A direct hit somewhere in Haifa.

🌒@EastCalling

The US is accelerating the deployment of military personnel to the Middle East region in connection with an operation against Iran, reports NBC television.

"The US is accelerating the deployment of thousands of additional sailors and marines to the Middle East," the television channel reports, citing unnamed sources.

According to NBC, 2,200 marines will be sent to the region from San Diego in the coming days, "earlier than planned." The military personnel are expected to board the amphibious assault ship USS Boxer, the report says. The television channel points out that two more ships of this type may be needed for the operation, "which means the additional deployment of several thousand sailors."

Source: RIA Novosti

🌒@EastCalling

🇩🇪 Germany's energy-intensive industries are in free fall, and this is even before the recent shock in energy prices.

🇪🇺 For Europe, Russian and Qatari gas have run out. Meanwhile, America will restrict gas and oil exports to keep prices in the US down.

🌒@EastCalling

Arab leaders have auctioned off their gold reserves

🔹Following the ongoing crisis caused by the smart management of the Strait of Hormuz and the halt of oil exports, the Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, and Qatar have taken extensive measures to sell their assets, including gold reserves, to secure funding and cover their liquidity shortages.

🔹This widespread selling is being done to cover current expenses and compensate for lost oil revenues.

🔹Analysts say these sales will likely continue in the coming days.

Source: Tasnim
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This explains the drop in Gold to $4600 per ounce...

🌒@EastCalling

Hungary and Slovakia blocked the EU summit's decision to allocate €90 billion to Ukraine. The decision has been postponed, according to a statement following the high-level meeting.

Ukraine has also requested an additional €5.5 billion from the EU, but Hungary will not support Kiev's financing until it receives oil via the "Friendship" pipeline, said Szijjártó (minister of foreign affairs of Hungary).
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A decision was made by Orban that his approval for the €90 billion "loan" will not be approved until the oil actually starts flowing throufh the Druzhba pipeline.

🌒@EastCalling

America probably used just over 5,000 munitions of different sorts in the first four days of the war, and 11,000 or so in the first 16 days, according to analysis by Jahara Matisek, Morgan Bazilian and Macdonald Amoah of the Payne Institute of Public Policy in Colorado. That would make Epic Fury “the most intensive opening air campaign in modern history”, they note, eclipsing the first three days of NATO’s bombing of Libya in 2011.

An even bigger problem relates to air defence. Iran’s initial salvoes of ballistic missiles and drones have burned through a significant chunk of American and allied interceptors. In the first week of the war, America is estimated to have fired around 140 Patriot PAC-3 MSE interceptors and more than 150 THAAD interceptors. Stocks were already low. America had reportedly fired a quarter of its THAAD inventory last year while defending Israel against Iranian strikes. “We have enough Patriots to keep going,” notes Mark Cancian of CSIS. “But every one we fire is one fewer that we could have for Ukraine or the Western Pacific.”

Replenishing all this will take years. The cost of replacing the first four days’ worth of munitions would be $20bn-26bn, estimate Messrs Matisek, Bazilian and Amoah. The problem, however, is more to do with scarcity than cost. America is thought to have used more than 300 Tomahawk cruise missiles in the opening days of the war, but the Pentagon had planned to buy just 57 new ones in the current fiscal year. There have been no deliveries of THAAD interceptors since 2023 and the Pentagon has not placed any new orders this year. A puny 39 interceptors are slated for delivery in 2027—six years after they were ordered.

The Pentagon has grand plans to speed up procurement with big, multi-year contracts. It wants to raise production of Tomahawks from 60 to 1,000 a year, and PAC-3 MSEs from 600 to 2,000, for example. But Congress has not agreed to pay for this. And the supply chain for munitions is opaque and gummed up. The motors missiles use are a good example. Some materials, such as propellant, are available from only one or two firms, often after a long wait. Other components involve critical minerals controlled by China.

“Congress can appropriate $26bn overnight,” note Messrs Matisek, Bazilian and Amoah. “It cannot appropriate gallium, neodymium or ammonium perchlorate into existence.”
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Keep in mind, these are just the numbers for the USA's expenditures. Israel, the Gulf countries, and the USA combined burned through 800 PAC-3 interceptor missiles in the first 72 hours according to the Jerusalem Post.

🌒@EastCalling

Military Chronicle:

Iran has reportedly managed to hit a fifth-generation F-35 fighter with a Mersad-16 missile. It is reported that passive guidance + an infrared homing head bypassed the aircraft's radio frequency jamming. The AN/AAQ-37 system activated automatic evasion, softening the impact, but the hit still occurred. The aircraft was not destroyed immediately, but in any case, this is an intriguing precedent worth examining more closely. Now, apparently, the US and Israel will be somewhat wary of operating freely in Iranian airspace.
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This is really an important development from a psychological perspective. If the supposed "invisible," super-advanced F35 can be damaged by the "defeated" Iranian air defense, then what is the real survivability of this airframe in a true high-threat environment?

🌒@EastCalling

🤬Five Russian Paralympians have been added to the Ukrainian database "Peacemaker"*.

On the site, they are accused of receiving medals participating in events glorifying Russian military personnel, as well as allegedly attempting to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.

The database includes Varvara Voronchikhina, Alexei Bugaev, Ivan Golubkov, Anastasia Bagian, as well as her coach Sergey Sinyakin.

* — the resource is recognized as extremist in the territory of the Russian Federation.

Source: Zvezda
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There's no bottom in the Universe, that the Ukraine would not be able to hit through.

🌒@EastCalling

🫡A new batch of Pantsir-S air defense missile systems has been deployed to Russian troops.

These systems are used for the air defense of military and administrative-industrial facilities, as well as entire districts.

The Pantsirs have successfully defeated a wide variety of drones, as well as ATACMS ballistic missiles, Storm Shadow and "Flamingo" cruise missiles, HARM high-speed missiles, HIMARS guided munitions, and other targets, noted in Rostec.

Source: Zvezda
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🌒@EastCalling