Archive through October 30, 2026
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Non-Game Discussions: Real-World Military:
Archive through October 30, 2026
Glad to see your back - no doubt a big 'thank you' card has been sent to PHP? 
"Winning: Islam is Disappearing
October 21, 2026: It all began with Islam, a problem that lasted over a thousand years. Millions died as Islam spread"
Sorry - why the attacks/references to Islam Killing "Millions"?
Numbers will always be vague but Christianity is generally down as the number 1 Religion killing 'machine'.
Islam is only 6 in the list.
It may be Christanity has had 2,000 Years+ to perfect it's technic - but Islam has a fair way to to catch up... and so quoting "millions died" - although techncially correct, should not be taken in isolation or noted in such a way?
Extremist Islam is curse. As is Extremist Zionism or (mostly gone) Christian Crusades to eliminate infidels.
Remember the religious based fighting in Yogoslavia (Eastern Orthodox Serbians, Sunni Albanians, and Caatholic Croats)?
Mike
Extremist X is all bad.
Well, we in the UK also have Northern Ireland still - and the Ethnic Cleansig of Muslims in Bosnia (originally by both Serbs and Croats) shows Christianity hasn't moved on much suh the Crusades in some area.
Note - there are good and bad in most religions (and non-religions too).
Paul, I wonder where you are getting your numbers from. What do you mean by Christianity being the greatest killing machine? One can only count those killings that were done for a religion. If two Christian kings (or whatever) in the middile ages fought over a piece of land, I wouldn't count that as the fault of Christianity (or any other religion) even if they both appealed to God about the justice of their cause. World Wars 1 and 2 were fought for secular reasons, unless one wants to count Nazism, Fascism, and Communism as secular religions. The same with the Napoleonic wars and the French Revolution. Even the Thirty Years war was less about religion than a power struggle by the Hapburgs and other countires like Sweden and France, and the rise of the modern nation state. France was as Catholic as Austria. See for example, "The Myth of Religious Violence," by William T. Cavanaugh.
Where do you get the idea that Islam is number 6? What other religons are there that could cause more deaths than the Muslims? I have seen an estimate that 7% of the wars in history were caused by religion, and that 2/3s of these were caused by Islam. I don't know if that is right, but it doesn't sound implausible, seeing that Jihad (holy war, not just personal struggle) is a part of Muslim doctrine. I have read serious estimates that Muslims in the Indian subcontinent killed between 50 and 80 million in the name of Islam. One estimate that I have seen is that 5 million died in the crusades. But don't forget that the crusades were a response to nearly 5 centuries of Muslim aggression that had conquered over half of the Christian world. So where do your numbers come from?
It should be recognized that Islam is not just a religion, but a complete political, economic, and social system; with state and mosque different parts of one thing.
Stephen
Dr. Navid Sheikh - "Body Count: A Comparative Quantitative Study of Mass Killings in History".
It does include various Wars which might not be counted as solely due to Religion.
Other Civilizations: According to the same quantitative framework, estimated death tolls are lower for other civilizational categories:• Sinitic (Chinese) civilization: ~107 million deaths
• Buddhist civilization: ~87 million deaths
• Primal indigenous civilization: ~45 million deaths
• Islamic civilization: ~31 million deaths
Anti-theist or atheist was at Number 2... with around 124 million.
Most Western Authers will also perhaps overstate the Evils of other religions and magically understate Christianity - so fair research and analysis will need to be combined from different sources.
Hope that helps
Actually, it destroys the case you have presented:
There has been heavy criticism regarding its academic methodology from reviewers on platforms like Goodreads. Critics argue that the study exhibits structural flaws, such as:
• Broad Misattributions: Attributing macro-historical tragedies purely to religious civilizations—such as counting the massive, secular casualties of World War II toward the "Christian" or "Buddhist" tallies.
• Definitional Ambiguity: A lack of strict boundaries separating purely political, imperial, or resource-driven conflicts from religiously motivated violence.
