🇷🇺🇺🇦 "I see an inventory for 8-10 years of war or even more.
If anyone is expecting a Russian defeat due to high equipment losses, it’s unlikely to happen in the next 8-10 years or maybe more.
(Another question are the manufacture of parts like gun barrels and others. )
After three years of war, almost 50% of the Soviet stockpiles are still available, plus what is being repaired, refurbished, and modernized in Russian plants. Additionally, around 12,000–15,000 armored units, including artillery, armored vehicles, and tanks, are deployed in Ukraine. This represents a significant amount of equipment and the capacity to sustain this conflict for several years.
Contrary to what some might think, when an army is advancing, it benefits from collecting damaged and destroyed equipment to repair. This advantage is unique to an advancing army because a retreating force cannot recover anything in territory occupied by the enemy.
In areas where the front has been almost frozen over the last year and several months this year, the Ukrainians have been able to collect and repair most of their armor. However, as I reported in my previous articles, Western logistics have been challenging, with these vehicles having to travel more than 2,500 km for repairs, taking many months. In contrast, the Russians moved their repair centers from rear areas to near the front at the end of 2022. This exemplifies how Russian planning has been a key differentiator in this war.
Another issue is the unavailability of repair parts for Western equipment. According to the Ukrainian army, 70% of the delivered equipment lacks repair parts or has only a limited supply, and part requisitions have taken up to six months in some cases.
What I want to emphasize is that it is pure fantasy to expect to win this war by destroying the Russian armor arsenal. Despite losing more than they replace, the Russians are advancing and winning all key battles from the past two years.
What can Ukraine do under these circumstances?
Unfortunately, the only option is to negotiate. However, the West has important assets to negotiate with, such as Russian reserves and sanctions, with the intention of reducing unavoidable land concessions.
But negotiation is a cursed word for some politicians, so they are working to convince Western leaders to deploy an international peace force in Ukraine.
Ukraine need to find ways to advance diplomatically and reach it’s objectives. Sometimes the power sphere isn’t the military power."
📎 Patricia Marins
Yanis Varoufakis (former Greek Minister of Finance) describes AI as a new form of capital that produces not goods, but behavioral modification. This is achieved by engineering perceptions.
The answers provided by ChatGPT, or the images rendered by StableDiffusion — as these increasingly inform our perceptions, they in turn define the reality we experience.
This is what makes AI so powerful — he who controls the AI, defines the reality of tomorrow.
⚡️🇺🇸 Some more things coming out for the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Under the preliminary drafts of the bill, the USAF is requesting a release of $57,000,000 USD ($57.0 Million) to retire all remaining 162 A-10 Thunderbolt IIs in current service. Apart of the 2023 NDAA, there was a clause for a few million dollars to be released every so often to gradually retire the (then) 250 airframes by 2034; however due to the push by the Dept of Defense to ‘shed’ obsolete or obsolescent airframes that cannot be overhauled or upgraded further without a whole new airframe, it appears the USAF wants to retire all 162 remaining A-10s by the end of 2026.
The USAF plans to fully divest the 340-total remaining A-10s entirely, including those that currently serve in a handful of Air National Guard units in some states; which will be replaced by F-15EX Eagle IIs (like what is already happening with the Michigan State Air National Guard’s A-10s), or F-35A/Bs.
Included ...
My older sister lives in the country in between Velma Oklahoma and Duncan Oklahoma near the Fuqua Lake area, this story was told by a rural mail delivery woman who delivers the mail in the country.
The incident happened while she was on her route, when she came upon to the mailbox a male Chinese nation came out brandishing a, AK-47 rifle being very hostile,
I don't know if he pointed it at her since it is against the law to do so but she was terrified and said she was never going back and that the location that had a guard tower. Was the sheriff department notified, I don't know, did she notify her supervisor, don't know. But word is from the country folk who live in the area they have seen the guard tower at the pot place;
I refuse to call it a farm because it is an insult to farmers.
And yes she was traumatized by that ordeal