Two US Air Force B-1B bombers dropped munitions at target ranges in Jordan and Saudi Arabia before returning to Europe in the Pentagon’s latest regional exercise aimed at deterring Iran.
Israel, Jordan, Saudi join US bombers in show of force to Iran
Related:
B-1B Fires JASSM Missile During Long-Range Training Sortie From U.K.
Recently several administration official who were working on China and Ukraine policies announced to step back or retire. The people in question were not neo-conservative China hawks like Secretary of State Anthony Blinken or National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. The unexpected loss of top sane hands has me concerned that there is some big move in planning that will damage U.S. relations with China and Russia even more than they already are:
Why Are These Biden Officials Leaving Their Top Posts?
A leaked intelligence report from February says “Netanyahu probably calculates Israel will need to strike Iran to deter its nuclear program.”
Leaked Report: “CIA Does Not Know” if Israel Plans to Bomb Iran
Related:
Trump Orders Military Shift to Spur Israeli-Arab Cooperation Against Iran
F-16s won’t fundamentally alter the course of Ukraine War
Secondly, while the F-16 is clearly one of the best fourth-generation fighter jets in the world, its primary effectiveness is predicated on being one component in an integrated command and control battle management system of sensors. While the jet is capable of operating on its own, it is far less capable without additional acquisition assets, such as the E-3 Sentry AWACS. To date, there has been no discussion of providing this capability to Ukraine.
NATO already has AWACS in the area, though.
Ukraine’s military used UK-supplied long-range missiles to target civilians in the Russian city of Lugansk, resulting in several children being injured, according to Russia’s Ministry of Defense and local authorities.
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Later, however, it [Joint Center for Control and Coordination] clarified that the strike involved two Anglo-French Storm Shadow missiles and a US-made ADM-160B decoy missile.
UK-supplied missiles used to strike civilians in Lugansk – authorities
Related:
Evidence Of ADM-160 Miniature Air-Launched Decoy Use By Ukraine Emerges
The ADM-160B has a stated maximum range of around 500 miles and reportedly has the capability to mimic the radar signatures of various different kinds of aircraft. It is designed to follow a preprogrammed route, which can include loitering over designated areas.
In 2012, the Air Force also began acquiring ADM-160C variants, also known as MALD-Jammers or MALD-Js, which added an active radar jamming capability. Further improved variants of the MALD, which the U.S. Navy has also been acquiring, have since been developed as you can read more about here.
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It is worth noting that in December 2022 the Pentagon announced new aid for the Ukrainian armed forces that included what was only described at the time as a “counter air defense capability.” That U.S. military assistance package was also a so-called “drawdown,” meaning that all the items it contained would come straight from existing U.S. military stocks.
If the Ukrainian military has indeed begun receiving MALDs, this would not be the first time the Pentagon has transferred higher-end weapons and other equipment and not initially disclosed it. The sudden appearance of MALD wreckage would also fit the same general pattern of how it first emerged that the U.S. military was supplying its Ukrainian counterparts with AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARM) last year, which was eventually confirmed.
The Pentagon budget request for fiscal year 2024 comes in at a staggering $824 billion, the highest any country has ever spent on its military. A lot of this is going to classified Research, Development, Test & Evaluation programs, which are largely classified or only present brief, vague descriptions. While flicking through one of the lengthy supporting documents I noticed how some of these classified money pits take their names from movies.
$824 Billion Pentagon Budget: Why So Many Classified Programs with Movie Names?
Airman Shared Sensitive Intelligence More Widely and for Longer Than Previously Known
It appears the first leak came less than 48 hours into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Saw a pentagon report saying that ⅓rd of the force is being used to invade,” the user wrote. Apparently eager to impress others in the group who questioned his analysis, he said: “I have a little more than open source info. Perks of being in a USAF intel unit,” referring to the United States Air Force.
Related:
Video: On The E-Girl Army Psyop Phenomenon via Justin Taylor
Related:
Weaponizing e-girls: How the US military uses YouTube and TikTok to improve its image
How E-girl influencers are trying to get Gen Z into the military
But Haylujan isn’t the only E-girl using Sanrio sex appeal to lure the internet’s SIMPs into the armed forces. There’s Bailey Crespo and Kayla Salinas, not to mention countless #miltok gunfluencers cropping up online. While she didn’t document her military career, influencer Bella Poarch also served in the US Navy for four years before going viral on TikTok in 2020, and is arguably the blueprint for this kind of kawaii commodified fetishism in the military. An adjacent figure, Natalia Fadeev, also known as Gun Waifu, is an Israeli influencer and IDF soldier who uses waifu aesthetics and catgirl cosplay to pedal pro-Israel propaganda to her 756k followers. She poses to camera, ahegao-style, with freshly manicured nails wrapped neatly around a glock, the uWu-ification of military functioning as a cutesy distraction from the shadowy colonial context: “when they try and destroy your nation,” she writes in one caption.
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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