According to the documentary movie, "Roving Mars," Spirit and Opportunity had/have heaters for their batteries; Martian nights are VERY cold.

Same method/technology can be used for drones in Greenland.

Also, in one of the BBC documentary series, either Human Planet (the episode on people in the arctic) or Frozen Planet, there's a segment on a Greenland dog sled patrol team. I recommend it, if it's something in which you're interested.

The two can provide a view of both aspects of this debate...

By Ryan Opel (Ryan) on Monday, December 30, 2024 - 11:53 am: Edit

Or you use gas powered drones. Which is what you need for long range surveillance, battery operated drones are good for short range and FPV attack drones.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Monday, December 30, 2024 - 11:56 am: Edit

Greenland is part of Denmark. Denmark is part of NATO.

'nuff said

And how exactly is China going to get there? They haven't even managed to get to Taiwan...

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Monday, December 30, 2024 - 12:00 pm: Edit

Jimmy Carter dead at age 100. Former POTUS and nuclear submariner.

I'm not a fan of his presidency, but am a huge fan of him as a person. I'd have happily shared a beer or two with him.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, December 30, 2024 - 12:55 pm: Edit

Mike Grafton:

They BUY their way in. Just like they did in Panama.

There are already Chinese operated bases, one on each ocean coast.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Monday, December 30, 2024 - 02:48 pm: Edit

President Carter was recognized with the Nobel Peace Prize for his negotiations of the Camp David Peace Accords between Egypt and Israel; an agreement that was the first of its kind between Israel and ANY predominantly Islamic nation.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, December 30, 2024 - 03:21 pm: Edit

President Carter was the best ex-President we ever had. What he did for Habitat for Humanity alone earned him respect.

By Mike Erickson (Mike_Erickson) on Monday, December 30, 2024 - 04:22 pm: Edit

>> Camp David Peace Accords between Egypt and Israel

This was, in hindsight, so valuable since it paved the way for future peace deals (of different levels) between Israel and other ME and NA states.

--Mike

By Paul Howard (Raven) on Tuesday, December 31, 2024 - 04:22 am: Edit

As others have mentioned, I would guess the Greenlanders know what works well and and what doesn't?

Drones may well be also able to cover a larger area - but if someone doesn't stay in one place to be removed - people on the ground are still needed.

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Tuesday, December 31, 2024 - 08:14 am: Edit

SeeDragon missiles launched from a naval drone have destroyed one Mi-8 helicopter and damaged another in the Black Sea. russia has been using the helicopters to protect their ships IIUC. It's fun to laugh at the russians for losing to a nation that has no navy to speak of, but I think this really emphasizes what a difficult environment the littoral is for navies these days. The US Navy's Littoral Combat Ships may have failed, but there's still a problem here that needs urgent solution IMO

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Tuesday, December 31, 2024 - 10:53 am: Edit

I think there're a type of waterborne drones; boats built on Zodiac type craft, loaded with cameras and packing a machine gun and maybe a couple small missiles themselves.

Navalized Stingers, perhaps? Make `em resistant to salt water?

Small and (relatively) inexpensive, these can be used as an (expendable?) picket boat, just like we used Destroyers for against the Kamikazes.

(Y'know, with all of this "Drone vs. Drone" stuff, our modern world is starting to sound like a Kzinti Civil War!! )

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, December 31, 2024 - 04:14 pm: Edit

MSM site did an interview segment with a public policy advocacy head, one of whose main concern was China deploying troops at various “choke points”, some of which included Iceland, Greenland and Panama.

People are often right to be skeptical about various conspiracy theories, but here is a case of physical proof being revealed That established that China is indeed pre positioning troops and equipment.

The thing about Panama and its canal, is China doesn’t need, and perhaps doesn’t want the canal. All China has need of, is the ability to damage or destroy (I am using the word to describe ‘mission kill’) the canal.

In one stoke, China cripples the U.S. economy by delaying delivery (forcing delay or detour) of that portion of U.S. GDP (gross domestic product) that uses the panama canal.

China could, in theory, damage or destroy the locks. Or even (I hope this is far fetched…but) detonate a dirty bomb in the canal zone. As stated before, 70% of the trade the uses the canal starts on one or the other U.S. coast, transits the canal, only to finish its voyage at a port on the other coast.

But the interview did not end there. It was revealed that China had been negotiating for a base at the southern most point of Chile.

while we can’t discuss the person who is working to raise this issue of national security, we should at the least, recognize that China appears to be taking steps, in the event of war with the USA, to cripple the US economy.

