Ukraine

[mister_coffee]

What does Asia use?

China has the BeiDou system, and Japan and India have regional systems that use a combination of satellites and ground stations.

[mister_coffee]

Russia still uses RF navigation for their military, however if you are correct and they are using GPS, the US needs to turn off GPS coverage over Ukraine unless the Ukraine military uses it for the weapon systems that we and others give them.

https://spacenews.com/op-ed-russian-thr ... otect-gps/

Russia has had its own satellite positioning and navigation system since the early 2000's, GLONASS. The European Union also has one called Galileo. In practice most commercial-grade GPS receivers used in the west use all three systems.

There are minor technical differences between each system, but on the average they are more similar than different and perform about as well. So shutting down (or degrading) our system isn't likely to make much difference.

My understanding was that unless you had some kind of special permission, private use or even possession of a GPS in Russia was a crime. I do not know if or when that rule changed, but that was certainly the case on the ground in the early 2000s.

[Fun CH]

Russia still uses RF navigation for their military, however if you are correct and they are using GPS, the US needs to turn off GPS coverage over Ukraine unless the Ukraine military uses it for the weapon systems that we and others give them.

https://spacenews.com/op-ed-russian-thr ... otect-gps/

[mister_coffee]

...
From vids I've seen, Russian forces seem well equipped, so not understanding that narrative.

Look at the soldiers who were trapped in the elevator when the build super cut power. All had body armor, AKs and alot of ammo.

What they are lacking is GPS, encrypted radios, and night vision gear. Special forces seem to have some of those things.

Interestingly, at least some Russian Pilots are using American GPS systems in their aircraft:

https://defence-blog.com/russian-pilots ... -in-syria/

That's a Garmin in the cockpit.

[mister_coffee]

[Why would Putin think the Ukrainians would just put down their arms and surrender? How does he think he can occupy a country that doesn't want to be occupied?

More curiously, how did he think he could do that with a poorly equipped and supplied army?

It really doesn't matter if he has more forces, he can't make effective use of them. If the Russian Army can't supply equip the forces already in Ukraine, what makes anyone think they can supply a larger force?

Unless something dramatically changes in the next week or so, the Russians have lost this war.

[mister_coffee]

Apparently there are reports that the Russians are purging top people in the military and foreign intelligence services "due to their failures in Ukraine."

[Rideback]

I fact checked it, it was indeed a jar of tomatoes (they may have been pickled). One of the press was able to talk with her and she showed him the remains of the jar. Cool stuff.

[mister_coffee]

I heard it was a jar of pickles. Great story but hard to know if it is true or not.

The whole night vision gear thing points out an interesting opportunity: the US has gone through two whole generations of night vision tech since the start of the Iraq war. We also learned that anybody equipped with that gear has an enormous advantage against somebody who does not. So equipping the Ukrainians lavishly with night vision gear would likely make it nearly hopeless for the Russian forces on the ground to be able to effectively fight in Ukrainian cities.

[Rideback]

It's been interesting to watch the open source sites. The observation that the Russian trucks are running on Chinese tires that operate poorly in the mud plus that they seem to be poorly maintained was interesting.

Russia's call to Syria to get mercenaries looks like they will be deployed to engage in the street fighting necessary to hold the towns that Russia thinks it has captured. And this is all developing because again the Russians underestimated the will of the Ukrainian people to hold onto their homeland.

If agreement can't be reached to get the fighter jets into Ukraine, Plan B will likely include more drones like Turkey sent over and/or larger ones. They've been effective in a limited way.

I still like the story of the Ukrainian woman who saw a drone outside her window and reached for a can of tomatoes to throw at it. Her aim was spot on, she downed the Russian drone.

[mister_coffee]

The Russians are now moving south of the E40 west of Kiev.

At the same time, at least some weapons (mostly Javelins and NLAWs, apparently) are now reaching Ukraine in significant numbers.

From open-source assessments, Russia committed approximately 7000 vehicles to this fight. Roughly 1000 have been destroyed, disabled, or are otherwise out of the fight.

If the current Russian strategy is to encircle and besiege large cities such as Kharkov and Kiev, we can reasonably expect that in the very best case it will take many months for that strategy to yield any positive results for Russia. Which is interesting because from an operational, political, and diplomatic standpoint they don't have that much time.

Why do I say "many months"? In Iraq in late 2004, when the Americans (with help from the British and our Iraqi puppets) took Fallujah, approximately 10000 American Marines and 1000 British took on around 3500 insurgents. In a city of 400,000. The battle took over six weeks. It seems unlikely that the Russians can take cities 6 to 8 times larger than that quickly. And given that the Russian forces appear to be poorly equipped and supplied as well means it will take even more time.

