Glide Bombs and Drones
(h/t Claudio) The Russian glide bomb threat was nearly eliminated through the use of almost off-the-shelf technology (more here). The massive Russian drone build up (more here) with technology from Iran will likely meet the same fate in a modern war. The War in Ukraine is sort of a blend of World War One trench combat along a static front with US technology backing the Ukrainians (for which they are ungrateful) that allows them to read the cards the Russians hold. Targeting of precision munitions, which has helped the Ukrainian military strike key Russian logistics points and military strong points, is provided by the USGOV – strangely – not the Europeans. I’m not beating up the EuroNATO friends we have, but it didn’t come from them. It came from the trillion dollars the US spends yearly on military capabilities. While we’re on that, one single F-18G (was EA-6B) in the battlespace makes all those Russian drones useless except for cruise missiles, with hard-wired guidance and a defined target (GEOCORD).
I’m not arguing the value of remote-controlled aircraft, but they have limitations when facing a modern foe. It’s a lot like Syrians firing (inshallah) their Russian-made SAM 300 missiles into the air to stop the Israeli F-16’s and watching them fly randomly in all directions before they crash to Earth and detonate (wherever). All the Israeli F-16s return safely to base having delivered their ordnance. – like that.
For you drone rangers out there in the blogosphere – they have limitations in a modern battlefield and the Russian (Iranian design) drones won’t likely do any better against a prepared enemy with modern technology than the Iranian missile strike did against the prepared Israeli defense system (made in the USA by Raytheon) recently.
They’re fine in a World War 1 (1914-1918) environment.
In almost all cases, the Russian Air Force didn’t have air superiority in the Russo-Ukraine war. It only lasted until their jets were shot down, if they had it temporarily.
Drones (unpiloted aircraft) have value in many situations. I’m not anti-drone. One must identify when and how they have an advantage and use them when they are effective. They’re excellent inexpensive surveillance platforms in situations where the enemy doesn’t control the electronic spectrum and they can deliver precision small munitions effectively.
Turkey
According to Bloomberg, two years after the UAE said it would invest $51 billion in Turkey, few deals have been made amid mismatched expectations between Gulf buyers and Turkish sellers. It illustrates how government investment pledges are often announced with much fanfare, but actions do not always follow words.
Timing seems to be a significant factor — Turkey’s economy is far healthier than when the investment pledge was made in July 2023. A foreign exchange crisis has been avoided, and local companies can borrow from abroad relatively quickly, meaning Emirati cash is less critical. The scale of discounts Gulf investors often seek doesn’t appeal to Turkish business owners. As a result, proposed investments in Turkish banks, airlines, and energy firms have collapsed. Most recently, a plan for Abu Dhabi Ports to buy Izmir Port was shelved last month.
The addition of crude oil from Kurdistan (Kirkuk-Ceyhan Pipeline) has averted disaster in Turkey – and their zeal to destroy the Kurds has been curbed for the moment.
The Democrat’s Secret Weapon
Actually, worse than nothing. They’ve got Rosa Delauro (right)
DeLauro is one of the spry, “fresh blood” types in the Dem House membership – clocking in at 82 years young, and serving only her 18th term. She often wears her hair dyed an unconvincing black, with a lot of equally unconvincing blue/purple. She sometimes wears glasses, which are always bizarre.
And she recently made a TikTok video beginning with the words, “Yo, this is the ranking rizzler on Appropriations…”
And it somehow got worse from there.
Delauro’s painful “oldster trying to relate to young folks” video follows the trail blazed by our favorite Indian scout, Grandma Squanto, in her infamous, “I think I’m gonna have me a beer” home video.
In both cases, each old pol had to realize the vast cognitive gulf (not the Gulf of America, in this context) between her wizened appearance and her ridiculous slang usage. So maybe they’re going for kitschy, or self-aware irony? But if so, that’s a wild swing and a huge miss, the kind that leaves a batter corkscrewing herself into the ground after several complete turns on the follow-through.
But those are individual loons, each failing in their inimitable way. What’s even more interesting to me is the psychology behind the Dems’ coordinated efforts, as you’ve probably seen in the “choose your fighter” debacle.
It Isn’t Biden’s World Anymore
Sky News – Australia
Jules Visits Abu Dhabi
I stood on the rooftop terrace, the city unfolding in layers of steel, glass, and shadow. Abu Dhabi never stopped moving. The skyline shifted, growing and reaching higher with each passing year. The air was thick with the scent of the sea and the desert beyond, the sky deepening into shades of violet as the last light of day melted into gold.
This city had shaped me long before I had the chance to shape it. As a child, I traced the outlines of its buildings with my fingertips against car windows, mesmerised by the way tradition and modernity stood side by side. Now, I was no longer an observer. I was part of it.
