Darwin Awards time
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@foxyjim didn’t actually intend to unload a war and peace length reply on you there. Your view is pretty common amongst the broader population, so that was a chance for me to articulate thoughts I had been brewing.
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Nothing like concentrating on the trees whilst the forest burns.!
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I know they are a lot closer than we are but impressive, for a country in the middle of a war for survival…
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Horrible, horrible things. But Ukraine cannot win a war of attrition. At some time there will be a stalemate and USA and the West will start withdrawing their support. At that time some sort of settlement will need to be considered.
Ok it wasn’t very clear.
I was just expressing frustration that a General who was supposed to be actually running the modern factories was talking about automation as though it is something from the future when it is in fact the norm now and the kind of production line that they are paying half a billion in the hope of it producing more should have been scrapped long ago.
This is partly related to other frustration with continuous announcements of moving towards modern technology in areas I am more familiar with, while making excuses for not supplying it to Ukraine.
Agreed it is just a hangup in relation to the particular comment.
I hope to post something on the various CMOSS standards that makes the point better and more constructively.
I don’t think it is possible that USA and the West withdraw support
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Biden State of the Union forecast to trumpet job creation
Why can’t they? And how do you know the second part to be true?
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I highly recommend the last 2 videos on the Perun YouTube channel. One covers off the strength remaining in Russia, the other covers off Ukraine and their upside.
Gives a pretty balanced and solid picture.
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If the west stops it’s support, the Russia will take all of Ukraine. Then Baltics and Poland is next.
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A quick Lol break with a cup of coffee to lighten it up a bit
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It is politically advantageous for Biden if Ukraine wins prior to the 2024 election. For that reason I expect US aid to increase.
For border states like Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland, a strong and NATO aligned Ukraine will be of immense defensive value long term. There’s a huge advantage in Ukraine distracting the Russians away from these borders.
Finland and Norway have similar motivations. Both have been very strong with Ukraine aid and Norway has just locked in $1.4B annual support packages for the next 5 years.
For the rest, the question is what is the political upside of reducing aid? The EU has gone so heavily in support of Ukraine that a Russian victory will have immense political downside.
So the question from here isn’t so much motivation, it’s foresight. As @ArthurD rightfully rants about, there has been minimal industrial scale up. This is especially true in the armoured vehicle space, the EU stocks are now reasonably slim and new vehicles aren’t being ordered at scale. Training on F-16 will take 4-6 months, so ideally happens before a decision is made.
I can’t remember which source had the idea, but a very powerful signal to Russia would be bringing 90k Ukrainian recruits to the US and building a NATO standard army from scratch. Message that they will be on the ground in the back end of the year with a full set of tanks and IFVs, along with 6 months of intensive training. It is a force surge that would force Russia to the negotiating table before the troops arrived in theatre.
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I don’t think the US is pouring $500 mil into that one plant. There’s a whole range of plants that are getting love. The entire industry is getting an overhaul.
Also, there’s nothing stopping the Scranton site from building a parallel modern production line while the older less efficient line is running. Keep both while demand is high and mothball the labour intensive line when demand drops.
Edit - just re-read the article and there’s nothing controversial there. They’ve put on extra shifts in the current plant. Looking at a new production line there. Building other new higher efficiency automated plants elsewhere. It’s pretty bread and butter industry expansion talk.
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Train them in Poland near the Belarusian border
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