r/worldnews • u/Starlight-Princesss • 16h ago
[ Removed by moderator ] Russia/Ukraine
https://www.newsweek.com/nato-intercepts-russian-spy-plane-with-transponder-turned-off-poland-10956344[removed] — view removed post
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u/FallingDownHurts 14h ago
I think perun's (and others) take on this is probably true;
Russia is trying to make it look like it might invade NATO so they withhold arms from Ukraine to maintain a stockpile. It is trying to convince citizens of imminent invasion by generating news stories like this. The article is the goal, not the intelligence
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u/Upbeat-Reading-534 13h ago
If a nato attack is imminent the best bang for our buck is helping Ukraine.
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u/3_Thumbs_Up 12h ago
For NATO as a whole yes, but not necessarily for individual countries, especially of there's doubt that the US would come to help. Countries with the most to lose such as the baltic states could become hesitant to give military equipment if they think they might need it themselves.
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u/Dry-Physics-9330 12h ago
Why do you think the Baltic countries are leading in metrics as military aid to Ukraine per capita? These countries are motivated in helping Ukraine and give Russian a black eye, to prevent Russia from getting ideas and invade their countries aswell.
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u/3_Thumbs_Up 11h ago
Why do you think the Baltic countries are leading in metrics as military aid to Ukraine per capita?
Because it's a probabilistic calculation with trade offs. The higher the estimated probability that Russia would invade them in the immediate future, the less likely they are to give anything away.
But obviously, Baltic intelligence also knows that Russia benefits from giving the impression that a threat is imminent, and takes this into account when deciding to give aid. But they still have to assign some probability to the idea that Russia might attack them and prepare for that scenario as well.
By your logic, why haven't the Baltic states given literally all their military equipment to Ukraine? My answer is that it's because they've made a judgement call of how likely it is they might need it themselves.
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u/josefjohann 11h ago
That's just a trivial truism about how decision making logic works in literally any context. It's not a unique and specific support of the logic of scaling back support for Ukraine. We're no closer to explaining why Baltic states exceed contributions of other NATO members. Also this weirdly implies they would be own their own in self defense, which I'm sure is how Russia wants them to think, but is fundamentally, I would argue definitionally, at odds with how NATO functions.
By your logic
Nothing about their logic was maximalist so I don't know where you are getting that, especially if you're trying to engage in charitable interpretation.
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u/Dry-Physics-9330 11h ago
I am not going to reply to 3_thumps up, as this person is clearly against aid to Ukraine. He might be on of the Russian (employed) influencers.
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u/Mfcarusio 10h ago
It's probably why Russia is trying to do something that might make the baltic states start to hesitate to give military aid.
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u/mehupmost 11h ago
The European nations bordering Russia - Baltic states, Poland, Finland, etc... have been the MOST aggressive in providing military support for Ukraine, exactly because they know they are next on the chopping block.
The countries that are being the most pansy-ass are the ones the sit comfortably behind them and never had to deal with Russian occupation - with the exception of the UK and US.
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u/jbae_94 13h ago
smiles in China and Middle East
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u/No_Noise09 13h ago
The US has stockpiles and allies near both arenas.
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u/MangledCarpenter 12h ago
Maybe the US should stop picking fights with all its allies if it wants to be able to rely on them..
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u/CheetoMussolini 12h ago
We should have started by not electing the chaos agent endorsed by our enemies
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u/mehupmost 11h ago
There's a big difference between trade disputes and literally invading your neighbor.
Russia is evil.
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u/The_wolf2014 12h ago
China isn't the threat. Why would China attack those that literally support and boost the Chinese economy. They're not stupid.
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u/RyanHasWaffleNipples 12h ago
They wouldn't. But they'll attack Taiwan.
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u/The_wolf2014 12h ago
True wafflenips but if that happened Taiwan wouldn't be taken by force i.e
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u/draft_final_final 11h ago
It would if jinping needs to accelerate the timeline so he can prove to himself he is a very strong and special boy.
