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Full Metal Junkie said:
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.
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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.

Full Metal Junkie said:
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
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That happens in a war. And to some extent this one is looking poorly planned.
 
kEiThZ said:
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.
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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.
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Offensive operations target the enemy's air & missile capabilities, thereby reducing the number of threats that allied TMD must intercept.
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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.
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Russia's war on Ukraine is a perfect example of how supposed defense policy experts have gotten it all wrong.
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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.
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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.
 
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.
 
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
 
Full Metal Junkie said:
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.
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While I'm an advocate of giving Ukraine longer range weapons, I'm not sure that somehow stops drone attacks. They just move production further away. What longer range missiles can do is let Ukraine dismantle the Russian economy.

But if they did this right before this war, Russia might have drawn Iranian stockpiles reducing this threat.
 
Full Metal Junkie said:
Ukraine has been asked and is eager to share its expertise in counter-drone warfare with the American allies in the middle east:
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Full Metal Junkie said:
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:
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Ukraine's approach is a lot more manpower intensive. And very difficult by the sea where said human can't picket further out. Ultimately, for this situation it's systems like Gephardts and the flying interceptions with turboprops and helicopters that are easier. Failing those, palletized CRAMs like we had defending bases and outposts in Iraq for most of the 2010s. Bonus they cover more threats than just drones. And you don't need somebody staying up at night alert to take out the drone.
 
kEiThZ said:
While I'm an advocate of giving Ukraine longer range weapons, I'm not sure that somehow stops drone attacks. They just move production further away. What longer range missiles can do is let Ukraine dismantle the Russian economy.

But if they did this right before this war, Russia might have drawn Iranian stockpiles reducing this threat.
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When we're talking about Patriot interceptor depletion, it's not the drones that are the problem. It's ballistic and cruise missile that is the problem. Those are produced in giant factories Russia inherited from Soviet Union. They require precision machining and and specialized equipment. You bomb those, it will take years for Russia to set up production elsewhere. Iskander missiles are produced in Votkinsk (~1400 km from Ukraine)

Even though Ukraine has mostly gotten on top of the counter-drone warfare with its homegrown interceptor drones and mobile fire groups, I'm sure they wouldn't mind having the ability to bomb the shit out of the shahed factory too. Russia sent 50,000 shaheds Ukraine's way in 2025. All of them are manufactured in a single plant in Yelabuga (~1200 km from Ukraine)
 
Full disclosure: I just deleted two of my recent posts in this and middle east threads:
1. Video from Iran of people's balconies being shot.
2. Supposed video from Cyprus of Russian satnav components being used in Iranian drones.

The second video has been proven to be misattributed to the current events. It's an old video from Ukraine.

The video of balconies being shot has not been debunked yet to my knowledge, but can easily be AI generated. The account that posted it is not a legitimate/respected OSINT resource.

I will make sure to only re-post reputable OSINT channels going forward. I have a short list of the ones that have proven themselves as accurate throughout the 4 years of Russia-Ukraine war.
 
Towered said:
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.
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Like most babies, Trump is a fan of instant gratification.
 
Towered said:
Trump has totally lost interest in Ukraine.
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He hasn't lost interes per se, he's just back to blaming Zelensky for the fact there's still a war in Ukraine:

IMG_20260305_141737_240.jpg


Why wouldn't Zelensky just roll over and capitulate? Why??

Disgusting.
 
kEiThZ said:
Forget the drone. The UGVs are the real stars.
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Didn't say anything at the time, but the consistent feedback I've read from Ukrainian soldiers about UGVs - they are great, but only if they can get to where you need them. As in, they suffer from being unable to navigate uneven terrain and easily get stuck in the mud.

Here's some shots from the recent UGV exercises/race they held in Kiev. The picture's worth a thousand words:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2030012733861630335
 
kEiThZ said:
More like Obama getting the Nobel broke his brain.
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Sane people would see Obama getting the Peace Prize for doing nothing and conclude the prize is a joke. Trump became hell bent on getting his own because of his irrational hatred for uppity Obama who thought he was better than Trump. I feel like Trump's villain origin story was the Trump roast Obama made at the WH Correspondents Dinner.

 
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