Yeah, I don’t care who she belongs to but for shit like that she should be seized anyway, or at least blocked from docking in any decent harbour
Not only do contractors and crew members sign nondisclosure agreements, as on many superyachts, but the ship also has a cover to hide its name plate. And when it first arrived at the port, workers erected a tall metallic barrier on the pier to partly obscure the yacht from onlookers.
ETA: Sometimes I wonder whether the French have any of the limpet mines left over they used on the Rainbow Warrior…
That’s my worry, especially guided bombs and missiles. They are very expensive compared to say their AA cannon shells, and harder to stockpile due to the cost. But those are the most effective weapons against other air power and specific ground targets. Hopefully they still have enough stock.
Even if they are sent with a full payload, you need more stuff to resupply after sorties. Support needs to be an actual asset, not just a feel good gesture.
Then again, I don’t know how aircraft munitions work. Can US made Sidewinder missiles or Paveway II bombs work on MiGs? Do they share mounts or can with adapters? Can they be launched/used with the onboard systems? I would think there is SOME overlap, as NATO countries have many different flavors of planes and munitions and it appears some NATO countries still use MiGs. But half of the point of NATO was to standardize and help make sure their arms are compatible. That is why most NATO infantry weapons use the same bullets and STANAG magazine, even if the rifles are all different.
Poland is a NATO country. Their Mig 29s, almost all of which they received from Germany (which used to be East German ones but were then used by the Luftwaffe for several years as well) have been NATOized. I believe the cannon is indeed still the original one, using Soviet ammunition standards but the missile and bomb rails should all be standardised to NATO ordnance.
Also, just FTR: did you notice the coup in Burkina Faso?
Political analysts pointed out that the friction between the now-ousted president Roche Marc Christian Kaboré and the now-ruling Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba resulted from Damiba pushing for approval of activities of the Wagner group. They want to train the Burkinabé in anti-terror operations and combat against “unconventional” opponents.
In other words: Russia, operating under plausible deniability, has gained a foothold in another African country which used to be quite important in the anti-terrorist operations in Mali as a base for the US and their allies.
This is really, really bad. And I’m speculating that this isn’t just a temporal coincidence.
Despite a 9,000-watt signal that can be heard across the region, the message doesn’t appear to be going very far. WZHF doesn’t rank among the top 40 stations in the Washington area in Nielsen’s ratings. But as limited as Sputnik’s audience and likely influence is, its Kremlin connections have lately begun to attract some negative attention.
My nephew, a US Navy fighter pilot, is laughing at this stupid argument probably made up by some 10 year olds playing Risk.
eta
"It is simply not clear to us that there is a substantive rationale for it,” Kirby said. “We will continue to consult with Poland and our other NATO allies about this issue and the difficult logistical challenges it presents, but we do not believe Poland’s proposal is a tenable one.”
“We are devastated to say that yesterday our dear colleague and friend Tatiana Perebeinis, the chief accountant of SE Ranking, was killed together with her two kids by russian mortar artillery,” SE Ranking wrote Monday on Facebook.
A Russian governor in Siberia has been confronted by angry citizens who blamed him for deploying a local riot police unit to Ukraine to become “cannon fodder”
More evidence they expected the Ukrainian military to crumble, and then just mop up angry citizens with police thugs.
