Archive through December 17, 2024
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Non-Game Discussions: Real-World Military:
Archive through December 17, 2024
Wait until Israel sinks a bunch of ships with Iranian flags...
Mike, to be honest, I am a little surprised that hasn’t happened.
The Biden administration has been pressuring Israel not to touch any Iranian oil infrastructure so as to not cause any global shortages of crude and subsequent fuel price increases.
A similar policy has been in effect in the Ukrainian theater as well.
--Mike
From WSJ Sunday:
Bases on Syria’s Mediterranean coast—the naval facility in Tartus, which Russia leased for 49 years in 2017 and the airfield at Khmeimim—are crucial for Russia’s ability to project its authority in the Middle East and Africa, where it is participating in far-flung conflicts in Libya, Sudan, Central African Republic, Mali and Niger.
--Mike
FYEO a year or more ago said that Iran was reinforcing its eastern border to prevent Afghanistan incursions.
It does seem the majority of "Terrorist" Organizations are on the opposite side of the Muslim issue....
One Major incursion, seems to be the transport of Heroin through/into Iran.....
So is Israel right to sieze 'temporarily'* the rest of the Golan Heights and attack an awful lot of Syrian bases?**
* - Temporary might become permanent and the various request by the West to respect Syrian's intergrity (no doubt to stop Turkey grabbing large areas???) isn't starting well.
** - Poltically - who are they attacking?? Not sure what Syrian Army units will be told to do??
Hand in the air - eveything is moving so quickly and the UK government already seems to gone from 'wanting to talk to HTS in the near future to not wanting to talk to HTS in the near future'. So a reasonable decision on what to do this morning might be a bad decision by this evening - or the other way around.
The attacks on the Syrian bases are so that weapon stockpiles (including chemical weapons) don't fall into the wrong hands, now that they have been abandoned by the Syrian Army.
Israel is right to protect its citizens from bad actors. How long would England tolerate daily rocket attacks from Wales?
HTS freeing political prisoners...
Have to wonder what the Kurds will do
with the ISIS POWs they are guarding...
Don't see that ending with a Human Rights award....
SVC
I agree - bu the 'Bad actors' are surely* the previous government?
* - Accepting we don't know if HTS is better or worse that the previous regime.
I think Israel is just taking the opportunity to smash as much Syrian equipment as they can - but will it leave Syria unable to fend over any ISIS, Turkish, Kurdish, Iraqi or new Israeli incursions?
(Jordan could be incuded in that list, but probably fair to say they don't want to get involved in anthing).
Which as others have mentioned - will Syria break up with a new Civil War, like Libya?
The bad actors are the ones firing rockets. If the new management stops firing rockets then that's a plus. Rockets have been fired by Iranian proxies in the last few days of the ousted regime.
It is being reported that russian infantry in Ukraine are being told to simply freeze in place and not move when drones are about in the hopes that the drone operator does not notice them. I've seen two videos of russian soldiers standing totally still and taking no action to defend themselves as suicide FPV drones fly right into them and kill with grenade explosions. In one video two soldiers were standing on a road through open fields, no cover or concealment nearby, but they didn't even lie prone in the field hoping that their camo would help. It was shocking. It seems like the russians have learned to be helpless or something.
Well, the problem is the Russians are slow to assign the experienced veterans to be trainers. And they have basically no NCO corps to pass on knowledge.
I wonder how many enlisted in the Russian Ground forces have been in for more than 5 years? 5%? That isn't even enough for all platoon Sgts to be veterans...
The former Syrian Assad regime made it a point to keep the Israeli border calm. Israel destroyed lots of Syrian heavy weapons to keep them out of the hands of terrorists. The new regime is part of Isis and ask quaeda. The destroyed heave weapons would not be all that important to a government doing legitimate business.
I hope this doesn't violate the `Gator subject line, but I've been hearing reports of masses of drones flying over parts of the Eastern U.S. Seaboard area; drones that some believe may be controlled by folks who aren't friendly with the U.S.
Much of the chatter I've heard was about how to stop them, particularly over populated areas. Given that they might not be hostile, and even if they are, the talk about shotgun armed drones makes me worry about all the pellets that could easily end up injuring innocent people on the ground.
