ClearedHot

Drone V Drone warfare... And EPIC video of Russian Cruise missiles being intercepted over a residential area.

Prophetic words as the DNC appears to be doubling down on progressive extremism. As Nancy slowly fades away (I doubt that will happen), the DNC has chosen their new leader in the house. Lets take a look at the new DNC leader in the House. He joined the Congressional Progressive Caucus and is one of their strongest supporters. Jeffries was selected as one of the House Impeachment Managers for Democrats’ first effort to remove former President Trump. In his closing argument before the Senate trial, Jeffries said that "acquitting Trump would be a death blow” to the Constitution." In a recent interview with The Atlantic, he said that he approaches every issue “first and foremost with an understanding that systemic racism has been in the soil of America for over 400 years.” When fighting against Voter ID, Jeffries called for the Senate to “detonate the filibuster” and repeated the false and inflammatory claim that the rule is a “Jim Crow-era relic.” He has also said that Republicans are “part of a cult.” Seems like a nice guy they picked...should heal the divide in no time. The Republicans appear to be doing the same especially in the Senate, sticking with Mitch is dumb...his only challenger Rick Scott was another poor choice. In the house McCarthy in not a great choice, he is not as caustic but I fear he will get distracted with too many investigation. We certainly need three investigations, the Laptop, Origin of COVID and the weaponization of government agencies like the Dept of Justice and more specifically the FBI...let the other stuff go and try to work on some meaningful legislation.

That is your decision. It wasn't a "rocket" and that was known immediately. The insinuation from that statement was it was an unguided artillery rocket Russia have employed VERY large numbers of this type of weapon which is part of their ground and pound doctrine. They rockets while powerful do not have the range to go from the current occupied territories to Poland, a distance of many hundreds of miles hence my comment about Belarus. It was a missile, meaning there was a guidance package. The incident occurred during a large Russian missile attack on Ukrainian power grid infrastructure. NATO aircraft were airborne and observing at the time, they in fact knew and tracked the point of origin and ground track of many of the incoming missiles. Ukraine's air defense system was active and likely saturated, it has been reported that the Ukrainians shot down as many as 70+ missiles in that raid alone. Initial forensic examination (picture below), indicates this was an S-300, so regardless of who shot it, it was a "Russian" missile. However which side shot it has not been "officially" released. I speak with folks forward very often and one has told me there was in fact an inbound missile on the same inbound aspect that was engaged by the Ukrainians, that hostile missile had missed its intended target and was going "long". Many Russian missiles have suffered from serious guidance and propulsion issues with one particular class suffering a 60% failure rate (someone needs to unpack that one). There is a team on the ground and the Ukrainians (and Russians), have been allowed to participate. One supposition is there were two missiles, the Russian attacking missile and a Ukrainian S-300 launched to intercept. Another possibility is the Ukrainian missile missed and went long into Poland and the same track line. Yet another option is the S-300 simply came out of the tube and went stupid, again on the same track line. The S-300 has had some spectacular failures so that is always a distinct possibility as seen in the videos below. Interestingly it has come to light that the Russians are have been using some variants of the S-300 in the surface to surface role. A very expensive and not very accurate way of delivering a 300 pound warhead. That is not likely what happened in this case.

The world should be worried : Saudi Armaco - the world's largest oil producer has issued a dire warning over "Extremely Low" capacity. “When you erode that spare capacity the world should be worried. There will be no space for any hiccup — any interruption, any unforeseen events anywhere around the world.” Good the the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is full....oh wait.

Zuck at it again...

They are starting to report the missiles were tracked from launch to impact by airborne NATO aircraft and they think it was a Ukrainian missile attempting to intercept a Russian missile.

Doesn't appear to be "rockets", and they know it was Russian...trust me...they know. Happened during a large missile attack across the country (appeared to be targeting power production and distribution). The impact site is just west of the Ukrainian border, due north of LVIV. If it was a rocket then it had to come from Belarus which would open a completely different can of worms...

Will Russia deny...would serve them best to fess up and apologize immediately before the hawks start chanting Article 5.

