[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Not a shot fired, not a snowball thrown... if President Donald Trump is genuine in his blustering threats to seize Greenland for the United States, military experts believe it could be easily and bloodlessly done.
But the geopolitical earthquake will be vast – more seismic even than that set off by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. ‘In military terms, it would probably not be a difficult operation,’ warned General Sir Richard Shirreff, Nato’s former deputy supreme allied commander Europe yesterday.
‘But its political implications would be massive. And the one person who’s going to be more delighted about it than anybody else is Vladimir Putin – because it could tear Nato apart.’
Until Trump’s incendiary comments this week, followed by the unexpected visit of his son Donald Jr on the family’s private jet (nicknamed Trump Force One) to the capital Nuuk, few people knew more about Greenland than can be gleaned from an Arctic wildlife documentary.
It has walruses and a dwindling number of polar bears, and is dark for nearly half the year. It is a Danish territory. In 1916 the 28th US president Woodrow Wilson – also tempted by Greenland’s resources – ceded all interest in the island as a sweetener in a deal to buy the Virgin Islands from Denmark.
Greenland is mostly icebound which – as we know – is melting fast. Glaciers are disintegrating, with experts warning the Arctic Ocean could soon see its first ice-free summer for the first time in recorded history.
The melting ice is crucial to Trump’s urgent interest in claiming the territory – for four powerful reasons.
Firstly, as the seaways become navigable, a route between the Atlantic and the Pacific opens up – the fabled Northwest Passage between Greenland and northern Canada. That route could partly replace the Panama Canal as the link between America’s east and west coasts. If it does, Trump will want to control it.
#2
Greenland would be a lot more attractive if there really was global warming. Not holding my breath.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/11/2025 12:59 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Now that the hype and blather has percolated a bit-and the Danes and Grennlandians have sent Trump private messages-the real discussion about military basing is likely to begin.
[News With Views] To support the growth of health and prosperity worldwide for the 8 billion on this planet in the coming decades, and the increasing demand for electricity, and for the 6,000+ products in our materialistic society, and for the various transportation fuels ⏤ will challenge humanity’s creativity to support the supply chains to meet those growing demands.
Government-mandated winners and losers are only applicable to those few in the wealthier countries that can afford huge subsidies, but the reality is that there are no silver bullet answers.
For those outside the few wealthy countries, we see that at least 80 percent of humanity, or more than six billion in this world, are living on less than $10 a day, and billions are living with little to no access to electricity.
Politicians in wealthier countries are pursuing the most expensive ways to generate intermittent electricity. Energy poverty is among the most crippling but least talked-about crises of the 21st century. We should not take electricity, products, and fuel for granted. Wealthy countries may be able to bear expensive electricity and fuels, but not by those that can least afford living in "energy poverty."
It should be one of everyone’s New Year’s resolutions to acquire a passion to stimulate discussions to enhance everyone’s Energy Literacy. To support and facilitate those CONVERSATIONS, at least three are required:
♦ A Moderator: Teacher, student, or Podcast host.
♦ A representative of the products and fuels of our materialistic society and
♦ A representative of the pro-renewables for zero-emissions electricity.
Here are just a few open-ended starter questions for Teachers, Students, and Podcaster Moderators to stimulate 3-way Energy Literacy conversations:
I think one of the outcomes of the war in Ukraine is the increasing sophistication of drones, including defense against drones.
But then, I would not be opposed to the US military going into Mexico and doing whatever needs to be done. It is a war, no matter what kind of spin anybody wants to put on it. And in war, you use the military.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/11/2025 13:07 Comments ||
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#6
They sell hunting licenses right? Whole sections of the border with hunting licenses to shot anything flying over under 2000 feet. Lease your section today! Please police all brass.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Artemy Sharapov
[REGNUM] US President-elect Donald Trump has reiterated plans to buy Greenland from Denmark, calling the island a critical asset for America's national security.
Trump said control of Greenland was strategic to monitor Russian and Chinese activities in the Arctic and protect against potential threats from either country.
“I’m talking about protecting the free world,” the head of the White House said, answering questions from journalists.
The new administration is apparently planning to reconsider the country's military presence in the Arctic. At the same time, the US plans for Greenland raise a lot of questions, especially considering that the US has been using the island's territory for military purposes for 70 years.
IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF STANLEY KUBRICK
The agreement on the military presence of the US Army in Greenland was concluded during the Second World War. The Danish embassy in Washington refused to recognize the occupation of Denmark by the Third Reich and sanctioned the American military presence on the island.
In 1950, construction began on a large US Air Force base on the island, named Thule after the nearby Eskimo village.
By the 1960s, the base had been expanded, and B-52 nuclear-capable strategic bombers were stationed in Greenland, carrying out combat sorties around the clock to the borders of the USSR with nuclear bombs on board as part of Operation Chrome Dome.
It was assumed that the round-the-clock presence of nuclear weapons carriers in the airspace would give the US Air Force an advantage in the event of an unexpected outbreak of conflict. Before departure, the crews were assigned targets for strikes on Soviet territory.
Operation Chrome Dome formed the basis for Stanley Kubrick's feature film Dr. Strangelove. The plot centers on the crew of a B-52 bomber that makes a regular flight to the Soviet Union's Arctic borders and ultimately launches a nuclear strike.
The story told by Kubrick seems even more realistic when you consider that US Air Force bomber crews repeatedly practiced nuclear strike tactics.
This practice eventually backfired on the US: on January 21, 1968, a fire broke out on board a bomber assigned to the Thule base. The crew managed to abandon the plane, which crashed in the immediate vicinity of the base. As a result of the incident, four B28 thermonuclear bombs were “lost” in the ice of Greenland.
Information about the incident was classified. Only in the 1990s did it become known that the American military had found fragments of three bombs, and one was still "out there somewhere," poisoning the local ecology. Operation Chrome Dome was curtailed, but the US did not abandon the idea of deploying aircraft on the island.
In modern American military doctrine, Greenland is given a special role, military expert Alexander Mikhailovsky noted in an interview with IA Regnum.
"We are not only talking about control over the Arctic, but also about a strategic advantage in the event of a global war. It is no secret that both the US and the USSR planned to exchange nuclear strikes through, say, the North Pole in the event of a major war - this is the shortest route," the expert says.
According to him, this is why the US National Missile Defense System (BMEWS) early warning radar stations were deployed in Greenland. The complex is designed to detect nuclear missiles and their carriers.
In 2021, during his first term, Trump unveiled an updated missile defense concept. The updates were needed because Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea had acquired new weapons that “challenged existing defenses.”
…repeating a point raised elsewhere…
The current desire to take control of Greenland may be due to Washington's fears, says Jens Wenzel, an analyst at Nordic Defence Analysis.
"The Americans are seriously concerned that Russia could launch a large-scale attack on the United States. Today, there is no air monitoring over the entire territory of Greenland, it is essentially a 'free zone,'" Wenzel told Reuters.
In addition to “cutting off the Russian threat,” control of Greenland also reduces the risk of an attack from China. According to American analysts, if China were to launch missiles at the US East Coast, their trajectory would pass through the North Pole.
That's why Trump isn't lying when he talks about Greenland's strategic importance to the United States.
NUCLEAR WEAPONS IN THE ARCTIC
With the end of the Cold War, the US presence in Greenland was partially curtailed. The Thule base was renamed Pituffik, some facilities were closed or mothballed, and personnel were reduced from 10,000 to 2,000.
However, with the aggravation of the military-political situation in the world, Washington together with its NATO allies again took up the old - in the literal sense. Special platforms for the rapid deployment of MAAS aircraft were installed at the airfield in Pituffik, allowing the airbase to be used all year round (in winter, the temperature in northern Greenland drops to minus 45 degrees). The complex allows the use of short and/or icy runways for launching fighters and significantly expands the US capabilities for operating the base.
Notably, the upgrades were carried out during Trump's first term. The Pentagon also said that the base's capabilities would be expanded.
"We don't want to find ourselves in a situation where our only option is military defeat," said General Glenn van Herk, head of the U.S. Northern Command.
After the installation of MAAS systems at the Thule/Pituffik base in Greenland, regular exercises of the US and Canadian Air Forces began, called Amalgam Dart. At the same time, Denmark, as a NATO ally of the US, has never opposed holding exercises on its territory. Therefore, Trump can expect that he will not be prevented from using Greenland in the interests of the US army in the future, says Anders Pak Nielsen, an analyst at the Danish Defense College.