I glanced down at the sketchbook and the charcoal smudges on my fingers. The lines were bold, the forms sweeping with ideas waiting to take shape. I had spent years studying the language of design, but nothing in a classroom could teach me what Abu Dhabi had shown me: that architecture wasn’t just about buildings. It was about movement and light, about the spaces between.
A gust of wind tugged at the pages as if urging me forward. Another tower would rise, another vision brought to life. But I stood there watching the city breathe, feeling the pulse of something greater than stone and steel. Something alive.
***
Bullet Points:
** Bears are picking up the slack.
** Drone footage (right) revealed the devastation at a Florida solar farm after a tornado spawned by Hurricane Milton tore through its panels. The storm’s ferocious winds tore through the Lake Placid Solar Power Plant in Highlands County, leaving 97 percent of the county without power in the immediate aftermath. The $100 million green new facility used to power 12,000 homes.
** Marco Rubio (@marcorubio): After a 6-week review, we officially cancel 83% of the programs at USAID. The 5,200 contracts that are now cancelled spent tens of billions of dollars in ways that did not serve (and in some cases even harmed) the core national interests of the United States. In consultation with Congress, we intend to administer the remaining 18% of programs we keep (approximately 1000) more effectively under the State Department. Thank you to DOGE and our hardworking staff who worked long hours to achieve this overdue historic reform.
** It’s more than just accounting.
Tick-Tock beards – when Ramadan ends…
Identify the Armor
1
It was in the running for the Panzerspähwagen II design.
Identify the Aircraft
2
3
4
PARTING SHOT
Another DEI promotion bites the dust. The Navy has relieved the Naval Information Warfare Training Group (NIWTG) commanding officer, Norfolk “due to a loss of confidence in her ability to command.”
End
1 is Panzer Späh Wagen II Ausführung Škoda, previously designated the Škoda T-15.
2
Good!
I don’t know if it’s the length or the proportions of the middle and proximal phalanges that (to my eye anyway) appear to be unusual.
What?
“The hands look weird/disproportionate” is my guess.
Or it’s something about a Lebanese militia.
the dimensions of the finger bones between the joints just appear to be idk – disproportionally long for a human
apologize for the medical terminology – it just sorta kicks in – even for a dentist
When I read your comment, it was early AM and I thought you referred to the tank – so sorry for my confusion.
I saw it as “perspective”, like the guy who holds a 4″ trout out in front to make it look like a 10 pounder:
https://images.app.goo.gl/Nzsd9yVohzDdPsgf7
It makes me think of “Zippy the Pinhead” or an old R. Crumb comic book.
“the guy who holds a 4″ trout out in front”
And what’s wrong with a 4″ trout?
Are you belittling my people? (Little-ing, heh.)
Is this some attempt at anti-Sinotism?
Ai ya! Stop with the Asian Hate already, Paul M!
Hey, I watched Shogun…to which I say ‘hai’ (plus the unforgettable domo arigato and konichiwa).
Oh, wait, that’s Japanese…guess makes me an international cultural appropriator.
PaulM – erections have consequences.
Hahahah…spit out the coffee this time! Was taking bets on you or Mike_C hitting that softball outta the park…you have won amazing prizes. (‘amazing’ definition is flexible tho)
The dumb stuff first: Rosa DeLauro looks like Leonard Nimoy (playing Old Spock in those horrible “Kelvin Timeline” JJ Abrams movies) in drag. But Drag Spock is still less cringeworthy than the “Choose Your Fighter” video.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BUNUd5GUwHQ&pp=ygUiZGVtb2NyYXQgY2hvb3NlIHlvdXIgZmlnaHRlciB2aWRlbw%3D%3D
—
Less dumb, more tragic stuff:
I’m not ready to go full Patton (“we fought the wrong enemy”) but I’m pretty sure Ukraine, or rather the persons running it, are not people deserving our backing. (I can’t help who were/are the major players in the Ukraine situation. If you’ve got a problem with that, maybe take it up with Zelenskyy and Nuland and Kolomoiskiy first.) Let’s what happens with this 30-day ceasefire proposal. I wonder who slapped some sense into President Zelenskyy. The (CS)^2 executive of Ukraine expressing gratitude (and looking as if he’s swallowing razor blades as he does so) is a far cry from the entitled little turd muttering “bitch” at VP Vance in the White House.
how did we fall into the Ukraine cesspool – or were we pushed (by whom – I keep coming up with WEF and everyone recommends a psychiatrist) – the more I dig the faster the stuff flows in
being of that age (and in the AF at the time), I dug into the background surrounding our entry into Nam quite thoroughly and did not like the answers I found
Mike…THAT’S IT!…could quite place it until I read your comment, Old Spock. You, my “friend” are genius and funny.
