Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

Keep it real please, and use a VPN

The Future of Drone Tech: Long-Range Strikes

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Saturday, June 6, 2026 9:10 PM

Maybe gay boy will get lucky and he'll be right on this one. The only thing he's been right about in the last 5 years is that your stupid EVs weren't going to become a thing.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Sunday, June 7, 2026 5:39 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

NATO allies weigh new €70B military aid pledge for Ukraine

Allies are currently discussing the new funding target, which would be announced as part of NATO’s Ankara summit next month.

https://www.politico.eu/article/nato-allies-weigh-new-e70b-military-ai
d-pledge-for-ukraine/

Allies are scrambling to shore up support for Ukraine more than four years into Russia’s full-scale invasion. The debate has gained fresh urgency as many experts say Kyiv is tilting the balance of the war in its favor.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, June 7, 2026 5:53 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Weekend Update #188: Ukraine Reaches Out And Touches Putin--Twice

Trump Is Helping Putin As Much As He Can

Phillips P. OBrien
Jun 07, 2026

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/weekend-update-188-ukraine-reac
hes

The other major story of the week revolves around the ever closer relationship between the US government and Russia. Though there was a great deal of comment about the vote in the US House on aid to Ukraine, this sadly is a non-event for now. The real story is how the Trump administration is reaching out to Putin more and more.

. . . Now this year’s forum [St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF)] was shaping up to be a truly weird one. On the one hand, world leaders were shunning the event. Only two eventually joined Putin on stage, the presidents of Uzbekistan and Tanzania. On the other hand, the Trump administration in its continuing efforts to reach out to Putin, sent a delegation led by Rodney Mims Cook Jr. who serves as the Chairman of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and might best be described as a cut-price Albert Speer. He is one of the leading supporters of Trump’s hideous architectural plans which are threatening to deface Washington DC. This included the ludicrously grandiose new Ballroom and the proposed new victory arch, a favored memorial of empires throughout history.

There were other Americans at the SPIEF as well this year, such as fruitcake Candace Owens and alleged rapist Andrew Tate, so Trump was indeed represented officially and unofficially.

. . . Final point that needs to be understood by looking at the effectiveness of these Ukrainian long-range strike attacks is that the Ukrainians could have hit the Victory Day Parade, or at least major strategic targets in Moscow, on May 9. They have that ability now and Putin was wise to have Trump beg the Ukrainians not to attack. If the war is on next year the odds against any parade happening are rather high.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, June 7, 2026 6:47 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

“We consider it a good one”: Russian report outlines nuclear option if Ukraine conflict continues unchanged

By Jens Asbjørn Bøgen • June 4, 2026

https://www.dagens.com/war/we-consider-it-a-good-one-russian-report-ou
tlines-nuclear-option-if-ukraine-conflict-continues-unchanged

The report outlined a good, a bad, and a continued path for Russia’s future.

Two prominent Russian hardliners presented several future paths for the country at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, also known as “Putin’s Davos.”

According to the Russian business newspaper Kommersant, the presentation was made by Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeev, known for his affiliation with the Kremlin, and Alexander Dugin, an ultranationalist philosopher and ideologue known as “Putin’s brain” because of his influence on the Russian leader.

Before starting the presentation, Malofeev stated that “this is a scientific report prepared by a whole group of experts.” He then started the slideshow, which outlined a good, a bad, and a continued path for Russia’s future.

And one of the paths included a nuclear strike within the next decade.

A dangerous trajectory

The continuing path focused on what happens if the war in Ukraine simply keeps going at its current pace until 2036.

The outlook for this continuing track is explosive. According to the presentation slides, if the battlefield situation remains stuck in its current rut, Russia will ultimately use nuclear weapons.

“We don’t consider the use of nuclear weapons a ‘slow-fire’ scenario; we consider it a good one,” Malofeev declared.

The “good” and the “bad” scenarios

In the good scenario outlined in the presentation, Russia will have occupied most of Ukraine, including Kyiv, Odesa, and Kharkiv, by 2036.

This scenario also includes the collapse of the European Union.

The “bad” scenario outlined a Russian military defeat in Ukraine, which, according to the presentation, would lead to the “colonization of Russia” by 2050.
Walking a tightrope

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) suggests in its June 3 update on the war that these extreme ideas may actually serve a political purpose for the current government.

By allowing hardliners to voice such radical outcomes, the Kremlin can make President Vladimir Putin appear calm and moderate by comparison.

However, the think tank also suggests that the Russian government must walk a fine line. Putin relies heavily on the backing of these passionate hardliners to sustain the war effort. He cannot simply dismiss their radical demands without risking their crucial support.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, June 7, 2026 2:14 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

The Future of Drone Tech: Long-Range Strikes

There's a name for long- range drones. They're called missiles.

Here's the problem: the longer the range, the greater the fuel requirement, and the smaller the expolsive payload.

