Tag: munitions

PH: America, Marcos and AFP can get us nuked

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

IF advocates of the United States’ access to bases of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and US deployment of intermediate-range missiles prove the above headline unduly alarmist, this writer would be most thankful.

America, Marcos and AFP can get us nuked (archived)

Related:

Out-Competing China and Constraining Russia

Forget Hardened Bases, Pacific Conflict Requires Agile Combat Employment, Commander Says

The Plan to Defend Guam from Missile Threats Is Years from Completion: More Investment Is Needed Now

Ground-Based Intermediate-Range Missiles in the Indo-Pacific

The U.S. Alliance with the Philippines

Turkish protestors demand expulsion of US warship docking in Izmir Port + More

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Press TV – September 3, 2024

Turkish citizens have taken to the streets in Izmir to demonstrate against the docking of an American warship, expressing solidarity with Palestinians and their opposition to US all-out military support for Israel amid the Gaza genocide.

Turkish protestors demand expulsion of US warship docking in Izmir Port

Related:

Full video

Two US Marines Assaulted by Turkish Nationalist Group in Izmir

10 people arrested in attack on 2 US Marines in Turkey

As a safety precaution, U.S. service members ported in Izmir are restricted to their ship, a U.S. official told ABC News on Tuesday.

Çuval Olayı – the “hood event” revisited

Poorly trained recruits contribute to loss of Ukrainian territory on eastern front + The US Is Sending $125 Million in New Military Aid to Ukraine

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Some new Ukrainian soldiers refuse to fire at the enemy. Others, according to commanders and fellow fighters, struggle to assemble weapons or to coordinate basic combat movements. A few have even walked away from their posts, abandoning the battlefield altogether.

While Ukraine presses on with its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, its troops are still losing precious ground along the country’s eastern front — a grim erosion that military commanders blame in part on poorly trained recruits drawn from a recent mobilization drive, as well as Russia’s clear superiority in ammunition and air power.

Poorly trained recruits contribute to loss of Ukrainian territory on eastern front, commanders say

Related:

Reuters: Russia and Ukraine report gains as some Ukrainians flee strategic city

But although the incursion is an embarrassment for Russia, Moscow’s forces have continued their gradual advances of the past few months against tired Ukrainian troops in eastern Ukraine worn down by 2-1/2 years of heavy fighting.

Moscow said its troops had taken control of the village of Mezhove in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, and that they had beaten back an attempt by a Ukrainian force to infiltrate its border in a different region to Kyiv’s Aug. 6 incursion.

Ukrainian authorities say Russian troops are now just 10 km (six miles) outside Pokrovsk, an important transport hub in eastern Ukraine, and this week started evacuating elderly residents and children.

…

Moscow’s capture of Pokrovsk, which lies at an intersection of roads and a railway line, would give Russia options to advance in new directions and also cut supply routes used by the Ukrainian military in the Donetsk region.

WSJ: Ukraine Moves to Encircle Russian Troops in Kursk and Digs In for Long Fight

The incursion hasn’t, so far, shifted the dynamic on the war’s main battlefields in eastern Ukraine, where Russia is advancing in toward Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian logistical hub, and Toretsk, a city on strategically important high ground.

The US Is Sending $125 Million in New Military Aid to Ukraine, Officials Say

U.S. Files Serial Numbers Off Missiles Sent To Israel

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

WASHINGTON—In an effort to ensure the munitions were completely untraceable, the U.S. military began filing the serial numbers off all missiles being sent to the Israeli government, anonymous sources within the Pentagon confirmed Friday. “In the wake of recent IDF operations in Rafah, we will no longer serve as arms supplier to Israel without first removing the serial numbers from rocket artillery,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reportedly told the Joint Chiefs of Staff, explaining that after assessing the situation, he and President Biden had agreed to pause shipments of high-payload munitions until the military could erase all evidence that they came from the United States. “We cannot in good conscience continue to enable a military campaign targeting innocent civilians in Gaza unless we’ve covered all our tracks. Tell your men and women that we have secured nearly 6 tons of steel wool that they are to use to sand down any identifying markers on missiles, ammunition, and tanks so we can confidently feign ignorance when the U.N. or the International Criminal Court comes around asking a bunch of questions. Be sure to scrape the little U.S. flags off the side, too—in fact, if there’s time, cover it with France’s or something. Then hit them all with a shammy to remove any fingerprints.” At press time, reports confirmed the armaments had arrived in Israel with no return address marked on the crates.

U.S. Files Serial Numbers Off Missiles Sent To Israel

The Growing Weakness of Western Artillery Capabilities

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

After decades of waging war against impoverished nations with destitute armies, or no standing armies at all, the US has suddenly found itself in a rapidly changing world where peer and near-peer competitors are outpacing it in military capabilities. Many of these capabilities are showing up on the battlefield in places the US has until recently enjoyed relative military superiority.

The Growing Weakness of Western Artillery Capabilities

US Ban on Xinjiang cotton is likely reducing Western artillery shell production

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)2 Comments

US Ban on Xinjiang cotton is likely reducing Western artillery shell production

Now, after passing this legislation [Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act], the West is bitching that China is withholding cotton from them, and that cotton cellulose is hard to find.

Related:

Europe battles gunpowder shortage amid Ukraine war

“To make powder, you need a specific kind of cotton, which mostly comes from China,” he said.

European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton on Friday told reporters in Paris that the bloc also faced challenges finding the raw materials for gunpowder.

Nitrocellulose, also known as guncotton, is a key ingredient in gunpowder manufacture.

*Xinjiang*