Posts Tagged ‘F/A-18 Hornet’

Iran Strikes: Two Kharg Island Videos

Thursday, April 2nd, 2026

Something a little different than the usual Iran roundup: Two videos about Kharg Island, one an after-action report on a U.S. attack run, the other a description of what makes taking the island difficult.

The caveat for the after-action video, a recreation of an actual U.S. attack run, is that it’s done a breathless, overly-dramatic fashion, like something from Most Shocking. But the detailed, blow-by-blow account suggests it was taken from actual after-action reports.

Three B-1B Lancers carrying precision-guided bombs attempted the most surgically demanding strike of Operation Epic Fury — destroying Iranian military targets on Kharg Island without touching the crude oil infrastructure sitting meters away. Then the GPS jamming started, and the mission nearly came apart.

This video reconstructs the full tactical breakdown of the Kharg Island strike: how an Iranian GPS jammer degraded bomb accuracy toward the oil, how the F/A-18 Super Hornets sent to destroy it nearly got hit by friendly JDAMs when a deconfliction failure put them directly in the bomb fall line, and how one Mersad air defense commander’s final radio transmission turned inaccurate anti-aircraft fire into precision-guided shrapnel that bracketed B-1Bs mid-bombing run. We cover the AGM-158 JASSM cruise missile shot that eliminated the SAM battery, the burning missile propellant creeping toward thirty million barrels of crude oil, the IRGC patrol boat sprint toward the supertanker loading channel, and the F/A-18 pilots who descended into accurate anti-aircraft fire from guns they couldn’t suppress to stop a mining operation with laser-guided GBU-54 JDAMs.

The breathless nature of the narration makes me suspect that certain aspects have been embellished for dramatic effect.

Next up: Simon Whistler discusses how difficult it will be for the American military to take and hold Kharg Island. Consider it the pessimist case against the operation.

  • “The value of Kharg Island is obvious. Control the island, and you could throttle Iran’s oil dependent economy. Capture the island intact, and another nation could make Iran do anything to get it back. Destroy it outright and Iran would transform from a powerful rogue nation into an economic afterthought. And that’s if we’re being generous.”
  • “The export facilities on Kharg Island are the most important site in one of Iran’s most important regions, meaning that the region is especially important to the Iranian military. This is a region with a well-developed civilian infrastructure, a large presence from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or IRGC, and most likely the hidden weapons stockp match. Then there’s the island itself, a low-lying coral crop with an elevation of just 70m at its highest point. With a land area of roughly 20 square km, Kharg Island is basically flat, basically triangular in shape and surrounded by deep waters to enable the transit of oil tankers.”
  • Some pre-situated weapons and supply caches will likely survive any American bombardment.
  • “There’s no telling what the US will destroy and what it’ll fail to pick up on, but some of those mines and air defenses will survive, raising the possibility that they could claim the lives of US troops or shoot down vulnerable non-stalthy low-flying aircraft. That said, Kharg will not be an easy place to defend once US ground forces have established a foothold. Iranians on the island will either be left exposed or be forced to use refinery infrastructure as cover unless they allow themselves to be pushed into the island town where most residents live.”
  • “Iran’s objective is not victory in any conventional sense. Iran is able to accept the deaths of its political and military leaders and the destruction of its cities and mass casualties among its soldiers, paramilitaries, and civilian supporters. Iran’s focus is on regime survival, not the survival of the people who make up the regime, but the survival of the regime itself.” No, that’s the regime‘s goal. Most ordinary Iranians hate the regime’s guts.
  • He notes the difficulty of getting amphibious landing ships through the Strait of Hormuz. But America will likely have a screening force of destroyers and frigates in addition to overwhelming air superiority, and Iran probably has very little in the way of missiles that can reach across the strait, at night, without real air assets to spot and paint the target, in the face of American air and naval superiority. Given America and Israel’s attacks on their sensor and communication infrastructure, I also doubt the Iranian military is capable of efficient coordination and dissemination of any real-time information they may be receiving from Russian or Chinese satellites.
  • He’s still right that amphibious and aerial invasions are exceptionally difficult and fraught with peril.

    • But I believe there are multiple places where Whistler is unduly pessimistic about such an operation.

    1. First and foremost, the military assets discussed in the media are not necessarily the assets such an operation would be limited to. Remember how the very public news of B-2s in route to Diego Garcia was a ruse to cover the fact that the real B-2 force was already headed to the target in the June strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. It’s entirely possible (even probable) that America already has assault assets in theater that media outlets don’t know about.
    2. Some debatable assertions: “Iranian forces are nothing if not creative, and they are highly motivated to accept risk to their own lives in order to deliver damage to an adversary.” And “The first problem that the US would have to account for is the Iranian ground forces. Combination of roughly 350,000 soldiers in the Iranian army, about 150,000 soldiers across the ground forces of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, and another several hundred thousand paramilitary fighters of the Basij Resistance Force.” Whistler suggests virtues not necessarily in evidence for Iran’s forces. The IRCG has certainly shown itself highly motivated when it comes to launching terror rockets, supporting insurgencies, or slaughtering civilians, but not so much when it comes to an actual toe-to-toe fight against a real military, a domain in which they have zero experience or demonstrated competency. Likewise, there’s little evidence that Iranian military regulars are all that keen to die for the regime. They also did not notably distinguish themselves in the long, bloody slog of the Iran-Iraq War, a stalemate against an Iraqi military that the United States-led coalition would quickly and comprehensively dismantle in the Gulf War a few years later. And back then, Iran had some relatively modern air power. Likewise the Basij seem well equipped to beat defenseless women for immodesty, but I rather strongly suspect the overwhelming majority will cut and run when faced with trained soldiers who can fire back.
    3. If America successfully takes Kharg Island, it will be impossible for Iranian forces to get ships across from the mainland to retake it in the teeth of overwhelming American air power, even if they try crossing at night.
    4. Also, American and Israeli firepower are already destroying Iranian transportation infrastructure. Just how are all these numerous Iranian forces supposed to even reach the coast if the bridges are gone?
    5. Likewise, the difficulty in taking the island without damaging the critical oil infrastructure that makes it worth taking may cause Iran to avoid their usual inaccurate missile barrages. And Iranian forces will likely find it difficult to set up missile, artillery and drone systems on the coastline under withering American and Israeli attack.
    6. “The American public is not willing to accept the loss of American troops, and it is not willing to accept long-term or severe economic pain just to see the Islamic Republic overthrown.” This assertion is not necessarily true. The American public can certainly be fickle, but thus far Astroturf protests against the war have modest and populated with the usual foreign-funded, elderly white lefty idiots. Americans over a certain age remember the Iranian Hostage Crisis, and may feel eliminating one of they key sources of jihad terror worldwide for good worth the cost. Also, unlike Iraq or Afghanistan, U.S. military and civilian leadership seems 100% dedicated to absolute victory.

