X-Files

Two German warships are set to pass through the sensitive Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Spiegel magazine reported on Saturday. Reuters reported last month that the warships were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasise that Berlin views the trip as normal. German warships to cross Taiwan Strait for first time in 22 years, defying Beijing’s warnings – Firstpost

RIP LT LOTHAR ZOGG USAF

RIP LT LOTHAR ZOGG USAF

Japanese forces tracked Russian Navy and People’s Army Liberation Navy ships conducting separate movements on this week, while Tokyo has protested the intrusion of a Chinese survey ship into Japanese territorial waters. On Monday, the Japanese Self-Defense Forces said at noon on Sunday, Russian Navy corvettes RFS Sovetskaya Gavan (350) and RFS Koryeyets (390) were sighted sailing west in an area about 19 miles north of Cape Soya on the main island of Hokkaido and sailed west through La Perouse Strait to the Sea of Japan. JMSDF fast attack craft JS Kumataka (PG-827) and a JMSDF P-3C Orion Maritime Patrol Aircraft tracked the Russian ship. Russian Navy ships routinely use the strait to transit between the Sea of Japan on the west side of the strait and the Sea of Okhotsk on the east side. Japan which designates Russia, China and Korea as its primary security challenges, routinely has JMSDF ships and aircraft shadowing Russian and Chinese ships that pass near Japan. On Sunday, PLAN destroyer CNS Jinan (152) and fleet oiler CNS Chao Hu (890) were sighted sailing southeast in an area 80 miles northeast of Miyako Island and then sailed southeast in the waters near Okinawa and Miyako and entered the Philippine Sea. Mine countermeasure vessel JS Bungo (MST-464 and a JMSDF P-3C Orion MPA of Fleet Air Wing 5 based at Naha Air Base, Okinawa, shadowed the PLAN ships. The waters between Miyako Island and Okinawa is known as the Miyako Strait, and is around 155 miles wide, making most of the waters there international waters, PLAN ships and also Chinese military aircraft routinely transit between the East China Sea and Philippine Sea along this route. Japan plans to step up surveillance in this area with a mobile radar to be deployed to Kita Daito Island, which lies east of Okinawa, enabling Japan to effectively track movements around the Philippine Sea area near the island. Earlier on Aug. 31, Japan’s Ministry of Defense said PLAN Shupang class survey ship Qian Weichang was sighted sailing east in Japan’s contiguous waters and subsequently entered Japan’s territorial waters southwest of Kuchinoerabu Island. The PLAN ship left Japan’s territorial waters southwest of Yakushima Island at 7.53 a.m. and then sailed south. Minesweeper JS Shishijima (MSC-691) and a JMSDF P-1 MPA of Fleet Air Wing 1 based at JMSDF Kanoya Air Base on the main island of Kyushu shadowed the PLAN ship, stated the release. Chinese, Russian Ships Sail Near Japan; Tokyo Protests Chinese Incursion into Territorial Waters - USNI News

1) Sunflowers are native to North America and were first grown as a crop by indigenous tribes over 4,500 years ago. 2) *Reverse Checkov* played. 3) Neener Neener Neener.

Are those... sunflowers? UKRAINIAN SUNFLOWERS!???

No one cares about your opinion on Oryx, nor do you have anything useful to add to the conversation about better sources of BDA. No go ask mommy to give you another gold star.

Exactly so - they're doing the best they can with what they have while other folks sit on the sidelines and whine like typical RedditWayOfWarriors. 🙄 I've done it as both a civilian and a soldier. It's not anything approaching easy unless you're *there* and even then it's an inexact exercise. To vett using only video/photographic proof in a rapidly changing environment is a viable option but obviously limited to what graphic information Oryx gets. I find Lost Armor to be ponderous MLRS losses in the armed conflict in Ukraine 2014-2023 (lostarmour.info) The other option is to do a bell curve with what the Ukrainians claim/Russians admit viz Russians claim/Ukrainians admit.

Oh, you *can* all you like - you just reveal who you really are.

Sadly true, unless a 21st century version of Mark Bowden gets ahold of it.

That's nice. How much Real World BDA have you done? Rhetorical question, because you can pucker up and criticize but can't do a better job of it. 🙄

Yeah? What if those 'foreign personnel' were Americans?

To date, ORYX has documentation for three. 3 227mm M142 HIMARS: (1, destroyed) (1, damaged) (2, damaged) Attack On Europe: Documenting Ukrainian Equipment Losses During The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine - Oryx (oryxspioenkop.com)

"35 foreign personnel " Russia’s strike destroys four HIMARS launchers, 35 foreign personnel in Ukraine operation - Russian Politics & Diplomacy - TASS