Colin

I think you are broadly correct, although it appears that Ukraine is much better at rotating forces out of battle and the recovery of wounded and treatment of such. It seems on the AFU side, only certain units are really capable of assaulting and on the Russian side it seems the VDV and Naval Infantry are the backbone of the defence. I suspect both are wearing out their best and the VDV and NI will struggle to get good quality replacements.

I think this is the money quote

The US fleet main job appears to warning off Iran and Hezbollah from doing anything more than some sympathy rockets.

It would be easy considering the distances and level of corruption along the southern border. But more useful to get important tech to Hamas, if the tunnels are compromised.

Iran is the epitome of the "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". At first they sort of supported the removal of the Taliban, but when it looked like it was going to be to successful, they started supporting the Taliban. They and Hamas were on opposing sides in Syria, but Hamas is useful to them to keep Israel off of Hezbollah back. So financing and supporting Hamas in Gaza is useful to them, even if it does not make sense to us westerners. I am sure if Hamas was to take over israel and turn it into a Sunni MB Caliphate that Iran, Egypt and Hezbollah would be fighting them in a decade.

I would not be surprised if Israel razes any structure within a KM of the Egyptian border in order to make smuggling harder. If they occupied that stretch they could cut off tunnels altogether.

I am sure they have an official rep and bunch of operatives and vis versa.

I suspect Iran had a hand in training and advising. I also suspect Hamas kept the West Bank in the dark about their intentions, to ensure operational security.

In Hamas eyes a dead Palestinian is a useful martyr. A live palestinian is a annoying problem always complaining about the lack of jobs, education, water, sewage. You know the stuff real governments worry about...

Likely the first person Trump had met that he could not faze or deal with.

One of the Union locals here went full stupid and posted a image supporting Hamas. This is caused outrage, resulting in the union HQ to delete the tweet. I suspect that some Jewish members of the union are likley in the position to take civil action against them.

M113 were serving long after their expected lifespan. Money that was well spent. Prior to this war, the US was desperate to give away MRAP's and M113. The cost of scrapping them to EPA standards limits the profits.

A sub is an accident waiting to happen, it's due diligence by the Crew, shipyards that is what keeps it from happening. I would not be surprised that an accident happen, they been trying to expand their fleets over the years and perhaps the ratio of experienced crew to new trainees got to thin.

As I understand it, the Serbs had excellent terrain to hide in and sensors then were nowhere as good as they are now. Add in as mentioned. The Serbs were highly disciplined in the art of camouflage and EW discipline. The Ukrainian battlefield is larger and more open with less geographical features. I agree that the USAF would get a bloody nose at first, but would quickly change tactics and locate and destroy AD system at rate faster than Ukraine can. I think that NATO/US getting involved directly into the fight is going to force Russia to deploy AD throughout the entire western region of Russia and forgo their abilty to concentrate their AD systems. It would also means they could no longer afford to strip their defences of troops along their other western borders, leading to further issues with reinforcements.

Sadly I can't argue on this. We elected a clown and now pay the price.

Soviet AD and Air Force trained for this, but I don't think the current RUAF holds a candle to them in terms of size, training and preparedness. As effective as it has been for this war, their AD network would buckle fairly soon. On the other hand, I think the USAF would get a lesson in humility considering the losses they would have early on. Pretty soon the Russian Air Force would be in the position of that the Ukrainian one is in.

That was the US in WWI and II

We have both a Azerbaijani and a Armenian friend here. The Azerbaijani Uncle was former KGB. But when you ask either about the situation back home, they both shake their head and sigh.

Our C3 are showing signs of cracking where the barrel was machined for the threads that hold the muzzle break. It's hard to avoid making a 90 degree cut in the metal which acts as a crack propagator.

Ukraine is a bit more like South Korea in the early days of the Korean war and aftermath. Lot's of internal issues to fix and the US supported them through it.

NATO air power as a whole would deplete the Russian missile stocks far faster than they can produce them. I think NATO would be initially shocked at the loss ratio of their aircraft. But they would eventually adapt and be able to force the Russian AD back to the point where their frontline is now exposed to fairly constant air attack. While the R37M is still a major threat, the Russian Air Force is going to have to operate in a very hostile environment and won't be able to venture forward and will have to stay in their AD bubble. That change then makes it harder to stop mine clearing activity and makes Russian artillery even more vulnerable than they are now. It would also mean at least another 250,000 fresh, well trained and equipped troops into the fight, supported by the Ukrainians forces.

The manoeuvre warfare of the early days of the invasion would have suited Western doctrine perfectly. I guess is that NATO would struggle and suffer some initial reverses just as the Ukrainians have on the current prepared Russian defence lines. For the most part NATO gave up most of its assault breaching equipment and it would show. The only difference is that NATO could bring more airpower to the fight, eventually driving off Russian AD assets.

Canada like the US had "Bund Societies" which were very pro-Nazi and I have always suspected that eugenics was a driver in much of our treatment of indigenous people form the late 1800 to WWII. There was fertile ground for Nazi beliefs. As for this event, while the speaker fell onto his sword, it's clear a lot of people and their staff failed to do a 1+1=2 review and ask questions. Not a very inspiring moment in Canadian politics. As a Canadian in a international forum, it's quite embarrassing.

We are building a "Stone Frigate" to test out our planned Type 26 (CSC) sensor and comms configuration http://tridentnewspaper.com/lbtf/

I would not want to do Damage Control on them.