The point about Chile, is a ground base with batteries of anti ship missiles is in a good tactical position to attack any or all freighters detoured around south america as a result of an attack on the Panama Canal.

Sounds like a plot for an old Tom Clancy novel.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Tuesday, December 31, 2024 - 06:40 pm: Edit

Russian Mediterranean naval ships have now been based at Bengazi, Libya.

Since the loss of the basing rights in Syria earlier in December, the Russian Mediterranean Squadron(or fleet as the MSM calls it) the Russians have had to scramble to continue supporting all of the Russian activities they have in Africa.

No details have been provided as to terms or other details.

By Mike Grafton (Mike_Grafton) on Wednesday, January 01, 2025 - 11:40 am: Edit

Which faction in Libya? Because IIUC the country is split between 2 major factions.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Wednesday, January 01, 2025 - 01:01 pm: Edit

Report did not say.

Given Putins track record of decisions, the senior officer of the squadron might have to make the best deal he can.

By Georgeqth on Friday, January 03, 2025 - 12:37 pm: Edit

Authentication Error

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, January 06, 2025 - 02:38 pm: Edit

There was a, well I suppose you could call it a tank duel almost a year ago in Ukraine.

Ukrainian city of AHV-dee-iv-ka (Avdiivka).

Russians were defending the captured village with a single T-90M tank. (Reports differ, some indicate the tank was armed with a 120mm, main tank gun, others claim it was 125mm.)

The Ukrainian forces initially included three Bradly APC, each armed with a variety weapons, but reports all agree that the turret weapons were 25mm chain guns.

In theory, the T-90M should have won hands down, end of story.

The videos keep getting reposted and have accumulated huge numbers.

You are all able to view it yourselves, but the general conclusions are:

1) one of the Ukrainian Bradley APC retired early, reporting “a problem.” No further description.
2) the T-90M got off numerous rounds from its main gun, all missed.
3) the Bradlys managed to disable the T-90M optical and electronic targeting systems. And continued hammering the T-90M with the 25mm gun rounds.

This may have happened before, but it appears to be an example of a “Mission Killed” Tank not willing to retreat. And the Ukrainian units didn’t have the proper weapon to kill A T-90M outright.

I could be wrong, but I believe this occurred in the eastern part of Ukraine, possibly in or nearthe Donbass region.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, January 06, 2025 - 03:13 pm: Edit

Murphy's Law: Felon Fighter Suspended
January 6, 2025: Russia has abandoned its 29-ton twin engine Su-57 Felon project after only 32 prototype and pre-production aircraft were built. This was another effort to build a stealth fighter to match the American F-22 and F-35. In the 1980s Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi began development of what eventually became the Su-57. Rival manufacturer MiG also developed a stealth fighter but their proposal was rejected as too little, too late. Sukhoi had another stealth fighter, the Su-75 Checkmate, in development. First flight was supposed to be in 2024 but after the Ukraine War sanctions began to damage Russia’s economy that date was moved to 2027. Now, with sanctions operating at full force, development of the Su-57 is also stalled.
In 2021 Sukhoi introduced the Su-75, a 26-ton single engine stealth fighter nicknamed Checkmate. Sukhoi displayed a mockup of the Su-75, which is apparently the Russian answer to the similar American F-35. Su-75 is being developed by the same team that designed the Su-57, the Russian answer to the American F-22. The Su-57 proved to be a failure as an F-22 competitor. The Su-75 appears to be a desperate move to salvage something from all the money spent on developing the Su-57.
The Su-75 was supposed to make its first flight in 2023 but that was continually delayed until development was suspended in 2024 before the Su-75 could make its first takeoff and test flight. This means it is doubtful that the Su-75 will enter production until several years after the Ukraine War ends. There were plans for an unmanned version, without a cockpit, and thus cheaper to build. Russia already has the S-70, a combat drone that was recently rejected because of several testing failures. Because of the Ukraine War and poor performance of existing Su-34s and 35s, it is unlikely that the Su-75 will find any export customers and the Russian air force may not be willing to buy any either.
Over Ukraine, Russian combat aircraft established a record of poor performance in combat. That led to canceled export orders. This is not a sudden development and has been a problem for a long time. After the Cold War ended in 1991, the Russian government was no longer able to purchase large numbers of combat aircraft. After 1991 many state-owned firms were privatized, and a lot of defense manufacturers disappeared because they had nothing to sell that anyone wanted. Two exceptions were Sukhoi, which manufactured several Su models and MiG which only had one major product, the MiG-29 fighter, that was considered inferior to similar Sukhoi aircraft. For over twenty years the government has been desperately trying to keep the MiG company viable but failed. Until the Ukraine debacle Sukhoi still seemed viable but now Sukhoi is headed for the same fate as MiG.
FYEO