Me being, well, "Me," I wonder about a sugar dropper. Drop the sugar used to make cotton candy over the fans and motors of the drones in question. Gum them up and force them to land and, if the drop misses the intended target, it's biodegradable and harmless to the environment.
If the folks behind them aren't hostile, yeah, they'll take some cleaning, but unless the plummet, they shouldn't be damaged all that bad. If the folks behind them ARE hostile, well, we have a better chance of taking them undamaged for analysis.
Has anyone else heard anything about these, and what are y'all's feelings about this?
Oh, and Webmom? If this DOES violate the `Gator lists, I do apologize and ask that this post be flushed along with the cotton candy... 
You do realize you are discussing removing from the NAS (National Air Space) aircraft, right? This is the same as discussing how to bring down a commercial airliner. Size does not make it different.
Having been involved in the UAV industry for five plus years, even a 5kg aircraft falling from 300 feet will leave a very large dent in the ground. I have seen it.
There are ways to bring down a true UAV, but those methods are controlled by the FAA and FCC to just alphabet agencies.
Having said that, most of the video I have seen of the "Drones all over the sky" videos have been manned aircraft going about the private use of the NAS from my experience.
Some in the UAV industry are supposing this is all related to the upcoming NDAA legislation in Congress to severely limit the manufacturers of certain UAVs in the NAS.
There are several different groups affected here, some examples (but not all) include;
1. Commercial aircraft, including cargo and passenger types.
2. Civil aviation, small passenger aircraft, including jet powered, turboprop, propeller, gliders, hot air ballon, rigid and non rigid lighter than aircraft, auto gyro craft
3. Recreation craft, that can include drones, kit planes, kites, weather balloon, tethered lighter than air craft (variety of roles some are approved and others pending approval from various agencies)
4. Other. (Conspiracy theorists mainly, UFO, aliens, spy craft from foreign nations), and anything unexplained but technically still terrestrial in nature such as swamp gas, auroras, meteorite, ect.
5. New generation of transonic passenger aircraft, (think of it as a modernized Concord).
The last point Mike Curtis raised above is the elephant in the room.
***in theory *** the reason this may be a serious topic is, there are several corporations that have a vested interest in changing just how tha National Air Space(NAS) is allocated.
One is the use of drones, particularly those drones for which a marketable service is involved, such as package delivery.
A second is the actual commercial deployment of “flying cars”. Sounds like science fiction, but there are a number of companies that are developing flying vehicles using battery and drone technology to sell to the general public.
A third, is the use of tethered lighter than air craft for telecommunications purposes. (One idea is to replace a number of ground towers with a tether site that supports a LTA blimp tethered at a height much higher than a ground tower can reach.). Ground towers can vary from a couple of hundred feet to 500 or more(depending on materials, foundation, design etc.)
Forth, is changing the existing transonic aircraft rules dating back to the Concord type. The modern designs (none of which have been approved for domestic service) are said to be quieter and more friendly to the environment than the original concord design.
None of these things are currently in place, but when they are ready, the NAS would require massive changes to accommodate the increase of objects in flight.
Bottom line, of course, is money.
It seems obvious to me that the real ones (not the misidentified ones) are operated by Chinese spies.
To step to the edge of the swamp, I have heard Fox News repeatedly say that Donald Trump is the only person to be honored twice as person of the year. This is just not true:
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1932, 1934, 1941);
Winston Churchill (1940, 1950);
Harry S. Truman (1945, 1948);
Lyndon B. Johnson (1964, 1967);
Richard Nixon (1971, 1972);
Ronald Reagan (1980, 1983);
Bill Clinton (1992, 1998);
George W. Bush (2000, 2004);
Barack Obama (2008, 2012);
Donald Trump (2016, 2024).
Maybe they meant "only one to be on the cover twice" BUT that's not true either by a long shot (and Trump has been 3 times).
Just waiting to see who puts forth his Fifth Nobel Peace Prize nomination.....
I believe that the "masses of drones" don't exist. One person literally posted online identifying the constellation Orion as drones. People simply don't know what is up in their own sky. It's War of The Worlds radio show mass hysteria all over again. Now, there have been reports of FPV drones operated by Chinese agents near sensitive locations, and in fact one such Chinese national was arrested trying to leave after doing that (saw a news article). But I'm highly skeptical of these "masses" of drones.