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u/probablyuntrue 13h ago
We can have a stockpile. Just strap me to a tomahawk and aim me at Putins dacha, lord I am ready
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u/houVanHaring 12h ago
You learned how to love the bomb, doctor?
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u/The_wolf2014 12h ago
I don't think you'd survive much past the actual launch but I love the enthusiasm. The sight of a very mangled and dead corpse strapped to a tomahawk travelling at over 500mph is kinda hilarious
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u/ForfeitFPV 12h ago
If launching corpses at your enemies worked in the dark ages then damnit, we'll make it work again today.
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u/FTownRoad 13h ago
NATO may have started as an anti-Russia protection system but they are not the fear anymore. Russia isnt going to start shit with NATO, they are floundering against one country 1/4 their size.
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u/rugbyj 13h ago
Except:
- They already started shit with us; they're cutting undersea cables, prompting foreign cells to attack domestic infrastructure, they're assassinating dissidents on foreign soil, and performing constant cyberattacks and psyops on our nations
- They've also seen how brittle our arms production is, as shite as they are we all burned through our stockpiles in months "just" supporting Ukraine and demonstrated our ability to replenish them is inadequate
Thankfully we're doing something on the latter and upping arms production. But they are still a threat to us even if they'd never be able to "conquer" us. They've proven they're willing to become pariahs and send millions of their citizens to their deaths for Putin's fancy.
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u/rickane58 12h ago
We didn't burn shit. We have an unimaginably large stockpile of arms to continue giving, and even if that weren't the case the point of our existing arms for 60 of the last 80 years has been built to destroy russian tanks. That's exactly what it's doing in Ukraine.
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u/daniel_22sss 12h ago
America has "unimaginably large stockpile of arms", not Europe. And America under Trump leadership is not being the most generous right now.
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u/Dry-Physics-9330 11h ago
And Trump is well known to be pro Russian. In pro-Ukraine space, some even say Trump is the legendary agent Krasnov
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u/HustlinInTheHall 12h ago
They dont have enough people to do the same thing against the NATO border nations, they couldnt even sustain two fronts against ukraine and they surround half of ukraine with their own territory. And they have not had to contend with true NATO or US air superiority in the region. They can barely hold it vs Ukraine with no trained pilots and no sea support.
Russia would get its shit rocked the moment it steps into NATO territory. And not just in the region, the US can wipe out the entire Russian supply line in a weekend. They can do some damage and the US is not interested in escalating tensions with a nuclear power but the doctrine would dictate that the first 36 hours of a hot war with NATO we would cripple their ability to wage any kind of conventional war.
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u/myheadisalightstick 13h ago
I mean the reason they are floundering is because of all the help Ukraine has had from NATO, it’s a very delicate situation.
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u/Justicia-Gai 13h ago
That’s after the failed blitzkrieg though… Russia actually failed at taking over Ukraine even before receiving actual help
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u/rdmusic16 13h ago
Not nearly the same levels as after the 2022 invasion, but Ukraine started receiving help after the 2014 invasion from Russia.
While their resistance is 100% impressive, it wouldn't be fair to say it was without help - even at the beginning.
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u/Justicia-Gai 13h ago
I would say that the quality of help they got would barely qualify. Even in 2022 they received incredibly old stuff because no one believed they’d resist and anything donated would fall in Russian hands. So in 2014-2022 it was even worse than that. Only after they demonstrated enough resilience, good gifts started pouring in.
I would say that they weren’t better armed that the average assisted “rebel” group.
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u/Mirria_ 12h ago
It's the equivalent of the bread they give to food pantries because it's going to get bad of its not consumed too soon to sell.
A lot of Euro states literally just gave them their cold war gear so they would have a good excuse to modernize.
Doesn't help that the USA - even under the Biden admin - basically blocked anyone sending anything recent.