    Whistler seems to think that all of Iran’s military forces will fight with the same fanaticism of Imperial Japanese troops on Iwo Jima. Given how badly the regular armies of Muslim nations have fought against first world armies in standup fights, as opposed to fanatical insurgencies running year-long campaigns of attrition, I rather strongly suspect he’s mistaken.

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    Posted in Military, video | 9 Comments »

    MQ-25 Stingray: A Carrier Based Refueling Drone

    Sunday, February 1st, 2026

    One problem the Navy has in a potential fight with China is that its carrier strike groups would need to be dangerously close to the Chinese mainland to launch strike aircraft close enough for them to return. The MQ-25 Stingray is designed to solve that problem.

  • “This is the Boeing MQ-25 Stingray. It is the world’s first operational, carrier-based unmanned aircraft.”
  • “Despite looking like a futuristic stealth bomber, its job isn’t to bomb or dog fight. Its job is a bit boring. It’s a flying gas station.”
  • “In the Pacific theater, the distances between safe bases and potential combat zones are measured in thousands of kilometers. The Pacific Ocean is really big. Yet, modern carrier fighters like the F/A-18 Super Hornet and the F-35C actually have shorter combat radiuses than the old Cold War workhorses like the A-6 Intruder.”
  • “To fix this, the Navy has been forced to use its own fighters as improvised tankers. Currently, somewhere between 20 and 30% of all Super Hornet sorties are just refueling missions. They hang extra fuel tanks on the wings and fly out just to top off their friends. This is kind of like buying a fleet of high-end Ferraris and then using a third of them to deliver Uber Eats. It works, yes, but it is an incredibly stupid use of money and airframe life.”
  • “The MQ-25 is designed to stop that waste by spending billions of dollars. It can launch from the carrier and deliver between 14,000 and 16,000 lb of fuel to other aircraft 500 nautical miles away. To put that in perspective, that’s roughly 2,400 gallons. That’s enough gas to fill up about 160 family cars.”
  • “If you’re a carrier-based drone with that kind of range and internal volume, you don’t have to fill it with gas. You could fill it with radar arrays. You could fill it with sensor packages or one day you could indeed fill it with stealthy anti-ship missiles.”
  • The Intruder could “strike targets hundreds of miles away and loiter for hours, keeping the aircraft carrier itself well out of harm’s way. But those aircraft are gone. They were retired years ago, leaving the modern air carrier deck dominated by the F/A-18 Super Hornet and the F-35C. Now, these are fantastic high-tech multiroll fighters. But compared to their ancestors, they’ve got short legs. Their unrefueled combat radius is significantly tighter.”
  • “Potential adversaries, specifically China, have spent the last 20 years developing long-range anti-ship ballistic missiles. These are weapons designed to hunt carriers, and they can hit targets from well over a thousand km away. So, here is the problem the Navy is facing. If you put a US carrier in the Philippine Sea and draw a circle representing how far its jets can fly without refueling, there is a very good chance that that circle doesn’t even touch the Chinese mainland. But if you draw a circle for the range of China’s land-based missiles, it easily encompasses the carrier, which is not brilliant news for the US Navy.”
  • “The obvious solution here is aerial refueling. If you can gas up the fighters in midair, you can extend their range and the carrier can stay safe.”
  • The Stingray started out as an unmanned stealth bomber program, the Northrup Grumman X-47B, but got repurposed as a duller but badly needed tanker. Boeing got the revised contract.
  • “Yet, when Boeing unveiled their design, it didn’t look like a flying fuel truck. With its blended fuselage, flush air intake that hides the engine fan blades, and a distinct V-tail, the Stingray looks suspiciously like the stealth drone that the Navy said it didn’t want. Defense analysts, including those at The War Zone, have pointed out lingering questions about the origins of this shape. The strong implication there is that Boeing had already done the heavy lifting on a stealthy U-class design, and rather than just throwing it away, they essentially repurposed it. They gave the Navy a gas station, but they disguised it as half a stealth bomber.”
  • “The MQ-25 is a beast. It’s 51 feet long. That’s roughly the length of a standard city bus. Its wingspan is 75 feet, which is massive for a carrier deck aircraft. To fit into the ship’s garage, the hanger deck, the wing tips fold up, which means it’s just 31 feet across. Powering this frame is a single Rolls-Royce AE307N turbo fan,” a workhorse commercial engine.
  • “The Navy’s objective for the Stingrays to offload 14 to 16,000lb of fuel at a range of 500 nautical miles. To put that in perspective, that’s about 2,400 gallons of jet fuel.”
  • It’s stealthy, but not that stealthy, carrying fuel pods under its wings.
  • “The actual tanking part of the drone is surprisingly old school. Under the wing, the MQ-25 carries the Cobham buddy store refueling pod, the exact same hardware used on the Super Hornets today. It uses a hose and drogue system. The drone unreels a hose with a basket on the end and the receiver pilot plugs their probe into it.”
  • “The MQ-25 has no rear-facing camera or proximity sensors dedicated to the refueling basket. It doesn’t see you approaching. Just like with a human flown tanker, the robot flies a steady line, and it relies entirely on the skill of the human pilot in the fighter jet to plug in.”
  • “On the carrier, the Stingray is managed via the unmanned carrier aviation mission control system or UMCS. The Navy has even installed a dedicated room aboard the USS George H. W. Bush called the Unmanned Air Warfare Center, or UAWC. Inside, air vehicle operators sit at consoles. They don’t have a stick and rudder. Instead, they pre-program the mission with way points, refueling tracks, and contingencies. Once the drone launches, it is largely autonomous. It executes the plan on its own.”
  • It’s positioned and launched off the deck of the carrier using a hand-held device.
  • Aerial refueling with it was successfully tested in 2021.
  • “As of 2025, the official program of record calls for the Navy to buy 76 Stingrays, 67 operational aircraft, and nine for testing and development. The total price tag for this fleet is estimated at roughly $15.9 billion. Doing the maths, that works out to an acquisition cost of around $209 million per aircraft, a number that includes its share of the research and development costs.”
  • “Originally, the Navy hoped to have production representative aircraft flying by 2022. Nope.”
  • “The schedule has slipped repeatedly.”
  • “By late 2025, reports confirmed that the first flight of the Navy’s production representative jet had slipped again into early 2026, as the team wrestled with structural tests and software certification. The target for actual combat readiness is now listed vaguely as by the end of fiscal year 2027.”
  • “To try and clear the bottleneck, Boeing opened a new $200 million dedicated facility at St. Louis airport in 2024 designed specifically to churn out these drones.”
  • Critics argue for cheaper alternatives. “Supporters counter that the fuel is just the appetizer. They argue the MQ-25 is a pathfinder. Its real value isn’t just in gallons delivered, but in teaching the Navy how to integrate unmanned aircraft into the carrier airwing at scale. It is the entry fee for the future of naval warfare.”
  • “If you talk to naval strategists and especially, if you look at what analysts are whispering about it, it is very clear that tanker is kind of just the beginning here. The most immediate impact is range. The Royal Aeronautical Society notes that by offloading 15,000 lb of fuel at 500 nautical miles from the carrier, the MQ-25 effectively doubles the combat radius of the airwing. This is the big metric that Chinese military planners are reportedly getting quite worried about.”
  • “The fighters can top up their tanks deep in the combat zone, allowing them to strike targets that were previously untouchable, while the carrier stays hundreds of miles further back in safety.”
  • “But the Stingray is a big aircraft with a lot of internal volume and long endurance, which makes it perfect for a secondary role, the sensor truck. The Navy’s own documents explicitly list intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, or ISR, as a secondary mission.”
  • “Because it doesn’t need a cockpit or life support, there’s plenty of room inside for radar arrays, electronic warfare jammers, or heavy communications gear. Analysts envision the Stingray acting as a cell tower in the sky, orbiting silently for hours, linking manned fighters, ships, and other drones into a single network, relaying data back to the fleet while the fighters focus on the fighting.”
  • “Then there’s the spicy option, the missile truck. In 2024, photos surfaced of an MQ-25 model at a trade show. It wasn’t just carrying fuel pots. Under its wings were two massive AGM 158C LRASM stealth anti-ship missiles. And under its nose was a new sensor ball.”
  • “While the Navy hasn’t officially committed to this armed Stingray configuration yet, the logic is pretty seductive. If you have a drone that can fly long distances and has low observable shaping, why not use it to launch long-range missiles? It could allow the carrier to launch salvos of stealthy anti-ship weapons from well outside the range of enemy defenses, turning the humble tanker into a lethal standoff striker.” While true, the already-in-service MQ-9 Reaper has a 1,000 nautical mile range.
  • “Navy leaders are already talking about a future, perhaps by 2040, where up to 60% of the carrier airwing is unmanned. The Stingray along with the mission control infrastructure UAWC being built into carriers right now is the foundation for that future.”

