People started playing around with the Sentinel radar ground surveillance satellite to see what it could do: "That’s when it was discovered that Sentinel could, using the right filters, detect Patriot air defense system radars night or day and in any weather." Space Force will be busy. And the problem is broader.
Russia's growing espionage--and more violent aspects--in Europe. Yeah, tell me I'm totally out of bounds wondering about the German "coup" plot.
Ukraine is using older tanks as artillery. America did the same thing when the Korean War got static:
Iran does its part to get Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords: "Iran’s military tested new attack drones in the coastal area of the Gulf of Oman and near the strategic Strait of Hormuz Saturday as part of its ongoing annual drill, state TV reported."
Gunmen using armored vehicles attacked a prison in northern Mexico, and a number of prisoners escaped. I'm sometimes stunned that we haven't yet been dragged by drug gang violence into a war down there.
Kim Jong-Un vowed an "exponential increase" in North Korea's nuclear arsenal. The old "kooks, spooks, and nukes" strategy remains in place.
Just a reminder that while Western analysts fanboyed Russia's "frozen conflict" in the Donbas from 2014 until the new 2022 invasion, it was not frozen: "During those years, Putin watched as Ukraine moved closer to the European Union and hosted NATO troops in Ukraine at training centers." Strategery.
I did not realize Ukrainian resistance to the USSR after World War II was this intense: "Ukrainian nationalist partisans fought Soviet rule for another decade, killing more than 30,000 Soviet soldiers, functionaries, and secret police. For its part, between 1945 and 1955, the Soviets killed more than 150,000 alleged guerrillas and sympathizers, while hundreds of thousands of western Ukrainians were deported to Siberia or Central Asia, and almost 90,000 were imprisoned."
The NASA administrator warned about China's possible territorial objectives on the Moon (tip to Instapundit). Quite right to be concerned. Let's get on SMOD.
I hope Representative Santos is defeated in two years. Hopefully in a Republican primary. Sure, many proven liars are in Congress--and the White House. But Santos has clearly gone above and beyond on that score already. But after Democrats sent Biden to the White House and Fetterman to the Senate just to have (D)s hold the offices, I'm in no mood to do Democrats' dirty work to flip the House before 2024 rolls around and puts that question on the ballot.
Huh: "If Russia Is This Bad At Conventional Warfare, What Does That Tell Us About Its Nuclear Posture?" Excellent question. Welcome to the party, pal.
Boy, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand fast.
Did Sweden get the Xi Jinping Flu Covid-19 response right? I have wondered if the duration of this pandemic is in part from our policies to alleviate the pandemic. I suspect a version of my "False Compassion" post on avoiding civilian casualties (and military casualties, as I note in this paper) in war applies here.
For Democrats, Hitler is immortal.
ISIL terrorists killed 3 Egyptian police, possibly losing one terrorist in the attack.
The first time China exported the Wuhan Flu, it tried to trick the West into remaining open to the virus with their "hug a Chinese person" campaign. Now China is issuing threats: "The Chinese government blasted COVID-19 testing requirements imposed on passengers from China and threatened countermeasures against countries involved, which include the U.S. and several European nations."
Huh: "Russia’s military leaders face calls for punishment after losing dozens of troops in one of the deadliest attacks yet launched by Ukraine." Is Russia finally reaching its death limit? I'm not gonna lie. I thought the limit was much lower.
India--under more direct assault by China--banned TikTok 2-1/2 years ago. Tip to instapundit.
Philippine President Marcos, Jr.'s visit to China seems futile. Better relations with China is defined as submitting to what China wants.
China wants Taiwan. First of all, America standing in the way of China's desire to crush and control Taiwan does not cause China to want to crush and control Taiwan. Some Westerners prefer to snipe at America for the resisting to avoid dealing with the destroying issue. Is that a "properly informed" and "finessed" policy for Australia?
One practical reason for not giving ATACMS to Ukraine is that the longer range weapons are out of production (a new missile is scheduled for introduction) and America needs all it has (and probably many more).
Strategypage's annual wars update.
The Winter War of 2022 will continue as long as the Russians still want to conquer Ukraine, as long as Ukraine wants to liberate its territory, and as long as the West backs Ukraine. I too do not assume Russia can't win this war.
Yeah, an element within the right reacts against helping Ukraine because it "conflates the Ukraine War with U.S. southern border issues[.]" It is surely an outrage that Biden doesn't protect our southern border. By all means fight for that. But it is not linked to defeating Russia in Ukraine. Both are important. It is wrong to insist defending the border with Mexico is a prerequisite to defeating Russia. I just don't understand those conservatives.
