DirkDiggler

Damn that’s terrible, thoughts out for the families.

Pretty incredible to watch the impact/rise in importance unmanned systems are playing in all facets of war.

https://apple.news/A_SeedtW4TzCjObobu51bbw That South Park episode might not have been so far-fetched.

Holy Shit!

ETIC was called parts plus 12, they’re not sure if they have the part, still, parts plus 12.

On a positive note that’s one less Su-34 for the Ukrainians to worry about!

One guy had a pre-existing foot issue that resulted in him not being able to complete some ruck marches. Don’t know about the other guy. From what I was told (wasn’t personally in the rooms) Slife made it pretty clear that he wasn’t a fan of assessment/selection in general, prefers ACI as a concept. Slife had several problems with the 6th as an organization; this was just one of them.

Don’t know. The video certainly looks that way. Have seen some other speculation on Twitter that the damage pattern didn’t look like a VBIED and looked more like placed large charges. Either way happy to see it.

Nice birthday present for Mr. Putin.

Lol. Tom Clancy had already promoted him to CO by the time we read about him.

That’s a fair point, and if the discussions I’m referencing had been with some O-6 or higher pushing an official narrative to drive funding I’d have taken things with a bit more skepticism. As it was, the gentleman I had personally talked to on this topic was an XO on a fast attack boat who’d been playing sub games with the Russkies for over a decade. One guy’s opinion.

The corruption and rot that's publicly manifested itself in the Russian Armed Forces over the last several months does not extend to every facet of their military. If you talk to our sub guys they'll tell you that Russia has very proficient and technologically advanced undersea capabilities. Sure, they've had many more submarine incidents over the years than the US (Kursk being the latest big one, though that happened prior to Putin's reforms) but they also didn't have Hyman Rickover. The deepest depth of the Nordstream pipeline lies around 110 meters; something like this is easily within Russia's capabilities.

It isn’t. The slides showing the data/scale of the problem are kinda shocking really. I’ve been out of legacy for over a year now but I feel for my brothers still there.

Just did, three times. Besides momentarily thinking I saw Biggie Smalls in the background, nothing happened.

Ha!! Your original post (before you edited it) might be one of the strangest flexes I've seen on Baseops in a hot minute. So you've been around a while, knew the founder of Baseops, have had lots of conversations, and probably knew BQZip's mom. Cool story Hansel. In regards to "original thoughts" Tucker Carlson's show on 28 Sep and the American Conservative (just to name a few) both drove the narrative that the US did this. I'm sure you thought of it first though. I had no idea that the center of resistance to the global monkeypox conspiracy was right here on Baseops forums. Learn something new everyday. One can only hope that with this experience we'll be better prepared for the next global elite disease conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids (or whatever that one was supposedly about). I'll leave it there with what I think is currently the funniest (but not my favorite) conspiracy theory out there.

Security Implications of Nord Stream Sabotage | Center for Strategic and International Studies (csis.org)

With any luck that new RAND corporation look alike whose reports you found so interesting in the Russia-Ukraine thread will publish a paper confirming that the US is indeed responsible. One can further hope that they tie it to whatever the global Monkeypox conspiracy currently is and we can revive that thread over in the Squadron Bar. FWIW, I've read several convincing reports on the dark web claiming that Jurgen Procknow has re-joined the Kriegsmarine and is gunning for one last shot at glory. Lotta people are speculating he hit the pipeline since he's old and doesn't drive so great anymore. It'd be pretty tough to get him down the ladder of the conning tower at his age but let's be real, you just can't replicate that experience level.

Bad day to be a Russian pilot yesterday. Seems the situation in the Kharkiv region is bad enough that the Russians are willing to accept high attrition of aviation assets to try and blunt the Ukrainian advance. Good to see the Stinger is still a leading distributor of MIG/SU parts across the globe.

https://apple.news/AyS893nNuQAKD-CQPj3d_Wg This article has a pretty good breakdown of what’s believed to be in this partial mobilization.

I’ll be the first admit that prior to the invasion I didn’t think the Russian military as a whole would perform this poorly. In retrospect it’s kinda not surprising given that Putin’s entire system is a kleptocracy; I’d imagine a good portion of military funding over the years actually purchased mega yachts and West London real estate. Overwhelming force is great until poor logistics, low morale, and precision fires fuck up your weekend. Couldn’t say on the nukes, don’t have any window into that world. I think the bigger question is whether there’s enough Putin loyalists in the launch chain to ensure preemptive nuclear strikes are carried out.

https://apple.news/AskpqBgwBTwSZ79CZZsr42g Not a good time to be a pro-Russian puppet in the occupied territories. Also find it interesting that fighting has flared up again on the Armenia-Azerbaijan front. Meanwhile apparently Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are resolving old territorial disputes with tanks and heavy artillery; Russia doesn’t have the schilz to weigh in on their traditional sphere of influence (right across their border) that it did 9 months ago. Mr. Putin isn’t looking like the “strategic genius/very smart guy/chess master he was claimed by some to be in early January.

Don’t know that I have an overall prediction at this point but the Ukrainians definitely seem to have the initiative/operational momentum. If you look at Oryx on Twitter the amount of equipment Russia has lost up north over just the last 3-4 days is pretty significant. Russia still has pretty large reserves but their manpower and morale problems, as well as logistical limitations, are starting to really show. Maybe the Russians might decide it’s time for a change in who’s in charge after this absolute abortion of a military operation. It’s going to get increasingly difficult to hide the scale of this disaster, even if the Russian military is able to stem the current Ukrainian advance. In any case I’m happy to continue to watch the Ukrainians kick the shit out of the Russian bear with the help of my tax dollars.