I post at The Dignified Rant: Evolved on Substack. Help me out by subscribing and by liking and sharing posts. I also post here on TDR seven days a week, including Weekend Data Dump and Winter War of
2022. I occasionally post short data dump-type items on my Substack "Notes" section.
In case you missed it on Substack: Small Drones Cope With Stalemate
In case you missed it on Substack: The Main Enemy
In case you missed it on Substack: Hey! APD!! APD!!! APD!!!!
In case you missed it on Substack: Victory Through Air Power Rises Again
The European Union's open borders policies essentially created the migrant crisis that threatens numerous European countries. Will the EU step in to solve it? That would be consistent with its longstanding practice of creating/imagining and exploiting a crisis.
The importance of infantry in combined arms operations. Yes. And yes.
A call for the U.S. to embrace AUKUS. Endorsed. Although I doubt AUKUS is the CCP's worst nightmare.
I am giving the administration time to sort the wheat from the chaff, but I hope it is a one-year-only decision for DOD leadership to skip the British-organized Pacific Future Forum held on a British carrier visiting Japan.
Modern technology makes this a global problem: "A woman has been burnt to death by a mob in northern Nigeria's Niger state after she was accused of blaspheming against Prophet Muhammad, police have said."
Xi Jinping urged SCO members to "seek common ground". By that he means doing what Xi tells them to do, as proper vassals must in the China Dream.
China might try to turn the undersea terrain around the Paracel Islands into a submarine trap. That would help turn it into a SSBN sanctuary.
Israel's long war to destroy Hamas continues with a drive into Gaza City under added (unfair) scrutiny at home and abroad. Napoleon's advice is in order: When you set out to take Gaza City, take Gaza City.
The Houthi fired at an Israeli-owned tanker in the Red Sea.
Sh*t got real in Germany. Heeding my advice, eh?
I don't know what we're doing in the Caribbean, but pucker factors and hopes are rising in Venezuela.
An Army massed balloon exercise?
I sure hope that the AI speeding up effective battle manager decision-making doesn't hallucinate. Also, Patton would slap whoever coined the term "battle manager."
An appropriate temporary mission for the National Guard in WDC: "provide security, not direct law enforcement, and to be a 'reassuring presence.'"
I've mentioned the joint U.S.-British effort for drone defense that includes cheap smart sights-based small arms anti-drone capabilities. But the comparison of IEDs to FPV drones is intriguing. Remember the "flying IEDs" Iran developed during the Iraq War? A.k.a. IRAM.
I have my doubts that PLA exoskeleton devices won't freeze up in the Himalaya Mountains.
Some brave and outnumbered Israeli soldiers prevented Hamas from capturing Camp Yiftah, a key objective in the October 7, 2023 rape, murder, and kidnapping invasion of Israel. Too many soldiers checked out of the desperate fight, however.
A farcical declaration of Israeli genocide is added evidence that Israel should complete the destruction of Hamas while it can. If Hamas survives this war, in the next war Hamas starts the Hamas fanboys and girls in the West will immediately raise the cry of "genocide" to protect the terrorists.
Deadly earthquake in Afghanistan.
This is another fantasy solution to Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions. A good-enough deal starts with the end of the mullah regime.
A new Navy LCU to put Marines on beaches.
A new Navy LCAC to put Marines on beaches.
A new 81mm "shoot and scoot" mortar for the Marines that requires just two troops. If memory serves, this is a company-level weapon.
CRS report to Congress on hypersonic weapons.
Upgrading America-Poland arms sales procedures? Well, Poland is the new Army center of gravity in Europe.
I endorse America's "special relationship" with Britain. But (tip to Instapundit) every day the British government validates Vice President Vance's warning. You can take Britain out of the EU but you can't take the EU out of Britain, apparently.
The lies about losing the Afghanistan campaign. We lost. We chose to predictably lose. There were other mistakes but that decision was key. We pretended it was a success. And accountability stopped with dead Americans holding a weak perimeter at Kabul's airport. No book tour for the bullet stoppers.
That is certainly helpful for CENTCOM: "In July 2025, Saudi Arabia’s first Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile unit achieved full operational status."
An overdose of HE: "President Donald Trump said Tuesday that the U.S. has carried out a strike in the southern Caribbean against a drug-carrying vessel that departed from Venezuela."
Apache helicopters demonstrated the ability to defeat small drone attackers. That's good. But as with carriers, do the helicopters provide enough value to be worth the extra protection? It depends on how much the value of small drones drops.
Hello: "U.S. Navy and Marines are conducting an amphibious landing training exercise in southern Puerto Rico."
The Coast Guard will get large MQ-9 drones.
Ukraine will get new M117s designed for the former Afghanistan military.
Japan's defense budget set a record. Until next year.
China is working on a road-mobile ICBM. If parades can be believed. They don't "reveal" anything. They show what the CCP wants advertised. And don't show what the CCP doesn't want seen.
It is more likely that America would send more troops to help Poland than to withdraw what is there.
Italy says it won't count its planned bridge to Sicily as defense spending to meet the 5% NATO target. Really? I find it hard to believe that resolve will last.
Is it just me, or does it look like Iran infiltrated a genocide scholars group to use it as a weapon against Israel? Tip to Instapundit.
The U.S. wants much cheaper anti-missile missiles.
American and Taiwanese defense officials met in Alaska.
Yes, way too many American elites spied for the Soviet Union early in the Cold War. Dismissing the "Red Scare" as paranoia obscured that fact. Bravo, commies. Well played.
Hmmm. I don't think the Cold War containment policy was as resolute across the West and across time as the author remembers it. But sure, don't try to bribe Russia. Make them offer concessions. "Reset" is only possible if Russia seeks Western help to contain China.
With an irrelevant digression into the Russian 1916 Brusilov Offensive that was accidental and never replicated, this author asks if we are in the World War I Western Front "1918" in the Winter War of 2022, in that the end for Ukraine could be nearer than we think.
Creating the bog of war to slow down Russia.
This author acts as if "snap back" sanctions on Iran are real and that Europeans are determined to impost them. I have strong doubts on both.
Is China's rise the fulfillment of an old prophecy? That once powerful China could regain power is hardly spectacular. And how much is China rising compared to foes? I sure don't see a China-India-Russia bloc forming.
Back to the Department of War? I don't care. The original name implied land war was rare and an army only lasted long enough to win. Making the War Department the DOD emphasized ongoing defense preparations. Now we want to imply we will pound you until we win and then go home.
Golden Dome requires reinvigorated Arctic defense equipment. So Canada is important.
New Army troops will rotate into the border protection mission.
Venezuelan fighter planes flew near an American warship in the Caribbean Sea.
WDC National Guard troops are being told to stay in position through December.
Macron says 26 nations signed up to contribute troops to a coalition to reassure Ukraine in a peace deal. Good. I don't think any nation that won't send troops should join. The numbers just paralyze without providing reassurance. Let others offer help from outside the group.
Second Thomas Shoal: "Filipino forces transported food, fuel and new personnel to a Philippine territorial outpost in a fiercely disputed shoal in the South China Sea[.]"