    • My concern is that each of these is basically refueling one F/A-18 or F-35 if you’re using them to double the strike range; that’s a lot of tail to extend the teeth, especially since they’re taking up additional carrier hanger space. A lot of the same benefit for the China scenario can be achieved by flying longer range, less stealthy ground-based refueling aircraft (like the KC-46 Pegasus) out of U.S. airbases at Luzon or Okinawa. Of course, both of those (and other theater airbases) might be hit with Chinese missiles in a conflict.

    But the sensor and long-range strike configurations are intriguing…

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    Posted in Military, Technology, video | 6 Comments »

    Venezuela Fallout Roundup For January 5, 2026

    Monday, January 5th, 2026

    Here’s a roundup of Venezuela news since the successful operation to snatch him on Saturday.

  • Will Venezuela’s leaders play ball with President Trump? Signs point to yes.

    At a moment Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro and his wife Flores are set to appear before a New York federal judge on various drug-trafficking and gun-running related charges, his VP and now apparently Interim President Delcy Rodriguez is offering a huge olive branch.

    This is unsurprising given the staunchly socialist, pro-Maduro number two under the ousted president is herself under immense pressure from Washington, and still facing down the barrel of Uncle Sam’s gun – or rather the collective might of the Pentagon’s persisting US naval blockade just off Latin America’s coast.

    he’s quickly expressed her willingness to cooperate with the United States on the future of Venezuela, in a significant shift in tone following Maduro’s Friday into Saturday morning ‘shock’ abduction by US special forces.

    “We consider it a priority to move towards a balanced and respectful relationship between the US and Venezuela,” Rodriguez wrote on Telegram Sunday.

    And more than that, her following words convey willingness of Caracas to bend the knee: “We extend an invitation to the US government to work together on a cooperation agenda, aimed at shared development, within the framework of international law, and to strengthen lasting community coexistence,” she stated.

    Snip.

    President Trump has warned that if authorities in Venezuela fail to cooperate, the United States would carry out a second strike on Venezuela, noting that any decision to deploy ground troops there would depend on how the situation develops and how Venezuela responds.

    So cooperate with the United States in transition to a Democratic, non-Socialist government (and presumably retire to seized mansions with shares of their ill-gotten loot), or get droned. This should be an easy choice…

  • So who’s in charge of Venezuela now? President Trump says we are.

    President Donald Trump said the United States will “run” Venezuela until a peaceful transition of power is executed, following an operation carried out in the Latin American country early Saturday morning that successfully captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife.

    “We’re going to run this country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition,” Trump said from Mar-a-Lago during a press conference. “We want peace, liberty, and justice for the great people of Venezuela, and that includes many from Venezuela that are now living in the United States and want to go back to their country. It’s their homeland.”

    Asked on Saturday who would be running the country, Trump said that they would be designating people but that, “for a period of time,” it would largely be those standing behind him at the press conference — apparently meaning Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine.

    The United States is in Venezuela, and will remain in the country until a “proper transition can take place,” Trump said.

    General Caine said the attack was known as “Operation Absolute Resolve.” The president clarified that no American lives or military equipment were lost during the operation, and the embargo on Venezuelan oil also remains in full effect.

  • Just how dominant America’s military was in carrying out the operation is covered by this France24 clip:

    • “Only the US can carry out this kind of mission, so far from home at such a scale and with such coordination.”
    • “At least they’re the only country to have proved that they can still do it.”
    • “And now when we hear that jargon from Dan Caine about air and space support providing layering effects. That’s not just firepower, but it’s everything that’s needed to protect those helicopters as they went into that highly defended capital city and got out again. This requires not just the latest in satellite technology, high-tech jamming, stealth drones, but also just months of old school intelligence, fighter jet platforms that have been tried and tested over decades, and of course, sheer numbers just to provide that operational redundancy.”
    • The U.S. also managed to blackout Caracas during the attack.
    • “We can assume that the Space Force obviously provided latest state-of-the-art mapping to their forces, and potentially threw Venezuelan tracking off the scent as well. The Americans would have also used their EA-18G Growler aircraft which we know were involved. They have highly sophisticated jamming technology. The F-35s that were used can also use electronic warfare capabilities and jamming. So that could well have knocked out a lot of the Venezuelan radar.”

    Combined arms are hard, but no one does them as well, or has the sheer reach, of the United States military.

  • More on just how the operation was carried out.

    The public narrative, stitched together from US statements and multiple reports, looks like this: months of planning, a narrow window, a rapid “snatch” mission at a heavily protected residence, and a fast exfiltration under fire.

    Thank to reporting by the New York Times, we know the CIA has been on the ground in Venezuela for some time. They were almost certainly collecting the intelligence necessary for this exact operation.

    US officials described a five-hour operation with more than 150 aircraft launching from roughly 20 bases across the Western Hemisphere, with a helicopter-borne ground force as the core maneuver element.