"The United States already has access to this territory. They already have early warning radars at the Pituffik space base. This is the base they called Thule Air Base. And if the Americans wanted to expand their military presence in Greenland, they could simply ask the Danish and Greenlandic governments," Nilsen notes.
However, the US may simply not want to ask permission from its junior partners. According to the Russian ambassador to Denmark Vladimir Barbin, the US is already preparing the Thule/Pituffik base in Greenland to house nuclear weapons carriers.
"Its comprehensive modernization is underway, including the radar, costing billions of US dollars. An airfield infrastructure is also being created there for F-35 fighters, which are capable of carrying nuclear weapons. Such fighters have already used the base's airfield during US Air Force exercises," the ambassador told reporters.
In turn, the US Embassy in Denmark stated that Washington "has no plans to increase its military presence in Greenland." Allegedly, it is only about upgrading the existing base. At the same time, it is obvious that the US is considering the possibility of deploying nuclear weapons on Greenland territory — despite the "sins of the past."
In 1995, the US declassified some of the documents on the “Thule incident,” where they admitted to violating Denmark’s non-nuclear status. The publication of the documents caused an international scandal, so the US no longer dared to deploy strategic aviation in Greenland, primarily because of the position of the Danish authorities. A conditional “Anschluss,” or, in Trump’s terminology, a “deal” on Greenland, could have resolved this problem and allowed Washington to return to the realities of the Cold War.
ARE THERE ANY THREATS TO RUSSIA?
The American administration has other trump cards – they can achieve what they want in other ways. For example, Trump can demand that European countries increase their spending on NATO and get carte blanche from Denmark to deploy any forces in Greenland.
In this case, the US will be able to seriously modify its missile defense systems in the Arctic and even deploy nuclear weapons carriers in Greenland.
"The re-equipment of the Pituffik/Thule base for fighters suggests that strategic aviation is unlikely to be sent there. It's not the 1960s now, bombs no longer need to be transported, there is no point in pulling "strategists" to our borders. In other words, new threats to our security are not emerging yet," military expert Mikhailovsky believes.
In essence, the Regnum source continues, the US is not expanding its military presence in the Arctic, but is patching up holes in its own missile defense system. But this does not mean that Russia can calm down and not react to what is happening, especially given the unpredictability of the new US administration.
[Responsible Statecraft] In October 1939, just one month after he took over as Army Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall famously winnowed the ranks of hidebound senior officers to prepare for war. "Most of them have their minds set in outmoded patterns," Marshall told his leadership team, "and can’t change to meet the new conditions they may face if we become involved in the war that started in Europe."
Every democracy since a defeated Athens has pruned its senior leaders proven inadequate to the demands of their respective era — often more painful than mere public shame. Ours may be the only era when an entire general and admiralty class — more than 80% of which gain employment in the defense sector after retirement — has been consistently rewarded with lucre and prestige for losing.
With two failed wars and scores of weapons acquisition fiascoes now secured in history’s dustbin, many may fear that virtue itself has been swept from the floor. Mainstream deference to "self-serving delusion" has sustained an unearned and stunting faith in a senior leadership selection system made hollow by long-past assumptions.
Therefore, Secretary of Defense-designate Pete Hegseth’s impassioned plea to focus upon the people who serve and his condemnation of a self-perpetuating, class-creating leadership system may, if we can look past the vitriol of our day, herald our very own Marshall moment to deter war rather than to fight one.
First, most Americans do not realize that the competitive promotion board system for our military, as defined by law, ends after two-star selection. All three and four-star officers are thus political appointees — in every sense. No selection board convenes to nominate them to the Secretary, President, or Congress. So who culls the anointed from the herd? It falls to each uniformed service chief to manage an ever-shrinking, hermetically-sealed talent pool, presenting a goldilocks-like offering of options to the civilian Secretary who will then forward recommendations to the Secretary of Defense. The products of those selections, when confirmed by the Senate, will often outlast their civilian masters in duration of service. The long-term stakes of national security couldn't be higher.
