Ukrainian Defensive War against the Russian Invasion - Mark IV: The Partitioning of Discussion

Just wanted to drop a book recommendation: "War in Ukraine" edited by Hal Brands and published this year. It's a look at the strategic consequences and causes of the Ukrainian war. It doesn't always gel with the attitudes of this thread, but I think it's given me a lot to think about so far.

You can find the full thing online if you search for it. Not gonna drop a direct link just to be safe.
 
What’s a fiber optic drone? Is it a mistranslation of FPS or something?
A drone that carries a fiber optic spool which relays command & control signal to other submunition drones. It’s basically the beginning phase of a mothership. Traditional jamming does not work with hardwired communications. You need to blast it with high-peak-power microwaves in short pulses to remove the main relay.

Another fun thing about this war and what knowledge it’s brought is sleeper drones, which basically fly into enemy territory and enter into low emission sleep mode which is hard to detect. Then whenever a human squadron is in the area of operation the swarm will activate and surprise the combatants with suicide bombing.

Pretty soon the USAF will have drone AWACS.
 
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Now, had Trump or a Trump-like person become the president years earlier and whipped the European states to increase their defense spending to meet the NATO standards, this could've been prevented.
How? Ukraine would still be outside of NATO so they wouldn't gain any of that strength and the NATO members still don't want to be in a shooting war with nuclear-armed Russia - if anything, the stronger NATO is compared to Russia the more likely it is to escalate to nukes. Depending on how the money was allocated NATO still mightn't be better positioned to supply Ukraine. Like if Germany built a new munitions factory that could directly help Ukraine, if they put all that money into shipbuilding or more infantry or something it's wasted, from Ukraine's point of view.

If anything NATO countries should be moving funds out of their armed forces budgets (spending on keeping zoomers off the dole) and into their foreign aid budgets (spending on keeping Ukraine in the fight) if they don't want to put their own boots on the ground.
 
How? Ukraine would still be outside of NATO so they wouldn't gain any of that strength and the NATO members still don't want to be in a shooting war with nuclear-armed Russia - if anything, the stronger NATO is compared to Russia the more likely it is to escalate to nukes. Depending on how the money was allocated NATO still mightn't be better positioned to supply Ukraine. Like if Germany built a new munitions factory that could directly help Ukraine, if they put all that money into shipbuilding or more infantry or something it's wasted, from Ukraine's point of view.
I'm probably wasting keystrokes but

If Eurofags had been keeping up with their obligations, there would have been more available weapons to send to Ukraine. This would have a ripple effect where if Germany hadn't been allowed to keep moldering, worthless ammo on the books, their wouldn't have been a 155mm crisis early in the war. Because Germany would have been producing new 155mm to replace rotted rounds in bunkers, there might have been ammo plants supplying those orders, plants that could have been ramped up/expanded.
If the Euro defense market per-year was greater than 1 Tank and 160million Pride-flag lapel pins, there might have been some defense capacity inside Europe to actually spin-up to be able to meet the demands of actual sustained combat.


The other potential is that if Eurofags didn't scream and sob each and every time they are made to divert a single Euro Faggot-Dollar from their "Rapefuge & Queer slushfund" to some activity that might actually result in them being able to last more than 48-hours in war, Putin may not have decided that Ukraine was worth the gamble.
In 2014, Russia were able to start (and maintain) a civil war in Ukraine as well as take territory from another country. The Eurofag response to these hostile, aggressive, and expansionist actions was to send a bunch of sternly worded letters of condemnation, put some worthless sanctions of a few people, and then buy another 6 trillion dollars of natural gas from Russia. He invaded in 2022 because he expected to have the same result this go around. If Eurofags had managed to provide even a slight impreession it was possible they weren't limpwristed sissycucks utterly dependent on Russian NG, Putin might have chosen differently.

If anything NATO countries should be moving funds out of their armed forces budgets (spending on keeping zoomers off the dole) and into their foreign aid budgets (spending on keeping Ukraine in the fight) if they don't want to put their own boots on the ground.
The usual spending-short Eurofag countries are already trying to count Ukraine spending/weapons transfers to their 2% NATO GDP minimum.
 
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If Eurofags had been keeping up with their obligations, there would have been more available weapons to send to Ukraine.
Assuming they would have spent that money on weapons Ukraine needed. There's no guarantee it wouldn't have all gone to some line item that's completely irrelevant to the current war.

They could have easily put it into making two tanks and 300 million pride flags, we don't know. Just having money isn't enough, you have to spend it wisely.

At the end of the day they could have cut the red tape and just given that hypothetical extra money straight to Ukraine to spend as they see fit. Which is largely what happened and a big reason why the SMO didn't end in the first two weeks.
 
The cannister on the bottom of the Russian drone is spooling out fiber optic line, I think.

A drone that carries a fiber optic spool which relays command & control signal to other submunition drones.

Why is the spool on the drone instead of back with the controller? Doesn't having the spool be on the drone make it heavier and less maneuverable?
 