    If those numbers are accurate, this was not a raid. This was a joint campaign compressed into one night.

    Start with the centerpiece: USS Iwo Jima.

    A quick aside: When I was in high school in Texas, I was a member of the Air Force junior ROTC. We were invited to march in three Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans, and we stayed aboard the USS Iwo Jima while we were there.

    A Wasp-class LHD is a Swiss Army knife that swims. It gives you a flight deck, fuel, maintenance, command spaces, medical capacity, and the ability to surge rotary-wing sorties without asking anyone’s permission to use their runway.

    If you want to push helicopters into a denied or semi-denied area and pull them back out fast, a big-deck amphib is the kind of platform you park nearby.

    That matters because the reported “tip of the spear” was US special operations aviation. Multiple reports point to a large contingent of 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment or SOAR helicopters, also called the Night Stalkers, involved.

    The 160th’s whole personality is flying low, at night, in bad weather, into places that don’t want them there, and bringing your people home anyway.

    For reference, it was the Night Stalkers who played a critical role in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden (Operation Neptune Spear).

    I’ve personally ridden with the Night Stalkers at Fort Campbell while in the Army… They can do some crazy shit with helicopters. I should note that I was not special forces, I was just hitching a ride as a grunt.

    In Venezuela, those helicopters carried US Army Delta Force soldiers along with FBI agents who would perform the actual snatch (or kill if Maduro resisted).

    Some readers might be wondering what the difference is between Delta Force and a group like the US Navy SEALs.

    Well, first of all, SEALs always have a promising career in Hollywood waiting for them after their service… Or a lucrative book deal. Fucking prima donnas.

    Delta are the “quiet professionals”.

    Jokes aside, Delta Force and SEAL teams are both elite Tier 1 special mission units under JSOC, handling complex counterterrorism, hostage rescue, and direct action missions, but differ in their backgrounds and specializations. Delta excels in land-based, covert operations, while SEAL Team Six (DEVGRU) retains maritime roots, training SEALs for sea-based operations.

    SEALs could have easily performed this operation and they may have been involved, but my initial sources are telling me it was Delta.

    Reports from multiple outlets confirm that FBI Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) agents, physically executed the takedown of Nicolás Maduro inside Caracas.

    That pairing, America’s most elite special mission unit (Delta) and its most capable federal law enforcement strike team, is unusual but not unprecedented.

    It signals one important thing: Washington wanted Maduro alive and in custody, not vaporized.

    Delta Force, formally known as 1st Special Forces Operational Detachment-Delta (Airborne), is the Army’s top-tier counterterrorism and direct action unit. Their bread and butter isn’t messy firefights or holding ground, it’s surgical raids, high-value target snatches, and hostage rescue under conditions that would make most mortals short-circuit.

    If a door needs breaching in a palace defended by an armored brigade, Delta is who goes through it.

    The FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, meanwhile, exists in that strange intersection between domestic law enforcement and tactical counterterrorism. They’re federal agents first but trained to the same operational standard as their military counterparts.

    When American leadership needs a mission with law enforcement optics like arrest warrants, indictments, legal custody, the HRT adds the thin blue veneer that separates an extradition from an invasion.

    In practice, the operation probably looked like this: Delta cleared the perimeter and neutralized armed resistance. HRT followed close behind, securing the detainees and beginning immediate chain-of-custody procedures to satisfy Justice Department requirements.

    The Night Stalkers with their Delta/FBI contingent were supported by an impressive stack of US military hardware: F-22s, F-35s, F/A-18s, EA-18s, E-2s, B-1 bombers, Sentry, and “numerous” remotely piloted aircraft.

    F-22s are air dominance and high-end insurance. They deter or swat down any manned aerial response, and they do it before the other side’s pilots finish their climb.

    F-35s are the quiet burglars. They sniff emitters, map threats, and cue strikes. If you want to dismantle air defenses quickly, you bring the jet that was built to hunt radars. We currently don’t know how many air defense systems the F-35s removed, but I’m sure we will learn more in the coming days.

    F/A-18s and EA-18Gs are the Navy’s workhorses for strike and electronic attack. The Growler exists to turn an air defense network into a migraine.

    An E-2 Hawkeye is the Navy’s “baby Sentry” airborne battle management. It gives the air picture, deconflicts assets, and helps keep fratricide from becoming the main headline.

    B-1s presence signals: if you escalate, we will flatten the area. They also provide standoff fires and a psychological effect that Venezuelan air defenders will be aware of.

    E-3 Sentry is the quarterback.

    I doubt B-1s were on call, but the presence of the other assets seems logical. (Hat tip: Sarah Hoyt at Instapundit.)

  • Suchomimus has a detailed look at exactly where U.S. forces landed near Maduro’s bunker to capture him, and what Venezuelan military equipment they took out in the process:

    • Among those taken out was a Russian 9K37 Buk SAM system. “Russian air defense systems proving to be just as useless in Venezuela as they are in Ukraine and Russia.”
    • “There were some reports a few weeks back that Russia tried to bulk up Venezuela’s air defense by sending two S300 launchers and two book SAM systems, as well as up to a dozen to SAM systems as well….And all for naught. The American operation was a complete success, with zero American aircraft shot down.”
  • Did Chinese radar also fail?

  • How are ordinary Venezuelans taking Maduro’s capture? They’re celebrating:

  • Heh:

  • Triggernometry adds some background on just how much socialism in Venezuela sucks:

    Plus this: “Nicholas’s Maduros’s nephews were captured by the DA in Haiti with kilos of cocaine. They were brought here. They went to trial. They were declared guilty. And then Biden pardoned them and sent them back.”

    Maybe part of the eventual settlement with Venezuela can include banks records for all regime payments to American politicos…

  • And speaking of Democrats, they’re melting down over Maduro’s capture.

    While Venezuelans hit the streets in wild celebration, popping bottles and celebrating freedom, Democrats in Washington, D.C., clutched their pearls and went into full meltdown mode, accusing Trump of getting us into a war and violating the Constitution.

    “Trump’s unilateral operation last night was an illegal act of war without Congress’s authorization,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) claimed.

    “Maduro is a brutal dictator who has oppressed the Venezuelan people, but our constitution does not yield for bad people. If Congress is to survive as an institution, the Republican majority must join us exercising our power to hold this administration accountable for this flagrant violation of the constitution.”

    He wasn’t the only Democrat to claim that Trump acted illegally.

    “Without authorization from Congress, and with the vast majority of Americans opposed to military action, Trump just launched an unjustified, illegal strike on Venezuela,” Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) claimed.

    “He says we don’t have enough money for healthcare for Americans—but somehow we have unlimited funds for war??”

    Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also chimed in.

    “President Trump’s unilateral military action to attack another country and seize Maduro — no matter how terrible a dictator he is — is unconstitutional and threatens to drag the U.S. into further conflicts in the region,” she argued.

    “The American people voted for lower costs, not for Trump’s dangerous military adventurism overseas that won’t make the American people safer.”

    Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) similarly accused Trump of getting the United States into an “illegal” war.

    “This war is illegal, it’s embarrassing that we went from the world cop to the world bully in less than one year,” he said.

    But these claims don’t hold water.

    “Trump does not need congressional approval for this type of operation,” explains constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley. “Presidents, including Democratic presidents, have launched lethal attacks regularly against individuals. President Barack Obama killed an American citizen under this ‘kill list’ policy. If Obama can vaporize an American citizen without even a criminal charge, Trump can capture a foreign citizen with a pending criminal indictment without prior congressional approval.”

  • You know who else hates Maduro’s capture? The current leaders of China, Russia and Iran.

    President Trump’s historic intervention in Venezuela offers needed hope to friends of freedom around the world and nervous traders in the oil market.

    A pro-America, free-market government could unleash the country’s oil potential and lower energy prices around the globe. This is bad news for the Kremlin and clerics in Iran, who need high oil prices to perpetuate their regimes.

    For decades, Venezuela’s socialist leaders have plunged their country into a black hole of poverty. Populist leader Hugo Chavez promised his voters unlimited riches. Nicolás Maduro, Chavez’s hand-picked successor, turned those hopes into an economic nightmare.

    Chavez and Maduro seized the infrastructure of American oil firms in their country and ran the national economy into the ground. Under Maduro’s rule, the economic decline in Venezuela has been worse than the Great Depression in the US.

    In the 1930s, America’s GDP declined by 30%.

    Under Maduro, Venezuela’s economy has shrunk by about 75%, and Moscow and Beijing have been circling like vultures.

    Last year, China purchased around 568,000 barrels per day from Venezuela; and Beijing needs Venezuela to fuel its economy. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin has been keen to keep the Maduro regime as a proxy in the Western Hemisphere.

    The loss of Maduro in Caracas, who has welcomed Russian weapons and support to prop up his wobbly regime, is a major blow to Moscow. It also sends a powerful message to dictators around the world who look to America’s rivals as an alternative to US leadership: When the chips are down, Putin and Xi Jinping can’t help you.

    While Maduro was in power, both Putin and Xi were eager to include oil-rich Venezuela in their “Axis of Aggressors.”

    Trump abruptly changed the geopolitical balance by putting Maduro in handcuffs. He can now put more pressure on Beijing and box out Moscow’s hopes for a sustained partnership with Caracas.

    The clerics in Tehran are also worried. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps needs Venezuela to enable its sanctions-evasion schemes that were in place under Maduro. Worse, the ghost tanker fleet that serviced the IRGC out of Venezuela is now in jeopardy. And with the prospect of increased Venezuelan oil exports, there’s a potential opportunity to put a squeeze on all remaining Iranian oil.

    Funny how often Democrats are on the save wavelength as the dictators in Moscow, Beijing and Tehran when it comes to opposing Donald Trump’s foreign policy successes…

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    Posted in Communism, Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Military, video | 11 Comments »

    Denmark Strangles Russia Oil Lifeline

    Sunday, October 19th, 2025

    First a caveat that this video channel has a lot of “Russia is done for” content, so this video, being more in that line, deserves several grains of salt. But it makes a compelling case that Russia’s repeated Baltic provocations have now handed Denmark the legal means, reason and will to completely shut down Russia’s shadow fleet, and thus their last real economic lifeline.