#1
First, most Americans do not realize that the competitive promotion board system for our military, as defined by law, ends after two-star selection.
Even that is designed for peacetime operations. They did not change to a wartime process. It's 'unfair'. Yep, just like war itself.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin in italics.
[ColonelCassad] The structure of the US "industrial-censorship complex" - a censorship system that seemingly does not exist.
In January 2017, Obama’s outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Jehovah Johnson made protecting election infrastructure part of his agency’s mandate.
And right after that:
DHS created a Countering Foreign Influence Task Force to focus on “disinformation about election infrastructure.”
The State Department’s Global Engagement Center expanded its interagency mandate to counter foreign influence operations.
The FBI created a Foreign Influence Task Force to “identify and counter malign foreign influence operations targeting the United States,” with a particular focus on voting and elections — key components of what has come to be known as the censorship industrial complex.
In 2018, the Senate Intelligence Committee requested a “Study on Russian Interference in Social Media” — studies that served as the rationale for pressuring social media companies to end their faltering on content moderation.
The committee also tasked Graphika, a social media analytics firm, with co-authoring a report on Russian interference in social media. Interestingly, Graphika lists DARPA and the Pentagon’s Minerva initiative, which funds “basic social science research,” as key partners. And Graphika’s report “on Russian interference in social media” became the rationale for the creation of the Election Integrity Partnership, led by the Stanford Internet Observatory — a key element of the government’s censorship policing during and after the 2020 election.
The Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab is an organization that joined the Stanford-led quartet. Funded in part by the State Department — including through the Center for Global Engagement — and the Department of Energy, the think tank counts among its directors the heads of the CIA and the secretaries of defense. The lab’s senior director is Graham Bookey, President Obama’s former top aide for cybersecurity, counterterrorism, intelligence, and homeland security.
The third of the four organizations to join the Election Integrity Partnership was the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public, launched in 2019. Stanford alumna and visiting professor Kate Starbird co-founded the center. The National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research have provided funding for Dr. Starbird’s work on social media. The observatory is a program of Stanford’s Center for Cyber Policy, whose members include former Obama National Security Council official and Russian Ambassador Michael McFaul, as well as other prominent figures with security backgrounds or ties to the field.
Ahead of the 2020 election, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which has taken on the task of protecting election infrastructure, expanded its scope to include combating disinformation perceived as a threat to election security. Eventually, this came to encompass any American political speech, including speculation and even satire to the extent that it questions or undermines state-sanctioned narratives about unprecedented mass mail-in elections.
On the question of whether censorship on social networks will disappear after the recent "relaxations".It is worth noting that the current censorship system was developed and implemented under Trump.
[SteynOnlime] I think of the fire hydrant as a quintessential bit of American iconography. Yes, they predate the United States, going back to the sixteenth century and the spread of piped municipal water systems in Europe and Asia. But, if you asked the average person to picture a fire hydrant, his imagination would conjure one in the American design - in part because elsewhere (Britain, Germany, Spain) the hydrants are below ground and no one knows their shape. It's the Yanks who brought them up to the surface as if to say: see? here our writ runs; you can count on that. Decades ago, somewhere in Queens, I rounded a corner and found the fire department flushing a hydrant, and the excited kids jumping around and occasionally darting into the spray. Golly, I thought, I've walked into a Norman Rockwell cover. Which I had (see Saturday Evening Post top right).
Silly me. Like Angela Merkel diversity bollards or utility poles in western North Carolina, fire hydrants are now purely decorative:
As I usually say at this point, nothing works anymore. But, when even the fire hydrants don't work, it may be time to retire that line. This is your future - the future they're building for you every day. When you work as assiduously as the west does to become the Third World, don't be surprised that it happens a lot quicker than you thought.
Seventeen years ago, I received a note from a reader advising me to lighten up - on the grounds that we're rich enough that we can afford to be stupid. Almost two decades later, some of us are rich enough to be able to afford a home in Pacific Palisades and are willing to indulge a monumentally stupid mayor who, as the first ciswoman of colour to go on a fact-finding mission to study West African emergency-services management, shattered the glass ceiling before it had a chance to burn down:
Needless to say, it was a whippersnapper of a foreigner badgering and hectoring the poor wee defenceless chief executive of one of the most famous jurisdictions on the planet. Any American "journalist" minded to do the same would never work again. But it will make a great vignette for her pre-2028 political memoir It Takes a Child to Raze a Village.