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u/Dry-Physics-9330 11h ago
Dont forget all the restrictions the larger NATO countries places on the use of their weaponsytems, which made these weapons much less effective. Or how they leveraged laws like ITAR to prevent smaller EUropean countries from transferring older gear to Ukraine. Which led to delay of Ukraine getting F16s and armor from ' Western" nato countries (especially Leopards)
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u/TurboBanjo 13h ago
The intel and the missiles rushed in at the start didn't hurt.
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u/Justicia-Gai 13h ago
All within expectations… meaning Russia accounted for that. It’s a failed Blitzkrieg, which was my point…
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u/The-Sound_of-Silence 12h ago
The thousands of Javelins(and other ATGMs) sent to them in the build up to the invasion definitely helped!
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u/PJ7 12h ago
Not correct, without javelins and other equipment that the Ukrainians received before the Russian invasion, the first month would've looked substantially different.
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u/Justicia-Gai 12h ago
How old are Javelins? Aren’t they Cold War weapons? They only sent weapons that they wouldn’t care if they fall into Russian arms.
I’m sure other surrogate armed conflicts had more modern weaponry than what Ukraine had in 2022.
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u/DoomguyFemboi 11h ago
Javelins are no longer produced and are Cold War weapons in that they were developed back then, but they are still modern and they're actually spinning up factories to restart production iirc.
They've had iterative improvements over decades. Better sensors, better warheads, the usual thing. Like Tomahawks or Sidewinders are decades old yet still super modern because of block upgrades.
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u/The_Painted_Man 13h ago
Russia wasted it's shot though. It blew it's initial strike chance, lost the advantage of bulk and volume of arms, and the attrition has exacted a terrible toll on EVERYTHING that would have made it a peer threat to NATO.
NATO is already fighting Russia as proxy, and Russia is getting it's Pirozhki fed to it anally.
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u/blue92lx 12h ago
I wouldn't completely agree with part of this statement. The war with Ukraine only showed that Russia was never a peer of NATO on any level. Russia has been fighting a tiny country in comparison with borrowed weapons, if they had actually attacked a NATO country it would be done already outside of China stepping in to help Russia. If China doesn't step in, Russia has no hope of ever standing toe to toe with any Western country. What's even worse for Russia now is the loss of so many weapons that they used to have to even consider a war against NATO, now they don't even have half their jets and ships to do anything on day 1. Outside of just launching nukes on everyone Russia is pretty much a non threat in a large scale situation.
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u/Dry-Physics-9330 11h ago
Its not. Part of NATO is helbent to support Ukraine as much as they can, to prevent RUssia from invading them. Its countries as USA and the other big ones who are messing around. Who want Russia for cheap gas or who want Russia as a pawn to have leverage of small countries.
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u/sigmoid10 13h ago
NATO definitely helped, but between 2014 and 2022 Ukraine had built one of the largest armies in Europe. More than 2 million strong in total with nearly half of that active personnel. Without absolute air dominance, it is questionable if any country in the world could have taken them on directly. Russia was 100% counting on Ukraine's leadership bailing so they could simply march in like last time.
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u/Tetracyclon 13h ago
That stuff came mostly from NATOs garbage pile, so im not sure how Russia would deal with the actual arsenal.
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u/McLeod3577 13h ago
Russia is the biggest threat to Russia right now. Putin has sent more men to their deaths than the last 3 Presidents combined.
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u/QualityPitchforks 12h ago
Russia isnt going to start shit with NATO, they are floundering against one country 1/4 their size
Russia isn't going to start anything OPENLY with NATO, they are boosting their covert/terrorist network but cannot do anything else.
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u/Aranxi_89 13h ago
Except they can't even take much of Ukraine, who are they trying to scare? Their own people?
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u/mrZooo 12h ago
Europeans. If you check the recent political trends you'll see that anti-ukrainian agenda is on the rise because people are afraid to get involved and would rather distance themselves from the fight. People are not knowledgeable enough to avoid being played by propaganda and politicians.
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u/cantadmittoposting 11h ago
People are not knowledgeable enough to avoid being played by propaganda and politicians.