It is also becoming obvious that most of the Russian army is poorly equipped by modern standards. They appear to lack body armor, night vision gear, GPS or other navigation systems, and encrypted radios. All of those things, and certainly the first two, will be extremely important if they want to successfully prosecute an attack on any large cities.

The US Army is in the process of upgrading to a next-generation night vision system. I can think of a very good place to send our old systems.

Sending very generous amounts of aid right now is likely to have a very high return on investment, both in terms of minimizing the already enormous humanitarian costs of this war and also giving the Ukrainians a fighting chance of winning the war.

[pasayten]

[Rideback]

This article is chock full of information about how exports are dropping in reflection of Putin's invasion into Ukraine
https://gcaptain.com/maritime-sea-block ... ILKxwKlQm0

[dorankj]

Your accusations and invented intentions are meaningless to me, I voice my viewpoint and question false narratives.

[PAL]

Yes, we will not be immune. But as you know, it is all about community here. We help each other.
I find it interesting that food, to sustain our lives, costs. But the system has been set up that way for a very long time.
Trading, bartering, was so good, long ago, but then an exchange system was developed and capitalism came along.
So when we depend on others to produce our food, then of course those producers should get some income or something out of it. We grow gardens here and there is trading going on amongst friends.
I think we can find a balance. If I have too much of something, a food item, or something else even, I will give it away to someone in need. I've reached a point in my life, where I am so lucky and grateful I have everything I need and then some.
Well, digress, I did. But we see the struggling and suffering in Ukraine and other parts of the world. Again, we have so much.

[Fun CH]

This is why it is important to buy local, especially food from the Valley's producers. We have several groups that are growing grains, have eggs, etc. Massive amounts of compost is available.
It does seem like the minute the media mentions higher prices, the next day, everything is up.
This was coming anyway, this war just sped things up.

Local producers are effected by rising prices also and those increased costs will unfortunately mean higher prices for locally produced food as well.

[PAL]

This is why it is important to buy local, especially food from the Valley's producers. We have several groups that are growing grains, have eggs, etc. Massive amounts of compost is available.
It does seem like the minute the media mentions higher prices, the next day, everything is up.
This was coming anyway, this war just sped things up.

[Rideback]

In case people are wondering the relevance of Putin's invasion to what happens here and to global markets
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-60623941

[PAL]

I must admit, I too have trouble reconciling the fact that the Trump supporters like him and know that Trump liked Puti.
So how can that be reconciled? Oh, I could forget about it. I can't forget many of the things Trump said. Character does have something to do with the presidancy and his character was lacking. But he is a character all right. He is not a decent human being.
He called people names, grabbed "things", if Ivanka were my daughter, telling Putin to find Hilary's emails, an endless list of inappropriateness. But he didn't care. That's what the supporters went along with because they were convinced they have been cheated out of the good life. That's what they wanted to say. Here was someone like them.
He showed me how crude he was/is. And he did meddle in Ukraine. And this is where someone will pipe up, but Hunter Biden did, blah, blah, blah.
Just viewed the link. Did he honestly say this? OMG.

[Rideback]

Saturday, YES THIS SATURDAY AS IN YESTERDAY, Trump spoke in front of a room full of Republican donors. His suggestion that the US just put Chinese flags on our F22's and have at it did not go over well.

https://crooksandliars.com/2022/03/mili ... nese-flags

The twitter comments are priceless.

[pasayten]

Board Administrator: Sorry for the outburst. Please don't ban me.

Just added a few new word censorng variations... You are helping to expand the dictionary... It's all good...

[Rideback]

From Newsweek:
'While a significant majority of Americans agree that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was not justified, Republicans are more likely to hold an unfavorable view of President Joe Biden than they are of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a new poll.'

[Gonzo'57]

Mickey M.,

I've held my piece as long as I can.

You are a di**head, lying, p.o.*, a useful tool of the haters of America and a sufferer of "Trump Derangement Syndrome". Trump is NOT siding with Putin. He merely said Putin was smart for acting when he did. BTW, an opinion I don't agree with. And to say all Trump supporters are backing Putin is complete and total bull***! It's like saying all supporters of Biden are supporters of socialists, communists, little girl fondling sniffing pedophiles.

st*u!

Board Administrator: Sorry for the outburst. Please don't ban me.

[pasayten]

[mister_coffee]

It appears that Russian forces have gotten to the E40 west of Kiev.

If they can manage to hold that highway and effectively block it, a lot of the logistics challenges that the Russians are facing will now begin to plague the Ukrainians as well.

[PAL]

I just said that this morning to a friend about supporting Trump. Trump is supposedly backpedaling on what he said.
Nikki Haley this morning said this would never have happened if Trump had still been president. No invasion. How in the heck can anyone know that? They don't. Just like the way it sounds.