Erdogan's double game: Praising Palestine, aiding Israel

While the Turkish president loudly praises the Palestinian resistance, he is quietly and ferociously pursuing pro-Israel economic and energy policies.

Reviving ISIS: A US weapon against the Resistance Axis

Is it a coincidence that the world's foremost terror organization is being revived just as the US struggles under a multi-front assault on its hegemony in West Asia? More curiously, both ISIS and Washington's targets are exactly the same.

It really does make you think.

Coup President Dina Boluarte Heckled During Highway Stone-Laying Ceremony

“This unfortunate event endangered the safety of the head of state and this is very serious. With violence, we all lose as a country,” said Otárola on social media, seemingly forgetting the brutal police repression launched directly by Boluarte and her coup security apparatus that killed more than 60 Peruvians in less than 60 days during December 2022-January 2023. This was the first time that Dina Boluarte returned to Ayacucho region since the demonstrations and the police repression that left at least 10 dead in Ayacucho and more than 60 dead throughout the country.

https://nitter.net/DrMelOB/status/1750863616507621533

ICJ orders provisional measures against Israel to stop acts of genocide, stop its military committing acts of genocide, prevent & punish acts of incitement to genocide, preserve evidence of genocide, provide aid to Gaza, report to the ICJ on its compliance.

Everything except the call for Israel's military operation to end was granted. This is a huge legal defeat for Israel, their whole case was basically thrown out.

Vote breakdown in the replies below

Can some Thing Understander please explain to me how in tf a missile can cost tens of millions of dollars each? I assumed it's because the MIC is so bloated and out of control that contractors can put a nine thousand percent markup on everything just like that because they know that all the governments will hand over a blank check anyway. Or are missiles just that god damn expensive? Is this a Natoid thing or is it the same in China, Iran, Russia etc? Just looking for a bit of clarification so I can be properly equipped to dunk on a lib acquaintance. Thanks, love you

Oh no, I live in the heart of the current Cool Zone

One thing that the ICJ ruling (and the subsequent response to it) is making me think about, is the logic of calling for a ceasefire is now beginning to impede on the logical conclusion of the iCJ's ruling. We have heard a refrain for a ceasefire, but if Israel is guilty of committing genocide, then under no pretext should the Palestinian resistance stop fighting, if anything, the moral response would be for other countries to invade or provide material support for the Palestinian resistance and for Israel to unconditionally surrender. Is it still a ceasefire if only one side stops?

Looking at the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) capabilities for various air forces, and holy crap Europe is in a vulnerable position. The only aircraft in the air forces of European countries that can do SEAD and general electronic warfare(EW) at the same time is the Tornado ECR. Some countries have fighter jets like the F-16 equipped with anti radiation missiles for SEAD, but no electronic warfare capabilities. And their electronic warfare platforms are based off of passenger or cargo aircraft. So only Germany and Italy have a plane with proper SEAD and EW capabilities simultaneously in the Tornado ECR. Germany has 35 of these, and Italy 16. The plan here is clearly to rely on the Americans for this with the EA-18G squadrons, plus hope that the F-35s can do some miracle work with "datalink". That's exactly what the UK are trying to with the F-35B.

To put this into perspective, Australia has better SEAD and EW capabilities than most of the European continent, as Australia has 12 EA-18G aircraft.

Russia has also realised through the Ukraine war how important this is, that's why they plan to manufacture 30 Su-34M/ Su-34 NVO fighter planes, which have both EW and SEAD capabilities. Russia only had 10 of them before the war started, and it's only other proper SEAD and EW fighter plane was the Su-24MP, of which only 10 exist.

China have the J-10D and J-16D variants as the aircraft that can do both SEAD and EW. Heavily investing into this area. They also have multiple aircraft types that can fulfil one of the two roles.

The United States has 85 EA-18G aircraft.

