ah they’ve just built em really tiny ones to evade western sanctions. clever !

I can understand them getting SU-35s and SU-34s ahead of Iran, but SU-57s are even rarer for the Russian MIC, surely? Numbers are sparse but supposedly in the range of 5-10/yr. It’s a miracle Iran even had a sniff of an SU-35 this side of the century considering the rate of production right now.

As for avionics, I think Algeria gets to leverage its relative peace from NATO’s glare to secure Western avionics. A lot of eastern Europe chose to upgrade Russian airframes in this way instead of replacing otherwise reliable platforms. Russia’s lagging semiconductor industry has always left it struggling in that regard.

Ah the classic ghost army. Normally a brilliant sign that your government isn’t about to collapse.

thing is the EU isn’t leaving Ukraine at all, it’s pouring everything last ounce of political will into this war, and it’s going to keep doing so.

Despite everyone and everything, Russia is still there and inching forwards with the passing days. The only ones left to fend for themselves are Europe, as the great Satan trades it for the bountiful harvests in West Asia and South America.

inb4 Israel continues bombing and the international media blames Hamas.

thank you for the update and detailed information, comrade. as always ❤️‍🩹

Moreover, the risk isnt as much from the US, but if neighbours like Milei feel emboldened by, say, a totally flattened Venezuelan airforce. Having international NON-UN troops in Venezuelan border cities would immediately change the equations being taken in the pentagon as we shitpost.

anti (american) highway of death

dies on a (american) highway

https://thecradle.co/articles/a-fifth-gen-frontier-algerias-su-57-signals-a-new-order-in-the-maghreb

The Cradle is usually semi-reliable depending on the topic, but this feels a bit like the whole “Iranian SU-35” meme all over again. Would Russia even permit SU-57s to be exported in operationally-significant numbers considering how useful they’d be versus Ukranian air defences?

For advanced stuff sure, but AKs aren’t a big deal for the big Satan. Besides, if we know Iran and China is shipping AKs, so does the US.

If anything, Maduro WANTS these shipments known to the US, especially its lackeys who are chomping at the bit to follow Trump’s coat tails into Caracas. The US grunts won’t be recipient of Chinese-Iranian leaded justice in this potential confrontation, Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, Guatemala, etc. are all watching closely to see if they’ll be welcomed as liberators or sent packing.

Everything right now IMO points to the US playing the Iran gambit again. blockade and buildup for what appears to be a “hot war” while isolating the target until its attack dogs get their affairs in order and get ready to bite. Then, the US will commit to a decapitation strike and open the country to a prolonged engagement with its regional rivals who will do the dirty work.

Those rumoured “5000 MANPADS”, for example, are of absolutely zero consequence to the US combined fleet. To an outdated Argentinian F-16 (or even A-4 Skyhawk) with undertrained pilots and little-to-no SEAD? A true threat, not unlike how the US lost zero aircraft to the Houthis (directly) whilst the SGC forces suffered a few… embarrasing moments when improvised truck-launched R-77s splashed their last-gen UK/US shitboxes.

If Argentina et al. are scared to march in, Trump’s campaign will fall flat even with a hit on Maduro. If the US doesn’t take point, the vassals won’t follow. Both need to be capable of victory in their theatres to make the next stage worth pursuing.

they’re eating the tortoises, folks.

It would track with Russian doctrine of recent to start bombarding the escape route, but not fully closing it, to encourage a rout rather than engaging a pocket directly. The entire campaign to Pokrovsk was done like this, plus Toretsk and Kursk (namely the final push out to Sumy oblast). Im sure there are others too.

If the bridge falls, the defenders have their decision made for them, and could removedthe NATO generals into a harsh reaction. Instead, the bridge is still useful for retreating but will be slower, meaning HVTs will be vulnerable. Plus, it signals the fact that Russian airpower can collapse the bridge if it chooses to: Geraniums and Iskanders are much less difficult to intercept than a flanker-launched Kinzhal. Anywhere a Geranium can land without interception, so could a KAB-1000 or Kinzhal in due course, and Ukraine is well aware of this insinuation.

This is like when you lean a little bit to get the cat off your lap on its “own accord” rather than risk a lovebite trying to pick it up awkwardly. At worst, the cat won’t budge and you’ll just scroll for a while and try again.

monkeys paw curls inb4 it’s sunk due to capsizing because the crew all ran to starboard to catch a glimpse of a McDonald’s that China built on the strait of Taiwan

i suppose it’s a lucky thing the US has no industrial base to build a single one of these things … how can you have an embarrassing sunken ship if it never floats in the first place?

looks abandoned already, unless it’s parked up for some reason.

she deleted the comments lmao.

Even if Maduro was to survive, the US could trivially wipe out the Venezuelan airforce, air defenses, amd and other sensitive military equipment to leave him exposed every time he steps outside.

I think it’s notable that Venezuela is distributing small arms to militias. I do not think Maduro fears for an American landing - this is infeasible and something the great satan is unwilling to risk for such little reward - but I do believe that he is (rightly) considering the real threat to come from the opportunistic sycophants of the empire.

Those guns are not to deter the yankee generals, but the Argentinians ones who will see the images of smouldering SU-30s on their televisions as moment of weakness to exploit.

the dynamite is a surprise tool to help us later

Feels like the nomenclature doesnt mean much when “battleships” and “heavy cruisers” were already being blended during WW2. If the ship is big enough you can just call it a battleship even if the weapons and facilities are no different to your frigates now.

that’s also an idea. though part of what made me suggest the former was that embedding the military units into Venezuela makes it much harder for the USA to lever either party from the other. A ship can be brought to port or stood down much easier than thousands of soldiers, even if they can’t relieve the blockade (which still feels like a ploy to instigate the war rather than prepare for it).