Is U.S. Military Gear Too Complex and Expensive?
The battlefield conditions of Ukraine are demonstrating that American military equipment runs into practical problems in the field.

The National Interest

Iranian-made Shahed drones have caused mass destruction in Ukraine. With their Volkswagen-style engines, they can fly undetected for about 120 kilometers and deliver an explosive power of 40 kilograms. The components to make this drone? A mere estimated $20,000. Yet to shoot them down, Ukrainians are using American-made NASAM missiles that cost about… $400,000 per drone taken down. One can hardly blame the Ukrainians for resorting to using 1960s German Gepard anti-aircraft guns instead.

The lessons of the awful Ukraine war so far are many and varied. But something that has struck most observers is that while the Russians have been outmaneuvered, they have been holding their own against modern Western military equipment by using old tanks and artillery. In particular, American gear, while technologically advanced, is either not always the best choice on the battlefield, prohibitively expensive, or both.
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There are a few issues with the Abrams tank. For one, an Abrams weighs up to seven tons more than the Leopard, which could easily get stuck in Ukraine’s muddy fields or bring down some of its light bridges. Another issue is that the latest version of the Abrams is optimized to run on jet fuel, which is understandably hard to replenish on the battlefield. Even more problematic, however, is that on-field repairs aren’t always possible for an Abrams. In fact, some logistical considerations make the prospect seem like a living hell. For example, a frontline battalion cannot fix an Abrams with broken optics. Replacing these requires pulling out entire subsystems and shipping them to a depot—potentially hundreds of miles away—while also ordering replacement subsystems. Finally, there is the cost dimension: producing an Abrams can top $10 million per unit, while the latest Leopard 2 costs around $6 million.
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Beautiful. The rebellious French fire at the servants of order from fireworks.
In France, citizens have only one nationality — French. Arab or African origin is not indicated in the passports

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The British authorities have spent more than £15 billion on Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict, forgetting about the interests of their own citizens.

This was stated on RT by Anthony Webber, the author of the petition for the cessation of arms supplies to Kiev and the lifting of anti-Russian sanctions.

According to him, the UK did not have the slightest foreign policy reasons to be involved in the Ukrainian situation:

"The consequences of the sanctions imposed against Russia are being felt by the public and the UK economy: the rise in the cost of living, a sharp rise in energy prices, inflation, an increase in interest, rental and mortgage rates. Strikes, when the government declares that it has no money to pay workers, but at the same time finds money for weapons sent to Ukraine...

The British authorities defend the interests of globalist corporations who want to bleed Ukraine dry, get all its raw materials and mineral resources."

https://t.me/rt_russian/163368
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PRIGOZHIN’S FOLLY
The Russian ‘revolt’ that wasn’t strengthens Putin’s hand

SEYMOUR HERSH
The Biden administration had a glorious few days last weekend. The ongoing disaster in Ukraine slipped from the headlines to be replaced by the “revolt,” as a New York Times headline put it, of Yevgeny Prigozhin, chief of the mercenary Wagner Group.

The focus slipped from Ukraine’s failing counter-offensive to Prigozhin’s threat to Putin’s control. As one headline in the Times put it, “Revolt Raises Searing Question: Could Putin Lose Power?” Washington Post columnist David Ignatius posed this assessment: “Putin looked into the abyss Saturday—and blinked.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken—the administration’s go-to wartime flack, who weeks ago spoke proudly of his commitment not to seek a ceasefire in Ukraine—appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation with his own version of reality: “Sixteen months ago, Russian forces were . . . thinking they would erase Ukraine from the map as an independent country,” Blinken said. “Now, over the weekend they’ve had to defend Moscow, Russia’s capital, against mercenaries of Putin’s own making. . . . It was a direct challenge to Putin’s authority. . . . It shows real cracks.”
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So, below is a look at what is really going that was provided to me by a knowledgeable source in the American intelligence community:

