Spotted May 15: FSB Coast Guard and Border Service speedboats on the Nemunas (Neman) River, near Sovetsk, Kaliningrad
SOURCE: @VideoShips on YouTube May 15, 2024: The Coast Guard of the Border Service of the FSB patrols the Neman River border of Russia and Lithuania. They also patrol occupied Ukrainian waters including in the Sea of Azov and the waters off of Crimea. They were formerly called the Maritime Units of the KGB Border…
OSINT source: Newly Commissioned Russian Minesweeper Lev Chernavin Spotted in April
YouTube source @VideoShips posted the newly commissioned Lev Chernavin Alexandrit Class Minesweeper reportedly of the Baltic Fleet spotted April 20th, 2024. Some clear capture of the vessel passing by. Caveat: new source to me. Precise location of vessel not verified.
Russia’s Potential Strategic Use of Boring Machines
Russia’s boring machine capabilities may offer strategic and tactical underground options in a continuing, rolling war of aggression against Ukraine, and possibly beyond. Background: In 2020, Russia’s state owned company JSC Mosinzhproekt claimed the Guinness Book world record for most boring machines operating at once, demonstrating 23 boring machines at work boring new subway lines…
Russian EW Supply Lines and Followup Information Ops
One of Russia’s more successful weapons against Ukraine has been electronic warfare (EW) tech, so Russia’s EW units and supply lines need Ukrainian and international interdiction and customs attention. As of Summer 2022, 3 of 5 of Russia’s EW brigades were reportedly engaged in Ukraine. To the extent that Russia sources its EW supplies internationally,…
Dictatorships Vie for Control of U.N.’s WIPO
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a likely vector for intelligence gathering by participants from China and Russia. Last week I noted a young, former Rostec executive (per his LinkedIn profile) working in Geneva, Switzerland apparently assigned to WIPO and more probably than not under pressure of the Putin regime. Indeed, in posted videos…
Repurposing Retired Aircraft Carriers
Advocation: Stop scrapping and start repurposing retired aircraft carriers, other warships, and utility ships with advanced weapons, technologies, and capabilities. Security and Incentivizing Ideas: Keep repurposing projects strictly shrouded in mystery for potentially adversarial forces, the press, and unreliable partners as would bleed information. Put the projects under direct military command, strict counterintelligence oversight, and…
House Obstruction Drives Risk of Long War, Lost Advantages
The Senate has passed a $95 billion dollar aid package for Ukraine and Israel but the Majority Leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) signaled that Republicans there will not pass it without the border security measures they want. However, a bi-partisan border security measure is already on the table…
Jurassic World as Allegory of Dictator Club’s Rise
Above: See the video Multi Dimension Thinking Needed Yesterday I wrote that black and white thinking is not consistent with the United States as a superpower going forward. Today I found a blockbusting cinema illustration of how black and white thinking does not get us ‘Left of Bang’ or in the movie’s case, ‘Left of…
A Colorful Cosmos Favors Creative Statesmanship Over Black and White Thinking
Black and white thinking is inconsistent with the United States as a superpower with a future. Reality is waveform and continuous, not a black and white still-life. As in viewing features on a landscape and noting linear patterns that almost always give away human activity, so black and white choices before us suggest likely erroneous…
Blockade the Houthi Blockade
Photo credit CC License: Ferdinand Reus from Arnhem, Holland. Situation The Houthis of Yemen have bombarded Red Sea commercial shipping against Western interests using the Iran regime’s funds, arms, training, and equipment with indirect benefit and support to Beijing and Moscow, whose Red Sea traffic is exempt from Houthi fires and Iranian harassment. Naval and…