Sascha Simon

“The EU will set up a ‘drone alliance’ with Kyiv, backed by €6bn in financing to ‘transform Ukrainian ingenuity into battlefield advantage and into joint industrialisation’, von der Leyen said.”

We made that argument almost a year ago, and I'm glad to see it gaining traction at the highest level.

Der Podcast zum Vortrag. Demnächst dann auch der Film zum Hörbuch. Alles Multiplattform, auf allen Socials, logo, klar, Hallo ihr Lieben. Like and Subscribe.

@rikefranke.bsky.social

'Russian bombers are burning en masse' — Ukraine's SBU drones hit 'more than 40' aircraft in mass attack, source claims "Currently, more than 40 aircraft are known to have been hit, including the A-50, Tu-95 and Tu-22 M3," a source told the Kyiv Independent.

If even a fraction of this is true, it’s a remarkable achievement & a mark of how far Ukr deep strike has come. ‘An operation by Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) has hit ‘more than 40" Russian bombers at air bases “in the rear of the Russian Federation”…’ kyivindependent.com/enemy-bomber...

Ukrainian dep def minister says his country producing 10m drones per year. Drones do 80% of damage in battlefield he says. Ukrainian made FPV IS $500, he says, in contrast to $1,500 for foreign models. Low-cost interceptor drones at $5,000 “affordable alternative” to traditional SAMs.

Sehr guter Text, in dem @drfranksauer.bsky.social die "Realisten" zerlegt.

YouTube video by Hoog How to disable a robot dog if it attacks you

Public Service Announcement.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine is gaining expanded access to European intelligence and certain European ammunition stockpiles. He also mentioned an urgent meeting in a "close circle" regarding the troop contingent.

The original study is here:

www.ndc.nato.int/download/dow...

Climate change may make it harder to spot submarines The sound of their engines will not travel as far

Very flattered to see The Economist discuss the findings of the research that, together with my co-authors, we have carried out on the effects of climate change for submarine warfare.

www.economist.com/science-and-...

🧵Intercepting and neutralizing Russian recon and strike UAVs:

🛸The scope of ZSU FPV drone interceptions has rapidly grown.

Artem's new article breaks down a detailed dataset of these interceptions, providing insights into trends and technological advances. #FPVDrones

1/7

The hunt for Red October in warmer oceans - Climate change and anti-submarine warfare NATO Defense College news

Interesting on how climate change will affect anti-submarine warfare. "We find that acoustic detection will become more difficult in most areas but is going to become significantly more difficult in the North Atlantic than in the Western Pacific." www.ndc.nato.int/news/news.ph...

Bundeswehr: Ihre Bestellung wird ... vorbereitet 15 Jahre lang schafft die Bundeswehr es nicht, ein Flugzeug zu besorgen, das sie dringend braucht. Das Geheimprojekt Pegasus offenbart ein lebensgefährliches Versagen.

“In the best-case scenario, it will ultimately take almost twenty years before Germany has airborne signals intelligence again after the end of the Breguets in the summer of 2010. It is an unprecedented failure.”

ZEIT with a good long read on the Global Hawk/Triton/Pegasus… acquisition catastrophe

Russian accuses of Norway “militarising” Svalbard (www.reuters.com/world/europe...). A reminder of Russian activity in Svalbard from a few years ago, below (jamestown.org/program/russ...)

Keep calm and ReArm.

We should have no illusions: Just as it is now doing with Ukraine, the Trump administration will try to force the Europeans into line if they resist a deal on American (or rather Russian?) terms.

U.S. intelligence sharing with South Vietnamese forces continued until April 30, 1975—the day Saigon fell.

Dear Europe: You are next on the hit list. Good arguments, preemptive concessions, appeals to friendship, and flattery will not protect you. Discard those fantasies and prepare to hit back hard.

Lemme share something with you. A lot of semi-Trumpy types are saying Zelensky blew it. All he had to do was show up, shake hands, say Trump is great and sign the docs. He couldn't do that. But there are also people in DC who are not Trumpy who are saying the same thing. Now, big picture this ...

Talk of close to a trillion Euro in a second German 🇩🇪 Sondervermögen, and talk of Norway 🇳🇴 to tap into its gigantic sovereign wealth fund for Ukraine.

But it’s still only talk. We have the resources and hopefully (finally) the political will. What we don’t have is time.

You won’t regret it!

Indeed

and, eh … gut *punch

If you’re trying to get some distraction from the *gesture-at-everything* do not watch #Paradise (by Hulu). The 7th episode is a gut bunch like Game of Thrones’ red wedding.

Remember: the televised punishment & humiliation meted out to Zelensky just now could be done to any NATO ally facing similar aggression. The sense of sneering hostility & contempt by Trump & Vance isn’t specific to Ukraine.

Didn’t take that long.

Is Trump Making Europe Great Again? In a world of zero-sum thinking, the EU's win-win logic can be a powerful tool.

If you think that Europe is doomed, you’re not paying attention.

Wrote a recap of the latest developments and call me a hopeless Europtimist but I think Europe+ (including Canada) isn’t doing too bad in terms of offering Ukraine an actual perspective for the future. With or without the US.

Another sabotage attempt onboard German Navy ship under investigation

The frigate Hessen,currently in port in Lower Saxony,was allegedly tampered with- someone tried to contaminate its fresh water supply with waste oil

Vote! #BTW2025

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Issues Directive to Prevent the Unfair Exploitation of American Innovation SAFEGUARDING AMERICA’S SOVEREIGNTY OVER ITS ECONOMY: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a memorandum to defend American companies and innovators from

“Regulations that dictate how American companies interact with consumers in the European Union, like the Digital Markets Act and the Digital Services Act, will face scrutiny from the Administration.”

www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/...

There is a broader lesson that Europe will likely pick up on. Offering preemptive concessions to the US to make a deal will just be pocketed in exchange for nothing. Hard to make deals with a predator. Better to hide/flee (Asian allies) or fight back (Canada) and cause it pain (potentially Europe).