Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion

the hea said:
How many western navy ships has the Houthi rebels been able to hit so far with their drones and missiles?
Click to expand...
One was very close to hit a warship, apparently. And I wonder if they are still getting supplies from the likes of Iran nowadays to test the U.S. ships defense with an overwhelming number. I also think Ukraine may be a bit ahead in how to use them. In fact, they might be the first to use them so effectively?
 
Last edited:
The Houthi disaster is the result of another master stroke of the greatest of all presidents by withdrawing unilateral from the Iran nuclear treaty.
 
White House to brief lawmakers on 'serious national security threat' related to Russia

WASHINGTON — House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, released an unusual statement Wednesday warning of a "serious national security threat" without providing additional details, pre-empting what the White House said was a planned briefing for congressional leaders.

Four sources with knowledge of the issue told NBC News that the threat is a Russian military capability.
Click to expand...
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/na...onal-security-threat-ahead-planned-rcna138848
 
Apparently Russia wants to put a nuclear weapon into space for possible use against satellites. Would be a violation of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty according to some account I follow.

Two sources familiar with deliberations on Capitol Hill said the intelligence has to do with the Russians wanting to put a nuclear weapon into space.

This is not to drop a nuclear weapon onto Earth but rather to possibly use against satellites.
Click to expand...
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/whi...akers-house-chairman-warns/story?id=107232293
 
Last edited:
Russian state media TASS reporting negatively on the Tucker interview. Interesting...

Putin admitted that he did not fully enjoy the interview with Carlson, since he deprived him of the opportunity to give sharp answers to pressing questions.

The President of the Russian Federation called Tucker Carlson a “dangerous person” because he chose the tactics of a patient listener during an interview.
Click to expand...
https://t.me/tass_agency/231727
 
VorZakone said:
Actually saw a naval warfare expert tweet on this very subject (sea drones destroying Russian ships).

Her conclusion was basically...there isn't really anything to learn for Western navies because there's just no way a Western navy would be so incompetent in protecting their ships (layered defense).

You do with that information what you want.
Click to expand...

Well, I think a lot of Western navies will actually (they better do) take notes about the new reality of naval drones because this is arguably as revolutionary as the impact from anti-ship missiles fired by planes back during in the Falklands War. Most navies started equipping their ships with the very best in CIWS after they saw what happened to HMS Sheffield.
 
Last edited:
RedDevilQuebecois said:
Well, I think a lot of Western navies will actually (they better do) take notes about the new reality of naval drones because this is arguably as revolutionary as the impact anti-ship missiles fired by planes back during in the Falklands War. Most navies started equipping their ships with the very best in CIWS after they saw what happened to HMS Sheffield.
Click to expand...
The gist was more that the Russian ships aren't protected like Western ships so it's unclear what lessons Western navies can learn. If Russian ships are as protected as Western ones and Ukraine still got their drones through those defenses, that'd be more alarming.
 
4bars said:
Isn't a nuclear weapon overkill? wouldn't a grenade be enough to just to put a satellite out of commission?
Click to expand...

From reading a couple of articles it seems that Low Earth Orbiting satellites don't have to transgress the Van Allen belts and so are not, as a rule, protected against radiation. Any nuclear explosion in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) would increase radiation at that level which would then swiftly spread round the planet, degrading and ultimately destroying the vast majority of satellite networks orbiting at that level.



Apparently it's not a new consideration. Here's a letter from a space systems analyst way back in 1998 that succinctly describes the threat:

Glen Kweder said:
A high-altitude nuclear detonation releases a tremendous number of high - energy electrons. These electrons, trapped in Earth's magnetosphere, rapidly populate all LEO orbital space. As a result, hundreds of LEO satellites are exposed to electron levels up to 10,000 times higher than the natural LEO space environment . This enhanced electron radiation damages critical electronic circuits in satellites, leading to the demise of LEO constellations in weeks or a few months.
Click to expand...
 
Ekkie Thump said:
From reading a couple of articles it seems that Low Earth Orbiting satellites don't have to transgress the Van Allen belts and so are not, as a rule, protected against radiation. Any nuclear explosion in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) would increase radiation at that level which would then swiftly spread round the planet, degrading and ultimately destroying the vast majority of satellite networks orbiting at that level.



Apparently it's not a new consideration. Here's a letter from a space systems analyst way back in 1998 that succinctly describes the threat:
Click to expand...



Oh, i see the purpose now. Thanka a lot.

Bonus question. Could that low orbit nuclear radition spread down land?
 
4bars said:
Oh, i see the purpose now. Thanka a lot.

Bonus question. Could that low orbit nuclear radition spread down land?
Click to expand...
It would. While the explosion would blow part of the debris further into space, some will be blown down to earth or on a trajectory slowly dropping down to earth (everything in low earth orbits will drop down at some point due to the resistance of the extremely faint atmosphere in that height. For satellites we are talking about 10-100 years of lifetime until they fall back to earth). But I would not really worry about that - it would be so widespread that it probably is measurable, but not really affecting anyone or increasing the existing background radiation to a meaningful degree.
 
stefan92 said:
It would. While the explosion would blow part of the debris further into space, some will be blown down to earth or on a trajectory slowly dropping down to earth (everything in low earth orbits will drop down at some point due to the resistance of the extremely faint atmosphere in that height. For satellites we are talking about 10-100 years of lifetime until they fall back to earth). But I would not really worry about that - it would be so widespread that it probably is measurable, but not really affecting anyone or increasing the existing background radiation to a meaningful degree.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the explanation!
 
the hea said:
How many western navy ships has the Houthi rebels been able to hit so far with their drones and missiles?
Click to expand...

I think you might be asking the wrong questions. In my opinion, the right questions are "How many were actually targeted and with what volume of drones/missiles?" Without knowing the answer to those, the answer to your question is meaningless.

But we know that Houthis only get a small fraction of the materiel Iran produces. Iran also supplies Russia, Hezbollah and a score of other military movements in the region. I suspect that if US Navy ships were in the Persian Gulf and targeted in earnest by Iran, it would be a whole different matter. And targeted by China in the straight of Taiwan, it would be a whole different matter again.
 
LONDON — European nations are setting up a drone coalition, led by Latvia and Britain, to supply and support the production of thousands of first-person-view drones for the Ukrainian military.
The drone coalition intends to deliver one million drones to Ukraine, said the Latvian MoD in a statement. No timeline for the drone deliveries was given by officials in Riga.

Small drones have proven highly effective on the battlefield since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, providing operators with situational awareness to target enemy positions, armored vehicles, and ships with explosive ordnance. First-person-view drones are typically piloted with the help of goggles, allowing operators to see a live video feed from the drone’s camera.
Click to expand...
https://www.defensenews.com/global/...-to-rush-first-person-view-drones-to-ukraine/
 
Communication on this has been...bad. There is a difference between nuclear-powered and a nuclear weapon. Still unclear what it is.

 
VorZakone said:
Communication on this has been...bad. There is a difference between nuclear-powered and a nuclear weapon. Still unclear what it is.

Click to expand...


I did sort of slightly wonder. Surely Russia would have been capable of exploding a LEO nuke for multiple decades.
 
VorZakone said:
Communication on this has been...bad. There is a difference between nuclear-powered and a nuclear weapon. Still unclear what it is.

Click to expand...


Really, go figure what Mike Turner was even thinking when he did that stunt. Several Democrats, former CIA directors and former officers are not particularly happy at the turn of events as there are rules for dealing with such sensitive intel. In other words, you cannot leak stuff like that when it doesn't tell the whole story.
 
Bad news. Hopefully the European countries can ramp up ammunition production quickly now to prevent this happening again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.