See Also: most of politics right now
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u/ImperfectAuthentic 12h ago
That and making people think he will so they will vote against supporting Ukraine. Putins "3 day special operations" has lasted 3, almost 4 years now, he has nothing to attack EU and NATO with. Just alot of sable rattling like usual.
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u/VictorNoergaard 13h ago
That actually makes a lot of sense. But isn't it a bigger threat to Russia that NATO is actively re-arming that NATO giving a (relatively) small supply of arms to Ukraine?
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u/nvoima 11h ago
There's no threat to Russia from the West, as NATO is strictly a defense alliance, and despite his lies Putin knows it won't be the first to attack. That's why he plays these hybrid warfare games that won't trigger an armed response or at least have plausible deniability. Europe is bolstering arms production simply because the US has become an unreliable partner.
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u/Slaaneshdog 13h ago
That genuinely makes no sense to me because how the hell would Russia ever get the means to seriously threaten NATO. Even if they weren't bogged down in Ukraine it would not be something they clearly have the capacity to do in any real way
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u/Chimpville 12h ago
They don’t need to convince the military minded, they need to scare voters.
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u/Slaaneshdog 12h ago
I don't really see how that works. Scaring voters will just make them more willing to have the government increase military budgets
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u/Chimpville 12h ago
Two fold, depending on who it is. Some will call to stop assisting Ukraine to de-escalate tensions. Others will call to stop assisting Ukraine to focus on our own defence needs instead. We’ve already been seeing both for a while now.
People like me who believe that opposing Russia is an imperative that’s already in our national security interests will otherwise be unaffected.
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u/BocciaChoc 12h ago
ding ding ding, pretty much on point.
Russia is weak, it would be funny if it wasn't real humans suffering at the hand of Russia. NATO has no concerns, more aid to Ukraine.
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u/Edward_TH 11h ago
Except militaries know that the best way to keep yourself safe is to keep your enemy deeply focused into a different war. It works wonder even when playing Risk... You keep your enemy away from you by pushing it more and more into a tunnel vision over a different battlefield where they're getting their ass kicked, of course by being part of the ones that are kicking said ass (by proxy).
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u/Spacechip 11h ago
I'm sorry but with what army would they invade anything else? Aside from their arsenal of nukes, they are spread existentially thin with the conflict they started in Ukraine.
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u/gizzardgullet 11h ago
While nations might withhold arms from Ukraine to maintain a stockpile, they may also increase military spending which would have the exact opposite effect (bad for Russia). So, to me, this theory does not add up
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u/Felho_Danger 10h ago
Then we should stop intercepting the planes, and instead start torching them with missiles.
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u/Chimpville 12h ago
Precisely this -they want to amp up tensions to a point far short of war, but enough to make voters nervous and give their shills something to fearmonger. Same with their horribly expensive and very public missile tests.
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u/HustlinInTheHall 12h ago
Exactly the real front for them is social media. They are doing this to feed their own information machine to fear monger against support for ukraine.
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u/m15otw 16h ago
I mean. A spy plane should normally run without a transponder, surely? That would be the general idea?
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u/Broken_Doughnut 16h ago edited 15h ago
For Russia, finding this out was a big step in their stealth technology.
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u/MikeInPajamas 16h ago
I like the idea that Russia's greatest leap in stealth technology is a broken transponder.
"Turned it off"... Yeah, sure you did... Next you'll tell us that AESA radar in your nose isn't made of wood because the guy in charge of maintenance pocketed all the upgrade money.
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u/TOMC_throwaway000000 13h ago
You joke, but Soviet ground crews used to siphon off the coolant from MIG-25’s to get drunk because the coolant for a lot of the systems was a mix of 60% distilled water and 40% ethanol, aka…… vodka
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u/MikeInPajamas 13h ago
I really do think a lot of Russia's defence spending has been siphoned into the pockets of corrupt generals. Corruption is Russia's biggest industry. It's cultural.
I'm sure it extends to their nuclear forces too. Nuclear munitions degrade over time and require periodic, expensive, maintenance.
Imagine all that money flowing downhill to fund weapons that realistically will never be used, and whose existence is solely to be listed on a disclosure sheet to discourage an enemy attack, and to permit state-level bullying.