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, January 06, 2025 - 03:13 pm: Edit

Warplanes: Ukrainian Drones Forever
January 6, 2025: Last year Ukraine established the Unmanned Systems Force or USF. Ukraine built 1.5 million drones in 2024 and a smaller number in 2025 because more long range drones were needed. This organization does not control the drones Ukrainian forces use regularly but instead develops new drone models and organizes mass production for those new models that are successful. NATO countries are producing drones and sending them to Ukraine. Drones have been an unexpected development that had a huge impact on how battles in Ukraine's current war are fought. Drones were successful because they were cheap, easily modified, and expendable.
The longer range drones enable Ukraine to strike targets deep inside Russia. These attacks now include drones dropping guided bombs from one kilometer altitude. This way the bombs can glide for long distances and strike Russian targets unexpectedly.
All this has been catastrophic for Russia, which denies that the Ukrainian drones are doing much damage and that Russia shoots most of them down. The truth, as revealed by satellite photos, and FPV videos released by Ukraine and some Russian soldiers shows major damage inside Russia. On the internet, WhatsApp sometimes shows these attacks in real time.
FYEO

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, January 06, 2025 - 03:14 pm: Edit

Procurement: Russian Budget Catastrophe
January 5, 2025: January 5, 2025: Three years after invading Ukraine, the Russian defense budget has turned into a monster devastating the economy. This crisis has been brewing since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The increased defense spending and the years of economic sanctions have deformed the economy as more is spent on weapons and military needs. This displaces production of civilian goods. High casualties in Ukraine plus the millions of men who left Russia to avoid military service have caused a labor shortage.
Military spending also reveals another Russian tradition, corruption in military procurement Corruption is less tolerated and more frequently punished in the civilian economy. Military production does not directly impact civilians and their lives.
Now that there is more military spending, corrupt officials are getting rich while the soldiers get shoddy equipment. In the case of winter clothing procured for the soldiers, a lot of that ends up on the black market while the troops go without and the military procurement officials get rich. During the first winter of the war, Russian soldiers overcame these shortages by plundering the Ukrainian economy for cold weather clothing. By the second year of the war that source had dried up and Russian soldiers stayed warm anyway they could, or via winter clothing mailed them by their families.
The cause of all this woe is the escalating expense of the war in Ukraine. The defense budget for 2023 was $75.2 billion while 2024’s was $115 billion. For 2025 it will be $140 billion followed by $128 billion in 2026 and $126.6 billion in 2027. In 2023 Russia expected its 2024 government revenue to be a record $349 billion, but instead it was $450 billion. Because of the ailing economy there is less to tax and government budgets are constricting. With rising defense spending these is less left for pensions and other social welfare programs as well as maintain and expanding infrastructure, Less money for roads, canals, ports and railways contributed to the collapse of the Russian railroad system, Sanctions halted the supply of ball bearings for rail cars and now thousands of these rail cars are useless. This year may see a collapse of the railroad system, which will cause an economic collapse. The government is frantically seeking a solution to their transportation crises while pretending to Russia and the world that the situation is under control.
FYEO

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, January 06, 2025 - 03:15 pm: Edit

Warplanes: Stealth Drone Disappointment
January 5, 2025: In late 2024 Russia sent one of their new Su-57 stealth fighters into Ukraine accompanied by an S-70 Okhotnik-B stealth drone. The Su-57 pilot was controlling the drone and tested the concept of drones acting as what the USAF calls Loyal Wingman for jet fighters. The SU-57 pilot lost control of the drone and shot it down to prevent it from being captured by the Ukrainians. The pilot then called for a missile strike on the S-70 wreckage to prevent anyone gathering wreckage and determining what the S-70 was built of. This did not work because Ukrainians were able to gather drone components that were blown far from the crash site as well as components still near the crash site despite the missile strike.
FYEO

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, January 06, 2025 - 03:17 pm: Edit