• Data Verification: Difficulties in verifying the "guesstimated" averages for ancient conflicts due to a lack of exhaustive primary references in early versions of the booklet.
In short, you have cited a flawed, out of date work (apparently this was released back in 2009) that by definition has not included the last 15+ years of events.
Thanks for the info Paul, but I agree with Jeff. It appears that the study counts as religious wars wars that were fought for secular reasons, simply because many of the people fighting them were religious. It also seems that the body count for Islam is too low. If the lesser figure of Muslim killings in India is right, or close to right, then we have 50 million there alone.
Another thought is the difference between defensive and offensive wars. One might count Nazism, Fascism, and Communism as political or secular religions. In Britain and elsewhere, there was the thought that were fighting to save Christian civiulization from these political religions. Churchhill seemingly thought so, even though he apparently wasn't a believing Christian. But I don't think one should blame that war on Christianity.
Paul's study is a well-known and totally debunked political hatchet job with no credibility.
Shall we discuss how many times Islam raided European Christian cities to carry off what added up to millions of deaths and slaves, which might as well have been the same thing.
Paul, don't bring up that baloney here again. Expect to be shut down on any future baloney. Do I need to explain what the American expression "baloney" means (it does not mean "lunch meat") or can you translate it to British by context? (Rubbish, codswallop, malarkey)
While it they may not have been "religious wars" the colonization of the new world by the christian nations of Europe did result in the deaths of (according to a study done by The University of London scholars) of the deaths of about 56 million of the native population through the process of wars and the introduction of dieseases unknown in the new world. I am not sure I can see much difference in the way Islam and the Christian church both managed their expansions into various area. Either way the religion was spread by the Sword.
Religion has historically had a funny effect on some people that's for sure.
This is ofc on the list of banned topics, for good reasons.
Quote:This is ofc on the list of banned topics, for good reasons.
And yet it is being discussed.
Many of the assertions being made can be refuted with hard facts. Put aside assumptions, do a deeper dive into history and don't just read agenda-driven versions. Or, more practically, read all different versions and ferret out the agenda to see the underlying truth.
The reality is nuanced and, on the whole, favors authentic religion (i.e., as practiced by those who truly follow the teachings of a faith, as opposed to those who claim that they do for political or material gain).
I will say no more, nor will I address specific assertions here due to the ban.
I think we have discussed that one enough.
Russia: Declining Weapons Exports
October 27, 2026: Russia's weapons exports are declining. This trend began around the time Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Another problem is the decline in oil exports, which are Russia’s main source of income. After incurring a trillion-dollar cost in the Ukraine war, Russia's finances are in a precarious state.
Russia has sold fewer weapons to India, Egypt, and Algeria, who have begun to prefer Western, usually American, weapons for their reliability and high performance. These nations have come to realize that American weapons are worth the price if they can be maintained. They can do this by purchasing maintenance contracts to keep the weapons operational.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's innovative drone exports will bring in over a billion dollars in sales this year. This came after NATO nations supplied Ukraine with so much military aid that it accounted for ten percent of imports.
Russia has had problems with arms exports in the past. Russian arms exports rose only 2 percent in one year [Editor – identify the year], to $8.5 billion. The following year, Russia sold $15 billion in weapons, plus $40 billion in items yet to ship. While sales to China are down, Russia has found new customers in South America (not just Venezuela). Vietnam, seeking an ally against its ancient enemy, China, has become a major customer for aircraft and warships. Sales are returning to the Middle East, especially North African countries. India, however, remains the major export customer.
Another example: in 2008, Russia exported $8.35 billion in weapons-related sales, up from $8 billion in 2007. In 2005, analysts hoped sales would reach $10 billion in 2008. The stall in Russian arms sales growth comes from problems with the two largest customers: China and India. Russian arms exports had grown rapidly for years. From 2005 to 2008, Russian arms exporters received orders for $6 billion worth of military items per year. In 2004, Russian arms sales were $5.6 billion, rising to $6 billion in 2005 and $7 billion in 2006. Russian arms sales were only $4.3 billion in 2003, and they expanded as the economies of India and China, its two major customers, grew. That, along with escalating oil prices driven by demand from China and India, has pushed international arms sales from $29 billion in 2003 to over $60 billion now. Oil-rich countries, particularly those in the Persian Gulf, want to buy more weapons to defend their assets.
