Cross-posting this from the Eastern European Politics Thread and the French Politics Thread: Emmanuel Macron Announces Plans for Permanent Defense Mission in Moldova
Summary:
1. This defense mission follows a signing of a cooperation agreement between France and Moldova's respective defense ministers.
2. This defense mission is to strengthen Moldova's military capabilities with French assistance.
Militarily, would France make a good ally to Moldova?
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
France is pretty much the only NATO member outside of the US capable of any kind of deployment outside it's own borders with it's own equipment so sure, why not.
The question is whether France will stick up for them or abandon them when things get iffy like everyone did for Ukraine in 2014 and Georgia in 2008.
Edited by LeGarcon on Mar 7th 2024 at 7:00:37 AM
Oh really when?
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I just hope it makes Putin sweat buckets (he must know he can't win a possible shooting war in Moldova since the Russian troops there might not even be enough to help Transnistria's military against a joint Franco-Moldovan force) since this might be the next best thing Macron can do to honor his promise of providing more assistance to Ukraine without actual combat units at Ukraine itself (whatever France can provide to Ukraine can go to Moldova first).
Edited by HallowHawk on Mar 7th 2024 at 4:07:48 AM
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
Putin has no reason to sweat buckets, the current stage of the conflict has proven that most military industrial capacity in NATO simply doesn't exist. Russia is net positive on shell production despite an ongoing offensive, is producing almost as many MBTs a month as England operates as an entire nation and by all reasonable assessments at the time of this post basically has the AFU in a rout.
The only NATO country who still has anything left to contribute is the US and Republicans have basically gone from stalling aid bills to try and get their pet projects earmarked to actively supporting the Russians and standing against NATO as an organization.
Marcon's dropped pretenses of negotiation and is trying to look like a tough guy because the Russians have no more reason to come to the table. They successfully dodged sanctions and are outpacing all of NATO's combined monthly shell production by almost seven times over.
This is France grasping at straws because it's might just be them, the Poles, and hopefully now the Swedes who are basically the last ones standing in NATO.
And given how thoroughly cratered Polish/Ukrainian relations are I'm not sure if they can still be counted in this conflict.
Edited by LeGarcon on Mar 7th 2024 at 7:17:57 AM
Oh really when?
While things are very grim right now, I don't think it's a "reasonable assessment" to say that the Russians have the Ukrainians in a "rout". The Ukrainian counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast in September of '22 was a rout of the Russians by the Ukrainians. The southern front in the earliest days of the war was a rout of the Ukrainians by the Russians (although the capture of Mariupol, in the southeast, wound up being much more of a slow and painful grind). What we're seeing now is a bloody attritional slog, and while it may eventually lead to a rout of the Ukrainians—if the U.S. Republican Party don't stop being pro-Putin stooges, or more realistically if the pro-Putin stooges can be overcome by the rest of us—it hasn't become a rout yet.
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
How can it reliably be called attritional if the Russians are outproducing and replacing all their materiel losses every single day?
Almost a third of total Abrams donated are down and those were to be held in reserve for future offensives and now they're trying, and failing, to cover the Avdiivka retreat.
Edited by LeGarcon on Mar 7th 2024 at 8:18:12 AM
Oh really when?
It's entirely possible that the Russians are currently winning the attritional war, but it's still an attritional war. The Russians outproducing Ukraine and replacing their material losses faster than the Ukrainians can inflict them, or inflicting material losses on Ukraine faster than the Ukrainians are being re-supplied, is pretty much the definition of winning an attritional war. But it isn't a "rout"—Ukraine hasn't suffered some sudden collapse, or had to make some massive and disorderly retreat.
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
I don't believe anyone would call the retreat from Avdiivka orderly or small.
When tanks are literally driving back actively burning and people are just running through fields on foot trying to escape and all emergency reserves are called to try and cover them and then immediately begin taking catastrophic losses that's a rout.
And the French agree and that's why Macron is making such bold moves in public the past few days.
Edited by LeGarcon on Mar 7th 2024 at 8:31:59 AM
Oh really when?
Look at the overall map of the war, from today, the one that says "Assessed Control of Terrain in Ukraine and Main Russian Maneuver Axes as of March 7, 2024, 3:00 PM ET":
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-7-2024
Contrast that with the overall map of the war from six months ago, on September 7, 2023, the one that says "Assessed Control of Terrain in Ukraine and Main Russian Maneuver Axes as of September 7, 2024, 3:00 PM ET":
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-september-7-2023
Where's the "rout"? Where the hell is "Avdiivka", anyway?note
Contrast this with the overall map from October 7, 2022, the one captioned "Assessed Control of Terrain in Ukraine and Main Russian Maneuver Axes as of October 7, 2022, 3:00 PM ET":
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-october-7
That big light blue area northeast of Kharkiv? That was a rout. (And, again, when the Russians overran all that territory north of Crimea at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, that was also a rout. I'm not sure the Russian seizure of Crimea back in 2014 even qualified as a "rout"—the Ukrainian government at that time just did absolutely nothing to stop the Russians, and neither did the "world community"—but you could certainly say it was an even more catastrophically one-sided rout than anything that's happened since the beginning of 2022.)
https://mil.in.ua/en/news/russian-troops-used-an-advanced-fpv-drone/
FPV drones used by Russia have fiber optic cables. I heard suggestions that the FO cables are from China.