Attrition: Iranian Crossroads
January 3, 2025: Since the 1980s Iran has spent nearly $20 billion to establish and maintain a presence in Syria and Lebanon. In the last few months of 2024 all that was lost, along with billions of dollars’ worth of weapons factories and air defense systems. Now all that is gone and Iran has nothing to show for it. In early December Abu Mohammed al-Golani led a force of several thousand armed men and quickly conquered most of Syria in a few days; all but Kurdish-held areas which insist only on some degree of to-be-negotiated local autonomy. Bashar al-Assad, the former ruler of Syria escaped with his family to Russia where he was granted asylum. It’s winter in Moscow and, while the reception was warm, the Assad family found itself trapped in the land of snow, ice and a heavily sanctioned economy.
The Assads were sent to Russia because they ignored what was going in in their northwestern Idlib province. There Islamic terrorist group HTS had quietly evolved into an army of disciplined soldiers under the command of former Islamic terrorist Abu Muhammad Al-Golani. Most of Syria’s surviving Islamic terrorists, anti-Assad rebels and their families had held out in Idlib for almost ten years. Efforts by the Turks, who had to feed millions of Syrian refugees in Turkey, to get HTS, the dominant Islamic terrorist coalition in the province, to cooperate with the Turks failed. Turkey finally proposed instead that HTS work with Turkey-backed Syrian militias to overthrow the Assad regime so Turkey could move the millions of Syrian refugees back to Syria. Turkey offered HTS sanctuary in Turkish-controlled areas and let a few HTS members into Turkey. Reaching an agreement with HTS on the details proved difficult, but the reality was the HTS and Turkey had quietly worked out an arrangement that enabled HTS to assemble thousands of soldiers who were Islamic terrorists that agreed to follow HTS leader Golani in a successful lightning campaign to conquer Syria.
That ended 15-20 years of Iranian efforts to make Syria a base for Iranian attacks on Israel. This is one of many catastrophic strategic defeats for Iran’s mullah regime in the past few months. The most recent is that corruption and mismanagement of its economy have produced a shortage of oil and natural gas for domestic use. Iran’s president made a televised speech in December 2024 informing the Iranian people of this and announced his decision to divert the currently available stocks of fuel from the economy and jobs to heat housing so that millions of Iranians won’t freeze to death in the dark this winter.
FYEO

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, January 06, 2025 - 03:19 pm: Edit

Submarines: Submarines Shut Down Trade
December 31, 2024: China has much to fear from west Pacific nations South Korea and Japan combining their submarine fleets with the 25 or more U.S. Navy submarines based in the region. Japan has 22 and South Korea has 21. Some subs are laid up for repairs or upgrades, so the three navies have about sixty submarines available to block shipping from entering or leaving China.
There are also some additional weapons. South Korea has become the seventh nation to use Sea Launched Ballistic Missiles or SLBMs. The second version of the KSS-III submarines featured a number of firsts. They were non-nuclear, the first non-nuclear ballistic missile submarines that not only use Air Independent Propulsion or AIP but do so using lithium ion instead of lead-acid batteries. With this AIP system the KSS-III submarines can operate submerged for about three weeks.
These subs also have ten Vertical Launch Cells or VLS filled by Hyunmoo 4-4 SLBMs with a range of 800 kilometers. North Korea is developing similar technology, but the north can only manage to build crude imitations of what the South Korean created. South Korea is far wealthier and technically advanced than the north. Both Koreas produce weapons that work often enough to do some damage and kill people. The South Korean weapons do this more reliably and effectively.
South Korea joins six other nations, the United States, Russia, France, Britain, China, and India that also have SLBMs and submarines to launch them from. The United States was the first nation to develop SLBMs and install them in nuclear powered submarines. The South Korean SLBMs have conventional warheads and are launched from non-nuclear submarines. South Korea is finally developing nuclear weapons, after not doing so for many years to appease the United States.
China has been aware of this submarine threat for decades but only in the last few years have they improved their ASW/Anti-Submarine Warfare efforts. For over a decade China has had underwater passive sonar systems in its coastal waters. This enables China to monitor submarines operating off its coasts and, presumably, in the South China Sea. South Korea did the same in 2011 when it announced that it was installing underwater submarine sensors off its coasts and this was apparently completed in 2013. The South Korean effort was in response to North Korea using a small submarine to torpedo a South Korea patrol ship in 2010. China simply wants to keep foreign warships as far away as possible, even if it means trying to force them out of international waters.
FYEO

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Monday, January 06, 2025 - 04:13 pm: Edit

Okay, gotta ask another dumb civvie question...

How hard would it be to build a boat along the lines of a Ballistic Missile Submarine, but instead of the ballistic missile siloes, it features drone storage and launch capabilities?

(Methinks I'd still wish for drone control to be done from somewhere else; probably an underground control facility back in the mainland, out of reach of reciprocal attacks...)

By Steve Petrick (Petrick) on Monday, January 06, 2025 - 05:29 pm: Edit

Not that difficult, your only real problem will be controlling the drone without revealing your location to the enemy. Keeping an antenna above the surface to broadcast is a good way of calling unwanted attention to your location.