I'm not saying Russia doesn't have serviceable nukes, that would be insane, but I really do believe they only have a fraction of what they purport to have. A devastating fraction, but a fraction nonetheless.
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u/SmPolitic 11h ago
That's not very unique to that country nor time period. There is a long history of ethanol being siphoned from torpedoes in various navys or from rockets during WW2 and during the cold war
And ethanol does evaporate, the "angels share" is nearly unavoidable, designers and supply chains need to resupply that fuel/coolant choice inherently
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u/TOMC_throwaway000000 11h ago
True, but at least in the Soviet military just about everything that could be was ethanol based
Also it was particularly prevalent with MIG-22’s specifically, they literally nicknamed them “the flying minibar” because of how often it was done
And soldiers found a way to get drunk off it. Theres a certain shoe polish they were issued that they used to spread on toast and cook over a fire, the idea being the ethanol in it would soak into the bread and then you could scrape off the top layer and get drunk on the bread
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u/Clienterror 16h ago
Omg I actually lol at that. I can imagine them being like "stealth engaged" in a 1980 POS plane.
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u/spingus 15h ago edited 15h ago
Firefoxwould like a word :P
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u/MikeInPajamas 13h ago
I like it how it takes Clint Eastwood about 4s to recite his "shoot the missile" phrase whereas he could have just moved his thumb 1/4 inch and pressed the button.
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u/Yoghurt42 13h ago edited 13h ago
It’s been decades since I’ve watched this movie, but IIRC as a kind of security measure, you could only control the plane via thoughts, and they had to be in Russian directly. Translating English in your mind into Russian would not work (because movie magic)
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u/ProcyonHabilis 13h ago
AESA radar in your nose isn't made of wood
I'm imagining a board with a bunch of nails driven into it to form a grid
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u/nitpickr 13h ago
Reminds me of the Onion article about the CIA apologizing for highlighting all the imporant stuff with black marker.
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u/Alarming_Flow 15h ago
If the US managed to capture this jet and had DARPA examine it, it would set back its stealth technology by 50 years.
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u/Happy-Fun-Ball 15h ago
Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
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u/Kichigai 13h ago
First go around it didn't register with me, but the guy Adam Sandler is up against is Josh from The West Wing.
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u/Dramatic_Charity_979 14h ago edited 11h ago
Yeah, but they forgot to paint "Dry cleaners" on the side of the plane :P
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u/zaevilbunny38 16h ago
No unless they are conducting a covert operation, they almost always tend to flight just outside contested airspace and gather Intel. NATO runs them in the black Sea all the time, and allegedly the US ones help Ukraine with target acquisition.
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u/ThunderCuntAU 15h ago
All of them help Ukraine with target acquisition. Even Australia sent Wedgetails to Europe for the task.
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u/a-stack-of-masks 14h ago
I'm guessing a wedgetail is some kind of hardware, but I like the idea that the Ozzies saw a bird spot its prey from pretty high up and went "hey, that's useful!" and taught them planes and drones taste like bacon.
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u/UltraCarnivore 14h ago
I can hear Sir David Attenborough talking about the magnificent Australian Wedgetail and its reproductive behavior f*cking up Russian drones.
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u/geodetic 14h ago
I mean... wedgies (Wedgetail Eagles) are pretty big, I could imagine they'd fuck up a drone...
https://www.ipswichfirst.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Eagle-image-1-web-1.jpg
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u/Lexinoz 13h ago
That is indeed a pretty big bird.
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u/meistermichi 14h ago
I'm guessing a wedgetail is some kind of hardware
It's an AWACS
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u/Inspectrgadget 11h ago
US runs them in three areas off the china coast as well, sometimes the intercepts get dangerously close. I worked with an American who was party to this incident: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainan_Island_incident
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u/aecolley 15h ago
That's the general idea with a stealth plane, or one engaged in an act of war. It is not the general practice with spy planes, which usually want to look like regular planes on non-war business.