An Unbiased Look at the German Medium Tank Pz.Kpfw.Panther
Each tank-building power had its ups and downs, as well as its approach to what the optimal tank should look like. This view could change as the action progressed, with particularly strong metamorphoses occurring as a result of military operations. The greatest leap in this regard occurred during World War II, which forced an urgent revision of the view on what a tank on a modern battlefield should look like. At the same time, the battlefield itself gradually changed, since not only tanks but also means of combating them were rapidly developing. The result was that some countries found themselves in a dead end in the development of their tanks.
Among the leading tank-building powers that found themselves in a dead-end situation by the end of World War II was Germany. This is not so obvious, especially against the backdrop of the praises that are usually sung to the German "menagerie". But if you look at the situation carefully, you can notice a general tendency that the Germans overloaded their tanks and deprived them of the opportunity to develop them further. One of the canonical examples is the Pz.Kpfw.Panther. It seems that the machine is one of the best in its class, but it is not for nothing that a number of people consider it a representative of the heavy class, not the middle one. Not to mention the fact that one of the most mass-produced German tanks, for some reason, did not have a good post-war fate. We will talk about this today.
It must be said that the situation around medium tanks for the Germans was initially complicated. Suffice it to say that the program to create a replacement for the ZW (Pz.Kpfw.III) was launched in 1938, but by the summer of 1941 there were only two experimental models of the VK 20.01 (D) , which were an example of outright separatism. Suffice it to say that Daimler-Benz, having lost patience during the work on the ZW38 , went on principle and achieved permission from above to design the tank as the concern saw fit. As a result, the tank received a complex suspension with leaf springs, as well as a diesel engine. At the same time, the VK 20.01 (M), which was designed under the patronage of the 6th Department of the Armament Department (and personally under the hood of Heinrich Kniepkamp), was never completed even as an experimental chassis.
The truth of life is that even if the conventional VK 20.01(D) had been accepted into service, nothing good would have awaited it. The fact is that the Germans managed to miss the amplitude of armored vehicle development, which, for example, the Pz.Kpfw.III managed to do. With it, as well as with the Pz.Kpfw.IV, the Germans got there in the mid-30s, which, for example, Soviet tank builders could not do. But we were able to get into the amplitude of development of the late 30s, having received the T-34 and KV. The Germans, however, were unable to create anything worthwhile during this period of time. As a result, promising new-generation tanks had minimal advantages over the same Pz.Kpfw.III and Pz.Kpfw.IV produced in 1941. Moreover, their development prospects were no different from these tanks. Against this background, it is not surprising that in November 1941 the German command decided to completely restart work on new tanks.
It must be said that it was the clean slate and complete revision of the medium tank concept that largely contributed to the success of the future Panther. The German military boldly overstepped the 30-ton limit, giving the tank the most powerful gun in its class, the most powerful engine in its class, and providing it with adequate armor protection from the frontal projection. If you look at the medium tanks that were designed in other countries in 1942 (and even in 1943), you can see that they were initially inferior to the VK 30.02 (M) . In fact, only in 1944 did new medium tanks appear that could fight the Pz.Kpfw.Panhter on equal terms. And at the front, they appeared, at best, in 1945. This must be acknowledged and no attempt to prove the opposite. The Germans were able to hit the target very well.
It should also be acknowledged that under the leadership of Paul Wiebicke, a very technologically advanced tank was created, which turned out to be optimal for the German industry. This concerned, among other things, the hull production. The cost of the Pz.Kpfw.Panther without armament, optics and radio station was 117 thousand Reichsmarks, which was not much higher than the most advanced Pz.Kpfw.III and Pz.Kpfw.IV in the same configuration (about 103 thousand Reichsmarks). And this is despite the fact that the "Panther" is noticeably larger and heavier. The Germans also managed to increase the production volume of these tanks to high figures. The peak of production was 380 tanks, then it began to decline, including under the influence of bombing of industrial enterprises.