Aw shucks.
I can sometimes see things with the innocent clarity of a child because I have the pure and joyous heart of a little boy. It’s in a jar of formaldehyde on my bookcase.
Oldie but goodie…plus you started a trend to ID the…ahh, uhh…what would one call her…got it…a Star Wars bar scene creature.
I’m sure that old Rosa DeLauro has a black cone hat, a black cat and a cauldron with eye-of-newt in it – somewhere, maybe in her Congressional office.
*
Z-Skyy (and friends) were the people who were paying off old Pedo Joe and his creepy drugged out son, Hunter (did you know he was a famous artist?). The Ukrainians received clothes and medical supplies by way of relief and SOLD IT to the common people. I don’t think the leadership could possibly do anything clean. They were one in heart with Nuland, Podesta and all. I can’t say that Putin and the Red Hoard were better but it’s a challenge to find out which one was worse – Americans, Ukes or Putin in this Democrat heaven-to-replace Afghanistan.
Identify the Armor:
1. Škoda T-15
Identify the Aircraft:
2. Martin B-26C Marauder
3. MiG-3
4. Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback
Excellent.
The early MiGs are more difficult to identify. But, I was wondering about the bombardier smoking his cigarette without any qualms being in close formation. The three crew seen in the cockpit are looking at their formation lead.
The navigator has other things on his mind
From the paint scheme I think #2 is a Martin B-26 B-55. Later (1944 onward) they left off the paint and were referred to as the “Silver Fleet”.
Interesting thing about the ‘Silver Fleet’ is that the painted planes were actually faster than the ‘Silver Fleet.’ Something about the paint messing up the boundary layer around the planes’ surfaces making it easier for the plane to move and thus faster.
–
Which, funny enough, was proven on Mythbusters in regards to “Is a dirty car more fuel efficient than a clean car or vise versa?) Dirty cars are more fuel efficient and can maintain a higher speed at the same level of gas usage.
Larry,
It appears your cheerleading is not helping the Ukonazis. BTW, vodka man bad will not aid piano man with a ceasefire so the delusional West can rearm the Ukonazis.just my guess….
Luther’s Turd
I think that Vladimir Vladimirovich wants to beat the Ukrainians like unwanted step children, but I also think that he’s smart enough not to want WW3 as a result. The Russians will be hard bargainers, but it’s a losing proposition for them too. They’ve dumped massive national treasure into that cess pit and there will be no return on investment.
Get them together and tell them to knock it off or The Big Dog will use the hammer not the feather. (Yeah, admittedly a lot tougher than I make it out to be, but these two d–k measuring idiots just love to toss their Peons into the fray when it’s not their own rear-end on the line. Posturing on steroids, a typical dictatorial mode.)
my 1¢
I think Vladimir Vladimirovich will hold out/delay long enough for “The West” to replace the silly ( a “nice” word; I’d substitute unbelievably boorish) little piano player with someone he can talk tachlis with, perhaps even trust.
a lot of noise has been made about Valerii Fedorovych: is he more soldier or diplomat? there are others.
unfortunately it appears he may have the backing of some of the more unsavory elements of the EUcratocracy
this is (excluding the deaths and severe injuries of valient men on both sides) beginning to come across as a very bad Gilbert and Sullivan script.
X2…in the meantime 2k are killed each week…best one could know, but I trust our President (a proper capital ‘P’).
Can Voldomir play the piano? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oua0Puihrkc
LL, you are either AI-driven and connected to my WiFi, or brilliantly prescient…re-watched The Accountant last night to decompress (heh) and thought “still one of my favorites but where’s A2?”. Looks epic.
***
Noem owned Brennen…or as Reagan said “The trouble with our Liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.” Brennan continues to expose her written for her script talking points instead of the truth, and got owned for it. Noem is excellent…never mess with a ranch girl.
***
Florida Solar: Useless for large scale energy production….could have paid each customer the $8300. Then again, the “company” wouldn’t have gotten taxpayer kickbacks. You watch, like Wyoming (who sells all that wonderful renewable wind to California) the residents power cost will get jacked up after paying for this gambit in the first place.
A-2 is coming later in 2025 – as I understand it. I don’t have a release date.
*
The taxpayers or rate-payers always take it in the neck. A nuclear plant with buried transmission lines would have been invulnerable to the storm, but as you point out, there was no grand taxpayer subsidy to build one.
Said April…maybe push marketing to gin-up anticipation, like I did for Reacher…altho Clarkson Farm S4 might be just as epic but in a tractor sorta way.
