D Luther

[D Luther @ldev2007]

@cvkrishnan An indictment was also dismissed in the last 48-72 hours.....

[D Luther @ldev2007]

@daeroplate_v2 Meanwhile China has given visa free access to 79 countries of which 52 is unilateral visa free access i.e Chinese citizens need visas to visit those 52 countries, the other 27 are mutual agreements, such as with Russia.

[D Luther @ldev2007]

@daeroplate_v2 @JanusBlinked @IndianTintin_ A backroom message about also then filtering/verifying the ~$35B remittance inflow from the US to India will have a tendency to soften the bill pronto

[D Luther @ldev2007]

@somnath1978 Co-develop means> India money + Safran tech= Finished engine> to be bought by India + sold by France to other countries with 100% of the IP vested with France.

[D Luther @ldev2007]

Also, Suez/Panama/Bosphorus charge based on ship tonnage, pilot fees, tug fees etc., larger the ship, higher the toll. Iran wants to charge based on cargo value 👏 where a 1 million barrel crude oil carrying tanker is valued at $ 75-100 million!! Such a ship will incur fees of ~ $600,000 to transit the Suez or Panama Canals but $2-7 million for Hormuz depending on where the haggling ends up at.

[D Luther @ldev2007]

You are correct, though it's not a transit fee as such like Suez or Panama but a "cost recovery" operation for dredging etc. as provided by the Montreux Convention. By contrast, no country bordering the Persian Gulf provides any services.

And if you see the Bosphorus, it's really narrow, less than 1 km wide at it's narrowest point in Istanbul, regular dredging is imperative for trouble free 2 way navigation. By contrast Hormuz is 40 km at its narrowest point.

[D Luther @ldev2007]

@daeroplate_v2 @MonaADhar It's not just a matter of the external aesthetics of your house/apartment. Dryers are invaluable in any location where winter temperatures plunge far below freezing. Wet clothes put out on a clothes line in sub zero weather turn rock hard in minutes.

[D Luther @ldev2007]

@daeroplate_v2 Cortes burned his ships so there was no slinking back, no return to Spain for his men!!

[D Luther @ldev2007]

@daeroplate_v2 When you are armed & prepared for the last war but then the next war throws you a curve ball with a bewildering mixture of traditional & new hybrid threats and you are slow to adapt.

[D Luther @ldev2007]

US DDGs can protect themselves though reports say magazine depth is still an issue & oh yeah they had fierce engagements with the Houthis lasting for months. So on a 1 on 1 basis they can handle the Houthis and even the Iranians. But can the existing SAMs & CIWS & even the recently introduced Helios & ODIN laserd provide cover for merchant convoys strung along for many miles?

As far as IN is concerned, they just have a very limited magazine of Barak 8s? Totally inadequate vs a swarm of drones & missiles in case the Houthis launch a USV against a merchant vessel the IN ship is tasked with protecting.

[D Luther @ldev2007]

Cost effective Chinese cots components & guidance systems selectively hardened & mass manufacturing have left traditional militaries floundering to defend themselves, specially those without nimble military-industrial complex coordination. And even in those situations where an Iron Dome can protect fixed targets, transposing that level of defence to a DDG is still a work in process even for the US.

Ukraine is working at a frenetic pace to develop an alternative in collaboration with the who's who in the European defence industry to develop an alternative to the Patriot currently in short supply and currently the only ABM they protect against Russian BMs. The pace is staggering, they hope to have it operational in mid 2027 & the original starting point was legacy S300 & S400 missiles which were then modified into FP7s.

India will wait for someone to develop a ship borne defence system and then import it wholesale. Until then Indian ships will be punching bags for all and sundry including the Houthis

https://t.co/3lTzy9exJU

[D Luther @ldev2007]

The current quagmire has a long history. Saddam kept the Shia revolution busy, bottled up and confined to the country. Getting rid of him was a monumental blunder, it opened the floodgates for Iraq to to be brought under it's sway, then Syria and then overland logistics for supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon. Also the breathing room to build up the Houthis.

[D Luther @ldev2007]

The wave you ride, if you are fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time far exceeds individual ability, intelligence & skill.

Friend of mine, shared a flat in Mumbai starting out, he was IIT Kanpur, first job with GE's nascent office in Nariman Point, then Wipro which had just diversified out of its traditional vegetable oil & dalda business, then MS at Stanford followed by Sun Microsystems in California & then a start up & now has his own chauffer driven cars in the Valley. That arc is difficult if not impossible to replicate today. The wave has passed.

[D Luther @ldev2007]

@alpha_defense Adaptive cycle gives you that extra range when it's on the fuel optimization mode & range in the Pacific is crucial for US operations. It's less critical for GCAP partners in the European theater & for Japan in defensive operations vs the PLAAF

[D Luther @ldev2007]

The world likes winners. First mistake, premature termination of Op Sindoor, instead of demolishing Isloo HQ. Whether you like it or not, external parties saw it as a small country standing up to a 7X bigger power and has directly resulted in that country's post conflict rehabilitation.

Second mistake, too timid to ever consider a reverse Nadir Shah. What are you spending $90 billion on a standing army of > 1 million other than use that tool to secure something as critical as energy supplies.

[D Luther @ldev2007]

To adapt BMs for an ABM role, you will need radar, IR & EO seekers & thrusters for last minute maneuvering. It looks like these are the areas where the US will help, starting with a Ukrainian BM.Not quite screwdriver work, Indian style where everything is imported. Don't discount that pre breakup, Ukraine had about 30% of the former Soviet Union's defense production and R&D facilities. Yughmash (missiles), Motor Such (aircraft, engines) etc. are enterprises from the Soviet era and still in production albeit under wartime constraints. Indian Navy long reliedon Zorya gas turbines.

[D Luther @ldev2007]

@daeroplate_v2 @khabdoda @JA_Maolankar Are there only only two options i.e. Gold plated imports or TOT? What about genuine collaboration such as 👇

[D Luther @ldev2007]

Because Zelensky knows the US cannot supply him with the 300 Patriots his armed forces is the minimum they need for this winter, they are exploring out of the box solutions with US help, such as modifying locally produced ballistic missiles as BMD interceptors. Besides faster production, the bonus is that they are cheaper.

[D Luther @ldev2007]

@daeroplate_v2 @Son_of_Wind_108 Strategic autonomy just got a lot harder today: