So, one of the really interesting things to me about this approach is that it offers the same asymmetric value proposition that cheap attack drones do to modern pre-drone IADS.

That is: this is a platform that costs 10-15k, and an AGM-88 of modern manufacture costs almost 900k, and a Kh-31 costs about 550k - and, just as importantly, both require a long time to manufacture. So, you could theoretically make a moderately large distributed array sprinkled over a few square kilometers, and even if they’re ALL turned on, it quickly becomes logistically infeasible to knock them all out without spending a silly quantity on antirad munitions, as well as massively attriting your stocks of antirad munitions. And if you turn like 10-25% of them on at a time and cycle through your array, the problem becomes even harder for the attacker. And if you have some sort of process or mechanism - like, oh I don’t know, figuring out how to do light aerial transport with cargo drones, or even figuring out how to mount these distributed array nodes on the drones themselves, and some sort of lightweight tether for providing power - the problem becomes a MASSIVE pain in the ass for an adversary (especially that last idea, which introduces z-axis and immediate maneuverability, such that the array could feasibly detect and altogether avoid an incoming antirad munition).

And that’s the paradigm of modern warfare - not just drones, but also networked and attritable systems that maintain functionality when elements are taken offline

I mean, considering the political climate there… it’s very karmic

As in: you agree with the article’s assertion?

lol shut the fuck up NYT

It is wild being a unitedstatesian and being stoked about Iran simply refusing to engage with the regime’s “I’ll just say a thing and we’ll all pretend it’s real” vibes. They’re honestly showing more leadership than the VAST majority of politicians in this fucking country.

Iran is incapable of

Kash fucking Patel disbanded the team that looks for credible threats from Iran right before we started bombing the shit out of them. That’s a blatantly, obviously dangerous action and context. The only reason it’s not a straight up false flag attack is essentially a technicality, and because Iran hasn’t actually tried anything (yet).

allowed

You’re, uh, paying attention to the whole bit where the regime doesn’t fucking care about rules and laws and court orders, and that nobody enforces them against the regime anymore, right?

Hmmm sounds like maybe we need to find a form of justice that can’t be dismissed

Wow good thing everyone completely ignored all the warnings about the psychotic theocratic bullshit that we tried to warn them that this regime was going to push

The major point you’re missing is that the regime does not fucking care and nobody is going to hold them accountable, ever.

Apparently, back in January, a State Department official made a reference to the Avignon Papacy to the Vatican’s chief diplomat.

For those not familiar with the geopolitical history of Europe and the Catholic Church, this was a period in the 1300s where the French monarchy did their level best to basically co-opt and strong arm the church so they could squeeze money out of them, and led to a schism for a time.

Put another way: that is by far the most thinly-veiled direct threat I’ve ever heard anyone make to the Vatican in my life.

But also, this feels like it’s pure theater

Isn’t that super illegal? Like, I don’t for a second think anyone will be prosecuted for it, but still.

Lmao ok sure buddy

At his press conference yesterday, Magyar was extensively asked about his views on Russia and called for “pragmatic” relations between the countries (Europe Live, Monday).

Hmmm

He argued that Hungary “cannot change geography” as it still relied on energy supplies from Russia, even as he suggested he would push to diversify these sources in the future.

Well, yeah. And the reason Ukraine has been so (justifiably) obstinate about wrecking energy supplies that go to Hungary is because Orban was refusing outright to explore alternatives, with predictable consequences.

I think it’s too soon to tell, tbh, but it’ll surely be an improvement from Orban - though that is really not a high bar.

Well, that, and the rich fucks are very fucking obviously dumping our taxpayer money into their own accounts while overtly manipulating the market in ways that people not affiliated with the regime would be prosecuted for, in addition to executing the most pants-on-head idiotic geopolitical strategy in modern history, simultaneously starting a bunch of completely unnecessary and fully unjustified wars for no reason other than to distract from credible and pervasive allegations of lurid sexual abuse and pedophilia. Oh and they’re pushing theocratic idiocy too. And concentration camps. And summary executions. And we can go on, but you get the idea.

I fucking hate that my taxpayer dollars are paying for all of this. Genuinely makes me want to seek citizenship elsewhere and so I can renounce my US citizenship.

In actuality, it’s more accurate to say that this is how uncritical and self-deceptive his followers are. The followers we are talking about here are Christian Dominionists (aka adherents of the 7 mountains mandate).

They largely don’t care about his insanity because they genuinely believe orangeboi and the regime are a means to an end - and, you know, they’ve finally got a shitload of Christian Dominionists in the regime’s leadership now. Them caring about the initial post was a rare outlier of them actually caring about this shit, because it began to tread - and reflect very poorly and obviously cultishly - on their messianic worldview.

To be fair, it was likely by accident

I feel like you’re way too invested in whatever hill you’re trying to die on here, and nobody else understands what you’re doing either.