And the key to that is only some of their nuke subs are decent. Oscars have a bad track record of sinking themselves.
But from what Jane’s says they are awfully quiet for a Russian submarine. Somewhere around the improved Los Angeles class boats. Now if only it can go long enough without blowing itself apart to make a statement.
This is one of their newest SSGNs. It is a dangerous boat, as a first strike weapon. But this is a great opportunity to run actual detection drills and get recordings of its acoustic profile, both from our subs and our anti submarine patrol aircraft. It will also be a good opportunity to electronically fingerprint the radar systems on that frigate.
I’ll say that Oscars are pretty submarines. Then again that’s a long standing Russian tradition. They build pretty subs. It’s why I had a poster of a Typhoon class in my childhood bed room as decoration. They’re more attractive than American subs from just an aesthetic standpoint. Granted that doesn’t matter when it’s time to go to war and our ■■■■ is a lot better. But the Russian subs are pretty things until they sink.
They have maintenance issues, always have. You see it with their surface combatants and their aircraft also. The more complex the platform, the more problems they have as it ages.
It really doesn’t help that most of the best Soviet ships and boats were built in Ukraine by Ukrainian crews. When the Union collapsed Russian industry inherited a bunch of ships they didn’t know how to fix or service properly. Like the Kuznetzov herself was literally being finished when the USSR collapsed in Ukraine and then the Russian captain jacked it after kicking all the Ukrainians off of it. Probably the most expensive case of grand theft auto ever.
So it’s been needing new engines since the late 90s but the Russians don’t have the capability to build new replacements. And they run the cheapest fuel oil possible in the thing despite the original specification calling for high grade stuff like Western ships use. So the engines are just destroying themselves. It’s why she travels with like 3 tugs at a time so they can give the engines a break or they inevitably shut off randomly.
When singing to the president, do it seductively.
Yes, decades of appeasement and broken agreements have brought another expansionist empire to Russia’s doorstep. If only Russia had stopped the policy of appeasement earlier . . .
Just go play in traffic and chase cars.
Or maybe Russia could have talked fairly with NATO and the G8 instead of being sticks in the mud and bitching about everything constantly because they claimed “we are a great power we swear!” even though though elderly Russian people were dying in the street because all their pensions got canceled.
They had a chance to play ball fairly with the West and they threw it away because like a bully they thought they were bigger and stronger than they actually were.
The Kennedy and Khruschev agreed to that the Soviet Union would remove its forces from Cuba, and in return the US agreed end efforts to invade Cuba or overthrow the Cuban government and, at a later time, to remove missiles from Turkey.
The US has torn up practically every other agreement it made with the Soviets during the Cold War.
Does that mean that Cuba is free to have Russian bases including Russian nuclear weapons on the island?
I don’t suffer fools, or small yapping animals.
I agree. That is a good description of the some of the leaders of small NATO countries in Europe.
They are happy to foolishly escalate a war that they have no ability to fight.
Similar things went on during the Cuban missile crisis.
On October 26, 1962, Fidel Castro sent a letter to Nikita Khrushchev asking the Soviet leader to launch a nuclear first strike on the United States. The Cuban dictator also ordered all of his artillery to begin firing on American reconnaissance aircraft at the dawn of “Black Saturday.” On October 27, 2022, when tensions reached their highest point during the Cuban Missile Crisis, an American U-2 spy plane was shot down and the pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson Jr., was killed.
CubaBrief: In October 1962, Fidel Castro sent a letter to Khrushchev requesting a nuclear first strike on the USA, and ordered artillery to fire on U.S. planes. - Cuba Center
I like it. Too bad the no cujones leadership in DC would never sign off on that! 
Nikita Khrushchev was a die hard Commie and a populist. His goals were clear but he also wanted to reform Stalinism so Russia could coexist with non-communist countries. While a commissar in the Red Army he survived Stalins blood purges. Ol Nikita wasn’t an angel but I’m betting he thought Fidel Castro’s request to launch a first nuclear strike on the US was ■■■■■■■ insanity.
…I’d take it even further telling the entire world to stay out of our hemisphere.
Nikita was a survivor more than anything else. Guy was basically a cockroach. Fidel was one of those guys who would say ■■■■■ everything, I’ll die for the cause!” Nikita was not that kind of man.
All the Tugs.
Yes, and the Russians have long had a similar policy about Ukraine. Washington’s foreign policy establishment has long recognized that, but they have made NATO membership an official goal since at least 2008 and an unofficial goal long before that.
A neutral, independent Ukraine was no problem for Russia. Using Ukraine as a military base under a NATO-installed puppet government is considered an existential threat.
Ukraine didn’t get a say in any of this?