What’s a fiber optic drone? Is it a mistranslation of FPS or something?
Uses miles of fiber optic cable for control apparently with the spool on the drone as others have said. Ukraine has got quite good at taking control or jamming of Russian or Iranian drones and diverting them (and Russia made the Bayraktar obsolete via jamming). Even it seems clumsy and backward, they cannot be hacked. It's a war with trenches and UAV drones, mixing modern with the seemingly obsolete.
 
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I know I'm gay and late, but recently while pondering the situation on my evening walk I realized that two statements that most may consider unlikely on their face might indirectly be true:

1) NATO caused the war in Ukraine
2) Trump could've prevented the war.

Here's the short of it: the safety of the NATO defense umbrella (essentially the US military) allowed western Europe to waste their own military budgets on tendies post-Cold War. This left these same nations unable to maintain military support to Ukraine after doling out their existing materiel reserves.

Now, had Trump or a Trump-like person become the president years earlier and whipped the European states to increase their defense spending to meet the NATO standards, this could've been prevented. Ironically, had the Europeans spent hundreds of billions to bolster their militaries then, we could've prevented having to dump hundreds of billions on Ukraine now. Also a whole lot of people would be alive, too.
This is more or less why nowadays I just roll my eyes when I see people bitch about MIC or defense spending in general. While yes, it can be wasteful, it's worth it in the long run for the sake of stability and peace. Speak softly and carry a big boomstick.
 
I know I'm gay and late, but recently while pondering the situation on my evening walk I realized that two statements that most may consider unlikely on their face might indirectly be true:

1) NATO caused the war in Ukraine
2) Trump could've prevented the war.

Here's the short of it: the safety of the NATO defense umbrella (essentially the US military) allowed western Europe to waste their own military budgets on tendies post-Cold War. This left these same nations unable to maintain military support to Ukraine after doling out their existing materiel reserves.

Now, had Trump or a Trump-like person become the president years earlier and whipped the European states to increase their defense spending to meet the NATO standards, this could've been prevented. Ironically, had the Europeans spent hundreds of billions to bolster their militaries then, we could've prevented having to dump hundreds of billions on Ukraine now. Also a whole lot of people would be alive, too.
NATO didn't start the war in Ukraine. Russia started the war in Ukraine. If the Russians actually believed the West was a threat to their security they would have kept up an army capable of stopping that threat. Instead, they let their military go to absolute shit. It's totally garbage tier at this point. The war in Ukraine is nothing but a land grab. Imperialistic landgrab and nothing more. Some people are saying the Russians are doing it for security, but I don't buy that at all.

The war started back in 2014 before Trump was president. Trump can't actually stop the war. The only person that can stop it is Putin.
Under Biden, NATO countries massively increased their military spending in general and on procurement in particular, and Germany stopped being dependent on Russian gas.
:smug:
That was mostly by force.
 
Yes, but if it was pulling cable instead of dropping it it would be even worse for performance the further away it got.

Bare fibre is pretty light weight , a bit like fishing line. You wouldn’t want to be dragging a whole length of it though.

I wonder how it works, is it full duplex (video going back over the fiber) or is video still sent by RF? And is it using LED light or laser.

Makes a ton of sense for ground based drones too.
 
Yeah, I don't agree with the term "caused" the war in Ukraine, it would be more correct to say "NATO didn't prevent the war". Russia always had plans to destabilise Ukraine, through politics, cyber warfare, and war. Russia started this war of aggression, however, NATO and the west did not prevent it., which started in 2014- thanks Obama.
 
I mean, Putin got a bug up his ass for some reason after talking to Frog President, speedran every Kremlin permision necessary and went balls-deep into Ukraine. Doesn't appear like a very calculated response to me, more like him realizing he's got outplayed and all he can do now is brute force it, which IMO is exactly what USA wanted - tarpit Russia in their own Iraq, bleeding money resources and goodwill.

Ruble/USD rate is as bad now as it was at the start of the war, they can't pad out their army with miserable drunks and offer them tons of money forever. Sooner or later, those guys will return and inflate Ruble even more by spending all that cash. And USA hasn't even warmed up yet.

NATO is USA, their "armies" are a joke except maybe Poland and Turkey, their modus operandi is to take it up the ass and wait for Yankees to bail them out, which I doubt more and more they would even bother to. Ukraine is a straw dog destined for sacrifice, it's a war between Russia and USA and neither of them gives a shit about Ukraine.
 
A drone that carries a fiber optic spool which relays command & control signal to other submunition drones.
It's used on FPV drones, never seen a "repeater" drone though it would make sense. The cable is made in China, very light, specifically for applications like this.
For context, most Ukrainian drones are lost due to EW. IDK about Russians, but even if only half are lost due to interference, running a cable quickly becomes worthwhile.

Additionally, drones have issues with signal degradation close to the ground, due to terrain, which is part of the reason you see them dive on their target the way they do.
In many cable drone videos, you see them downright sneak along the ground at low speed and precisely target objects, all with perfect video signal and control. If I ever get around to sorting through my bookmarks I can post some videos.


You wouldn’t want to be dragging a whole length of it though.
I read the number "15 km" somewhere. Video usually goes through the cable too. I wouldn't be surprised if there's versions that work otherwise though, it's not like this is standardized equipment.


A Russian military factory was hit with ATACMS in Taganrog, Rostov, 150km behind the lines.​


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