  • “The blow that will finish off Russia is being dealt in an office in Copenhagen, hidden in the cold lines of an environmental law. Denmark has proven that the ghost shadow fleet Russia established to launder billions of dollars in oil revenues is not only an environmental killer, but also a secret base for drone attacks targeting NATO capitals.”
  • “With intelligence provided by Denmark, the 18-year-old tanker Boracay linked to Russia was seized by French commandos off the coast of Breast last week. It was reported that the ship was believed to have been involved in a recent drone attack on Copenhagen airport.” “Attack” is probably slightly overstating the case, but “illegal incursion of sovereign airspace” isn’t.
  • “From this moment on, Denmark moved to lock the Baltic Sea to Russian tankers.”
  • “On October 6th, the Danish government announced that it was tightening environmental and security inspections of oil tankers, especially old and high-risk vessels passing through its waters or anchored at Skagan Red, an important port between the Baltic and North Seas. However, this goes far beyond a simple security inspection. Danish Industry Minister Morten Bodskov was even more outspoken, saying, ‘We must put an end to Putin’s war machine.'”
  • “This also applies to the Russian shadow fleet. Authorities will now board and inspect ships that cannot be considered to be on a peaceful voyage, including those that are anchored. In other words, this decision allows Danish forces to raid any ship they suspect.”
  • Discussion of St. Petersburg, Kalinigrad, and how oil from Russia’s Siberian fields flows there for export snipped, as I’m pretty sure all my readers are familiar with this by now.
  • The Danish straits, “consisting of the Skagarak and Katagat, is Russia’s economic lifeline and at the same time its weakest link. This is precisely the weak link that Denmark is targeting.”
  • “In 1974, [the] Helsinki Convention [was] signed as a measure against the Baltic Sea’s increasing industrial pollution. A rare example of cooperation between the Eastern and Western blocks at the time, this agreement aimed to protect the Baltic Sea’s ecological balance. The agreement gave the signatory countries, including Denmark, the authority to [intervene] against ships passing through their waters that posed a serious threat to the environment.”
  • “According to real-time oil market data from financial agencies like Bloomberg, daily oil exports via the Baltic route were generating an average of $250 to $350 million in revenue for Russia. This revenue stream is now being systematically dismantled. This translates to a massive $10 billion monthly black hole or delay in the Russian federal budget.” Remember that the entire Russian yearly budget for 2024 was estimated to be $357 billion, so that would equal about 1/3rd of Russia’s entire budget.
  • “This was an inevitable consequence of NATO placing the region under an iron dome, forcing Russia into a corner and prompting reckless counter moves.”
  • “The Western Alliance, which turned the Baltic Sea into a strategic NATO lake with the participation of Finland and Sweden, did not leave this doctrine on paper. It backed it up with concrete and formidable military power that would prevent Russia from even breathing.”
  • “The most frightening symbol of this power was the world’s largest warship, the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, and its accompanying strike group, which docked on the British coast in August 2025 and anchored in the North Sea. This 100,000 ton floating fortress, carrying more than 90 F-35 and F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets stood just west of the Danish Straits like a nuclear shield, preventing Russia from embarking on any military adventure.”
  • “But it was not alone. It was accompanied by the HMS Diamond, a type 45 destroyer belonging to the British Royal Navy and one of Europe’s most advanced air defense ships, and the FGS Hessen, the German Navy’s most modern frigate. This deadly trio supported by NATO standing Maritime Group 1 effectively trapped the Russian Baltic fleet in its bases in Kalinigrad.”
  • Snipping a description of various NATO flying assets, most of which (save the B-2) are probably flying overlapping NATO air patrol missions most of the time.
  • “In September 2025, NATO air radars sounded the alarm repeatedly. On September 22nd, German Eurofighter jets and on September 25th, Hungarian Gripen jets were forced to intercept Russian Su-30 and MiG-31 fighter jets flying over the Baltic and dangerously approaching civilian flight routes.”
  • “These were the desperate struggles of a cornered bear. As military provocations increased, the concrete dangers posed by the shadow fleet reached a level that could no longer be ignored.”
  • “According to a shocking report published just this week on October 5th, 2025, by the Danish Defense Intelligence Service, FE, Danish helicopters and ships patrolling the Danish Straits were repeatedly targeted by Russian warships using radar lock. This constitutes an extremely dangerous military provocation, implying that the next step could be firing. The report clearly stated that these actions were a hybrid warfare tactic aimed at applying pressure without crossing the line into armed conflict.”
  • Section on Russia and China’s undersea cable and pipeline sabotage snipped.
  • The final straw: “Russia was using civilian tankers belonging to its shadow fleet as launch platforms for kamikaze drone attacks on targets in Europe.” Again, see caveat above.
  • “Acting on this intelligence bombshell, the French Navy launched a breathtaking helicopter operation on the tanker Borachai sailing in the Bay of Bisque on the morning of September 30th.”
  • “A search of the ship’s cargo hold revealed at least six explosive-laden kamikaze UAV launchers hidden inside special containers tucked between oil tanks.”
  • “This was irrefutable concrete evidence that Russia had used a civilian ship for a military attack against a NATO country.”
  • “This chain of evidence, these accumulated provocations, and this final brazen move were the ultimate trigger that spurred Denmark into action, transforming that 50-year-old environmental law into a national security weapon.”
  • “Here, Denmark is putting the 1974 Helsinki Convention, Helcom, and International Maritime Law on the table rather than imposing a military blockade, which would be a cause for war.”
  • “The new legal framework grants Danish authorities the power to stop, inspect, and block the passage of uninsured, old, and poorly maintained tankers identified as belonging to the Shadow Fleet.”
  • “The operation will proceed as follows. A vessel belonging to the Danish Navy or Coast Guard will approach a suspicious tanker and request an inspection. Inspectors boarding the vessel will check its compliance with international maritime standards, namely the SAS, Safety of Life at Sea, and MARPOL [International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, 1973 as modified by the Protocol of 1978] conventions. It is known that almost all shadow fleet vessels do not meet these standards.”
  • “If it is determined that insurance policies are fake or insufficient, emergency equipment is not working, personnel are inadequate, or the structural integrity of the vessel is at risk, the vessel will be labeled unfit for passage and will not be allowed to proceed.”
  • “Following the Boracay case, these inspections will now also include checking for suspicious military modifications or illegal cargo on board.”
  • “This is not an actual seizure or military intervention. It is a completely legitimate, internationally legal and unavoidable bureaucratic strangulation operation. Russia’s objection to this inspection amounts to an admission that its own ships are rotten and dangerous.”
  • “This is a flawless legal checkmate that strikes Putin with his own lies.”
  • The video goes on to suggest that this will be the final straw of cascading failure that breaks the Russian economy. Maybe, but we’ve heard these arguments before.
  • Also skipping over the argument that if Russia can’t export oil, they have to shut the pipelines off and their Siberian oil infrastructure will freeze in the ground. Peter Zeihan has been making this argument for years as well, but knowing the Russians, they could just dig a big hole in the ground to temporarily dump their crude into to avoid that happening.
  • “This legitimate step taken by Denmark following the Boracay plot could be the spark that ignites the beginning of the end of the war, illuminating the path to the Kremlin’s collapse. Vladimir Putin lost this war, which he could not win with missiles and armies, to an anonymous bureaucrat holding a folder in Copenhagen.”

    • Maybe. It’s certainly going to cut one of Russia’s final hard cash pipelines. But Russia has defied expectations of imminent economic collapse for over three years now. At some point, Russia’s failed illegal war of territorial aggression will finally break the country, but no one on the outside has had a good track record of predicting when…

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    Posted in Foreign Policy, Military, video | 19 Comments »

    Houthis Get Brrrrrrted

    Sunday, May 11th, 2025

    Here’s an under-reported aspect of Operation Rough Rider (i.e., the Trump Administration beating the Houthis with a very large stick): The deployment of A-10 Warthogs to teach the Houthis the error of their ways.

    The successful missions displayed some interesting capabilities.

