Donald Trump recently had a meeting with Vladimir Putin in which he fawned over Putin and basked in the glow of the former KGB recruiter’s calculated flattery—more evidence, if we needed it, that on the world stage, Trump is an easily manipulated rube.
Second, if you want first-hand knowledge, join the California National Guard and fight to get in the State Partnership Program. They have had a close relationship with Ukraine for over 30 years. I do not know if they deploy there much for training, but hopefully it is ongoing and robust.
Thirdly, economics definitely comes into play. I have no way of knowing the latest statistics in Ukraine, but I can provide historical context. In our civil war, it took 10 cannon shots or 291 rifle shots to produce one casualty. That climbed to 5000 rifle rounds/casualty in WWI, 50,000 in WWII, 100,000 in Viet Nam, and is estimated to have been 250,000 in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you take those cartridges to cost $0.25, you spend $62,500/casualty. If a UAS/(drone) costs $500, you can send 125 of them to do the same job for the same money. I am sure the effectiveness number is highly classified, but somebody in our military knows it and is acting accordingly. There is lots of propaganda on YouTube trying to convince you that they are exceptionally deadly, but I would be surprised if the casualty rate were much better than 100:1. Remember also that you never get to see the effective countermeasures employed against them, such as jamming, lasers, and even simple shotguns.
So to 'destroy' all Russian combat forces in Ukraine would cost about $7.7B just for the UASs, provided, of course, you could get them close enough to launch an attack. That is certainly not an insurmountable cost, but producing 15M UASs will take time and good supply lines. Operator training and support logistics are additional issues.
As one who was raised by a German foreign policy victim, I mean someone who when he was your beloved Walter’s age, the Drone Wars, I mean Nazis offensives in the East had only just begun. DO NOT NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORIST I can still hear my old man talking back to Walter full of Cronkite during whatever’s dayz number it was when, speaking of Yoda, a very evil man who not only dressed up (by choice!) like Darth Vadar, but sounded just like him….and a truly pathetic fellow World War vet share cropper, I mean peanut farmer, would, like The Don to his fellow strongman Putin…speaking of the A Hole A Tollah as if the Koranical spin meister were a real leader to be respected and whose odious political world views should be considered…If only Carter had the brains and the balls my old man did, and ordered for the immediate exit of your black panthers out of The Embassy or you, Khomeni, and your evil imperial court will have only one life to live, and it will be over before you and your entire wretched entourage could possibly fathom it…oh, and by the way, in our country we the people have the right to freedom of religion….and from religion. I dig your son is already onto the fact that the future of warfare is in the micro, not macro….and God forbid some rogue evil nation is able to make drones and robots with stealth speed, before U.S.…but where were all the Tom Nichols of the political world last January when our Don was bragging about all the sitting ducks for aircraft carriers our megalomaniac President had in mind to be built in his mobbed up Jersey shore shipyards (what was his f stick union thugs friends of The Don’s name again, Harold…rhymes with). In a just and verdant political world The Don would have made like Michael Corleone the instant that cold blooded mass murderer and present day war criminal stepped onto the red, rhymes with, carpet. Good piece kid, but please take this to heart as all puritanical, anti statist Libertarians should…DO NOT NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS. That is all. Gotta run on. God help U.S. We the Living in Idiocracy. Thanks for taking my rant R.T. Peace through superior mental firepower
You must be so proud. Walter is heading out into the world with competence and self-esteem.
Walter,
First, congratulations!
Second, if you want first-hand knowledge, join the California National Guard and fight to get in the State Partnership Program. They have had a close relationship with Ukraine for over 30 years. I do not know if they deploy there much for training, but hopefully it is ongoing and robust.
Thirdly, economics definitely comes into play. I have no way of knowing the latest statistics in Ukraine, but I can provide historical context. In our civil war, it took 10 cannon shots or 291 rifle shots to produce one casualty. That climbed to 5000 rifle rounds/casualty in WWI, 50,000 in WWII, 100,000 in Viet Nam, and is estimated to have been 250,000 in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you take those cartridges to cost $0.25, you spend $62,500/casualty. If a UAS/(drone) costs $500, you can send 125 of them to do the same job for the same money. I am sure the effectiveness number is highly classified, but somebody in our military knows it and is acting accordingly. There is lots of propaganda on YouTube trying to convince you that they are exceptionally deadly, but I would be surprised if the casualty rate were much better than 100:1. Remember also that you never get to see the effective countermeasures employed against them, such as jamming, lasers, and even simple shotguns.
So to 'destroy' all Russian combat forces in Ukraine would cost about $7.7B just for the UASs, provided, of course, you could get them close enough to launch an attack. That is certainly not an insurmountable cost, but producing 15M UASs will take time and good supply lines. Operator training and support logistics are additional issues.
Here are a couple of links to relevant WSJ articles which will hopefully get you past the paywall:
https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/ukraine-russia-drones-fiber-optic-cable-6c96a9f1?st=ZGdtze&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
https://www.wsj.com/world/ukraine-russia-drone-war-adef7e49?st=MBUX8P&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
As one who was raised by a German foreign policy victim, I mean someone who when he was your beloved Walter’s age, the Drone Wars, I mean Nazis offensives in the East had only just begun. DO NOT NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORIST I can still hear my old man talking back to Walter full of Cronkite during whatever’s dayz number it was when, speaking of Yoda, a very evil man who not only dressed up (by choice!) like Darth Vadar, but sounded just like him….and a truly pathetic fellow World War vet share cropper, I mean peanut farmer, would, like The Don to his fellow strongman Putin…speaking of the A Hole A Tollah as if the Koranical spin meister were a real leader to be respected and whose odious political world views should be considered…If only Carter had the brains and the balls my old man did, and ordered for the immediate exit of your black panthers out of The Embassy or you, Khomeni, and your evil imperial court will have only one life to live, and it will be over before you and your entire wretched entourage could possibly fathom it…oh, and by the way, in our country we the people have the right to freedom of religion….and from religion. I dig your son is already onto the fact that the future of warfare is in the micro, not macro….and God forbid some rogue evil nation is able to make drones and robots with stealth speed, before U.S.…but where were all the Tom Nichols of the political world last January when our Don was bragging about all the sitting ducks for aircraft carriers our megalomaniac President had in mind to be built in his mobbed up Jersey shore shipyards (what was his f stick union thugs friends of The Don’s name again, Harold…rhymes with). In a just and verdant political world The Don would have made like Michael Corleone the instant that cold blooded mass murderer and present day war criminal stepped onto the red, rhymes with, carpet. Good piece kid, but please take this to heart as all puritanical, anti statist Libertarians should…DO NOT NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS. That is all. Gotta run on. God help U.S. We the Living in Idiocracy. Thanks for taking my rant R.T. Peace through superior mental firepower