Really long range, loitering drones are useful for reconnaissance. Armed long range drones might be useful for small targets or assassinations,

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Sunday, June 7, 2026 3:04 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

The Future of Drone Tech: Long-Range Strikes

There's a name for long- range drones. They're called missiles.

Here's the problem: the longer the range, the greater the fuel requirement, and the smaller the expolsive payload.

Really long range, loitering drones are useful for reconnaissance. Armed long range drones might be useful for small targets or assassinations,

The FP-1 is NOT a missile. It is an airplane, with wings and a propeller and an internal combustion engine which breathes air, but is still long-range:

Ukraine’s drones got bigger warheads. A Russian corvette in the Baltic just found out.

The Fire Point FP-1 that struck Boikiy at Kronstadt on 3 June crossed 1,100 km to get there — and arrived with a heavier warhead than the model that started Ukraine’s deep-strike campaign.

By David Axe

06/06/2026

https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/06/06/fp-1-anti-ship/

The Fire Point FP-1 drone hit the corvette Boikiy. Overhead satellite imagery confirmed the strike, and a video from the adjacent pier made clear how bad the damage is. The 105-m corvette, one of the Baltic Fleet's frontline warships, "burned for hours," Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reporter Mark Krutov noted.

The FP-1's design explains the heavy damage. "It seems that drone was carrying quite a substantial payload," Krutov mused.

It's true. Ukrainian drone-maker Fire Point has been tweaking the propeller-driven FP-1 to increase its explosive firepower, finally addressing a longstanding problem with Ukraine's deep strike drones. Fire Point claimed it produces 300 of the $50,000 FP-1s and similar FP-2s every day.

The first version of the FP-1 flew 1,000 km but, like many Ukrainian drones, carried a fairly small warhead weighing just 60 kg. The earliest FP-2s traded away fuel for explosive payload and thus struck with a 105-kg warhead, albeit at much shorter range.

It wasn't enough firepower to destroy the toughest targets. Ukrainian analysis group Frontelligence Insight blamed the "relatively small warhead size of certain Ukrainian drones" for the limited damage Ukrainian strikes inflicted on Russian refineries in 2024.

It was a serious problem but an understandable one. Ukrainian drone developers were focused on boosting the range of their drones in order to inflict some damage, even if modest, on the most distant Russian targets. "Given the long distances these drones must travel, increasing their warhead size would require adjustments to weight, fuel capacity and overall design," Frontelligence Insight explained.

With time, developers found a way to add firepower without sacrificing range. In March, Fire Point co-founder Denys Shtilerman told Army TV that the company had redesigned the FP-1 and FP-2, adding fuel tanks inside the wings in order to free up space for bigger warheads.

Now the FP-1 can strike with a 105-kg warhead. The short-range FP-2 now packs an impressive 158-kg warhead. It's not clear which variant hit Boikiy, but the heavier payload is consistent with the damage.

The FP-1 and FP-2 carry an OFB-60-type blast-fragmentation warhead, with a TNT main charge boosted by the more powerful OKFOL explosive. The combination delivers heavy fragmentation and blast effects on impact — designed to start fires and damage internal systems rather than punch cleanly through armor.

That's well-suited to anti-ship strikes. Modern warships aren't normally heavily armored above the waterline, and a blast-fragmentation warhead that ignites cable routes, ventilation channels, and the spaces between decks can do as much damage through the fire it starts as through the initial explosion.

Ukrainian defense outlet Defense Express, analyzing the strike, argued that the post-strike fire likely did more damage to the corvette than the warhead itself. Naval fires spread through cable runs, ventilation shafts, and the spaces between decks — reaching equipment well beyond the impact point. And in a dry dock, with watertight doors propped open for maintenance and automatic firefighting systems offline, the fire spreads further than it would at sea.

It's not clear that the drone that hit Boikiy inflicted maximal damage. But it inflicted enough to take the ship out of commission, possibly for good — and to demonstrate that the Baltic Fleet's home port is no longer beyond reach.

Fire Point FP-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_Point_FP-1

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, June 7, 2026 5:27 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Maybe gay boy will get lucky and he'll be right on this one. The only thing he's been right about in the last 5 years is that your stupid EVs weren't going to become a thing.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

No reply to that one by either of you fags, huh?

C'mon, Second.

You spent two years insulting me over this issue.

How's that piece of shit Ford 150 Lightning treating you these days? I don't hear you talking much about it anymore.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Sunday, June 7, 2026 9:01 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Angry poor white trash and Russians don't buy EVs because trash mechanics can't reliably troubleshoot fuel injection. They barely understand carburetors. And certainly not EVs. But the car industry, except in the US and Russia, has adapted to change.

Global electric vehicle (EV) sales, which include both battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs), exceeded 20 million units in 2025, representing roughly 25% of all new cars sold worldwide.

Industry trackers report the full-year totals as follows:

• Total Sales: Ranged between 20.7 million and 21.6 million units, representing a 20% growth over 2024.