  • “After three years without a major combat deployment, America’s most rugged aircraft is back in theater, and this time, it’s not just covering troops; it’s striking mobile launcher teams before they escape.”
  • “On March 29, 2025, several A-10 Warthogs from the 124th Fighter Wing and 300 ground crew from the 190th Fighter Squadron deployed to the Middle East. This deployment marks the largest such deployment of this infamous aircraft in three years and it’s for more than just showing the flag. Operating out of Al Dhafra Air Base in the UAE, these aircraft are giving a big helping hand to the Navy as they battle a foe with ever revolving tactics.” Namely learning to shoot-and-scoot after launching their attacks on shipping.
  • The missiles Houthis fire are “are typically C-802s that carry a 165-kilogram armor-piercing payload and can reach targets up to 180 kilometers away.”
  • “The first confirmed strike came on April 1. After taking off from their air base, the Warthogs were on station within 18 minutes. Thanks to its 11,000-pound fuel tank captivity, the A-10s can loiter over target areas for up to 90 minutes before having to head back to base.”
  • Details of the formidable GAU-8/A Avenger rotary cannon snipped, because I think all of my readers are familiar with it by now.
  • “On that day, a circling RC-135 Rivet Joint intercepted Houthi radio signals that they were going to launch a strike soon. Because the US has destroyed practically every secure communications method the Houthis had, enemy commanders in the field have to rely on regular civilian cell phones to talk to each other, which makes finding these guys that much easier.”
  • “The attack was supposed to go down in less than 20 minutes, so the two A-10s punched it at full power to get there. With a max speed of about 420 miles per hour, it would take roughly 18 minutes to get there, with not a second to spare.” Yeah, this channel loves to make things overly dramatic.
  • “As the A-10s flew across the mountains and desert of central Yemen, the pilots are using this device to scan for the targets. This is called the AAN/AAQ-28 Litening pod [Yeah, that’s the way it’s spelled. -LP], and is how the pilot ensures that the A-10’s payloads make it on target.”
  • “The pod measures 87 inches long and is 16 inches in diameter. Inside this roughly 440-pound pod are a series of high-resolution forward-looking infrared sensors, laser designators, and CCTV cameras; the pilots can spot man-sized targets up to 28 miles away.”
  • “With no enemy radars up due to US forces knocking them out in prior strikes, the A-10s came in low and slow. At a distance of 6,500 meters away, they let loose with their cannons and gave ‘em the BRRT the aircraft is so famous for.”
  • “In those two seconds, the A-10s fired about 260 baseball-sized rounds, each going at 3,500 feet per second. As one can probably guess, the launcher was neutralized.”
  • “On April 2, an ISR satellite detected unusual heat signatures northeast of Sa’dah. Since very few people in Yemen own a car, much less a 5-ton truck, intelligence flagged it as a probable mobile launcher and passed it along to the Air Force for a closer look.”
  • “With the Houthis now fully aware the A-10s ere in theater, the call went out far and wide, and soon every Houthi radar left was scanning the skies, looking for an easy victory. Thankfully, these aircraft were not gonna let them. These planes are called EA-18G Growlers. If you think they look like F-18s, that’s because they kind of are. Built on the same body, these aircraft are specially modified with sensors and weapons specially designed for a mission called suppression of enemy air defenses or SEAD.”
  • “The Growlers’ main mission is taking out Houthi radars with systems with this. This system here on this Growler is called the Next Generation Jammer…As Houthi gunners turn on their radars, they send out a particular frequency. Since the Next Gen Jammers in service operate in the mid-band of frequencies around the 2–6 Gigahertz range, any radar pulsing in that range can get picked up. This is because the US maintains a mission library of every adversary search, surface, fire control, and missile radar in the world. When the system picks up these signals, it automatically knows what kind of system it is and uses basic geometry to figure out where the enemy radar is located.”
  • “The pilot then sends a continuous burst of about 270 kilowatts of power towards the Houthi radar. Because radars know the time when every radar wave is sent out and know what time it arrives, the radar uses that data to help figure out the position. However, when blasted with such a strong energy pulse, the radar can’t see any of its own emissions because this jammer is just overloading the system with a continuous stream of energy. Although some modern radars are jam-resistant, most Houthi ones are based on legacy Soviet or Iranian models that get fried.”
  • “Within 15 minutes, the Growlers from the USS Eisenhower had knocked out three Houthi radar installations.”
  • Using their Litening targeting pods, [the A-10s] picked up movement—three launchers, including one where the Houthis were putting a camouflaged tarp on to hide it again. The lead pilot fired a laser-guided AGM-65 Maverick from 26 miles away to prevent them from getting away. With its 125-pound-shaped charge, the Maverick struck the first launcher center mass. The secondary detonation from the missile on board was huge. Shrapnel tore through the other two nearby launchers and knocked fist-sized holes in them.”
  • “Their teams attempted to flee in a Toyota pickup, but they didn’t make it far. The trailing Warthog rolled in low. At just under 250 knots, the pilot squeezed the trigger. A half-second burst of the GAU-8 sent 50 rounds slamming into the truck and neutralized four more operators.”
  • “By April 10, Houthi activity had visibly shifted. Launch points previously active went cold.”
  • The Houthis grew even more cautious, but the A-10s sensors can even detect heat signatures coming from underground bunkers.
  • “On April 13, operating out of Jawf province, [Houthis] wheeled out a launcher preloaded with a C-802, set up near an irrigation berm, and awaited GPS lock from their Iranian handlers. Unfortunately for them, a US drone had spotted the movement 40 minutes earlier. A Warthog was already on station and soon inbound. At 3,000 feet, flying just over the mountain tops, the pilot waited just until he reached the Maverick’s ideal release range of around seven nautical miles. With the ability to carry six of these missiles, with three under each wing, the pilot let loose with two of them to neutralize thelauncher and its accompanying radar. Upon seeing the Warthog, the Houthi gunners abandoned their launchers and tried to run but the last thing they heard was a BRRT, and it was all over.”
  • “Strategically, the A-10’s success has reignited debates over close air support. While the Air Force still plans to retire the fleet by 2029, Marine and Navy commanders have petitioned for extended deployment rotations. This is because the numbers speak for themselves. From April 2 through April 17, the A-10s flew 218 sorties without a single US loss. According to CENTCOM, 47 confirmed missile systems have been knocked out, along with nine senior Houthi commanders neutralized. Because of this, the A-10 has proven itself a valuable asset in what many have considered a Navy-centric fight.”

    • Remember, the A-10 is the weapon the air force tried multiple times to kill, yet it’s still flying vital missions a quarter of the way through the 21st Century. The latest deployment may indicate there’s still some life left in the old hog yet…

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    Posted in Jihad, Military, video | 13 Comments »

    Why Russia’s Weapons Suck

    Wednesday, March 13th, 2024

    We’ve covered some of this before, but here’s a nice roundup of why Russia’s major weapons systems suck. It’s a handy tour through the world of over-promised, under-performing vaporwear.

  • “Before February 24th, 2022, the Russian Federation looked like it would deploy or soon be able to field some pretty formidable new weapons.” At least among those who hadn’t noticed Russia’s previous vaporware claims.
  • “In everything from fifth generation fighter jets to modern tanks, to new body armor and even tsunami-causing nuclear torpedoes, there was enough hype to make even informed Western national security experts worry about what they were seeing.”
  • “Little wonder that they believed Ukraine would fall in days in the months prior to the invasion. Those predictions did not turn out to be the case. And now two years later, Russia still finds itself fighting a war of attrition with no end in sight.”
  • It covers Russia’s one aircraft carrier, the Admiral Kuznetsov, how it’s been under repairs since 2018, is markedly less technologically advanced than American carriers, and how it has a history of corruption as well. It”s supposed to enter service again this year. I wouldn’t count on it.
  • Admiral Kuznetsov isn’t Russia’s only naval problem. “It is steadily retiring its Soviet-era ships and replacing them with lighter, less combat-worthy vessels.”
  • There’s the new, formidable (on paper) Lider-class destroyers, first unveiled in 2015 and capable of using a host of advanced new weapons. Tiny problem: “On paper” is the only place you can see them, since they haven’t started building them yet.
  • Then there’s “the Belgorod submarine, and particularly its Poseidon Torpedo, are two other items of hype in the Russian Navy that don’t seem to stand up to scrutiny. The Belgorod and Poseidon have often been items of fear in Western media and national security circles, which have nicknamed the former Russia’s ‘Doomsday Submarine.'”
  • “According to the Kremlin’s hype, the submarine and its arsenal of smart drone Poseidon torpedoes can unleash a 100 megaton yield capable of creating radioactive tsunamis that would inundate coastal communities and make them unlivable.”
  • “However, tests of the Poseidon have seemingly proven less than satisfactory. That shouldn’t be too surprising, because for the Poseidon torpedo to work as the Russians claim, it would need to be able to house all of the equipment needed for a nuclear reactor to convert atomic fission into electricity and propulsive force, while ensuring negligible waste heat (to avoid detection). It would also need the hardware to shield its sensitive electronics from the nuclear fission process.”
  • “Unfortunately for Moscow, the torpedo is too small to do this, meaning that it is either an object of hype or Russian engineers have come upon a technological leap enabling exotic engineering methods. We’ll let you decide which of the two scenarios is likelier.”

