Equipment to integrate Western launchers, missiles, and radars with Ukraine’s systems;
Additional High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems(HIMARS) and ammunition
155mm and 105mm artillery rounds
Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles
M113 Armored Personnel Carriers
Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles
Trailers to transport heavy equipment
Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles
Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems
Precision aerial munitions
High-speed Anti-radiation missiles (HARMs)
Small arms and additional rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades
Demolitions munitions and equipment for obstacle clearing
Coastal and riverine patrol boats
Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear protective equipment;
Spare parts, training munitions, maintenance, and other ancillary equipment.
And that’s why it’d be really great if the EU got its shit together. It pains me to say it, but the US can’t really be trusted at this point in a strategic sense, due to how absolutely fucked our domestic politics are. That’s not hyperbole. The political pendulum is swinging WAY more drastically between the parties - like, yeah, we’re helping Ukraine now, but if Trump pulls out a win, I fully expect him to try to send in the US Army to help Russia steamroll Ukraine. That’s not a joke. I’m entirely serious when I say that.
More broadly, it’s kinda infuriating watching Russia retool their economy for war over the last two years while the western world has pretty much just stood around with their thumbs up their asses, in terms of strategic logistics and production capacity. The one thing I kinda thought the boomers who predominantly run shit would be good at was to remember what level of economic commitment is required to win a real, serious military conflict (and Afghanistan and Iraq don’t count - they were fully asymmetric conflicts). But it seems they can’t even do that.
Well Afghanistan and Iraq are really the only two wars which the boomers can be said to have “fought” in the sense of being the largest voting bloc, well represented in the administration - basically running things.
They were post-WW2 children so they weren’t really running things during Korea and Vietnam, or the Cold War generally. The two conflicts you mentioned are just about the two best examples of “Boomers’ Wars” you can find, so to say “they don’t count” is funny because it should at least illustrate why the current situation is not so surprising. They don’t know how to fight a war - they were born when their parents just won a fucking big one.
Not to be all: “well ackshually”, but actually, my dad is the definition of a baby boom kid - born shortly after WW2, (the baby boom) and served in the navy during Vietnam.
It might be more fair to say: “They don’t know how to win a war”
Hah, yeah, you have a point. I was thinking of “participated in, and generally socially aware of”, but in terms of leadership experience you’re spot on.