were serious in the regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, they were also observed...

When will America's ‘useful idiots’ see that communism only reaps tyranny and death? Not long ago, I had a conversation with a family member who fancies herself to be on the left end of the political spectrum – however, her thought process is based upon emotion rather than truth and logic (as is the case with most, if not all American ‘progressives’), so her political views are completely predictable. Somehow, the topic of discussion wound up at China’s well-documented gruesome practices of organ harvesting. Her response was genuine – she was in disbelief. She said something to the effect of,...

Electronic warfare, known as the battle in the electromagnetic spectrum, relies on data and signals to survey, fight and defend and the complex mission executed by the Army’s electronic warfare Soldiers – which includes detecting and responding to enemy jamming attempts and other electronic interference – is intensifying. Currently, the Army is developing an Electronic Warfare Planning and Management Tool, or EWPMT, to manage and control electronic warfare assets in support of unified land operations. According to Army News Service, through the EWPMT, the Army can now visually synergize its EW attack, targeting, and surveillance capabilities to enable the maneuverability...

Before she was the second woman ever appointed to the Supreme Court and the “Notorious RBG,” Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a wife, mother, and frustrated lawyer who dreamed of leaving her mark on the world. On the Basis of Sex, a suitably inspiring biopic despite its narrative unevenness and occasional reliance on schmaltz, seeks to show audiences the origin story of a cultural icon. The story follows Ginsburg (a quietly ferocious Felicity Jones) from her days as a first-year student at Harvard Law School to her graduation at the top of her class at Columbia to her time as a...

If it wasn’t for capitalism, Joe Kennedy, the congressman, might be tending bar at J.J. Foley’s in the South End. Not that there is anything wrong with tending bar at the Boston establishment. It was and is a fine bar, one that I used to regularly frequent when I worked for the Boston Herald, which was then conveniently located around the corner. It was a clean, welllighted place. Former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn of South Boston was a regular, along with fellow politicians, Boston cops, firefighters, working men and, of course, reporters.

Channing Dungey, the ABC Entertainment president who made the bold decision to yank Roseanne after its star made a racist tweet, has resigned her post. Dungey will be replaced by Karey Burke, the current head of programming at Freeform, ABC’s sister cable network. “I’m incredibly proud of what the team and I have accomplished over the years, and all the meaningful and impactful programming we’ve developed,” Dungey said in a statement. “This job has been the highlight of my career. While I’ve loved every moment and knew I could call ABC home for many years to come, I’m excited to...

Nearly two years after publicly announcing her transition from male to female, Caitlyn Jenner has undergone sex reassignment surgery and tells the world about the decision in her upcoming memoir, a new report claims. “The surgery was a success, and I feel not only wonderful but liberated,” Jenner reportedly writes in “The Secrets of My Life,” out April 25 (as excerpted by RadarOnline).

MOSCOW --- The Mikoyan MiG-29 (NATO reporting name: Fulcrum) fighter jets to be exported to Egypt will be fitted out with advanced infrared search-and-track (IRST) stations and electronic warfare (EW) pods, according to the Izvestia daily. According to representatives of the defense contractors taking part in executing the contract, Egypt’s MiG-29s will feature the latest OLS-UE IRST capable of not only detecting enemy aircraft by their infrared signature, but also acquiring surface threats, getting their coordinates and showing the imagery on a display in the cockpit. In addition to the IRST, the MiG-29s ordered by Egypt will be equipped with...

More Russian warplanes will be equipped with state-of-the-art Khibiny electronic countermeasures systems in the near future, according to RIA Novosti. A greater number of Russian military jets, including Su-34 strike fighters, will be equipped with sophisticated Khibiny electronic countermeasures (ECM) systems in the immediate future, RIA Novosti quoted Igor Nasenkov, first deputy head of the Russian Company Radio-Electronic Technologies (KRET), as saying. The Khibiny system provides individual aircraft with protection against enemy fighters' missile attacks and ground-based air defense systems. Thanks to this ECM system, Russian warplanes can become invisible to their enemies, according to KRET. © PHOTO: VITALY V....

Sweat. It is one of the great afflictions of our era and must be prevented at all costs, even in humid Florida weather. Fortunately we have a visionary who is leading the way in combatting the appearance of even one sweat bead on the skin...Charlie Crist. While most of the mainstream media was inferring that Florida governor Rick Scott was somehow unreasonable for objecting to Charlie Crist breaking the rules to place a fan between his legs during last week's debate, Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post describes Charlie Crists bizarre obsession with preventing sweat at all times. So let...

I went to pick up my kids from school the other day, my usual 3 o'clock date with the playground. My eldest son's teacher met me as I walked up, all atwitter with excitement. "We had some high-school seniors come in today to do some tutoring, and your son just really clicked with one of the boys," she told me. "He just talked and talked to him, and they got along so well." She knows just how painfully shy my son can be around new people and was just as happy as I was that he could find someone to...

For the last four months, a detachment of five new American EA-18G electronic warfare aircraft have been operating in Iraq. Exactly what they are doing there is classified. The EA-18Gs are replacing the aging EA-6Bs that now provide electronic protection against enemy radars and missiles for navy and air force aircraft. The air force retired their EF-111 electronic warfare aircraft in 1994, on the assurance that the navy would get the EA-18G into service before the EA-6Bs died of old age. The older 27 ton EA-6B carries a crew of four, while the highly automated 29 ton EA-18G has only...

When Hornets Growl The new, supersonic face of e-warfare. By D.C. Agle Air & Space Magazine, March 01, 2011 No soft underbelly here: The EA-18G Growler hauls missiles, fuel tanks, and electronic warfare pods. Ted Carlson/Fotodynamics Two hours north of Seattle, Washington, at the eastern end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the entrance to Puget Sound is guarded by a citadel dedicated to the aerial mastery and manipulation of one of the universe’s fundamental particles—the electron. The site, Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, was originally envisioned as little more than a waypoint for patrol aircraft scanning the Sound...

Electronic devices dominate modern combat. Warfighters depend on access to the electromagnetic spectrum to communicate with friendly forces, track enemy movements, navigate in the fog of war, collect intelligence, and perform many other vital functions. Electronic warfare is the military specialty concerned with denying enemy forces use of the spectrum while assuring that friendly forces have unfettered access. Airborne jammers are essential to the successful conduct of most electronic warfare missions. Jammers are used to prevent enemy radars and communications devices from functioning effectively by dominating the frequencies in which such systems operate. This is accomplished by either overpowering the...

Northrop Grumman and the U.S. Air National Guard are modifying a KC-135 air refueling aircraft for testing of an infrared anti-missile system. Comprehensive ground testing of the company's Guardian system began Jan. 12. Follow-on flight testing is to begin Wednesday. The company said the Operational Utility Evaluation is scheduled for completion in mid-March. Northrop Grumman's Guardian system incorporates the company's AN/AAQ-24(V) infrared countermeasures defensive aid system in a pod-based configuration. The AN/AAQ-24 is installed on more than 500 fixed- and rotary-wing platforms for the U.S. military and others. It's designed to protect aircraft from advanced man-portable ground-to-air missiles and consists...

Sir Elton John and husband David Furnish have welcomed a baby boy to their family, according to US Magazine. Zachary Jackson Levon Furnish-John was born on Christmas in California via a surrogate. He weighed 7 pounds, 15 ounces. "We are overwhelmed with happiness and joy at this very special moment," John, 62, and Furnish, 48, told the magazine. "Zachary is healthy and doing really well, and we are very proud and happy parents." This is the first child for the couple, who wed in 2005 after 12 years together.