It is definitely not true to say that the Panther was a bad tank. It was not without reason that the Pz.Kpfw.Panther was used as a reference when creating the future Centurion, and our T-44 was also compared to the German vehicle. The Panther was caught up with in 1945, and the German medium tank was quite competitive with the heavy IS tanks. It was the encounter of the IS-85 with the Panthers during the attack on Lisyanka on February 19, 1944 that launched the IS modernization mechanism. In a word, this vehicle was dangerous, and most importantly, it was mass-produced. Towards the end of 1944, it was the most mass-produced German tank, and it retained its leadership until the end of the war.
However, it was the "Panther", unlike the Pz.Kpfw.IV, that did not have a successful post-war life. And this despite the fact that in February 1945 there were more than 2,100 of these tanks, which is a quarter more than the Pz.Kpfw.IV. But the "four", which they tried to remove from production so many times, remained in service with a number of countries for several decades. But the "Panthers" only served with the French, and even then, out of desperation, since their own medium tank could not be produced. And this despite the fact that the French had connections with German industry, and spare parts. Agree, something is wrong here.
To begin with, it is worth looking at the chassis of the VK 20.01 (M), and then at what replaced it. You will see a number of interesting points, including those related to the dimensions. It seems that German engineers, including engine builders, relaxed. As a result, the average German tank turned out to be larger in size than any of its classmates. It so happened that the German tank had a very large internal volume, but part of this volume was air. It is even somehow surprising how this happened, especially after the relatively low Pz.Kpfw.III and Pz.Kpfw.IV. The main increase in height was provided by the Maybach HL 210/230 engine, which was too high due to the presence of air filters on top. The Germans did not even make a "step" that would have allowed them to slightly reduce the height of the fighting compartment, as well as the control compartment. And this would have saved weight.
Then there are interesting questions about how German engineers were able to calculate the weight. According to the original assignment, the combat weight of the tank was to be 35 tons. This is the weight indicated in the performance characteristics of the VK 30.02 (M) in the spring of 1942, although there are doubts that this is so. Because later, as the tank was being refined, the armor protection of the front of the hull and turret was strengthened. As a result of all these changes, the combat weight of the Pz.Kpfw.Panther Ausf.D was 45 tons. Tell me, do you believe in miracles? I somehow doubt that +20 mm of the front of the hull and +20 mm of the front of the turret gave 10 tons. Someone clearly calculated something wrong. Meanwhile, a difference of 10 tons is very bad from the point of view of the chassis. The Germans essentially repeated the path of the KV, which, with a design weight of 40 tons, initially had a weight of 42.5 tons, then it reached 46, and at the peak of the load it reached 50 tons. This certainly did not make the KV any better.
Here the Pz.Kpfw.Panther Ausf.D has also gone bad. On February 21, 1943, the first serial tanks were demonstrated to the Reich Minister of Armaments and Ammunition Albert Speer. A total of 13 Pz.Kpfw.Panther Ausf.D took part in it, 6 of which broke down. Another indicative moment was that tanks of this type were officially accepted in May 1943, although the factories began to hand them over in January. Then there was the Kursk Bulge, where the "Panthers" proved themselves to be a formidable weapon, but in those cases when they did not expose their sides and did not break down. According to Guderian's reports, the Pz.Kpfw.Panther acquired more or less decent reliability by the end of 1943. And then, with some nuances.
One of the tank's key shortcomings was its engine. The Maybach HL 230 was not only too tall, but also not reliable enough. Putting 4 Solex carburetors in was a bad idea. The required level of reliability was never achieved. That's why the Maybach HL 234 engine was developed, which is closely associated with the E-50/E-75. In fact, this engine was more needed by the Panther, because it was not only more powerful, but also had direct fuel injection. Later, such a system was implemented on the Maybach HL 295 , which was developed for the French. There were also less significant problems. One way or another, the German tank had several insurmountable shortcomings.
But that's not all. The serial Pz.Kpfw.Panther was, in a sense, an accident. The fact is that in early 1943, the Pz.Kpfw.Panther II appeared, which was supposed to have even thicker armor. But then it turned out that the Germans did not know how to calculate weight, and instead of 47 tons, it turned out to be more than 50. As a result, a very different tank appeared, partially unified with the Pz.Kpfw.Tiger III (VK 45.03). Then it became clear that the idea was so-so, so things did not go beyond the prototype. But history is indicative. It suddenly turned out that the reserves for developing the Pz.Kpfw.Panther design were exhausted at the start of serial production.
