(Beijing) So 3 days after Lai Ching-te was sworn in as the President of Taiwan where in his inaugural speech he asked China to stop its military and
political threats, stating in his inauguration speech that peace was the only
choice and that Beijing had to respect the choice of the Taiwanese people. The response from Beijing was something of an infantile hissy fit accusing Lai of seeking independence and
destabilizing the region. In retaliation, Beijing sanctioned three US defence contractors over arms sales to Taiwan, and former US congressman Mike Gallagher for visiting the Taipei. It lashed out at US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for
congratulating Lai. This it followed up with a full on set of Military exercises which completely surrounded and cut off the Island from the world for the 2 day exercise period which was aimed to intimidate, and threaten Taiwan for voting in a China skeptic as their new president and not voting as China demands. In other words the actions of a bully.
The People’s Liberation Army has launched a two-day exercise around Taiwan, “testing joint combat capabilities” by blockading the island. Read more: https://t.co/5nZjusrNnDpic.twitter.com/mrT3VsPtCL
— South China Morning Post (@SCMPNews) May 23, 2024
In a nutshell Beijing covets the tiny Island state and has done so since 1945 when the Nationalist army losing the civil war to the communists on the mainland retreated across the 100 mile Taiwan straits to set up home on the Island of Taiwan and since then Beijing refuses to accept Taiwan as an independent state which is why in 1971 it forced the UN to kick Taiwan out , which is why Taiwan is not recognised to this day on that so called world stage.
(Cambodia) On the 16th of May Phnom Penh and Beijing started the Golden Dragon 15 day military exercise in the central Kampong Chhnang Province of Cambodia involving around 2000 troops of which around 750 were Chinese. The interesting thing here was the Chinese army showcased their latest robotic military dog.
The Ukrainians are still holding the Russians at bay making them pay heavily for every foot they concede,(reported Moscow is losing around 900 men a day) but not only that, they are still taking the fight to Russia taking out a lot of top notch high quality equipment which is a lot harder to replace than your average conscripted infantry soldier such as the destruction over the weekend of the Karakurt-class corvette Tsiklon.
A recent addition to the Russian navy (she was commissioned last July) whilst a naval asset, the Tsiklon has the ability to launch land strike cruise missiles such as the Kalibr and the P-800 Oniksboth of which the Russians have used to deadly effect targeting primarily civilian targets all across the Ukraine . Ironically the small but deadly Karakurt class is also fitted with a most comprehensive air defence suite comprising of either a couple of AK-630M gun-based close-in weapon systems
(CIWS), or, the Pantsir-M air defense system
has been installed, but as we saw with her sister ship Askold in Nov 2023, all that defensive gear means squat when the Ukrainians have you in their sight, which is why the Tsiklon which was pictured docked in Sevastopol on Friday the 17th May 2024 is now gracing the bottom of Sevastopol harbour.
And today it has been reported that the
Ukraine targeted a air defence missile system in the village of Mospine which
can be found 15 miles behind Donetsk city destroying the following:
·X S-300/400 air defence missile
launchers were destroyed:
·1 X S-300/400 air defence
missile launcher was damaged
·1 X Radar “96L6E” was
destroyed;
·1X Control centre of the
S-300/400 air defence system was destroyed:
Update:
Video has emerged of the above missile strike. (I recommend keeping the sound off)
In the Krasnodar Krai (region) of Russia on Wednesday (22/05/24) the Ukraine damaged a couple of Voronezh early warning radar systems. The Voronezh is a huge static radar system designed specifically for long distance monitoring of airspace
against ballistic missile attack.
So whilst the Russians is easily able to
replace men and armour, its ability to replace high value targets such as
Ships, Aircraft, Radar and Missile systems is a lot harder
and that we have seen in how Ukraine in its selective targeting has effectively removed the Black sea fleet
(due to losses) from around the Crimea Resulting in Russia conceding command of that area to the
Ukraine which hasn't a navy and as we are seeing it is slowly but surely
eradicating Russian long distance Anti-air missiles systems from the region as
well, which I feel will come back to bite Moscow in the near future.
(Ukraine) One of the weapon systems Russia has quickly developed in which to make up for its depletion of its holdings of cruise and precision guided missiles (Which after 2 years of war even Moscow's huge stocks which it started with has been drained) was knocking out their version of the US Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) or glide bomb. However whereupon the JDAM was designed in slow time taking 7 years to develop with it entering service in 1999. The Russians took less time and whilst their cheap as chips UMPK glide wing kit is deemed not as accurate as the JDAM, their ad hoc Heath Robinson affair works and allowed them to use the thousands of dumb bombs they held in stock, which due to Ukrainian air defence they couldn't use the old fashion way, but by fixing a set of wings and some form of guidance, they could drop the bombs from inside Russia (and safe from air defence) and hit targets 30 miles inside the Ukraine with 1000lb bombs
which even if they miss still cause a lot more devastation than a 152mm artillery shell which contains around 6.5kgs of high explosive, it also explains the numerous gains Moscow has made this year, where instead of artillery , they have just targeted Ukrainian defensive positions with large bombs dropping 3,500 guided aerial bombs with the UMPK
module in the first 77 days of 2024 alone.