Auto companies are building new factories to build electric vehicles. Even as the government has no interest in encouraging more reliable electricity generation. Tip to Instapundit. I wouldn't mind so much if the government wouldn't probably insist on closing actual gas stations to make room for EV charging capacity. "We're from the government. And we're here to help."
The Army wants additional air defense capabilities for Guam in particular. The Chinese navy threats to Guam could be much more complicated than we hope.
Maybe: "Facing growing protests late in the year, the Chinese government abandoned its zero-COVID policy with no apparent plan B." It sure seems like Plan B is making sure their epidemic spreads to the world. Again.
So ... 60 Minutes started the new year off by putting a green-tinged Blue-Anon false prophet on the air. It's amazing how you can have decades of credibility by being wrong in the ways your audience wishes you were right.
Never mind. Nothing to see. Move along. Tip to Treacher.
Collusion between Congress, the media, and the FBI to pretend there was a Russian cyber threat via Twitter in order to pressure Twitter into carrying out censorship. Via Instapundit. Tar. Feathers.
And now for something completely different:
Russia moved their nuclear-capable Tu-95 bombers to the Far East to avoid Ukrainian drone strikes in Europe. So now they are within easy reach of Chinese aerial attacks.
A Sumy militia held the northeast Ukrainian city as the Russians swarmed in trying to reach Kiev. A platoon of Ukrainian paratroopers stopped the first rush before being ordered to withdraw, casting a giant shadow after that for the local defenders.
Some in NATO want to turn the goal of 2% of GDP spending on defense into a minimum floor. Am I missing something or is this just semantics? I know the 2014 agreement was not enforceable. But how could NATO make it a minimum now, overriding member legislatures? Also, nobody under the old agreement to reach 2% by 2024 was forbidden from spending more.
Harassment: "Two rockets struck a base housing American troops in eastern Syria on Wednesday without causing any human or material losses, the U.S. military said." Or perhaps practice. Iran is the likely suspect.
Production of the M-113 replacement AMPV is being ramped up. The latter is already replacing M-113s taken from units to send to Ukraine. I assume more M-113s will be sent to Ukraine faster with this increased production.
Japan pledges to deepen its alliance with America as part of its military rearmament. Which basically means Japan's self-defense restrictions will continue to be broadened to allow Japan to defend American forces, too. Farther from Japan, naturally.
I heard that the ground is not freezing as fast in Ukraine as anticipated. On the other hand, Europe won't freeze and cave in to Russian pressure.
Poland will buy 116 more Abrams tanks. I assume this will eventually free up old Russian-designed (and Polish adapted) tanks to be sent to Ukraine.
Unless America expands its fossil fuels energy production rather than discourage it, this is nothing more than symbolic, right? "The first regular shipment of liquefied natural gas from the United States arrived in Germany on Tuesday, part of a wide-reaching effort to help the country replace energy supplies it previously received from Russia."
The BACN-equipped E-11A "Wi-Fi" in the sky": "The Air Force deployed a brand new version of one of its prized communications aircraft to Saudi Arabia, the service said in a Jan. 2 news release."
So ... Russia is kidnapping Ukrainian children.
Putin might want to reconsider his efforts to show he is firmly in charge of the war effort: "Criticism is mounting in Russia against the country's military commanders after dozens of Russian soldiers were killed in a Russian-occupied region in eastern Ukraine." As Putin's claims of restored Russian glory turn Russia's world upside down, shit might roll uphill.
The Canadian Inquisition. You'd have to be crazy to criticize Justin Trudeau! Tip to Instapundit. Visiting Canada now is getting closer to being as dangerous as visiting North Korea.
The mullahs' time of troubles. With good news: "Since 2021 Iranian influence in Iraq has visibly declined."
A high-tech lynching. And yes, the leftist media was a cheerleader for the baseless accusations. Via Instapundit.
Follow the science on carbonated sugar drinks, you racists. Tip to Instapundit.
Once again, America has to worry that NATO ally Turkey will go to war with NATO ally Greece. Turkey might want to consider that they aren't as important to NATO any more, given Russian weakness. And NATO has a Plan B in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Turkey under Erdogan probably needs NATO more than the reverse.
Twenty years ago a man kidnapped, raped, and murdered his ex-girlfriend. Twenty years later a woman is executed for the crime! America is obviously a misogynistic country that denies--because it delays--justice.