I don't think people realise how important these aircraft are to winning wars and achieving air superiority. It is the backbone of any air operation. The whole reason that non stealth jets from the US and NATO were able to carry out such uncontested aerial bombardments with minimal losses during the Gulf war, the bombing of Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, etc, is due to their SEAD and EW capabilities, which were developed after the massive losses in Vietnam. The only aerial losses that occurred during the bombing of Serbia, happend when the EA-6B jets were grounded due to weather. The EA-6B, now replaced by the EA-18G, is credited for the US and NATO achieving such minimal losses during these operations. Being able to simultaneously jam the enemy early warning radar, and take out any active air defense systems with anti radiation missiles, is an essential capability. It can't be split between two platforms. The fact that only Germany and Italy have this capability in Europe is crazy. If America pulls the plug, most of Europe won't be able to take out peer enemy air defenses. Europe is basically entirely dependent on the USA for this.

https://archive.is/FnJNp

Some delicious brainworms relating to wunderweapons circlejerking dipshits love to do.

USAF Eagle pilot tells why a gun-only F-15 would win an aerial engagement against a fully armed Su-27 Flanker

Yes you correctly read that. Some dipshit pilot actually thinks he'd totally win a one-on-one battle with a peashooter against someone with fucking missiles.

The F-15 Eagle

The F-15 Eagle is an all-weather fighter designed to gain and maintain air supremacy. As the first US fighter with engine thrust greater than its basic weight, the F-15 can accelerate while in a vertical climb. In fact, the Eagle can climb 50,000 feet in less than 60 seconds.

The relatively low aircraft weight, compared to wing area, made the Eagle not just fast, but also highly maneuverable, creating a near perfect platform for air-to-air combat.

Which is why it got retired in favor of more shit planes.

F-15 Eagle Vs Su-27 Flanker

How would a gun-only F-15C Eagle cope against a fully armed Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker? ‘I’m going to assume the F-15C is gun-only and the [Su-27] Flanker has a combat load-out, perhaps minus a couple missiles he expended BVR. Also, assuming the F-15 has internal and expendable countermeasures onboard, both electronic and IR (perhaps BOL-IR and MJU-10),’ Marcus Cade, former F-15 Eagle pilot with the US Air Force (USAF), explains on Quora.

THATS RIGHT! ANOTHER DOGSHIT OPINION FROM QUORA!

‘The F-15 is in a tough spot, no doubt, and he can’t separate against a Flanker. His only option is to fight until he kills the Flanker or a wingman shows up and saves the day.

YOU JUST READ IT CORRECTLY! NO, AN F-15 EAGLE WOULD FUCKING STRUGGLE TO SURVIVE IF ITS DOWN TO IT'S GUNS AND ITS BEING CHASED BY A JET ARMED TO THE TEETH

‘Step 1 – see that yellow button with the black stripes I’ve circled? It reads “Emer Jett.” The Eagle Driver hits that button. If he’s out of missiles, the pylons and launchers under the wings are just weighing him down and creating drag. The Emer Jett button will blow every cart on the airplane, leaving the mighty-mighty Eagle a lean, clean, gun-killing machine. The Flanker won’t know what hit him: first, he’ll see sh*t falling off the Eagle and wonder if there’s combat damage or an ejection about to happen.

Translation: push button to hopefully make it easier to dodge missiles that are hunting it down faster than it flies.

The F-15 Eagle is NEVER doomed

‘Then, as the Eagle driver defends against IR missiles and min-ranges radar missiles, the Flanker will realize he’s losing the fight. “How is this possible?” he asks himself as he trades in all his smash to pull the Eagle in front of his 3/9 as he attempts one last Archer that the Eagle flares off. And now he’s jinking in front of the best air-to-air gun platform ever fielded, flown by a single-mission pilot who is a PhD at finishing this particular fight.

You can viscerally feel this dude just cranking his hog to this top gun level wet dream he's conjuring up

‘As the 20mm HEI rounds start pounding thru his speed-brake and wreaking carnage inside his jet, it’s up to him. Does he bow to the inevitable and eject, or does he stick it out until the Eagle-driver walks the pipper up to the canopy and watches the RATR pop up just as the plexiglass shatters and the Flanker-driver’s last sight is his heart being blown out of his chest and splattering across the instrument panel (I borrowed that particular visual).

