Do people enjoy my random thoughts about stuff here? In part this is the war thread. But like... What community should they go to if not? Tank and missile stuff can be in guns (and also presumably guns), if its more general military maybe technology? I just like mechanical systems and gushing about them. :(

Tinubu Directs Opening Of Nigeria’s Land, Air Borders With Niger Republic, Lifting Of Other Sanctions: https://saharareporters.com/2024/03/13/breaking-tinubu-directs-opening-nigerias-land-air-borders-niger-republic-lifting-other

This is different from ECOWAS lifting sanctions back in February.

"A Faster Rearmament": Danish Regime Puts Warfare Over Welfare

Increased use of forced military service as well as lavish arms purchases at the expense of social services are claimed to be necessary to deter imagined Russian threat.

Isolating Israel will hurt the world more than it will hurt Israel (Warning: Do not handle copium of this purity without proper personal protection): https://archive.is/GNNAW

Look no further than that august international body known as the United Nations, the majority of whose members are not in agreement with either the United States or with Western world ideals. They cannot possibly, by extension, understand or sympathize with Israel.

In the 1960’s, the G77 was created. Their common denominator was that each member country was either a former colony or a very poor developing country or both. Today they number 134 nations and are the largest block in the UN. They were the force behind UN resolution 3379 on November 10, 1975, proclaiming that Zionism is Racism.

Israel may be isolated, but Israel will soldier on. It is the world that will suffer the greater loss – of that, I have no doubt.

Japan's Space One inurgural rocket go boom

Twitter seems very invested and excited by a drone destroying a parked military helicopter in Transnistria right now. I'm fuzzy on exactly what this achievement is supposed to represent, but some of the usual flag emoji twitter are acting like it's some great historical moment and proof of Ukraine's pivot to victory.

the Jordan Peterson yelling at Elmo (newest one) isn't real :(

Russia apperently hit a Jackpot in Odessa

there are roumors of it beeing a "Double tap" strike tho , meaning you strike the same place again , to kill the Helpers , which to be clear, is a warcrime .

I see your Lawrence Eagleburger and raise you Klon Kitchen: https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/1768024485775442091

"Imagine you woke up tomorrow morning and you saw a news report that China had distributed 100 million sensors around the United States... That's precisely what TikTok is," Klon Kitchen, who worked in the U.S. intelligence community, said in 2020.

I've always felt that Portuguese people are more likely than even the average European to be some kind of fascist but it's based largely on vibes. Is there any fairness to that?

A military lobbyist organisation called "People and Security" is planning to distribute a pamphlet named "What If?" to all Danish households. The pamphlet details how households can prepare to weather crisis situations for a week.

Inhabitants of the island of Bornholm in the Baltic sea will be the first to receive the pamphlet as the island is seen as more vulnerable and experienced blackouts due to the failure of underseas power cables last year.

From random twitter interaction:

In terms of pricing, yes, trading around a plot of land without developing it does create “value”.

lmao literally acknowledging that it's not actually value while claiming it is.

Edit:

Look you can in theory extrapolate everything to human work, however...

lmao

British wunderwaffe not doing so well after encountering mud (archived)

from the fucking Sun of all places (although most of the article is fawning about it, not sure how these bits slipped through, like it's literally an article titled "UP FOR THE CHALLENGE" and then halfway through it's like "yeah, it sinks in mud and breaks down all the time and we can't even get the spare parts")

But Kayfarick said the downside was the Challenger’s size and weight. At 64 tons it is roughly the same as a German Leopard 2 and a US Abrams M1A2 — but 20 tons heavier than a Russian T-80 and with a 30 per cent lower power-to-weight ratio. Despite its 26litre V12 diesel engine producing a whopping 1,200 horsepower, the crews in Ukraine said the Challenger 2 struggled with mobility. The squadron’s chief engineer, who uses the call sign Chol, said: “There are pluses and minuses with everything, and the minus is its mobility — its ability to manoeuvre across ground. “They keep getting stuck in the mud because it is so heavy.”

note that the ones in British service with all of the armor upgrades installed are 75 tons, so uh, that doesn't bode well

The crew invited The Sun to clamber aboard and we sat on the turret as the Challenger 2 roared over the countryside and its gun circled round the clock. But we soon saw what the soldiers meant about mobility when it sank into a bog. Kayfarick blasted the rookie crew for going too slowly though a gully, though they said they only went slowly for fear of bucking us off.

...

But the Challenger squadron revealed to The Sun that only seven of the 14 tanks donated in March 2023 are still fighting fit. Besides the one which was destroyed by a Lancet suicide drone in September — luckily the crew survived and the tank’s burnt-out hull was recovered — another was assigned to a training unit elsewhere in Ukraine. Two others were damaged in battle but have since been repaired, including one that had its barrel replaced.

But a bigger problem is reliability. Five have broken down and Kayfarick said spare parts from Britain sometimes take months to arrive and he had a shortage of skilled mechanics to keep the hardware fighting fit. He said: “It takes a long time to get spares. The logistics are very complex, at this end and your end.” And he revealed that a chronic shortage of fresh soldiers on the front lines meant trained tank crew had been removed from their vehicles in order to dig trenches for the infantry. Kayfarick said rubber pads on the tanks’ tracks and the wheels kept on wearing out. He said: “The parts in the turret and the parts of precision aiming are also not so long-lasting. They have been breaking from the start.”

the start of the article (which I've skipped in the quotes here) is all about how amazingly precise the cannon is, except it turns out the parts needed for that break really fast, nice

...

Kayfarick said the Challenger 2 did not have the right type of ammunition for attacking infantry. ... He added that he feared commanders had failed to grasp that Nato tanks were built for different roles from Soviet ones. He said: “Soviet tanks are battle machines built for multiple tasks. British and Nato tanks are mostly about sniping — tank versus tank.” Kayfarick and his crews were in the UK last winter training with British tank crews. But he said Ukraine’s top brass were torn between “the completely different approach of the Soviet school and the Nato school of fighting.” He said: “The main problem for Challenger 2s on the battle ground is a commander who doesn’t understand what it was designed for, what are its pros and cons.”

love to make a tank that costs over 4 million bucks and yet is also a highly specialized delicate little thing that can only ever do one job

Just a heads up that the latest (mar 14) entry on moon of Alabama is transphobic

I used to watch Sasuke vs Danzo as a teen imagining myself as Sasuke and Danzo as Allen Dulles. Making him pay for his crimes against Guatemala.