Edited by Ominae on Mar 10th 2024 at 11:38:12 AM
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
Which reduces the advantage of being untethered. All it takes is a snag, and you have a problem. Various TOW missiles using wires still have a number of limitations regarding where they can fired over.
Who watches the watchmen?
Just hearing some thoughts out there the FO cables were used as a way to get around jamming systems.
Cringe but free
New York Times published an analysis of commercial satellite imagery of Ukrainian defences at Avdiivka. Though the region had been contested since 2014, the Ukrainian defences there were mostly just isolated, bare-bones trench lines, with little in the way of the dense multilayered trench networks and minefields the Russians have been building since 2022 (which is why, as the article notes, the Russians are still managing to push into some settlements past Avdiivka proper).
Zelensky announced today that Ukraine is building 2,000 kilometres of fortifications in three lines, following domestic criticism over the lack of defensive works.
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
- The Army is changing directions in its effort to field a long-range cannon, scrapping its 58-caliber prototype in favor of considering available systems.
ECRA is dead and it seems the M109 will live forever.
The Army says they plan to look at new off the shelf solution for extended artillery and an M109 replacement but I've got serious doubts they'll be able to get the money for it together.
I look forward to the M109 being used alongside the M2 and B-52 during the Martian Rebellions of 2339.
Oh really when?
Night Clerk of the Apacalypse.
They could have replaced the M-109 about three times over now but mostly congress critters have been killing the effort the rest is internal politics.
Who watches the watchmen?
Perun's episodes on the collapse of Russian arms export after the war in Ukraine. He also discusses its future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdap15tWnfI
Edited by Ominae on Mar 17th 2024 at 5:50:39 AM
A Russian T-72B3 Obr.2022 with a KMT mine plow, a "grill" and additional armor in the form of wood ammunition boxes was spotted in Marinka.
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
Sorry if I'm interrupting your currently Ukraine-focused discussions, but I would like your feedback on a certain question.
During WW2, how did the British military compare against the US military in the following areas?
- Vehicle and weapon performance/quality across the army, navy and air force.
- Training quality of service members.
- Overall military doctrine.
Note that I'm not asking for a detailed analysis of, say, every single piece of equipment that was used, just the broad strokes.
For context, I am obviously aware that the US had a massive advantage with its huge industrial base, sheer logistical power and geographic isolation note , so let's ignore the impact of both on the aforementioned points for the sake of convenience.
Edited by MarqFJA on Mar 21st 2024 at 10:15:14 PM
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
At what point? The situation changed drastically throughout the war.
Cringe but free
Is this for an RTS thing
Echoing hymn of my fellow passerine | Art blog (under construction)
Blowout soon fellow Stalker
England was both the last nation standing in Europe desperately making submachine guns out of scrap metal, preparing to arm women and the elderly for frontline combat and subject to daily and nightly strategic bombings of their capital and in a position of total air and naval superiority and near complete overmatching of enemy equipment and producing some of the most cutting edge technology of the time in the form of early jet fighters and arguably the first true main battle tank all during the same war.
The answer to your question is very dependent on the year.
Oh really when?
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
Uh, you can break it down by different periods if you believe that's necessary, but I'm most interested in the period when both countries were fighting.
Yeah. Man, I must have asked RTS-related questions here a lot by now, to make that a "first thing that comes to mind" reaction.
If you really need context for what I want this for, I whip up a summary; it's not necessary, though, as I am just doing personal research to get a proper understanding of the historical side.
I want a broad picture that represents the UK at its peak during the conflict, to serve as inspiration for an RTS-style faction version of the country. Does that help?
Kastuś Kalinoŭski Regiment announced that they're making their own mortars. They're looking for help.
FRL statements made in Ukraine suggests the raid in Belgorod was for attacks on Kyiv.
FRL also mentioned that they're making the Russian Army divert their forces from doing an attack on Kupyansk.
I really hope we Americans don't make the Swedes regret their decision come this November, but in the meantime: Välkommen, nya allierade! An armed attack against Sweden is now also an attack upon the United States of America (and thirty other countries) and we will all take such action as we deem necessary, including the use of armed force, to defend the territorial integrity, political independence, and security of Sweden.
ETA: Well, there's a page topper for you.
Edited by Troper1138 on Mar 7th 2024 at 1:59:01 PM