  • “The likeliest scenario is a yield of about one to two megatons per torpedo, which would be enough to inundate a coastal area with dangerous radioactive waters, but not to create a tsunami.” And the hundred knot speed is also bunk for numerous technical reasons.
  • “We now journey from the sea to the skies and look at the Russian answer to the American fifth generation F-22 and F-35 fighter jets – the Su-57 Felon. To be fair, the Su-57 does have some impressive features, like its 3D thrust vectoring engines, climb rate of 64,000 feet per minute, 66,000-foot service ceiling, Mach 2 speed, and range of 2,186 miles without refueling. In a plane vs. plane battle, the Su-57 should be a capable opponent against almost any fighter jet on the planet.”
  • “However, the Su-57 has a big drawback – its comparative lack of stealth. Aviation experts regard the Su-57 as being by far the least stealthy of the fifth generation fighters currently in service. For example, the F-22 Raptor is detectable at a range only under 10 miles, while the Su-57 would be detectable at a range of 35 miles.”
  • “Its stealth features are also concentrated in the front of the plane, meaning that if it turns or maneuvers, it is far more detectable.” Good thing fighter aircraft never need to turn or maneuver…
  • “Some aviation experts are even less kind and believe the Su-57’s radar cross section is similar to that of the F/A-18 Super Hornet, which is 1,000 times less stealthy than the F-35 Lightning II.”
  • “The Su-57 has played little part in the war in Ukraine, as the Russian aerospace forces have refused to field it in Ukrainian airspace. Instead, it has only attacked targets at long range from within Russian airspace.”
  • Then there’s the ridiculously low production rate. “The Kremlin ordered 76 Su-57s in 2019. 22 are in service as of December 2023, after several years of delays.” And we only have Russia’s word that they’ve produced that many. The real total could be lower. By contrast, Lockheed Martin has produced over 1,000 F-35s.
  • Next it’s a familiar punching bag, the T-14 Armata. “To be fair, the T-14 Armata does have significant improvements over the tanks Russia has usually fielded in Ukraine – the T-72, T-80, and T-90. These tanks have been lost in their thousands during the fighting in Ukraine, thanks to bad doctrine and their own design flaws. Because they do not segregate their ammunition magazines in a sealed compartment, they have often suffered from complete destruction with jack-in-the-box explosions.”
  • “The T-14 Armata mitigates this flaw with a protective capsule isolating the crew from their vehicle’s ammunition magazine.”
  • Unfortunately, the video goes on to say the T-14 has a low profile, which simply isn’t true. As I’ve noted before, the T-14 is 3.3 meters high vs. 2.44 meters for the M1A2, 3 meters for the Leopard 2, and 2.49 for the Challenger 2. 3.3 meters is higher even than the World War II M3 Lee tank the Soviets (who got them via Lend-Lease) called “a coffin for seven brothers.”
  • “The Armata’s main weapon is a 125mm 2A82-1M smoothbore gun which can fire related rounds and laser-guided missiles. This weapon would be a significant threat to the Western main battle tanks that Ukraine began fielding in larger numbers last year.” The “large numbers” are pretty small numbers.
  • “Unfortunately for Russia, this gun is not backward-compatible with its older tanks, which means only the Armata can field it, and that’s a problem, because there has never been a confirmed sighting of the T-14 in Ukraine. Russia has even fewer T-14 Armata tanks than it does Su-57 fighter jets.”
  • There follows a discussion of the T-14’s X-shaped engine that has evidently engendered a lively debate online, so I’m not going to get into it here.
  • “Meanwhile, the electronics for the Armata’s sensory and fire control systems are no longer as widely available due to the sanctions put in place as a result of its invasion of Ukraine. Indeed, there has not even been an assembly line built for the Armata and all of the prototypes have been made by hand. Given all of these problems, don’t expect to see the Armata fielded in large numbers, if at all, anytime soon.”
  • “Russia’s body armor has also been a subject of embarrassment. Many of Russia’s soldiers, especially the conscripts Putin mobilized in the autumn of 2022, have lacked proper protection. Infamously, some Russian troops were issued airsoft versions of the Ratnik body armor. Despite its problems in this area, Russia has made bold claims about what it has coming down the pike – its next-generation Sotnik body armor, which it says will be able to stop a .50 caliber Browning Machine Gun round.” Yeah, no.
  • We’re not even going to bother with the MiG-41, which doesn’t exist yet. Vaporware all the way down.

    • It’s always safest to assume that the latest Russian wunderwaffen is vaporware unless proven otherwise.

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    Posted in Military, video | 29 Comments »

    Ukraine To Get F/A-18s?

    Tuesday, June 6th, 2023

    This seems like significant news.

    The US, and Ukraine are discussing sending 41 Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) F/A-18A/B Hornet fighter jets to Ukraine, rather than scrapping them as planned.

    Since the US recently granted permission for other Western allies to supply Kyiv with advanced fighter jets, Washington is open to the idea of gifting Ukraine retired RAAF F/A-18 fighter jets, Euromaidan Press reports.

    Seventy-five F/A-18A/Bs were acquired by the RAAF from 1985 to replace the ageing Mirage III fighter which had been in service since 1963. The first two aircraft were produced in the US, with the remainder assembled in Australia at Government Aircraft Factories.

    Giving them to Ukraine rather than scrapping them makes sense. Australia can’t use them, as they’re transitioning to F-35s, and the U.S. can’t use them since they’ve already transitioned both carrier-based and Marine F/A-18s to the much beefier F/A-18E/F Super-Hornets.

    The F/A-18 was originally designed as a carrier plane, but several militaries around the world use them as all-purpose fighter aircraft.

    Will Ukraine be able to make use of them? Sure! Just like the F-16s that Ukraine may get sometime, F/A-18A/Bs are reasonably modern fighter aircraft that can more than hold their own against any but the very most modern Russia jet fighters aircraft. (Maybe the Su-57 is better, just like it appears on paper; but a lot of Soviet and Russian gear that looks great on paper turns out to be crap.) One of the first rules of warfare is that you can’t beat something with nothing.

    But, as with the F-16, it’s going to take a lot of training before even experienced fighter jet pilots would be cleared to fly F/A-18s in combat. Probably at least six months of type trying in simulators and tandem and solo flying. Maybe more, because Soviet/Russian jets are so different from U.S. jets, maybe less Because War. In any case, it will be too late to take part in the vaunted Spring Counteroffensive, which may or may not be going on right now.

    But the way this war has dragged on, there’s a good chance Ukraine will still need them by 2024…

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    Posted in Military, Obama Scandals | 20 Comments »