NON-POLITICAL UPDATE FOR PUBLIC AWARENESS
On "day one" (Jan 20) Pres-47 Trump will sign a bunch of executive actions. These exercise the discretion given the president within the law to set policy. Here is a list of what most analysts think you can expect.
1. Restore the "Remain in Mexico" policy. Lots of migrants show up and ask for "sanctuary from persecution". These must go before one of a bunch of immigration judges who usually reject 98% of them as "you aren't persecuted, you just want a better life, go home and apply for a green card." The problem is the six-month backlog to face the judge. With "remain in Mexico" they never enter the US and if rejected just go home. With the other policy (called "catch and release") they are given a court date and turned loose inside the US. 90% or more never show up for court and thus become "illegal" aliens which are hard to find.
2. Mass deportations: About 1.6 million rejected refugees were told to go home and just didn't leave. Rounding them up will be a chore. Another 1.5 million have criminal records back home and should have never been allowed in; rounding them up will be a dangerous chore. Another 100,000 or more have felony convictions in the US which is an automatic deportation but were released by local authorities. Rounding them up will be a dangerous chore. Then you have 20 million or so who are either rejected refugees or those who entered illegally and unknown to the US government. Rounding those up could be very difficult and considering that most of them have jobs, bad for the economy. But Trump will make a start.
3. Invoke the 1792 alien enemies act, deporting people from "enemy nations". This could be a chore.
4. Pull out of Paris Climate Accords. We all know what that is about.
5. Do something to speed permitting for domestic oil production.
6. Do away with the electric vehicle mandate, which is going to be impossible to meet due to production limits anyway.
7. Cut back on environmental regulations.
8. Impose tariffs on some countries that didn't respond to threats, threaten others with tariffs. Under Section 232 he can do this without Congress.
9. Pardons/commutations/dismissals for 90% of those Jan 6 people prosecuted, indicted, or jailed.
10. Restore Iran sanctions.
11. Order the Justice Department to fire Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, ending all Federal charges against Trump.
12. Begin to dismantle the so-called "deep state" of professional bureaucrats who carry out whatever policy they want to even if ordered to do otherwise. This will take months and some congressional action. It might involve firing some bureaucrats who defy orders, changing some jobs to political appointments, purging the intelligence services, reform FISA, declassifying documents, cracking down on leakers who try to embarrass the government into policy changes, making the inspector-general of every department/agency truly independent, moving lots of government jobs out of DC, banning Federal employees from getting jobs with companies they regulate, etc. Union rules will prevent Trump from ordering government employees to stop working from home but he might close some buildings or lease them to business.
13. Call for a constitutional convention to impose term limits on Congress. The people support this overwhelmingly; Congress would have to approve it so no such luck. This is not actually an "executive action".
14. Bring Hell down on HAMAS if they don't release US citizens held hostage.
15. Trump said he wanted to end birthright citizenship, the idea that any child born on US soil, even to a foreign tourist or illegal alien, is a US citizen. There is a theory of law accepted by many that only children of people who are in the country as citizens or resident green-card immigrants have this right, and Trump might try to impose it by "policy".
Again, I am just listing what he plans to do, not discussing if it's good or bad. There will be NO DISCUSSION HERE of whether it is good or bad. I just thought you might want to know what's likely to happen. There are a lot of rumors of other actions that don't have the kind of weight to them that makes them likely, but we will all be surprised. If anyone wants to make a comment, add an item, or anything else, feel free to email me. I might edit this list or I might ignore you.
I, for one, Hope that the new Administration will issue an executive order to ADB, restoring the Original Federation Flatbed CVA to the Star Fleet Battles Universe.
Just read an interesting online article from the Atlantic about the USA's military's lack of industrial capacity for a future war, or any long-term action:
"The Crumbling Foundation of America’s Military
The U.S. failed to produce weapons and ammunition fast enough to supply Ukraine. Could it equip its own armed forces in the event of war?"
By Mark Bowden
The SBU reminds me of Mossad.