It is literally more likely for the f-15 pilot to shit himself mid-flight than it is for him to score a dog fighter style kill on another jet.

Gun Only F-15 Eagle Vs fully armed Su-27 Flanker

He continues;

Oh no

‘I’ve flown this profile many times. While I was at Langley, each squadron would keep a couple jets “demo clean” to support the demo team during airshow season. The clean jets would be assigned to Red air, since they didn’t have a captive AIM-9 to allow full-up blue-air training. They also had a fuel disadvantage of 4–8K pounds. So, we’d fly the card and give blue-air the training they needed … and be lethal as F if we got in amongst them. More often, we’d die like we were meant to and Blue air would bingo out and RTB.

Screams "millennium challenge" forced handicap to me

‘Then we’d BFM or ACM amongst ourselves, to get some training with any fuel we had left. Trust me, a clean Eagle is enormously more maneuverable than a 1- or 2-bag Eagle, and surprisingly more maneuverable than a jet w/ no external tanks, but pylons and missiles on board. It’s a hot knife thru butter for the few minutes until fuel runs out. I wouldn’t walk into this no-missile scenario willingly … but the Flanker driver would have only a short window to get his kill before he was looking over his shoulder and hoping his life-insurance was paid up.’

From my understanding of aerial combat, actual engagements would always occur miles away, waaaaaayyyyyyyy out of eyesight, with modern "dogfighting" taking place closer but still far away as hell. Not even including the fact you would rarely be flying alone if you're in contested airspace.

F-15 Eagle Vs Su-27: Respecting the Flanker family

Cade concludes;

Please make it stop

‘Don’t mistake confidence for arrogance. Air superiority was my job for quite a while, and I was on the receiving end of the information stream provided by a very well-resourced intelligence community. I understand and respect many threat platforms’ strengths (esp. the Su-27 family), and have been part of a community that worked hard to find and exploit their weaknesses.

Okay dude. Totally not arrogant

‘I have flown the MiG-29, and flown against many modern weapons systems operated by various nations. I’ve seen my team rolled up by MiGs fighting in their own back yard after we made just one or two early mistakes. I’ve debriefed at length (occasionally ad nauseam) to understand why a mission failed, or why we took losses in an otherwise successful mission … and how to do better next time. Arrogant tacticians lose. You can only learn to win by beginning with humility and being open to learning (and re-learning) lessons. The end product of that process may come across as arrogance … but it’s actually a very hard-earned confidence.’

Translation: we've been rolled by our allies who were using older commercial versions of Soviet tech and we think we'd win now after getting our asses kicked.

I keep seeing people go on about some recent story of Chinese military corruption, something about missiles filled with water, but never seen anyone provide a source. I'm assuming it's pretty baseless regardless but does anyone have specifics? Is it some 'unnamed intelligence source' or something?

31 August 2023 Hot Dam: A radical, beaver-filled idea to improve city parks. — Slate

26 October 2022 'Sponge cities’ can help protect against flooding. Here’s how — World Economic Forum

Comrades in Portland pressured the city council to sign a ceasefire resolution, and when they were ignored they shut down the meeting via disruption

Several Palestinian activists spoke via the council process and were ignored by all of the committee, not one word of response. Then some rando complained about bike lanes and the council pivoted to that and the spokesperson started ranting about bike lanes too. This was when the meeting was shut down by the protesters who shouted for ceasefire until everyone left and the meeting was ended.

Sometimes I'll come across old journal entries and remember how much of a right-wing nationalist I was. There are several entries in older journals from 15 years ago where I rant against illegal immigrants as subhuman trash. Even got my first weapon to shoot at them after they continuously stole my crops during a drought and left me food insecure.

It took getting exposed to more leftism and working more with them as opposed to against them for my mind to change.