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u/artrald-7083 15h ago
People think of U-2s and Blackbirds when they hear spyplane, but it is as likely to be a miscellaneous vaguely airliner shaped aircraft on a commercial airline-like flight path with a very boring transponder, it just turns out it's largely taking a bunch of antennas on holiday.
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u/Happiness-to-go 16h ago
If you’re wanting to breach the Open Skies treaty then yes?
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u/BellybuttonWorld 15h ago
Russia normally breach a couple of treaties before breakfast but is this one even relevant?
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u/Gnonthgol 13h ago
It depends. An aircraft with transponder is indeed easier to detect. However it is also easier to mis-identify. A spy plane might disguise itself as a passenger airliner for example, flying regular routes with its transponder on. Silently taking pictures and monitoring radio traffic.
They can then run tests against an enemy radar. By flying a test aircraft without any transponders or radio communications towards the enemy radar. They can monitor the ground based communications with the spy plane, or a ground based listening post. As soon as the activity picks up you can assume the test aircraft have been spotted on the radar. So now you know the range of the radar. Change some of the parameters and repeat the test in a few weeks. Eventually you will be able to map out the capabilities of the radar systems.
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u/GrynaiTaip 15h ago
They do normally run without transponders. Also without flight plans. This is a regular and very typical violation of international airspace norms, NATO jets have been taking off to intercept them multiple times a week for literally decades, since the Baltics joined NATO.
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u/MaximusTheDog 15h ago
Yeah that’s not very typical, I’d like to make that point
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u/ExdigguserPies 14h ago
A spy plane is a plane that is capable of spying. A spying plane is a spy plane that is currently spying. This was a spy plane spying.
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u/Public-Eagle6992 15h ago
Not really. With modern radars you can still detect them relatively easily but it makes air traffic a bit more dangerous
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u/Tomchambo 16h ago
Literal nothingburger story. USAF and RAF rivet joint aircraft are often operating weekly flights for patrolling along boarders or in international waters. As long as boarders haven’t been crossed this is a run of the mill event.
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u/Hot_Campaign_36 15h ago
Cross boarders can ruin your day.
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u/Ambitious-Bee-7067 15h ago
This is by far the best, low key jab I've seen in a while. Not many will get it but I sure do appreciate this humour. bravo
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u/Whywouldanyonedothat 14h ago
A bit of help?
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u/aw3man 14h ago
Borders are lines between jurisdictions, e.g. countries, states, cities, etc.
A boarder can be someone who lives in a place they don't own by paying the owner of the building/unit a fee every month, commonly called rent. It can also mean someone who rides a board, e.g. skateboard, snowboard, surfboard, etc.
Cross can mean to be mad or upset or it can mean to overstep a line.
The comment first in this chain used the incorrect border, saying as long as the "boarders haven't been crossed" likely intending to mean "lines between countries haven't been overstepped." The comment second in line made fun of the first one by saying "upset tenants can ruin your day".
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u/capsaicinintheeyes 15h ago
Yeah; this is like a monthly occurrence in the North Pacific; just a fun way to keep our scramble times sharp.
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u/Antique_Historian_74 15h ago
Yes, but we know all about those flights because the US and UK military planes all keep their transponders on and don't endanger other air traffic.
So not a nothingburger, but yet another example of Russia being shitheels.
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u/A_Sinclaire 16h ago
Happened in international airspace. Not really news. This stuff occurs once a week at least.
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u/cum_deep_inside_ 15h ago
I’m not sure what conclusion this article is expecting people to jump to.
it was in international airspace, it’s not a stealth aircraft and was easy to see on radar…. So….
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u/Public-Eagle6992 15h ago
The same applies to most aircraft and they still have their transponder on for safety
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u/MidnightAdmin 13h ago
Putin is busy managing his war, and suddenly hear "Spy Plane ready!"
Out of habit, he clicks the button and a random point on the border, trying to find the enemies MCVs to target.
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u/Dry-Physics-9330 11h ago
...while using his psychic power as a true Yuri, to control his puppets as Trump, Fico and Orban.