These sales matter greatly to the Russian government. The defense industry employs nearly three million people and accounts for about 20 percent of Russia's industrial jobs. At the end of the Cold War in 1991, the defense industry was more than three times larger than it is now. The size of the defense industry played a major role in the Soviet Union's bankruptcy. The Russians were never quite sure (cost accounting wasn't a communist favorite) what proportion of their GDP went to military spending, but estimates suggest it was over 20 percent. That was more than four times the figure for Western nations.
The new Russian defense industries are trying to compete with Western ones, but that has proved difficult. For example, India is unhappy with Russian sloppiness in handling large projects, like refurbishing a decommissioned Cold War-era carrier. This project has been a financial disaster for India. Worse yet, India is buying more Israeli, European, and American weapons and notes the differences in performance and service. If Russia cannot quickly change many old habits, its flourishing arms export business will slide back into the cellar. Eventually it did just that. This was in part due to the Ukraine war, where Russian weapons were destroyed, abandoned, or captured shortly after reaching the combat zone. It was efficient, but it cost Russia any chance of victory in Ukraine.
FYEO
A couple problems with Russian arms exports.
1) A lot of 'losers' were using Russian arms. Even if it is the result how they were used, it doesn't seem like good deal if your stuff is always losing.
2) China has pirated Russian tech pretty hard. Same with US tech they can get hold of (see Boeing airliners). I suspect that the Chicoms have caught up to the Russians. So they aren't willing to buy Russian aircraft tech anymore because they can build it themselves cheaper...
3) The question I have is "does Russia export it's best EW (etc) gear?" By all accounts it's pretty good. Problem is that the Chicoms have already demonstrated a mastery of reverse engineering electronics. So if it gets exported, it get's IP raped.
If I were king I would impose a 100% tariff on Chinese goods to make up for their systematic IP practices. Recognize Taiwan. Etc.
Commies or Fascists; both are evil. I would argue that the modern Russians and Chinese are not "REALLY" communists; just variations on Fascism calling themselves Communists.
That whole collectivism thing is pretty much a fantasy thing; people in power want more "stuff."
So far as I can tell from published sources, The Chinese still haven’t perfected jet engine technology.
The “J” model fighters have serious problems, limited range, restricted high power thrust not equal to Russian produced jet engines and metallurgy issues.
The US has a plan for the Air Force to have 500 drone fighter-bombers and 500 recon drones in service in 2032. These are big jet-powered aircraft which are for all practical purposes manned aircraft that forgot to include space for a pilot. These can be controlled remotely, by a manned aircraft, or operate autonomously.
Winning: Recovery and Restoration in Modern War
October 28, 2026: Modern war recovery blends humanitarian relief, infrastructure rebuilding, governance restoration, economic revival, and social reconciliation to achieve lasting peace. In modern wars and conflicts, recovery restores essential services, infrastructure, and economic stability after hostilities cease, while restoration reintegrates people, communities, and institutions into a functioning, peaceful society. Together, they aim to break the cycle of violence and prevent relapse into conflict — research shows 40–50% of war torn states relapse within a decade.
During the year-long prompt humanitarian period: food, clean water, medical care. Security stabilization: disarmament, peacekeeping, trust building. Basic infrastructure repair includes roads, power grids, and water systems. Restore housing, schools, hospitals, and transport networks. Modern projects often integrate resilience and climate adaptation. Restore governance, the rule of law, and democratic institutions. Research shows post conflict recoveries are often labor led, with slow rebuilding of capital. In Ukraine, losses exceed $80   billion with needs at $190   billion; reconstruction lags destruction. Persistent financial limits slow productivity growth and increase vulnerability to renewed conflict, PTSD, community mistrust, and the need for mental health support. In essence, modern recovery and restoration go beyond physical rebuilding—they require coordinated political, economic, and social strategies, sustained funding, and deep community engagement to ensure peace is not just restored but entrenched.
