Russia - threadbanned users in OP

i wouldnt be any kind of an expert but id guess that while they may be trying to take a bit more care when theyre building these things the russian mafia havnt gone all suddenly patriotic or anything,they would still be looking for their bite cause the rouble pile has to be re-built so of course the quality of anything thats made will suffer.

For all the starlink talk, here's a link showing the location of the satellites

You'll notice a couple of "trains" of them heading into their orbit after they were launched earlier this year.

(stolen from here https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121084288/#Comment_121084288)

Wouldn't want to think what's happening to this fella at the moment. Respect.

So it wasn't protective paint after all, they really are putting tires on their aircraft

Can someone explain what the tyres are meant to achieve precisely?

Musk (and others like him e.g. Murdoch) have been allowed to gather too much wealth and power. Had politicians any integrity, they'd have taxed them sufficiently to prevent them becoming such sovereign individuals, sadly they've either been bought or manipulated into allowing, when not directly assisting, these billionaires to become the threats to global security that they are. I can't see a way to fix the problem they present that doesn't involve execution squads at this point (as any new attempts to tax away their wealth will be too easily hamstrung).

well, what's saddest is that US military didn't have this capability and Eloon was able monetize it. US government taking over businesses is kind of a big deal over there and would take years of legal wrangling. Eloon per the various articles out there has the Pentagon by the short and curlies and dictates Starlink access to them, which if true is pretty damned shocking but I suppose not much different than what the big military contractors get away with (Lockeed, Grumman, Raytheon...)

At a guess its to stop the small bits of shrapnel from the cheapo cardboard drones that ukraine have been using to attack the airfields.

As even a small piece of shrapnel can cause horrendous damage to a sensitive fighter jet, grounding them for repairs for months.

However as with the usual Russian MO I suspect someone extremely corrupt was tasked with quickly preparing a solution so that the superior officer can report to his superiors that the job is done and checkboxes ticked off. The Russian MOD is billed an enormous sum for a few bits of rubber that were probably lying in a dump nearby. Everyone in charge fills their pockets, gets promoted and nobody is any the wiser that this will do f*ck all. Until the next plane is destroyed and the poor grunt who was tasked with putting the tires there in the first place will be blamed and probably thrown in prison. Fantastic country really.

We've learnt that independent satellite internet is highly critical for Ukrainians to defend their country.

We are also learning that a billionaire man-baby controlling said internet is a very bad thing for the Ukrainians (and a great thing for their invaders)

They're preventative actions taken to prevent any more drone destruction of valuable Russian aircraft, and in the absence of anything else, that's how it will be presented to Putin when he looks for explanations etc, at the next meeting with the Military high command, iE:- Shoigu and Gerasimov ( or their underlings, if heads will roll)

Needs a random pallet for full effectiveness.

Still with the weather remaining mild, could see the UKAF making some autumn gains in their counter offensive. Some of the more spectacular progress were later in the year in 2022.

Agreed. In fairness to Musk (who is dangerous will go down in history as a bad thing), the US Govt should have commandeered the service, paid for it, made all decisions relating to its use, and taken responsibility for those decisions. In retrospect his hero complex put him in this mess but I (like, i suspect, most other people) wasn't complaining when he stood up and made it all available quickly and freely. The US Govt can still take this step and should.

Morally there's a big difference between curtailing existing coverage to foil an attack, and refusing to extending existing coverage. Most of the 'outrage' articles in the media today are assuming the former, but until it becomes clear which version is correct, I don't think judgement can be passed.

I'd be thinking that's not too far off and who can believe what comes out of Musk, given his erratic pronouncements.