• China: The dominant market with roughly 12.9 to 13 million units sold, accounting for over 60% of global volume.

• Europe: Approximately 4.3 million units sold, driven by a 33% increase in the market.

• North America: North American sales were sluggish at 1.8 million (down roughly 4%).

• Rest of World: While other emerging markets surged by over 40%.

How stupid are Russians? Electric vehicle (EV) sales in Russia are relatively small, totaling roughly 11,200 units across the year 2025, experiencing a slowdown of about 31% compared to the previous year. Overall, EVs make up less than 1% of the total Russian auto market, with the segment heavily dominated by domestic brands and Chinese imports.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, June 7, 2026 9:45 PM

Don't care about your numbers dude. Whether or not they're fake, they don't even begin to tell the whole picture.

They sold a bunch of shitty, underperforming cars that cost twice as much to insure as a regular car does. Nobody ever bothered building any new charging stations across the nation even though billions were spent on it. When the battery goes, that'll be $25,000 or more to replace.

And there's soon to be ZERO secondhand market. Zero.

Once the people who are left holding the bag when the car dies and is barely a decade old realize how badly they fucked themselves over, they will tell everyone they know about that. And nobody is going to be buying used EVs again once that starts to happen.

People are stupid. People are trendy. Buying EVs for most of these people wasn't any different than women buying ridiculously large Stanley cups because some dipshit influencers on the internet told them to buy it.

For everybody else NOT getting paid to shill all this shit, there's nothing but a lot of regrets over their vehicle purchase.

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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Monday, June 8, 2026 7:19 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Ukraine Is Not Losing. Russia Is Not Winning.

A momentum shift that changes everything

By Anne Applebaum | June 7, 2026, 8 AM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/06/ukraine-war-momentum-shift/6
87444/

In a field outside of Kyiv last weekend, a van was parked discreetly behind some trees. Inside the van there were no passenger seats, just a long desk, two office chairs, two laptops, extra screens. Outside appearances to the contrary, this was a mobile drone-interceptor base, one of hundreds of similar vehicles now scattered around Ukraine. It’s also part of something much bigger: a set of technological advances that have changed the war with Russia, and maybe all wars, forever.

On one of the laptops, a soldier showed me a bird’s-eye view of a part of the Ukrainian countryside more than 100 miles away. His job is to identify the objects flying above it, to distinguish birds and bats from lethal Russian drones. When he sees the latter, the soldier on the laptop beside him can then direct an interceptor—a small drone that looks like a miniature rocket ship—to track and destroy the incoming Russian aerial vehicles before they hit their targets.

At first glance, the images on the screens look simple, like a video game. But this is not a low-tech operation. The AI-powered drone interceptors are made possible by a complicated network of radar systems, acoustic sensors, and other tools that hundreds of large and small Ukrainian tech companies are creating and updating every day, using data they get directly from soldiers like the ones I met. Almost none of these companies existed four years ago. They have emerged from a tech-literate civil society whose members changed their professions or their focus to help defend their country. I have met Ukrainian defense-company CEOs who come from financial services, architecture, politics. I met another one last weekend who had returned just that day from the front line. He told me he finds it useful to learn how soldiers are using his products, and how they might be improved.

Other kinds of teams across the country are connected to this constantly improving information system too, and not just in vans. Last year I was in an underground room in Ukraine where dozens of people were monitoring hundreds of miles of the front line on a series of screens. The Ukrainian defense analyst Andriy Zagorodnyuk calls this system of drones, monitors, AI-powered navigation, battle-tested robots, and interconnected soldiers “networked situational awareness,” and it explains why perceptions of this war have suddenly changed.

Ukrainian military technology has been evolving rapidly since the first years of the war. But only now are outsiders—in Europe, the United States, the Persian Gulf, and of course Russia—beginning to understand what that evolution means. Since 2022, many public arguments about the war, even in Europe and the U.S., have adopted the narrative put out by Russian propaganda, tacitly assuming that Ukraine, outmanned and outgunned, would eventually lose. Helping Ukraine was a way to stave off disaster, nothing more. When the Trump administration stopped sending military and financial aid to Kyiv in 2025, some in Washington expected (and maybe wanted) the end to come quickly.

Instead, Europeans have provided money. Ukrainian society produced networked situational awareness. And when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky toured the Gulf states in late March and signed a series of security agreements, something changed in the international narrative. The leaders of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia were talking to Ukraine, not because they felt sorry for a war victim, but because they wanted to acquire drone interceptors like the ones I saw in action last weekend. Iranians use the same drone technology as the Russians, and the Ukrainians know better than anyone how to fight it.

The Gulf leaders are not alone: Suddenly, many people have understood that the Russian narrative is wrong: The Ukrainians are not losing. The Russians are not winning, and more important, they don’t know how to win. Ukrainians and outside analysts have described this dynamic in three main theaters of the war.

