War of drones, Putin's doomsday train, spy TU-007, stop co-operation with Russia in space

As you probably have noticed, in my weekly overviews, I try not to copy-paste page 1 news but try to share some interesting findings and my thoughts.

Why were we expecting “the war of robot vs drone”?

The topic that keeps bothering me is “WHY we didn't see it coming”. In many defence doctrines, the main potential enemy of Europe and EU has been Russia (along with others, depending on the country). So probably, I am naive, but, knowing the enemy, you assess their military potential and somehow plan your own defence capacities based on that. So what did we see in 2021, turning back the clock? In 2021 Russia assumably had the second strongest army with 1 million people, double the number of tanks that US had (13 830), about the same number of nuclear weapons and about 1400 aircraft. More than China. So knowing the army is quite low-tech and all the “Armada tank” kind of news is quite fake, it would somehow make sense that with approximately 43 billion dollars, what you can produce will also be quite low-tech (little money for research, components etc). But they have quantity in people, and sometimes the quantity becomes quality in itself. It was probably known to any intelligence that the same old “General Zhukov style” applies to the Soviet, sorry Russian army - people are expendable and as Zhukov said “women will give birth to more”.

So it was expected that Russia would pose a danger and that the next escalation would not be in 20 years but sooner, having seen the signs from Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, Azerbaijan, and Crimea. Now taking a look at the quantity of old tech in tanks and missiles and ammo, it could have been expected that the new war, if it involves the main potential enemy, Russia - it will be quite low-tech. And we were not ready. The governments were struggling with even meeting the 2% expenditure expectation on defence while stocks were low on ammo and tanks needed repair. So the question that keeps coming back to me - with all the intelligence power of the biggest countries, why we were not ready for basic, primitive, old-school evil? Have we become too sophisticated in our high-tech worlds to assess the real situation on the ground or we underestimated the enemy and risks? Definitely some lessons to be learned.

Putin's “doomsday Snowpiercer.”

I am absolutely not into fantasy movies, but I've seen and enjoyed this one. So did probably Putin. He probably has this vision of how the world is destroyed after nuclear winter, and he keeps breaking through eternal snow in his “doomsday” train. Ok, I was exaggerating. I believe he is bluffing about the nuclear weapon, but there IS a special train that Putin has preferred since 2021 to planes, thinking it is safer to travel via railway than air. According to an investigation carried out by “Project” there is a special railway and station network built for Putin. The stations are near Putin's residences at Valdai National park, Novo-Ogaryovo near Moscow and Bocharov Ruchei in Sochi. Visually though, the trains are pretty much resembling the usual ones. The owner of the train is the company “Grand-Service Express” belonging to his close friend Yuriy Kovalchuk. The one who is thought to be one of the warmongers that Putin spent a lot of time within his bunker during covid and before the war. Read more.

TU-007 or engineer that switched the sides

In late December, an armored car drove to the US Southwest border. In the car, there was a family seeking for asylum in exchange for Russia’s most closely guarded military secrets. It was soon found out that it was not “just a car” and “just a man with his family” but an unnamed military bomber engineer that had worked in Tupolev aircraft production facility from 2018-2021. He was working on a new “attack jet” called White Swan- TU160, the largest military aircraft built. The TU-160 White Swan, also known by the NATO code name ‘Blackjack,’ is reportedly the most advanced strategic bomber in the Russian inventory and has also been used in tactical airstrikes in the Ukraine war. Now the unnamed man was looking for asylum as he feared persecution for participating in anti-Putin protests in support of Alexei Navalny. Government officials told Yahoo News that the man was deemed credible and potentially of interest to the U.S. Read more.?

Ukrainian drones can reach Moscow.

Ukrainian state defence company Ukroboronprom is in the final stages of testing the new “home-made” UAV that could carry (I was about to say payload, thinking about space) warhead weight up to 75kg as far as 1000 kilometres. Based on the information disclosed, Defense Express assumed it would be a kamikaze drone with the longest reach out of all weapons in the arsenal of Ukraine. The distance between Kyiv and Moscow is under 800 kilometres. Just mentioning. Read more.

Russian Zhukov-style war

As mentioned, Russia continues this Soviet style of war where people are just expendables. A resource to be used. While private warlord Evgeniy Prygozhin seems to be more and more ousted, the Russian Ministry of Defence adopts his methods and starts recruiting convicts. But it is not Zhukov-times in regards to access to information, and more and more convicts are starting to avoid, if possible, being cannon fodder (I hate this word and concept). While the spring conscription begins soon, new youth will probably be sent to the frontline, while Putin avoids publicly announcing a new unpopular wave of mobilisation. And he doesn't have to, as the old decree is still active and quiet mobilisation has continued.?

Sergei Gridin from Pechory was conscripted and got a notice that he would be sent to fight in Ukraine. He knew that from his previous squadron, no-one had survived. His opposition for being sent to Ukraine was met with violence towards him. Sergei committed suicide. Leaving a note “I decided to die here, in my homeland, without the blood of the strangers on my hands”. These stories will spread and reach more and more people. Does Putin care? Definitely not, but you never know when this one match will light a fire that cannot be put out.

Stop co-operation with Russia in space

I just relaunched my YouTube with the first amazing guest - astronaut and ISS commander Terry Virts. Terry thinks that US should stop co-operation with Russian in space as “Ukraine is more important than ISS”. Three Russian astronauts from the joint missions are now pro-war deputies and there should be no co-operation as there couldn't be any German scientists during WW2.

Please hear more about space, the potential of Ukraine in private space, and F-16 fighter jets, as Terry was the test-pilot of F-16s, so wanted by Ukraine now.?

YouTube video can be found here. Please like and subscribe :)