US leaders thinking they can blow up their alliance network and still contain China is both very funny and painfully stupid.

Hope is a lie, but it's a lie we have to choose to believe.

The other thing that I realized is that basically everything that is wrong with the US economy is driven by income inequality. I don't know what to do about that. Got more reading on the topic to do, but I will remind people that the era of greatest prosperity in the US was a period of high taxes.

While mulling over the state of politics in the US it occured to me that the main driver that is decoupling residential home prices from median incomes is investors looking to diversify assets. States and cities could implement rules to prevent institutional investors buying in residential zones.

At the moment, at full stretch the British Army could field one understrength division with no artillery. Frankly, that is pathetic and would be more of a liability than an asset in a European war. We should either get out of the land warfare game or commit to it fully.

Bluntly, that means we need to procure ~500 MBT, ~1350 IFV, at least one full division artillery park and a whole lot of other equipment. Anything less is a mere token force and token forces are poor value for money.

Do we want to sit at the top table? I believe our international standing and national security depend on it. There is no security except collective security and so the UK needs to step up if it wants to be worthy of framework nation status.

The UK currently has no credible plan for anything to replace Warrior in the IFV role. We don't have enough boxers or Ajax on order. We don't have enough artillery. In short, the British Army is not a credible fighting force.

The British Army is either credibly equipped for near peer operations, which will entail the ability to absorb significant losses, or it is a light force, a mere adjunct to the sea and air power that should be our raison d'etre.

As such, a fleet of 148 Challenger III buys us nothing we want and costs a lot of money. CIII should either be acquired in sufficient numbers to have an Armored division available for E-NATO, or it should be canceled.

The UK MOD needs to realize what European NATO wants from them and what E-NATO needs are not entirely the same thing. There is no land role that the French and Poles cannot do better. UK air and sea power are our central contributions.

I have been wondering how long it would take Rolls Royce to integrate the EJ230 power plant into the Gripen-E. The answer apparent is "Not very long."

I need to write but also to sleep.

I get to write an 8.3b motion. It's not my first but I love the chance to really let 'em have it.

YouTube video by Woody Guthrie - Topic Tear The Facists Down

youtu.be/-3xUPpkxAco?...

Get angry about the treacherous use of patriotic vocabulary.

The Australian Government is prosecuting someone for purchasing the inner workings of a very old Russian smoke detector and I find this very confusing.

Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water The move has been criticised by experts, who say the mineral helps reduce oral cavities, especially in children.

www.bbc.com/news/article...

I can no longer distinguish between parody and real news where American conservatives are involved.

Looking back on former comrades is sometimes extremely sad.

...but that difference shrinks very suddenly if the US is cut off from its best customers.

Functioning as Europe's primary defense equipment provider and security guarantor has been critical in preventing the most technologically advanced potential adversary to the United States emerging.

The US economy is marginally larger than the combined total for the rest of NATO...

There are 14 different types of MBT in European service, instead of a single common design that could benefit from continued development across the entire fleet. This story is repeated across the board.

European defense independence is going to require some people to swallow their ego.

US dominant market position. US equipment is produced in large quantities which leads to significant economies of scale. European countries often tried to compete with one another, leading to niche, expensive bespoke solutions that were only produced in small quantities and were thus expensive.

I anticipate Drumpf using the threat of cutting off supplies of Patriot interceptors to impose a humiliating peace on Ukraine.

It takes about three years to build an SAMP-T battery, which is the only European weapon system that could replace Patriot. There aren't enough of these precious assets currently in European inventories to defend Ukrainian cities.

Every four years this country has a violent personality shift. You can't count on us.

Russia has burned through their post Soviet inheritance. They are dangerously close to becoming supply constrained in most major equipment categories. Ukraine doesn't need to go on the offensive to win this. They just need the tools to hold on.

Europe can't, in the short run, replace all of the strategic enablers that the US once provided, but the minimum provision required to keep the Russians from further advances is Artillery Parity. That means about 3.6 million shells per year.
This can be done. This must be done.

I don't know how fast the production line for Sky Sabre could be spun up, but that system could meet most of Ukraine's operational needs regarding air defense. Hopefully the new German Government will get out of Rheinmetall's way.