1) The ground war. If the story of the past two years was one of slow, grinding forward progress for Russia, the story of this year is very different. Since early spring, at the start of its annual offensive, Russia has lost more territory in Ukraine than it has gained. Right now, it is hard to see how the Russian army can move forward, because the front line is not a line at all, but rather a broad no-go zone, some 20 miles wide. Everything inside this zone is visible to drones, which means that any Russian truck, tank, or infantryman seeking to attack new territory is instantly identified and can easily be hit. Because the Russian commanders keep attacking anyway, the Ukrainians are killing and wounding thousands of enemy soldiers, perhaps as many as 30,000, every month. They say their goal is to remove more Russians from the battlefield than can be recruited to replace them, and they may be close to succeeding.

2) The long-range war. Although they are unable to move the front line, Russians can still use drones and missiles to kill civilians and destroy civilian infrastructure in Ukrainian cities, as they did once again this week. Indeed, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s appetite for this kind of attack is escalating, as he has no other practical way to damage Ukraine. He also knows that the Ukrainians don’t have enough air defense to stop ballistic missiles, even if they can now stop the majority of drones. Ukraine still relies heavily on air-defense equipment from the United States, especially ammunition for Patriot batteries. A European fund was set up to purchase these interceptor missiles, although some observers fear that there are simply not enough to buy. According to Zelensky, more Patriots were used during the first three days of the U.S.-Iran conflict than have been used during the entire Russia-Ukraine war.

What Putin doesn’t acknowledge is that his side is running out of air defense, too. That has helped Ukraine’s long-range drones more reliably target Russian oil and gas infrastructure, producing spectacular explosions and reducing Russian refining capacity by at least 20 percent. Almost all major oil refineries in central Russia ?have halted or scaled back production, and some have been hit more than once.

With equal regularity, a new crop of Ukrainian drones with a range of 100 miles can target arms depots, logistical centers, and supply chains far behind the front line in Russian-occupied territories. These strikes are less spectacular than ones deep inside Russia, but they have already created crucial fuel shortages on the Crimean peninsula, and they are making it difficult for the Russians to supply their troops fighting in the East and the South.

3) The psychological war. For the past four years, the Kremlin has repeatedly told the Russian public that the war is going well, that Ukraine isn’t a real country, that victory is certain. But that’s hard to square with the panic that took hold of Moscow last month, when an annual military parade was shortened for fear it would be interrupted by Ukrainian drones. Nor does it square with the spectacular columns of black smoke that were billowing into the air on Wednesday morning, after Ukrainian drones hit a local refinery on the opening day of the Kremlin’s annual St. Petersburg economic forum. Kyrill Budanov, the former defense-intelligence chief who is now head of the Ukrainian president’s office, told me there is a lot of evidence that Russians are now finally facing the up to the falsehood of state propaganda: “They cannot understand why they have to keep fighting and why they are getting hit now, because they were told they were going to win and Ukraine is nothing.”

Not everybody thinks this means the war will end soon. One young woman, a Ukrainian civil servant, told me last weekend that she and her friends have already given up on the idea that they will ever live in a “normal” country again, because the war will last forever. She reminisced about a flight she and some friends took to Barcelona, before the war: “That beautiful life will never return.”

But there are signs that some in Moscow, at least, are preparing for the war to end. Recently, a set of slides leaked from the office of Sergei Kiryienko, a former Russian prime minister and now a senior official in Putin’s administration. They describe a plan to sell the end of the war to the country: declare victory, describe the Russian army as “the most combat-ready in the world,” portray small territorial gains as a huge success, claim that Europe suffered a huge economic blow, from which it will not recover, and that Ukraine will soon fall apart. Budanov believes that the Kremlin’s decision to cut off Telegram, the social-media platform most widely used in Russia, was a preemptive move, designed to prepare for this kind of narrative change, “so that when the time comes, they have only one official position and nothing else but that.”

Budanov also continues to believe that the negotiations started by the Trump administration could produce a cease-fire, along the current front line, as early as this year. “And then we will start resolving the other issues we have.” On Thursday, Zelensky wrote a letter directly to Putin proposing exactly that: an immediate cease-fire, accompanied by face-to-face negotiations between the two leaders. Putin publicly dismissed the idea, saying he sees “no point” in a meeting.

Russia still has other options. The Russian president, who has never acknowledged that Ukraine is a legitimate country, or that Zelensky is its legitimate president, could continue to bomb Ukrainian cities, hoping to destroy the electrical grid and make the country unlivable. He could call for mass mobilization, and continue trying to overwhelm Ukraine’s defenses, sacrificing thousands of lives. Some fear he could use this moment to widen the conflict and to attack a NATO country, possibly to test American willingness to defend allies. A Latvian general this week said that even if Russian drones can’t win in Ukraine, they have an advantage over NATO defenses that have yet to catch up with the fast-evolving technology.

