NATO return to Cold War force structure

[sunday]

6 minutes ago, futon said:

Please do so. A fascinating topic. (And my Spanish seems finally good enough to actually understand the website)

I am unwilling to spend time deciding if @seahawk is trolling or not, so I tend to assume by default that he is trolling.

Edited May 6 by sunday

[futon]

8 minutes ago, sunday said:

I am unwilling to spend time deciding if @seahawk is trolling or not, so I assume he is trolling by default.

I hear that. 

That the damage down to oneself if using the troll card often. Their own crediability is shot up already so in those moments when they really do care and are being genuine, they aren't read as how they would like. I think I discern some degree of when its just sarcasm and when its genuine. In some ways.. the sarcasm is genuine... but anyway...

Edited May 6 by futon

[seahawk]

2 minutes ago, sunday said:

I am unwilling to spend time deciding if @seahawk is trolling or not, so I tend to assume by default that he is trolling.

When it comes to things about Spain, I am never trolling.

[rmgill]

On 5/4/2024 at 8:47 PM, Mistral said:

It’s not a difficult question to answer with your own words. It’s can be either a yes or a no.

Oh because original poster of that has no idea, syphilis is CURABLE while brain cancer not so much.  Talk about failing on using a parable…

He literally said Communism is but a flu, and you agreed…

Communism and Fascism are also both curable (As are cancers and some stds, you just have to catch it in time) . But we have untreated Communism in the west now. With all the mental illness that goes with it. 

[Martineleca]

23 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

I say, can we get back to discussing what happening in Eastern Europe right now?

Poland and Lithuania begin exercises to test defence of Suwałki Gap

https://notesfrompoland.com/2024/04/22/poland-and-lithuania-begin-exercises-to-test-defence-of-suwalki-gap/

I can see how this vulnerable region becomes the most heavily militarized area in the world, more so than the Korean DMZ even. Because if the land route is blocked it would be substantially more difficult to move reinforcements into the Baltic states from staging bases on Gotland isle and Baltic sea ports, that would surely be subjected to swarm missile/drone attacks from the get go. The flexibility of old-style mass paratrooper drops would then become very useful in such a contingency, hopefully that branch of the military will also undergo a revival in the near future.

Edited May 7 by Martineleca

[Stuart Galbraith]

Thanks, Id not see anything about that. Probably warrants a map in steel beasts.

[Martineleca]

11 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Probably warrants a map in steel beasts.

That some kind of boardgame, or do you mean generally like steel horses referring to tanks? 

[Martineleca]

11 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Id not see anything about that.

Steadfast Defender 2024 is the biggest NATO exercise since the end of the Cold War, involving a combined 100 000 troops, notably the UK will be the single largest contributor with a force of 20 000. That seems to be the most important news right now, that the British still possess a powerful expeditionary capability. 

Edited May 7 by Martineleca

[Josh]

1 hour ago, Martineleca said:

That some kind of boardgame, or do you mean generally like steel horses referring to tanks? 

It's a tank based video game.

[Ssnake]

That's one way of putting it. The numerous military customers call it a low-cost simulation for crew training and command post exercises.

 

[Martineleca]

7 hours ago, Ssnake said:

That's one way of putting it. The numerous military customers call it a low-cost simulation for crew training and command post exercises.

 

Yeah that's cool, very detailed, like a less cringy WOT, I've been out of the gaming world for a while, but a Polish WW3 FPS caught my attention. A game that promotes fighting in the shadow of the Kremlin, that must be quite the shock for the appeasers in the West. 😉

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

12 hours ago, Martineleca said:

Steadfast Defender 2024 is the biggest NATO exercise since the end of the Cold War, involving a combined 100 000 troops, notably the UK will be the single largest contributor with a force of 20 000. That seems to be the most important news right now, that the British still possess a powerful expeditionary capability. 

No, we possess a Brigade. And thats it.

I think things will improve, with a few more years we might be able to expand that to another armoured brigade and maybe 16 Air Assault. But I think anyone expecting a major British presence without a serious rethink of our priorities is probably expecting too much.

32 minutes ago, Martineleca said:

Yeah that's cool, very detailed, like a less cringy WOT, I've been out of the gaming world for a while, but a Polish WW3 FPS caught my attention. A game that promotes fighting in the shadow of the Kremlin, that must be quite the shock for the appeasers in the West. 😉

 

Yeah, ive heard of that for a while. Its rather a different emphasis. That seems to be COD in a new box. Whcih is fine, not knocking that.

SB is rather like DCS, but in reverse. DCS is a high end civilian simulation that also has inroads into the military training market. SB is rather the other way around.

If anyone sees any plans for Steadfast Defender, please post them up. It might make some good scenarios.

[Perun]

 

[Martineleca]

8 hours ago, Perun said:

 

Hungary attracting unwarranted attention, it's a bit like Luxembourg opting out of operations, nobody was including you in any planning. 

[seahawk]

9 hours ago, Perun said:

 

Good to see a voice of sanity in Europe. Good job Hungary!

[Martineleca]

3 hours ago, seahawk said:

Good to see a voice of sanity in Europe.

Hey why are you leaving Austria out, aren't they doing their best to be useful idiots too?

Edited May 9 by Martineleca

[Stuart Galbraith]

 

[Martineleca]

11 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

 

This is somewhat like the news of US Strategic command systems still using magnetic diskettes when the rest of the world had moved on to other forms of storage more than two decades prior, at some point operating outdated software becomes very expensive and with hardware even more so.

[Stuart Galbraith]

On the one hand, yes, I cheer that the British Army have found a way to paint themselves out of the box. OTOH, it doesnt exactly speak highly of the MOD that they didnt maintain an adequate spare parts base, or throw manufacturers a bone to keep them alive, and now have to revive spare parts through these alchemistic methods, rather than do an intelligent thing and run the whole damn thing properly.

Its both remarkably good news, and appalling at the same time.

[Martineleca]

This is quite sobering, laying out scenarios where NATO could have legal justification to not act in support of member states facing internal unrest that leads to Russian occupation. 

[Stuart Galbraith]

Yes. What scares the hell out of me, Vilnius is only about 20 miles from the Belarusian border. If anyone was inclined to take it, there is very little NATO could do to save it. And with the lakes to the Southwest, retaking it again would be extemely difficult.

How likely is this? Russia will have to rebuild its armed forces after this war. Personally, I think they are more determined to be masters of Eastern Europe, than we are to defend it. And thats the problem.

As for not acting to stop member states being toppled, this is precisely what the old Gladio stay behind parties were initially designed to stop, Czechoslovakian style capitulations.  One has to wonder if its worth dusting thos plans off, at least for Eastern Europe.

[seahawk]

NATO must not stop the democratic process. If people want a pro-Russian government and this government asks Russia for protection from NATO aggression, it is fully legal. I can see many countries going this route.

[Martineleca]

1 hour ago, seahawk said:

NATO must not stop the democratic process. If people want a pro-Russian government and this government asks Russia for protection from NATO aggression, it is fully legal. I can see many countries going this route.

You mean like in Belarus, or wasn't that the opposite?

[Stuart Galbraith]

No, he means just like Tibet, whom welcomed the PRC in with flowers thrown under their feet.

[seahawk]

Belarus, the Baltics, Hungary - many could seek the Russian protection.