Post-war Ukraine is shaping up to be one of the largest national reconstruction projects since the Soviet Union's post-war effort in the 1950s. Back then, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, and reconstruction left it as a center for developing new technologies and building essential equipment, including gas turbines and more. Ukraine also provided much of the Soviet farm income.
Ukraine estimates that reconstruction will cost about $750 billion. Ukraine is planning to rebuild its housing, businesses, roads, rail lines, and infrastructure after five years of fighting. Several hundred thousand homes or apartments were destroyed, along with over a thousand schools and over 50,000 kilometers of roads, with similar damage to rail lines; all the hydroelectric power plants were damaged or destroyed.
Last year, NATO nations promised substantial post-war economic rebuilding aid so Ukraine can fit it into its war plans. For example, the Netherlands, one of the smaller NATO members, announced it would spend several billion dollars on aid to Ukraine in 2024 and 2025. Germany's GDP is over four trillion dollars, while the Netherlands' is about one trillion dollars. Germany sent $8 billion in military aid to Ukraine in 2024. Considering its smaller size, the Netherlands has been a major supplier of aid to Ukraine. The Netherlands and Germany plan to provide even more aid for post-war reconstruction.
Dutch aid to Ukraine in 2024 includes a wide array of weapons and services. It will include more air defense systems, UAVs, and munitions for weapons Ukraine already has. Services include training for Ukrainian F-16 pilots and aircraft maintainers. In 2024, a larger share of the aid went to economic reconstruction and current government financing. Unable to do sufficient damage to Ukrainian armed forces, Russia has been concentrating many of its missile attacks on economic targets. These targets must be repaired or rebuilt, especially those that provide electricity, heat, or clean water and sanitation services. The Russians wanted Ukrainian civilians to suffer when winter arrived. The Dutch can relate to this. During World War 2, German troops occupied the Netherlands, and toward the end of the war, the Germans greatly reduced the food available to Dutch civilians. In the Netherlands, that period of privation is remembered, and they don’t want to see it happen again to the Ukrainians.
For centuries, Ukraine has suffered periods of brutal occupation by invaders. The most frequent brutal occupier has been Russia, which has played the homicidal villain several times in the last century. The most infamous Russian occupation incident was the use of famine during 1932 and 1933 to suppress Ukrainian opposition to Russian rule, especially the new Russian ideology of communism, which prohibited private farms and expected all farmers to work for state-owned farms. Many farmers resisted this throughout Russia, but opposition was strongest in Ukraine, where about 20 percent of the Soviet Union’s population lived. Ukrainian farmers were the most productive in Russia and produced most of the wheat for export. Ukrainian resistance produced a horrific Soviet response: the seizure of nearly all the wheat crops in the areas of most resistance. This lasted two years and killed nearly four million Ukrainians, about an eighth of the population. Ukrainians called this the Holodomor, which translates as the Great Famine.
Russia denied the Holodomor ever happened, and many Western nations and their mass media went along with that. One exception was Britain, where one British reporter risked his life by going to Ukraine and obtaining proof of the Holodomor. The Russian government kept denying the famine ever happened until 1983, when a more open communist government admitted that many communist crimes were true. This made an impression on Russians because they realized more of the victims of the Gulag prison camps and communist terror in general were Russians. As a result, during the occupations of Crimea and parts of Donbas in 2014, the Russians tried to win the support of locals.
That lowered the civilian death toll but did not turn most of the occupied population into loyal citizens of Russia. By 2020, most Ukrainians in the occupied territories wanted out. The most desperate moved to Russia, many others wanted to return to Ukraine, and others sought anywhere but Ukraine or Russia.