Even without negotiations, Russia and Ukraine may be heading toward a new status quo. The transparent frontline zone may now be 20 miles wide, but as drone technology improves, it could soon be 30 or even 40 miles wide. At some point the front line will become not just a no-man’s-land but a de facto demilitarized zone, similar to the one that separates North and South Korea, regularly patrolled and maintained by drones.

After that, it could become a border—a temporary border, one that will not be recognized by either side—but a border nevertheless: no different from a river or mountain range, impossible to move, difficult to cross. This would not be a clear victory for Ukraine, but it would be a major defeat for Putin, whose central goal—the destruction of all of Ukraine, the removal of Ukraine from the map—would never be realized.
_________________________________

Anne Applebaum is a staff writer at The Atlantic. She is also a senior fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University and the School of Advanced International Studies. Her books include Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine; Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944–1956; and Gulag: A History, which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Her most recent books include the New York Times best sellers Twilight of Democracy and Autocracy, Inc: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World.

Download these books for free from https://annas-archive.gl/search?q=Anne+Applebaum

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, June 8, 2026 8:10 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

ANALYSIS: Russia’s Air Defense Problems Are Growing

Moscow did not expect such a war at the start of the full-scale invasion. Now many Russians have gone into panic mode as they watch Ukrainian drones hit targets in Russia almost at will. It seems the tables have turned and Moscow is now on the back foot, forced to adapt to how Ukrainians have managed to scale up quantities of relatively cheap drones to inflict heavy damage on Russia’s air defense capabilities.

By David Kirichenko

June 8, 2026, 1:38 pm

https://www.kyivpost.com/analysis/77743

The roads to Crimea are beginning to tell the story of Russia’s defensive dilemma. Burned trucks, stranded convoys and air defense systems hit while being transported suggest that Ukraine’s drone war is reaching deeper into the logistical arteries that sustain Russia’s occupation.

. . . while Moscow focused on offense, Ukraine was forced into defensive adaptation, building layered drone defenses that gradually evolved into an offensive drone campaign of its own. Russia, by contrast, invested far less in cheap drone interception, continuing to rely heavily on expensive surface-to-air missiles that Russian milbloggers increasingly warn are in short supply.

“With its dwindling stocks of these expensive assets, Russia has little choice but to develop and rush new interceptors into service,” said open-source analyst Roy Gardiner . . .

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, June 8, 2026 2:17 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

The long-time leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has rejected the idea of sending his soldiers into Ukraine. “Should we go fight in Ukraine according to [Putin's] someone else’s will? Do we want to be cannon fodder there? No, we do not want that,” Lukashenko said.

https://www.kyivpost.com/post/77671

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, June 8, 2026 3:42 PM

Keep it real please, and use a VPN

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

The Future of Drone Tech: Long-Range Strikes

There's a name for long- range drones. They're called missiles.

Here's the problem: the longer the range, the greater the fuel requirement, and the smaller the expolsive payload.

Really long range, loitering drones are useful for reconnaissance. Armed long range drones might be useful for small targets or assassinations,

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

What's going on in Ukraine comrade? Check out the video around the last 6 minutes. Before that it's about Iran.

T

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Monday, June 8, 2026 3:45 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Have you noticed, SECOND, that you've resorted to posting "Kiev says" and notorious neocons like ISW/Kagan- Neuland and Anne Applebaum?

You're digging the bottom of the barrel.

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Monday, June 8, 2026 4:14 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Have you noticed, SECOND, that you've resorted to posting "Kiev says" and notorious neocons like ISW/Kagan- Neuland and Anne Applebaum?

You're digging the bottom of the barrel.

Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum
Putin's War Comes Home
Even Muscovites feel it
May 11, 2026

Four years ago, President Vladimir Putin offered Moscow and its business elite a de facto deal: support my war in Ukraine, and in exchange you won’t have to think about it. In the past week, that deal was broken.

https://anneapplebaum.substack.com/p/putins-war-comes-home

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, June 8, 2026 4:19 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

More muck from the bottom of the barrel.

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Monday, June 8, 2026 5:17 PM

Keep it real please, and use a VPN

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

The Future of Drone Tech: Long-Range Strikes

There's a name for long- range drones. They're called missiles.

Here's the problem: the longer the range, the greater the fuel requirement, and the smaller the expolsive payload.

Really long range, loitering drones are useful for reconnaissance. Armed long range drones might be useful for small targets or assassinations,

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

Long-range drone: An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) that can operate at extended distances from its launch point. It may be remotely piloted or semi-autonomous, carrying sensors for surveillance, reconnaissance, or weapons for strikes united24media.com+1.

Missile: A guided or unguided projectile designed to travel a long distance at high speed to deliver a payload (explosive, kinetic, or other) to a specific target thisvsthat.io. Missiles are typically launched from fixed platforms, aircraft, or ships.

2. Size, Speed, and Maneuverability

Drones: Generally smaller, more maneuverable, and slower than missiles. Long-range drones can still be agile for evading threats or adjusting course mid-flight thisvsthat.io.

