Russian-Ukrainian War (2022- )

[Full Metal Junkie]

Oh, and here is a neat chain of events:

https://twitter.com/x/status/2028568680020267128

1.Iran licences shahed manufacturing to Russia
2. Russia iteratively improves shaheds over the past 4 years of war with Ukraine
3. Russia shares their improvements with Iran
4. Americans keep selling microchips to Russia by failing to enforce their own sanctions
5. American microchips are used by the Russians in their drone satnav system
6. The Russian satnav systems are installed on the Iranian drones
7. Iranian drones hit American targets

 

[kEiThZ]

This thing was a comms antenna? I'm not an expert on what goes under a white dome on a naval base, so I assumed it was a radar.

It's a sat dish in a radome. We have them in our cities too.

Here's one in Scarborough that I grew up near:

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Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

maps.app.goo.gl

Air defence radars are sometimes up to Megawatts of power. Even smaller ones can be several kilowatts. It would be unsafe to have them anywhere where people can be accidentally irradiated.

 

[Full Metal Junkie]

Air defence radars

I also never claimed it was an air defence radar that was destroyed, just a "radar dome", which if I'm not mistaken is the same thing as a radome.
And it seems like they are no longer hiding where the American casualties occured. Apparently the body count is up to 6 now and all six were killed in a single strike on an operations centre in Kuwait:

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/02/politics/six-soldiers-killed-in-iranian-strike-kuwait

 

[kEiThZ]

I also never claimed it was an air defence radar that was destroyed, just a "radar dome", which if I'm not mistaken is the same thing as a radome.

It's just a name. But I can see how people have to come to think of those as just radars. But as a general rule, if it emits a lot, it won't be near people.

And it seems like they are no longer hiding where the American casualties occured. Apparently the body count is up to 6 now and all six were killed in a single strike on an operations centre in Kuwait:

https://www.cnn.com/2026/03/02/politics/six-soldiers-killed-in-iranian-strike-kuwait

That happens in a war. And to some extent this one is looking poorly planned.

 

[Full Metal Junkie]

There's a substantial shortage of point defences. This is a known problem. It takes a while to build them and mobilize them. More so when stuff getting built was sent to Ukraine as first priority.

Here is an excellent Xitter thread on the topic of depleting stockpiles of air defense interceptor missiles. I welcome everyone to read through the entire 17-post thread:

https://twitter.com/x/status/2028555457745621378

Key points:

In US doctrine, the purpose of theatre missile defense (TMD) is not to provide an impenetrable shield for friendly forces for an indefinite period. Rather, it is a tool to buy time for your own offensive assets to neutralize the enemy's theatre missile capabilities.

Offensive operations target the enemy's air & missile capabilities, thereby reducing the number of threats that allied TMD must intercept.

There is no doctrinal assumption that TMD can provide guaranteed protection indefinitely. The objective is to *minimize* the extent & impact of successful attacks to ensure operational freedom. TMD is all about facilitating attack; defense is a means, not a goal itself.

Russia's war on Ukraine is a perfect example of how supposed defense policy experts have gotten it all wrong.

NATO's strategy has been entirely reactive: delivering defensive tools like TMD to Ukraine in response to Russian attack, but doing little to enable Ukraine's own counter force or counter value attacks. There will never be enough air defense to protect all of Ukraine.

Just another example of how the western governments are failing Ukraine and failing their own foreign policy objectives. If we stopped respecting the fictional red lines in sand that Russia draws and never enforces, we could have enabled Ukraine to destroy Russia's drone & missile production and launch capacity years ago.

Giving Ukraine deep strike capabilities is the quickest and cheapest way of ending the war. Instead we are paying billions of dollars for a slow trickle of Patriot interceptor missiles to "defend" Ukrainian airspace. That is an endless drain on resources that will do nothing to end the war.

 

[Towered]

I get the strong impression that since he wasn't able to get a quick, easy and cheap "win" by solving this conflict, Trump has totally lost interest in Ukraine. That can actually be a blessing in disguise for them since he put them under immense pressure to give up territory permanently and just hand the vile Russians a win for no reason.

 

[Full Metal Junkie]

And while we're on the topic of Ukrainian air defenses, would you look at that, there is finally an appreciation that the U.S. and allies were underprepared for the drone threat:

https://twitter.com/x/status/2029271774605574208

Ukraine has been asked and is eager to share its expertise in counter-drone warfare with the American allies in the middle east:

https://twitter.com/x/status/2029266530584732007

And if you're apprehensive about using machine gun fire for your counter-drone effort, Ukraine has another ace up its sleeve: FPV interceptor drones. Here's how they work and how little they cost:

https://twitter.com/x/status/2010446659902435372

https://twitter.com/x/status/2006040065084969466