The Holodomor and many other past incidents of Russian brutality led to Russian troops being initially ordered to not attack civilians during the 2022 invasion. That failed to make civilians any more receptive to the Russian presence and, within a month, troops were told they could loot and not tolerate any resistance from civilians. Russia denied that civilians were being killed or that widespread looting was taking place. Cell phone cameras carried by most Ukrainians made those claims difficult to sustain. Nor were Russian denials of the heavy casualties inflicted on the Russian forces who believed they would easily defeat the Ukrainians and occupy the capital, Kyiv, within two weeks. After a month of this, Russian troops around Kyiv were ordered to withdraw to Russia and try to conceal evidence of mass murder before they left. This produced some mass graves, but many bodies were left in plain view, and many surviving civilians had video evidence of who did what. Russia again denied it, insisting these civilians were killed by Ukrainian forces to make the Russians look bad. Once more, the video evidence, especially from Ukrainians who witnessed it and could identify some of the perpetrators, made the atrocities difficult to deny.
Mindful of that, Russian occupation forces in parts of Ukraine that were seized early on and are still under Russian control were ordered to try hard to win over the locals without resorting to mass murder. The main occupation zone lies north of Crimea and centers on Kherson, the capital of Kherson province. Kherson City fell during the first week of the invasion, and Russia has held most of the province ever since. The city is a major port because it is located near the mouth of the Dnieper River and the Black Sea. The Dnieper is a major navigable river for Ukraine and has long been used to move cargo, especially exported wheat.
Ukraine has been trying to recapture Kherson City and province ever since and finally did so at the end of 2023, aided by a growing partisan movement inside Kherson province and passive resistance to Russian occupation by most Ukrainians in the province. Some Ukrainians agreed to work for the Russian occupation, and they were soon the targets of attacks by Ukrainian partisans. Some of the turncoats were killed, but more worrisome to the Russians were indications that other Ukrainian officials quietly agreed to work for the partisans. The Russians now believed many of their Ukrainian administrators had worked with the resistance from the beginning.
At the same time, the Russian occupation forces still had orders to try and win over the Ukrainians or at least discourage them from joining an armed insurrection. To help with that, the Russians sought to Russify the province as quickly as possible. That meant replacing Ukrainian cell phone service with Russian service. They blocked Ukrainian TV and radio transmissions. Russian ID documents became mandatory, and using the Russian ruble became mandatory. Access to Russian-controlled utilities, especially water and electricity, depended on how cooperative local civilians were. These efforts aimed to link Kherson to the Russian economy. The initial goal of pacifying the population was to make life safer for Russian troops in Kherson. That was never fully achieved, and since then Russian troops have had to worry about roadside bombs or anti-vehicle mines, as well as sniper fire and assassination via pistol or a bomb planted in a vehicle.
The goal was to hold elections that could be portrayed as honest and show most Kherson residents supporting annexation by Russia. Ukrainians didn't cooperate, using clever tactics that Russian information-war specialists recognized and struggled to counter. The Ukrainian resistance was armed and dangerous, but also mindful of the need to outdo Russia's information war campaign. Some of the American aid packages for Ukraine included a lot of Cold War-era PARM anti-vehicle mines that were never used. The Germans developed these mines to halt or disrupt a Soviet invasion that never came. The Germans believed Ukrainian partisans could use these mines. This proved true, and the Ukrainians wanted more after receiving nearly 15,000. Germany had to resume production to meet Ukrainian demand.
Ukrainians depict the Russian occupiers as worse than the German Nazis of World War II infamy. This is particularly embarrassing for the Russians because the official Russian government justification for the invasion is to liberate Ukrainians from neo-Nazi Ukrainians led by President Zelensky, who is Jewish. This tragicomedy was understood by many in Russia early on and led to a largely unarmed but often violent resistance movement inside Russia and Belarus.
Russia denies the extent of the resistance in Kherson, calling armed partisans local bandits and gangsters. Video proof leaks out of Kherson, and Russian troops stationed there complain to friends and family back home. This intensifies resistance to the war inside Russia, where the government wages its own Information War to generate support or at least discredit critics. The growing inability to suppress accurate news also contributed to the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991. Former KGB officers who brought back so many aspects of Soviet rule over the last two decades have been having a hard time dealing with media and image control. It’s the 1980s all over again but worse. This reminds us that the Information War is not a state monopoly and is often a multi-sided conflict.