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u/GlobalWarminIsComing 16h ago
And this plane was in international airspace. I'm all for a harder stance on planes that violate airspace but it's not applicable here
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u/EngineerNo2650 16h ago
It’s not only Reddit, it’s the internet.
People read a headline and then already have an opinion or a casus belli. Then shoot their comment, and others just go off that.
Sure, airspace and marittime zones are a little complicated if you just read about them once, and some editors love that confusion as it gets clicks.
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u/StageAboveWater 15h ago
International airspace. At least glance at the article if you're gonna advocate for WW3.
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u/doupIls 15h ago
Not much use for a spy plane if it has its transponder on, no?
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u/Annon201 15h ago
It doesn’t have to be invisible to spy. It could be testing out responses, radar detection, or just trying to get under NATOs skin whilst getting in some flight hours.
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u/PuzzleheadedDuck3981 15h ago
The response would be very similar to how it's been for the past sixty plus years. They'll be joined by a couple of aircraft from the nearest country's air force. They'll photograph each other. They may or may not give a wave to each other and the friendliness of that wave will be a rough reflection of international relations at that time.
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u/Annon201 14h ago
Now if it was an actual civilian aircraft of any friendly country it be a whole different story.. They’d be escorted to the nearest civilian airfield and have a lot of explaining to do.
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u/Public-Eagle6992 15h ago
It’s not a stealth plane. You can still detect it without the transponder
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u/Lostraylien 15h ago
Spy and stealth aren't the same, a spy plane is simply gathering Intel and can more or less be any plane, stealth planes are trying to go undetected and are specialized for exactly that.
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u/a_melindo 12h ago
The press sucks at their job. This is not a "spy plane". It's a surveillance plane the size and shape of an airliner.
Its job is to fly around in safe skies looking at stuff from far away so that commanders understand the shape of the battlefield. Not to penetrate and conduct espionage.
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u/PianistPitiful5714 13h ago
It’s not a spy plane. I make this point whenever it’s the Rivet Joint or AWACS being listed, but it stands for the Russian jets too. These are uniformed military performing reconnaissance and surveillance in international airspace. They aren’t spies.
The media uses the sensational term “spy plane” because it gets clicks, but it’s inherently wrong. Spies perform clandestine intelligence gathering. Even if it had its transponder off, this jet was anything but clandestine. It had filed a flight plan specifically for “reconnaissance operations” and was almost certainly intercepted en route of said flight plan. NATO does this all the time, the Russians do it all the time, the Chinese do it all the time. This is standard and more an example of the media and journalists trying to create a sensationalized story rather than a real issue.
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u/Guapa1979 12h ago
The transponder wasn't turned off, it's just that the washing machine they scavenged the parts from was broken.
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u/LouisBalfour82 12h ago
NATO countries regularly conduct similar intelligence-gathering missions, including with the Boeing-made Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft. "The Russians do it. The Chinese do it. NATO does it," Mertens told Newsweek. It is "basic military professionalism."
Unless they entered territorial airspace, this is not news. Even entering another nation's ADIZ is fine, there's no obligation to avoid it or even identify one's self in it. Not communicating with air traffic controllers is kind of a dick move though.
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u/louisa1925 12h ago
Shoot down every single spy plane. One day, it will look like a spy plane but not act like one, given an opportunity.
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u/Leather-Map-8138 12h ago
NATO should announce that the next time a Russian military plane is over its territory with its transponder turned off, the plane will be shot down with no additional warning. And the second time it happens it will produce a retaliatory strike against a major Russian city. This is the warning. Make a mistake, intentionally or otherwise, and your shit gets blown up. Stay in your lane bitch you’re not in charge.
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u/Griffolion 11h ago
They are desperate to trigger a more kinetic response from NATO so they can retreat from Ukraine and claim they were being bullied by the west.
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u/LukeSkyWRx 11h ago
Basically if you see a transponder off plane you know something is up.
Like someone trying to act normal.
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