Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Update on bridge at Kherson.

Also, as a side note, things really kicking off around Taiwan. Beijing has just warned commercial aircraft to steer clear of the Strait. However, looking at FR24, there seems to be no change with commercial traffic and military aircraft are conspicuous by their absence.

Lots of transponders switched off or operating IFF, I imagine.

China testing how the US would react to the live fire exercises, assuming that the US could be over-stretched. A mistake to assume such a thing as US asset management and logistics are a thing to behold. Will China, as Russia did, use the live-fire exercises as an excuse to position its assets for an invasion? OSINT community commentary seems to believe that China may take the smaller islands closer to the mainland as a response to Pelosi's visit.

While China does indeed use Russian equipment, their Military is a very different beast from Russia entirely. Binkov's Battleground has done a few invasion simulations on a China v US/Taiwan scenario and the US does not fare out as one would hope.

This war has a high chance of opening up on two or three fronts. The next day or so is going to be crucial for Russia, China and North Korea.

Kherson video..

https://youtu.be/wTej48KE1bc

Ah...my favourite aircraft. Well, the King Air that provides the platform.

Slightly off topic, but Nancy Pelosi's aircraft, a USAF C-40, has just activated it's transponder on the tarmac at Taipei as she gets ready to depart.

Even it's callsign, SPAR19, is quite apt.

It's been on the cards for a while.

Yeah I read that the American navy etc. they have done a lot of war games in regards to this and America has lost most of the battles against China. The problem is the closeness of Taiwan to China and that the Chinese can launch ship killing missles from the mainland against US ships if they were trying to help Taiwan.

I agree 100% with your first sentence re Pelosi, but as for Putin being open and fair???? That's the last thing he is, Look at what he has turned Russia into in 20 years? He is just a mafia gangster, he thinks about himself, and himself only and has absolutely no compunction about using the iron fist against his fellow Russian's when he feels he has to, or even when he does not have a valid reason, but just to remind the population of the power he has over them. Monsters are monsters, wherever they come from, be it Russia or China. or elsewhere, and there are no good monsters any where in the world.

I don't really see that as too much of an issue. Now granted, I'm not a military expert but looking at the map of Taiwan, the main role of the US would likely be to help cut off any PRC landing forces on the island from resupply by going after shipping and air traffic, rather than getting involved in the ground conflict. ROC air bases would likely be the first targets of any PRC attack and after the events of the push on Kyiv back in February and March, you can bet that Beijing's military commanders will not be taking any chances in that regard. That leaves USAF units based out of Kadena, strategic bombers from Guam and Continental US bases, and the US Navy's aircraft carriers and their air groups as the best options for the job.

All these assets are not needed for the ongoing war in Ukraine, which is mainly a land war. If, or rather when the Taiwan situation boils over, I don't see that as any major drain on any US assets already in Army or Air Force warehouses. It might stretch the manufacturing capacities of US defense contractors though, once the warehouses are depleted. There are also two squadrons of logistics ships based in-theatre, one at Guam and one at Diego Garcia, that can supply a sizeable USMC force for 30 days. Once the war goes beyond that, or escalates even further, things could get dicey though.

Oh, give him the same situation as the commies faced, and then you will see what he's capable of,,,do you think that he would not turn his military on his fellow Russians if he had too??? AKA Tiananmen square? Is he capable of murdering thousands and thousands if the need arose? He has already shown what he is capable of in Ukraine.

Needs to be done. Rather a bit of flash and feathers than holding all in and springing when desperate

IAEA: Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant 'out of control.' Rafael Mariano Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that "seven indispensable pillars of nuclear safety and security are being violated" at the Zaporizhzhia plant