FYEO
Mike:
Quote:3) The question I have is "does Russia export it's best EW (etc) gear?"
At least during the Cold War, and at least as far as aircraft-related technology (the definition being stretched to include things like SAM radars); the answer was No, the Soviet Union did not export its best electronics. It was not al all uncommon for the Soviets to export a fighter with the speed, range, and maneuverability of the version in Soviet service, but with an inferior radar and inferior missiles with less capable seekers.
But the systems used by Soviet forces themselves (and I suspect this carried over into post-Cold War Russian forces) also suffered - but from poor quality control. They were often sophisticated designs but manufactured to sloppy tolerances; especially near the end when the Warsaw Pact, and then the Soviet Union, was disintegrating. This approach might work if you have to manufacture literally millions of Kalashnikov rifles. But it's a really poor approach to manufacturing integrated circuits.
And the Sovs would often look to steal or smuggle in various electronic components that they struggled to manufacture locally for their military hardware. So their supply was quite limited. The best components would go to the Soviet military, while lesser components would be used for export gear.
--Mike
The Russia-Ukraine war is bleeding Russia in the ongoing stalemate.
The leader of Finland, in a September address to the United Nations, observed that Russia is now losing troops (killed and wounded) 25,000 per month, while for the year 2026 captured approximately 900 square kilometers compared to the Ukrainian military recaptured 800 square kilometers.
He went on to say that that rate of advance would require years to just occupy the remaining contested territories Russia has stated are their war aims.
It is widely reported that Russia has had a total 1.4 million casualties, and at the current rate of loss, would add another 300,000 killed or wounded annually.
I haven’t seen an analysis yet, but Putin’s announcement of recruiting/mobilizing a further 500,000 troops will not give Russia superiority in the future, it would only (barely) maintain Russian Troop strength at or about the levels they have had for the last four years.
In plain english, Putin isn’t “breaking even”, he is losing the war, and the current Russian policy of targeting cities to destroy the morale of the Ukrainian people only seems to incite more resistance.
I know Some have long held the opinion that Russia is going to win, “inevitably “, but the facts as presented argue against that.
Any predictions? Will Russia exhaust itself trying to win? Before the end of 2026? 2027?
The first of the reactivated KC-10A Extender class aircraft was video recorded today taking off from an air field close to the “bone yard” (Motham AFB, Arizona.)
The contract for restoring up to 4 * KC-10A tankers was let back in April 2025.
It appears the last KC-10A was retired from active service in 2024, so it appears from start to end of the process to a little over a year to complete.
Although not “Official”, the end users of the aircraft appear to be several African nations(including Egypt and Lybia) and a commercial civilian operator for one of the aircraft. I haven’t been able to find a reference for who gets the 4 th aircraft.
Motham AFB???
Is that anywhere near Davis–Monthan AFB?
Sorry, misspelled, got distracted and didn’t go back to fix it.
I've only been to DM once, but it's a cool place. It was the mid-1990s and I was an F-111 WSO (Weapon System Officer) at Cannon AFB in New Mexico. The F-111 was being retired from U.S. service (Australia retained it for a few more years) and the Wing's policy was that, to the extent practical, when "your" jet* (the one with your name painted on it - pilot on the right side, WSO on the left) was due to be retired to the boneyard, you would fly it out there yourself, and turn it over to AMARC (Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center - it's no longer called that, the name being changed to AMARG (Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group)).
In due course, my pilot and I flew "our" jet to DM and, as was customary, were given a tour of all the boneyarded aircraft (not just jets) while out there. They were sealed up and we couldn't go inside any of them. But it was really neat seeing this amazing collection of historic aircraft, spanning decades.
*This had nothing to do with whatever jet you would fly during normal day-to-day sorties. That would depend on what jet was ready when you were scheduled to fly. When (as occasionally happened) you did fly your own jet, it was just "luck of the draw".