The Nutball Queen: "In a dry dock near the entrance to the Persian Gulf, Iran’s sectarian naval force is converting a former merchant container ship into a drone aircraft carrier, according to satellite and open source photos published last week by USNI News contributor H I Sutton." Well, it isn't my modularized auxiliary cruiser idea. But kind of close.
Yawn: "Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday sent a frigate armed with the country's latest Zircon hypersonic missile on a trans-ocean cruise in a show of force as tensions with the West escalate over the war in Ukraine." You go, girl! "But TDR", you say, "it has the totally awesome Zircon!" Add it to the awesome list.
The United States will reopen its Solomon Islands embassy. Good. We don't want to do this again to keep our supply lines to Australia open.
France will send old AMX-10 heavy armored cars and armored personnel carriers to Ukraine. The AMX-10 is not in any way, shape, or form a tank. No matter who says it is a tank. Or like a tank. Or kind of a tank. While I could be wrong, I don't think the old design is a major improvement over wheeled vehicles carrying modern anti-tank missiles. Nor do I think the vehicle's speed will protect it from enemy modern anti-tank missiles. But this is still good news.
America discovered it needed to give soldiers breaks from combat tours to hold off the onset of PTSD (combat fatigue). Ukraine is doing that. I hope this is widespread.
It's a shame orbital debris isn't a defense against incoming asteroids.
Do China's carriers mean that the Chinese navy can operate in new areas, causing a problem for us? I don't know if the problems of carrier survivability means China has no intention of using their carriers for more than peacetime presence or fights against small countries.
Germany knows it needs to rebuild its once-powerful West German army. But one component, the new Puma infantry fighting vehicle, failed spectacularly: "In one exercise the 18 Pumas involved all failed. Sixteen were soon
completely unusable and two Pumas ended the exercise with limited
usefulness. The list of Puma systems that broke down was long and major
changes were obviously needed to make the key systems operational and
reliable." Oddly, past use of Puma training simulators didn't reveal the problems. I mean, who would program them to reflect vehicle reality?
Iran is mad at France. When it comes to the Easily Excitable--whether Sunni or Shia--what doesn't anger them?
So what if Russia did destroy a HIMARS in Ukrainian service? It's not like they are invulnerable. Replace it. That's what happens in war.
The Invasion of the Policy Snatchers?
The Czech Republic will meet the NATO 2% of GDP defense spending goal by the 2024 deadline.
An ARNG engineer company is heading to Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, America's only real base--even if we don't like to admit it--in Africa. The article is vague on the destination. Unless I'm assuming too much. (Although that's a battle from 2019. I don't know what has been reestablished there.) The base sensitivity issue is why I proposed an alternative form of base.
The F-15EX with 12 air-to-air missiles is as close to a "arsenal plane" missile truck that we have. I assume it would work with F-35s that spot for the F-15EX launchers.
Could AUKUS strain our ability to build our own SSNs? Shame on us if we're operating on that narrow of a margin.
Saying America backed off a "two war" goal over the last 10 years as force structure went down really overstates the idea that we maintained that peacetime capacity after the Cold War. Or ever, really. (And the Clinton-era strategy was not a two-war concept.) But the author makes a valid point about the risk of a one-war capacity. Although the strategic myopia of arguing a two-war standard should include the ability to support a full war logistically (that is, Ukraine 2.0) while fighting another directly is staggering.
The Assad family business continues to walk the tightrope toward survival in the simmering Syria multi-war. Also: "Syria’s economy has hit its lowest point since the start of its civil war nearly 12 years ago, with spiraling inflation, a currency plunge and severe fuel shortages in both government-run and rebel-held areas."
Russia can't afford the massive military expansion it announced.
The United States Navy conducted a Taiwan Strait transit.
The Biden administration calls drawing down the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for political goals a top accomplishment of 2022. Of course it does. Tip to Instapundit.
Ukraine will get 50 Bradley (American) and 40 Marder (German) infantry fighting vehicles, in addition to the French package that includes an unknown number of heavy AMX-10 recon armored cars. Elsewhere I heard Germany will provide more Patriot air defense systems.
American and European chips are making into the drones Russia is using to bombard Ukraine. Well that's just effing great.
Putin's one-man insane clown posse: "Russia's former president lashed out at the US on Thursday in a statement calling for the country's warships, armed with hypersonic missiles, to be stationed close to Washington, DC." Wait. What? Are there perhaps problems with your nukes?
I hope III Corps was ordered to heightened readiness for the president's visit: "Just days before U.S. President Joe Biden's visit to Mexico, the country was thrown into turmoil as alleged cartel members blocked off an airport and areas outside a local army base, and limited access to the city of Culiacan, in an unsuccessful effort to thwart the capture of drug trafficker Ovidio Guzmán."
We have Speaker McCarthy after some drama. The drama doesn't bother me. I'd have preferred this drama take place behind closed doors before the first vote to avoid giving Democrats and the media from [checks notes] pouncing. But democracy is some ugly sausage-making. We saw it. As to this drama being a threat to our democracy? Democrats can't simultaneously make that claim and laugh while munching popcorn. So here we go. With a body that can't pass much with a Democratic Senate and a Biden veto standing in the way. With the media cheerleading the Democrats all the way. All the House has is the power to deny Democrats new laws and the power of oversight investigations.
More on the Zircon-equipped Russian frigate, and the bigger issue of the Red Storm Writhing.
Will Congress fund the Navy's sealift program? Geography requires more sealift than we have.
Turkey is supporting Ukraine without alienating Russia. Turkey has a long history of wars with Russia. They usually didn't go well for Turkey. Turkey clearly has reason to keep Russia as far from Turkey as possible. But they have Syria in common.
Romania is buying Naval Strike Missile coastal defense systems. Ukraine has shown how the Russian surface fleet can be kept away with a minimal anti-ship missile capability.
The latest American arms package for Ukraine. More 105mm howitzers are included. The first time I assumed this was to equip airmobile units. Which would be useful for crossing the Dnieper River. Now I wonder if it as simple as a shortage of 155mm rounds for the larger pieces.
Prince Harry by all accounts fought bravely in Afghanistan. I can only speculate that his current humiliating experience is a bad bout of Post-Meghan Stress Disorder. Why won't they go away?
Oh, I heard that the House of Representative rule put in effect that one member can call for a vote to remove the Speaker is actually a long-standing rule that was removed by Pelosi. Admittedly the rule was almost entirely dormant in practice. Still ... tradition.
[Oops. Published this a day early. So more will follow below.]
We figured out Roman concrete? Tip to Instapundit.
The CCP is living in interesting times: "Xi, in short, has no viable options because the coronavirus is devastating China as the country is beset by simultaneous crises: accelerating debt defaults, collapsing property prices, a contracting economy, worsening food shortages, and a deteriorating environment."
Swing and a miss. Trump really drove them mad.
South Korea modernizes its air force.
Apparent terrorist attack on Las Vegas solar energy plant. The man arrested has a Moslem name but there is nothing said linking this to Islamic terrorism. But it is called a terrorist attack. The damage could take two years to repair.
A step toward the University of Michigan becoming a mediocre university. Commissars ruin armies. They'll ruin higher education, too.
Despite indications of divisions at the top over how to suppress Iranian protests, the supreme leader has chosen a course: "Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei continues to empower hardline security figures to enforce his uncompromising position toward the protests and mandatory hijab law." If the top splits with some siding with the protesters, that will be significant.
Via Instapundit, ideological capture of scientific institutions wrecks innovation. When a scientist's shirt is subject of debate rather than the achievement, we've got problems.
Brexit implementation sadly had Covid-19 step on it. Will the proto-imperial EU reconquer Britain? "Conservative voters now think the cost of Brexit outweighs its benefits for the first time, a new poll has found." Add in EU efforts to punish Britain, and "Brexit" gets blamed. This depresses me.
Pakistan wants $16 billion from the world to repair massive flood damage. I say ask your new best buddy China for the money.
To be fair, these morons have made the value of their degree worthless. So why shouldn't they demand tuition and food be "free" for them? Tip to Instapundit.
We've had other power station attacks. Is the Las Vegas attack related? Or did the others just give this terrorist the idea?
Since I accidentally posted WDD a day early, I've had an idea of how this would work if I posted this and updated it through the week. I'd considered that option. It would keep the additions more timely. But ultimately I like using WDD as an incubator for single posts. I routinely take paragraphs out over the week and turn them into single posts. I value that role. So revel in the old days of weekly news magazines (and try not to think about the monthly versions).
Huh: "German
police have taken into custody a 32-year-old Iranian citizen suspected
of having procured deadly poisons cyanide and ricin to commit an 'Islamist-motivated' attack, authorities in western Germany said on
Sunday." The poisons were not found, however. Hmmm.