*
Was going to ask you what an SMR install for a county might run (or more than one county, therefore half the cost per). $100M is a sizable chunk of change for a vulnerable install of 6-10 hours/day of marginal captured electric production, thinking that’d cover at least 2 SMR installations and pay the maintenance operation for a decade. Here, the Wheatland (WY) power generation plant is required to have a gen on standby when the Mondo Pinwheels stop working, either no wind, leaking the dreaded lubrication oil, broken 500 year half-life carbon fiber blade, collapsed steel towers, etc.
SMRs come in all shapes, sizes and outputs. Light water, heavy water, liquid metal, uranium, the Chinese are pushing hard in the direction of Thorium, etc. Balancing the economy of scale in production with the licensing nightmare and the throughput to the customers (price per KwH) all goes into the price. My sense of things is that you want to put SMRs in place in threes. That way if one is down for maintenance, you can run two at full power. They don’t require a lot of maintenance, but they’re machines and all nuke plants are heavily (and appropriately) inspected.
Example: All nuclear power reactors in Canada are CANDU (Canadian Deuterium-Uranium) reactors. These pressurized heavy water reactors use natural uranium (as opposed to heavily enriched uranium) as fuel and heavy water as a coolant and moderator. Five plants in three provinces house 22 nuclear power reactors. Nuclear energy produces about 15 percent of Canada’s electricity. I had dinner last night with a Canadian energy guy about building SMRs in the US. I think that they’d take the CANDU engineering approach which I’m not against, and scale down the existing reactors in size. I have some interesting takes on how they can do it which I am not sharing here because coming up with stuff is how I make a living.
What nobody’s saying is that solar plant took over very productive farm and ranch land. What a waste of good land. Stupid waste of good land.
x10
Lord High Executioner Beans is a national treasure.
Cutting taxes and raising revenue – the video mentioned Reagan attempting it. I’m trying to remember, were there any of their fiscal promises the Democrats in Congress DIDN’T break?
The faster they got spending money, the faster they spent more than they were making. Milei shows a different path. Otherwise, if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.
I’m in the “cutting Gov’t graft/cheatery/waste/fraud/overreach/etc…” camp…requires less of WTP’s earned cash to keep the place open and secure while having the added benefit of [possibly] fewer career politicians wanting to stay in DC to do whatever it is they do everyday (aside from messing with us in every manner only a bureaucrat can conjure up).
Dating myself here, but my initial thought was that the old hag looked like Fish (from the tv show Barney Miller) in drag.
She does look a lot like Abe Vigoda – in drag. How disturbing. He allegedly died in 2016, but maybe not. Could he have transitioned under the radar?
Hey now, we’re all God’s children, as PDJT said, “Perfect just the way God made you”…albeit he WAS speaking about actual children.
LSP had a picture with her in the goofy spectacles (she is a spectacle, a “brand” if you will, like Spam). Yet another octogenarian way past the DC Demolition Derby entry allowance due to too much damage despite a rattle can paint job…and looks it. Oy.
Someone has suggested that HHS conduct a study into blue hair dye, because it appears to be causing brain damage in a lot of people.
X2
While not as hideous looking, Colorado’s 1st Congressional District, Diana Degette is another entrenched Democrat who votes as she is told to vote (when sober enough to make it to the capitol). Term limits, please!
Rosen would talk about her at length during election time, entertaining yet practical as no one could unseat that one, showcasing who’s pulling the strings in Denver. Gotta figure out a way to eliminate career politicians…2 terms and yer out (street name: “Goa Way”).
She replaced Pat Schroeder when Pat ran as V.P. candidate. I knew Pat and her husband. Good people – hearts in the right place. That said, didn’t agree with them. Denver is a political cesspool and corrupt – always has been. Some of us haven’t forgotten the Denver P.D. burglary ring.
What scares me is Delauro and her ilk KEEP getting elected, time after time! THAT is what I cannot understand, based on what I’ve seen them do… Re smoking on the B-26, that wasn’t uncommon as long as the crew was low enough. Hell, we could still smoke on Navy birds into the late 80s, and I do mean ANY Navy airplane.
The same people who vote for DeLauro serve on juries.
Hence why it is best to NEVER enter a courtroom, more risky than an Op because you have no say on what happens in the hands of other people who’s sole purpose is to convict you of something, or minimally, trash your life to the point it may not be repairable. Jesus spoke of this in Matthew 5:26, his warning should be headed when feasible, assuming a corrupt rabid DA isn’t looking to hang you no matter what…like they tried with Trump.
Been bugging me…is the Naval DEI hire a woman? (I know, seriously uncharitable, but honestly can’t determine one way or the other.)
What is a woman?