Hyperreality

Not really newsworthy.

They do this regularly. It's normal.

It's used to test reaction time. They fly towards the border, then see how fast the jets scramble.

Eg.

https://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/23/world/europe/russian-bombers-intercepted/index.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/aug/03/military-aircraft-interventions-have-surged-top-gun-but-for-real

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/17/raf-fighters-intercept-two-russian-bombers-uk-airspace

https://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/18/politics/russian-bombers-f-22-intercept-alaska/index.html

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/11/politics/us-stealth-fighters-intercept-russian-bombers/index.html

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/08/politics/us-aircraft-intercept-russian-bombers/index.html

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/31/politics/russian-jet-nato-b-52/index.html

https://www.reuters.com/world/russian-planes-over-north-sea-intercepted-by-belgian-f-16s-dutch-defence-2021-11-12/

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/30/politics/nato-russia-jets/index.html

Here's a few where the Russian scrambled jets when the US flew to near Russia:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/21/russia-says-warplane-scrambled-a-us-bombers-flew-over-baltic-sea

https://www.the-sun.com/news/3736802/russia-warplanes-intercept-us-b-52-nuclear/

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-scrambles-two-fighter-jets-escort-us-strategic-bombers-over-black-sea-ria-2021-10-20/

Caveat: the Russians try to portray any flight even slightly near the Russian border as very agressive and obviously use any and all incidents to play a round of whataboutism. They've also got this whole narrative going about NATO being about to invade Russia. Meanwhile western media will portray these intercepts as very agressive and unprofessional, something the Russians will deny, but given what happened with that drone a while back that's likely true.

Occasionally someone will violate someone else's airspace, especially if countries degree where it starts/ends. Also not uncommon.

Same thing with China.

Not really a big deal, except that time Turkey shut down a Russian jet, or occasional spy ballon/drone shootdowns. Certainly unlikely to start a war.

They should simply do a Prince, call it 'the social media site formerly known as twitter' and not mention X at all.

I do get it though. Most of us want Ukraine to win. We ignore the information that we don't like. It's human.

But it's not helpful, especially when the reality sinks in that this war isn't easy, and thousands of young men are dying.

Old diesel subs? Sure.

But back in 2005 a now thirty year old Gotland-class diesel sub embarassed the USS Reagan in war games.

Since then, plenty of countries have designed newer and better diesel subs, and battery tech has obviously improved.

If I'm not mistaken, that was a Gotland Class. Built in the early 90s, so over 30 years old.

France has at least one diesel submarine that's decades more modern.

diesel submarines can be quieter than nuclear subs when operating in electric mode, although their range is limited.

So you agree that diesel submarines can be quieter than nuclear subs when operating in electric mode, although their range is limited.

That's good.

I thought this was turning into one of those reddit level discussions, where people refuse to accept they were wrong, because they'd rather 'win' an argument by misrepresenting what the person they're debating actually said, than have a nuanced discussion

they had next to no professional soldiers prior to their being invaded by Ruzzia

Incorrect.

After Russia invaded in 2014, Ukraine heavily invested in its military. NATO has also been helping them train for years now. Wall Street Journal

This is also why Russia faced far stiffer resistance in 2022 than they did in 2014.

two of their allied powers, Belarus and Chechnya

Belarus's involvement is very limited. They're mainly allowing the Russians to fire missiles from their territory. Wikipedia

Chechnya isn't a country or 'power'. It's the Russian equivalent of Alabama.

Wagner, chose to rebel over continuing to get fed to the meat grinder

It would be a mistake to think people like Prigozhin want to end the war. Russian ultra-nationalists want to intensify and escalate the war, not stop it.

Ruzzia is literally down to recruiting 16 and 60 yr olds right now.

18-30. The Guardian

Wait so you honestly think they’re going 30,000 km on battery power

Obviously not, as the article I linked to mentions the range is limited in electric mode.

battery power is not going to power the whole entire sub and magically move the sub quietly through the water,

It will, but the range is limited. Electricity and batteries aren't magic. We also use them to move cars.

that’s how nuclear subs work.

You should read the article I linked to above. Current nuclear submarines often aren't perfectly silent. In fact, they can be louder than a modern diesel sub running in battery only mode.

Which is likely why the French, who do have nuclear subs, chose to build a diesel sub anyway while simultaneously also working on quieter nuclear subs.

He sued Top Gear for being critical of the tesla roadster in 2008. (And before someone pipes in about that being justified despite them losing twice, because you inadvertently bought the tesla spin on that case back when people didn't yet realise Musk was full of shit, please do a bit of research.)

He lied about founding tesla and continually lied about the actual founders. When they sued for libel in 2009, Musk settled.

He banned the guy who posted publicly available information about his private jet on twitter.

The list goes on.

Musk has never been free speech. He has always been a cunt.

Their secret?

Fraud:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11299646

This being said, Russia also isn't as weak as we like to think. Given how the war has ground to a standstill, it's not unlikely it'll become yet another frozen conflict. And that's after arming the Ukrainians with large amounts of advanced weaponry.

We've become so used to the idea we'd have air supremacy in any potential war, we thought the Ukrainians would be able to push their way through the front, forgetting that the Ukrainians aren't able to take out artillery or mines beforehand.

The Russians have also adapted quite quickly. At the beginning of the war, the Ukrainians were having huge successes with drones. Now the Russians are downing 10,000 drones a month:

https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-losing-10000-drones-month-russia-electronic-warfare-rusi-report-2023-5?op=1&r=US&IR=T

To be clear, Russia is an existential threat to Europe. If they turn this conflict into a stalemate, they will have won territory that doesn't belong to them and it's almost certain they'll rebuild, rearm and do it again. Just like happened with Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine in 2014.

But underestimating the Russians is not in NATO members' interests. No one ever won a war underestimating the enemy, better to give Ukraine more than they need, than just barely enough to make incremental advances under the assumption Russia won't do a second wave of conscription and/or doesn't have (or isn't building up) reserves for a (counter) counter-offensive.

And given how Ukraine has struggled, even with advanced weaponry, it's clearly high time for Europe to re-arm so that Russia doesn't mistakenly think we're weak.