I could be wrong but it seems Trump's popularity is finally waning. Some of the local stations have were doing street interviews after the mid-terms, hardly a statistically pure poll but at least 80% of the respondents said "yeah I like Trump's policies but he needs to step aside." He already sees Desantis as a threat and has been striking out, the real polls the past few weeks reflect his concern as they have taken a dramatic swing toward Desantis. In a poll released yesterday Texas GOP voters prefer Desantis by 66%. Nationwide more than half of GOP voters prefer Desantis. It is a long two years, but maybe the end of Trump and is in sight...although we all know he won't go quietly or with any class.

The absolute irony is Uncle Joe stood at the podium and screamed MAGA was a threat to democracy while his party spent millions promoting those same MAGA candidates in the primaries. Maintain power by any means possible.

Quoted service ceiling (before mods), is FL510.

Great question and of course the answer is "It Depends." There are many permutations and a lot depends on what you put on each platform. You previously mentioned weight, which is a concern if you try to cram too many capabilities on one aircraft. As a point of reference I can tell you in the AEW role it is possible to have the same number of missions stations as the E-3 in a Bizjet at 50K or a bit higher for 12 hours. The same aircraft configured to meet Army ISR requirements (ARES), has a similar employment altitude and endurance. For a lot of reasons 50K is a magic number when it comes to detection so I would want to avoid adding so many capes that you give up service ceiling or endurance. Have you heard of Deterrence Through Detection? The current administration has adopted this theory for countering aggression, especially in the INDOPACOM AOR. The study I linked answers the call with a fleet of 46 long-endurance RPA's for INDOPACOM and another 46 for Europe. The number of bizjets is FAR less but it serves as a template for providing complete coverage. If you were more focused on mission applications simply enabling strike, the number would be far less. One of the data point to consider, bizjets tend to have VERY high reliability (usually above 90%), so a smaller fleet would make up for the horrendous reliability rates of the E-3, E-8, and Wedgetail (there is a reason the South Koreans are divesting Wedgetail...)

What is the F-Pole at 60,000' and Mach 2 slinging an ICBM like A2A missile?

Indeed, but a HVAA CAP 500-1000NM NM behind a threat ring is hard to get to...Folks need to look into Bi-Static and Multi-static Radar...the future is here and it is a game changer. You are guilty of legacy AEW thinking, High flying biz jets (or what ever solution we settle on), does NOT have to get close, in fact, large stand off distance actually helps. the real advantage of BIZ jets is the ability to get high and see even further. That is why I argued against Wedgetail...that platform can get to the mid-30's at best. The key is going to be keeping links functional along with edge processing. Yes the Chicoms will turn off space (to a degree), but there are ways around that which is why we see the emphasis on JADC2. Being forward is important as an enabler, but we no longer have to press the HVAA cap as far forward as possible.

Another angle.

Indeed. Horrible...Prayers to the families.

I am not advocating for it to be armed, instead I would like to see a host of sensors, comms and edge processing parked in a HVAA cap.

G6500 can easily do it, and does.

Not when they standoff. You would be surprised just how far you can see when you are up at FL550.

Do it with a Bizjet for a LOT less. Modern jets like the 6500 can easily park at FL550 for 12 hours, multiple consoles, provisions for "shapes" and room to get up and move around.

Say something negative about Biden and the President will launch the National Security apparatus on you.

A few interesting stats: 1. The DNC has spent over $200M on Beto on three separate elections, $100M on last night's election alone, he has lost every attempt. 2. The DNC has spent over $100M on Stacy Adams on two elections, both of which she lost. During her most recent campaign she was raising (and spending), funds at a rate of 3:1 on Kemp, and she still lost. Do you think either one of these extremists will get the message?

It looks like the DNC strategy to promote "Trump MAGA" candidates in the primaries was successful which does indeed say Trump's influence is in decline. Let's see what his "big" announcement is on the 14th. If he gets out of the way it would be a very good thing for the GOP, sadly I don't think his ego will allow for the greater good. Personally I would go Desantis/Haley in 2024. I think the dems will eventually dump Biden and push Gavin Newsome along with another extremist.

Regardless who you vote for, make time to have your voice heard!