Missiles: Larger, faster, and often supersonic or hypersonic. They are less maneuverable once launched, relying on pre-programmed or mid-course guidance thisvsthat.io.

3. Guidance and Control

Drones: Can be remote-controlled or autonomous, with real-time operator input for complex missions Wikipedia.

Missiles: Usually pre-programmed or mid-course guided, with final guidance often from terminal seekers or command updates.

4. Payload and Role

Drones: May carry surveillance sensors, electronic warfare gear, or weapons like bombs or missiles. Long-range drones can loiter over targets for extended periods Wikipedia.

Missiles: Primarily designed for precision strike delivery of explosives or other payloads over long distances thisvsthat.io.

5. Range and Cost

Drones: Long-range UAVs can cover thousands of kilometers, but they are generally more cost-effective and reusable thisvsthat.io.

Missiles: Designed for one-time use and often more expensive per unit thisvsthat.io.

6. Strategic Use

Drones: Versatile for reconnaissance, surveillance, and precision strikes; can be reused for multiple missions.

Missiles: Specialized for high-speed, long-range attacks, often in strategic or tactical strike roles.

In summary: A long-range drone is an unmanned aircraft optimized for extended surveillance or strike missions with flexibility in control and reuse, while a missile is a guided projectile focused on delivering a payload quickly and precisely over long distances thisvsthat.io+2.

There are a lot of differences comrade. Another name for a long range drone is not a missile.

T

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Tuesday, June 9, 2026 1:26 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

First of all THGR, your article is about long- range STRIKES.
Not surveillance.

So, what is the best vehicle for a long-range STRIKE, given the trade-off between payload and distance?

I'm not arguing for the sake of arguing. The advantage of drones is that they're relatively CHEAP. Once you start configuring them for longer distances and higher payloads, they start approaching cruise missiles and getting $$. In fact, the Flamingo "missile" looks more like a long distance drone. Or maybe drones look like the Flamingo.

Or you wind up with something like the Reaper drone. The Reaper is $$, it fires missiles, so it's more like an unmanned turboprop.

Anyway, in the end, they're both airborne modes of munitions delivery.

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Tuesday, June 9, 2026 2:08 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Don't care about your numbers dude. Whether or not they're fake, they don't even begin to tell the whole picture.

They sold a bunch of shitty, underperforming cars that cost twice as much to insure as a regular car does. Nobody ever bothered building any new charging stations across the nation even though billions were spent on it. When the battery goes, that'll be $25,000 or more to replace.

And there's soon to be ZERO secondhand market. Zero.

Once the people who are left holding the bag when the car dies and is barely a decade old realize how badly they fucked themselves over, they will tell everyone they know about that. And nobody is going to be buying used EVs again once that starts to happen.

People are stupid. People are trendy. Buying EVs for most of these people wasn't any different than women buying ridiculously large Stanley cups because some dipshit influencers on the internet told them to buy it.

For everybody else NOT getting paid to shill all this shit, there's nothing but a lot of regrets over their vehicle purchase.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

I guess I won this one, huh Second?

What a rarity for you not to either post easily debunked stats and/or quote me and reply with something completely unrelated and/or remind me that I dropped out of college 4 times and/or call me a redneck Nazi who you want to see dead.

I guess we'll consider the topic of EVs forever closed in this forum now.

You were wrong. You were wrong from the beginning.

--------------------------------------------------

Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.

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Tuesday, June 9, 2026 6:26 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Ukraine Tests Tomahawk Style Drone Navigation Module Across 3000 Kilometers of Trial Flights

By Ivan Khomenko | Jun 08, 2026 18:05

https://united24media.com/war-in-ukraine/ukraine-tests-tomahawk-style-
drone-navigation-module-across-3000-kilometers-of-trial-flights-19617

A European-made navigation module designed to guide drones without relying solely on satellite signals has completed more than 3,000 kilometers of flight testing in Ukraine, including autonomous missions exceeding 50 kilometers.

According to information published by Defense Express on June 8, citing Delian Alliance Industries representative Mark Melhorn, the company’s Osiris navigation module is being developed as a low-cost visual guidance system for drones. https://defence-ua.com/weapon_and_tech/rozkrito_detali_jak_v_ukrajini_
na_midlstrajk_dronah_testuvali_analog_dsmac_jak_u_tomahawk_chi_storm_shadow-23241.html

The technology is designed to provide capabilities similar to the terrain- and image-matching navigation systems used by long-range weapons such as the US Tomahawk and the Franco-British Storm Shadow cruise missiles.

Melhorn said the company initially conducted 15 test flights in Europe before deploying a team of specialists to Ukraine in March to evaluate the system under operational conditions. According to Defense Express, Ukrainian military personnel provided technical feedback during the trials, helping accelerate development of the navigation module.