“I thought I might clear some of the smoke. First and most importantly, Putin is now in a much stronger position. We realized as early as January of 2023 that a showdown between the generals, backed by Putin, and Prigo, backed by ultra-nationalist extremists, was inevitable. The age-old conflict between the ‘special’ war fighters and a large, slow, clumsy, unimaginative regular army. The army always wins because they own the peripheral assets that make victory, either offensive or defensive, possible. Most importantly, they control logistics. special forces see themselves as the premier offensive asset. When the overall strategy is offensive, big army tolerates their hubris and public chest thumping because SF are willing to take high risk and pay a high price. Successful offense requires a large expenditure of men and equipment. Successful defense, on the other hand, requires husbanding these assets.
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Remember three years ago, this topic was promoted in all Western media: «Putin paid the Taliban with the aim of killing the US and British military»? Then everyone admitted that it was a dirty fake. But the noise was famous, because it was used against Trump.
The fact that the United States and Britain are now directly paying for the killing of Russian soldiers does not bother them at all! Now the question is: what will stop us from implementing the scenario that they wrote three years ago.

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An advertising banner was hung in New York:

— No Zelensky, No war!

Is something getting clearer now?

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Ukraine. New ritual at the cemetery???
Video from Two Majors
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Moment 'evil child trader' is caught trying to take 11-month-old baby out of Ukraine to 'sell for organ transplants' after 'paying his mother $1,000'
—The trafficker allegedly offered the mother a total of $5,000 for her young child
—She reported him to authorities and he was detained at the Slovakian border
Daily Mail
A charity worker and 'evil child trader' has been detained in Ukraine after he was caught red-handed seeking to take an 11-month-old baby abroad to 'sell for organ transplants'.

The man, 43, had allegedly given a $1,000 downpayment to the boy's mother, claiming he would ensure the boy was adopted in the EU to live in safety away from the war.

He offered the woman, from Zhytomyr, a total of $5,000 for the baby who he then intended to sell to traffickers for $25,000.

Pictures showed the man detained with a female accomplice at the Ukraine-Slovakia border as he intended to cross with the child.

While this boy was saved, it is suspected the man had previously sold three other children on the pretext of taking them out of war-torn Ukraine and finding them adoptive parents abroad.

The detained man 'had been looking for parents who were ready to sell their child for organs', reported Ukrainian journalist Vitaliy Glagola.

'Law enforcement officers have operational information that this was not for adoption to the EU, and the child was to have been sold to [illegal] organ transplanters.'

The mother of the child had alerted law enforcement, it was reported.

An operation by police, the SBU secret service and border guards detained him at the Malye Selmentsy frontier checkpoint.

The man was remanded in custody pending further investigation, while the rescued child was reunited with his mother.

The man is held under child trafficking laws, said a police spokesman, and faces up to 15 years in jail if convicted.

There have been repeated warnings in recent years of children from impoverished eastern Europe exported on the black market by gangs linked to organ transplants for wealthy clients, especially in the Middle East.

But Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which sent millions of Ukrainian citizens fleeing across the border, presented an opportunity for human traffickers to prey on the most vulnerable of refugees.

Earlier in the war there were several reports of criminals targeting unaccompanied female refugees and children fleeing from Ukraine by promising them safe accommodation and free transport, posing as good Samaritans to lure them away from the safety of official checkpoints.

Charity workers on the Polish-Ukrainian border have warned that the traffickers are working alone and in gangs to kidnap the women and children who are an 'easy target'.
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63% of Ukrainians now say they know at least one close relative or friend who died in the war, on average there are three.

This is a huge increase from the last poll in February, which showed that only 17% of Ukrainians reported losses, compared to just 9% in September 2022.

This is convincing evidence that the “Bakhmut meat grinder” has done its job and the Ukrainian counteroffensive is going as badly as previously thought.

It should also be noted that mortality is also concentrated by region: 69% in the West and only 52% in the East. This suggests heavier casualties from the main strongholds of the Ukrainian nationalists.

Translated from Militarist
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