In fact, this is a typical case for the new generation of German tanks. Not only were they overloaded, but they also had no reserves for development. Well, yes, there was the E-series (Pz.Kpfw.Panther II at this point said something like "well, well, well, I'll go to hell"), there were paper projects for installing a more powerful gun. But did they lead to something other than paper? That's just it. Not to mention that the Panther's turret was unbalanced, and something prevented the Germans from making a niche behind the turret (Ordnung, probably). And the German tank also turned out to be very blind. Only the commander could look around.
In the end, what had to happen happened. Of course, one can dream about the Panzerwaffe-46, but the truth is that even in the most optimistic scenario, the Germans are getting a tank with more powerful weapons. At the same time, their opponents are not standing still and are already preparing to release new-generation medium tanks. They have already caught up with, and in some ways surpassed, the German tank. Rest assured, if the war had continued, the T-54 could have gone into production much faster. And a meeting with this tank did not bode well for the German machine. But if we return to the harsh reality, we will find a very "raw" tank in it, with a long-used development resource. Having tried German tanks (MNH specifically handed them over after the war), the British military spat for a long time. And there was reason for it.
As a result, instead of a tank that, in theory, should have become the same terror of the battlefield as the Pz.Kpfw.Tiger Ausf.E , we got a very controversial combat vehicle. Of course, it was very dangerous and had drunk a lot of blood, but at the same time it was overloaded and had far from outstanding reliability. This tank cannot be called very spacious either, and this is with an impressive volume of the fighting compartment. There were blunders in terms of providing visibility, therefore the "Panthers" were often cut off in the side. At the same time, the Germans were unable to make a fundamentally new tank to replace it. And after the war, the concept of a German medium tank had nothing to do with the "Panther". It was already a machine of a classic layout, and it turned out to be noticeably lower than the "Panther". Despite the fact that the early Soviet, American and British post-war tanks were a direct development of machines created as a response to the "Panther".
[IsraelTimes] Joseph Aoun is first president since 1990s not to be pre-approved by Tehran and Damascus, signaling an end to Iran-backed terror group’s control of Lebanese politics, says analyst
The weakening of Hezbollah in last year’s war with Israel allowed Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... ’s long-deadlocked parliament to reach a consensus around a president who has the confidence of the international community.
Lebanese Armed Forces chief Joseph Aoun, who was elected on Thursday — ending a more than two-year vacancy — signaled a readjustment of Lebanon’s foreign policy as the country works with international creditors to forge a way out of six years of deepening financial crisis.
Deadlock in parliament between pro- and anti-Hezbollah blocs had stalemated a dozen previous attempts to elect a president, leaving the country largely rudderless in its efforts to secure an emergency bailout.
But two months of full-fledged war with Israel last autumn dealt heavy blows to the Iran-backed terror group, whose longtime leader His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...> was killed in an Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... on Beirut in September.
Hezbollah also lost a strategic ally last month when Islamist-led rebels ousted longtime Syrian ruler Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... , another fixture of Iran’s "Axis of Resistance®" network of regional proxies bent on Israel’s destruction.
Hezbollah’s "political defeat follows its devastating military defeat," said Hilal Khashan, professor of political science at the American University of Beirut.
Lina Khatib, of Britannia’s Chatham House think tank, said it was "the first time since the end of the Lebanese civil war [in 1990] that a Lebanese president is elected without prior approval by Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and by the ousted Syrian regime."
"Hezbollah’s acceptance of Aoun’s election underlines that it no longer dictates the political agenda," she told AFP.
"The significant shift in the political status quo... is the direct result of the larger geopolitical changes in the Middle East in which Iran’s influence in the region is ending."
Khashan, the American University professor, said it was now down to Aoun, with his military background, to persuade Hezbollah to lay down its remaining weapons.
"Only a president hailing from the army can disarm Hezbollah, especially after Israel destroyed more than 80 percent of its military hardware," he said.
At this stage, "Hezbollah has no option but to transform itself into a political party without a military component."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Could be sealed .....
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