The company reported that Osiris-equipped drones carried out dozens of autonomous flights at distances exceeding 50 kilometers. Flight altitudes ranged from 70 to 2,000 meters, while the system demonstrated an average positioning error of less than 20 meters compared with civilian GPS references, according to the report.

According to Defense Express, Delian used the Ukrainian testing campaign to advance the system from a prototype stage toward full operational maturity. The outlet reported that the company has since expanded the Osiris development team, established a Ukrainian subsidiary, and launched cooperation with a local manufacturing partner.

Ukraine has increasingly become a testing ground for next-generation defense technologies. According to Business Insider on May 27, hundreds of international defense companies have applied to evaluate new systems through Ukraine’s state-backed “Test in Ukraine” program, using battlefield conditions to accelerate development of drones, AI software, navigation systems, and other military technologies.

Companies participating in the program receive operational feedback from Ukrainian military personnel, allowing products to be refined at a pace rarely possible in peacetime environments.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, June 9, 2026 6:38 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Zelenskyy Urges UK, France, and Germany to Build European Alternative to US Patriot System

By Ivan Khomenko | Jun 09, 2026 11:50

https://united24media.com/war-in-ukraine/zelenskyy-urges-uk-france-and
-germany-to-build-european-alternative-to-us-patriot-system-19639

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the United Kingdom, France, and Germany had agreed to help Ukraine strengthen its defenses against ballistic missile threats following talks in London on June 7 with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and French President Emmanuel Macron.

The Patriot system remains one of the few Western air defense platforms able to intercept ballistic missiles, particularly when equipped with PAC-3 MSE interceptors. According to The Guardian, Zelenskyy said each Patriot interceptor costs approximately $4 million, while Ukrainian stockpiles have come under increasing pressure amid continued Russian missile strikes.

Europe currently fields one air defense system with anti-ballistic missile capability, the Franco-Italian SAMP/T system equipped with Aster 30 interceptors. Ukraine received a SAMP/T battery in 2023 and has used the system operationally, although production volumes remain limited compared with demand.

At the same time, Ukrainian defense companies are pursuing domestic alternatives. Ukrainian manufacturer Fire Point recently released footage of tests involving its FP-7.X interceptor missile. Fire Point aims to develop a complete air defense system capable of engaging ballistic targets by 2027.

Fire Point co-founder and chief designer Denis Shtilyerman said the company is targeting a cost below $1 million per interceptor. He noted that defeating a single ballistic missile often requires multiple Patriot interceptors, significantly increasing the cost of each engagement.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, June 9, 2026 6:40 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Ukrainians under occupation don't have a real choice whether to stay or to leave

By Dinara Khalilova | June 8, 2026 6:04 PM

https://kyivindependent.com/ukrainians-under-occupation-dont-have-a-re
al-choice-whether-to-stay-or-to-leave/

Some names have been changed to protect the identities of those featured in the story

As a war crimes researcher at the Reckoning Project, my job was to listen to Ukrainians who had fled the occupation. What they had to say reshaped how I understand life in Russian-occupied territories.

Simplistic outside judgments about people living under occupation often feel deeply unfair to Ukrainians who escaped it. From a safe distance, it is easy to say, "Why didn't they stay and resist?" or "Why didn't they leave earlier? That must mean they are pro-Russian." But neither one of these options is easy or safe.

Ihor Serdiuk, a 60-something educational worker from occupied Kherson Oblast, refused to switch the college he directed to the Russian curriculum. For that, he spent two weeks in prison.

In the same facility, there was a young man brutally beaten by occupation forces for throwing a grenade at military personnel, though no one was injured, and a woman who had refused to give a haircut to a Russian soldier. Serdiuk was released only after agreeing to apply for Russian citizenship, which he did, and immediately fled abroad.

"If you disagree with them (Russian forces), you'll simply die in prison — that's it… Either you leave, or you'll rot here, or they'll make sure you rot here. Because you can't live like this for long," Serdiuk says when asked if he had a real choice whether to stay or to leave.

Staying often means either openly supporting the occupation authorities or giving up your freedom of speech and expression to increase your chances of survival.

"You mimic the majority because you never know what might trigger an unwanted reaction — when all you're trying to do is live normally, to exist," says Vadym from Crimea, who was 13 when Russia annexed the peninsula.

"My inability to remain silent and my clear position could lead to problems for me personally, for my wife, and for my relatives."

For those who are trying to escape occupation, the journey out is long, complicated, and often dangerous.

Since late 2022, the only viable route has been through Russia. A ticket with a private carrier can cost several hundred dollars, and volunteer evacuation capacity is limited. Travelers pass through multiple checkpoints where Russian forces search, interrogate, and sometimes detain people on fabricated charges.

Crossing from occupied Kherson Oblast to Crimea, Serdiuk recalls 500–800 people standing for hours in the heat waiting for inspection by border officers. The only relief was a nearby bucket of water.

"Right in front of your eyes, they turn someone's suitcase inside out and kick it with their feet. Younger men are taken away — where to, nobody knows. Sometimes soldiers simply come and take people," he says.

Those who make it out and find safety must now deal with the trauma of occupation and start over from nothing.

"If you try to run, we’ll shoot you."

Their homes and former lives are gone. Some lost loved ones, and many lost their communities, which are now scattered across the world. It is almost impossible to plan for the future because of the constant fear of losing everything again. Immigration feels temporary, but at the same time, no one can promise you will ever be able to return home.

"In my 35 years, I've already seen everything. What kind of plans for the future can there even be?" says Maryna from a village in Kharkiv Oblast near the Russian border, occupied within hours of the full-scale invasion.

When Russian soldiers discovered her mother served in the Ukrainian army, they abducted Maryna and held her in captivity for days in a completely dark room with an empty bottle instead of a toilet. During interrogations, they threatened her: "If you don't tell us what we're asking, we'll cut your fingers. If you try to run, we'll shoot you."

Maryna eventually escaped and now lives in Latvia. Her relationship with her family has deteriorated, and she does not want to return to Ukraine. Maryna hopes temporary protection for Ukrainians will be extended, so she will not have to rebuild her life elsewhere. She says it is deeply stressful for her to plan anything.

Liberation is not just about taking back land. It is about restoring people's ability to live as human beings who can control their own lives. It means being able to move freely, speak openly, raise your children in line with your values, and choose your future.

Freedom is often discussed in abstract geopolitical terms. But for those living under occupation, it becomes something very real and concrete.

"You cross the border, walking along a battered road from the Kalanchak checkpoint to Kherson. Everything is rusty and old, but you keep going — and you feel relief, because here you can watch whatever you want, say whatever you want, think whatever you want," Vadym recalls of his trips from Crimea to the state-controlled territory before 2022.

He left the peninsula for good shortly after the full-scale invasion, burned his Russian passport, and now lives in Romania with his wife.

When asked about his hopes for the future, he says: "Coffee in Podil and a plane in the sky. A civilian plane taking off from Boryspil. For me, that's the quintessence of peace and a good life."

Editor's note: The text was created in collaboration with The Reckoning Project, a global team of journalists and lawyers documenting, publicizing, and building cases of atrocity crimes. The opinions expressed in the op-ed section are those of the authors and do not purport to reflect the views of the Kyiv Independent.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, June 9, 2026 9:06 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Not so long ago, the American far right celebrated Putin’s macho posturing and his supposed military invincibility.

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/far-right-idealized-russian-milit
ary-ukraine-exposes-all-ways-theyre-wrong

For years now, Russian President Vladimir Putin has learned how to court the far right and tap into their shared disdain of democracy and liberalism. To that end, Russia has made common cause with right-wing political movements in the United States and Europe, as well as through “indirect” support to Western extremist groups. Putin is now in search of fault lines to challenge the cohesion and resolve of the international response to his actions in Ukraine.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, June 9, 2026 10:07 AM

Keep it real please, and use a VPN

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

First of all THGR, your article is about long- range STRIKES.
Not surveillance.

So, what is the best vehicle for a long-range STRIKE, given the trade-off between payload and distance?

I'm not arguing for the sake of arguing. The advantage of drones is that they're relatively CHEAP. Once you start configuring them for longer distances and higher payloads, they start approaching cruise missiles and getting $$. In fact, the Flamingo "missile" looks more like a long distance drone. Or maybe drones look like the Flamingo.

Or you wind up with something like the Reaper drone. The Reaper is $$, it fires missiles, so it's more like an unmanned turboprop.

Anyway, in the end, they're both airborne modes of munitions delivery.

-----------

"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

Quote:
Originally posted by THG:

The Future of Drone Tech: Long-Range Strikes

No, it's not about long range strikes. It's about the future of Drone Technology. Long range Drones are a part of that discussion because technology is advancing. He discusses what that means. How the Middle Eastern countries are putting money into Ukrainian development of Drone tech.

He suggests by mid-summer we should be seeing daily strikes into the hundreds across Russia. I don't recall him speaking about Missile's. Only about how much trouble the Russian energy infrastructure is in. How in order for Russia to stop them from being blown up, Russia will have to shut down much of its oil producing wells and how it will take years to get them functioning again. I'll add to that that Ukrainian Drones are killing anything that moves as Russia tries unsuccessfully to resupply everything to everyone.

You tried to spin it into something else; Drones' vs Missiles. You're still trying to spin it into nothing more than long range strikes and what kind of munition you should use. Obviously, you didn't watch the video, or you did, and are trying to deflect away from its content. How the future looks dim for, and the fact that Russia is getting its ass kicked. How Ukraine has the edge. And that soon, Russia will not be an oil producing country. That's the point made in the video, and the point of my post. I told you a long time ago, Russia's fucked.

The other thing you guys never seem to realize is that you aren't arguing with me. You're arguing with the experts' opinions that I post. And you always lose.

T

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Tuesday, June 9, 2026 12:12 PM