Seems like quite some effort flying them back and forth for servicing. Surely US could do the work also in their european bases?
Saw these photos this morning as “being loaded” and as in Ukraine. So I don’t know if the info this morning was incorrect or this is incorrect.
Poland operates himars and repairs much stuff for Ukraine, so shipping them to the US seems weird. But maybe because of specific damage.
Saw these photos this morning as “being loaded” and as in Ukraine. So I don’t know if the info this morning was incorrect or this is incorrect.
Well, here’s the watermarked source:
https://nitter.jakefrosty.com/KSOSINT
They link to a The War Zone article that has video of units being unloaded from a strategic airlifter, with more pictures.
https://www.twz.com/news-features/situation-report-battle-damaged-himars-return-to-united-states
Video and photos posted recently to social media show the HIMARS launchers, two of 39 delivered, being unloaded from an Antonov An-124 transport aircraft at Harrisburg International Airport in Middletown, Pennsylvania.
Of the two M142 vehicles, the first — distinguished by its prominent white-cross identification markings — appears to have sustained shrapnel damage on at least one side, with as many as 16 hits visible, although, overall, the damage seems fairly minor. Both armored front windows have also been damaged.
The second vehicle looks like it may have struck a mine and has more significant damage, including the loss of the front wheel on the right-hand side and parts of the bottom of the cab having been torn off. Notable on the second vehicle is also the portrait of Ukrainian far-right militant leader Stepan Bandera on the front of the cab.
That does sound like they require repair work.
How does repairing their gear not qualify as a casus belli for Russia?
The Russians don’t want to get immediately destroyed, so they let it slide, that’s how.
They say that about everything NATO does.
Why should repairing vehicles be any more of a casus belli, then providing it in the first place. Or things like providing intel or training soldiers? The UK for example is providing long range storm shadow cruise missiles that can be programmed to target a specific objective, presumably training how to use it, and maybe even intel that leads to target selection. At that point one could argue that the only major difference is who presses the button.
I think it boils down to the fact that there is no strict definition what counts as a cases belli, but it rather is a choice whether or not someone declares it one. If they wanted to I am sure both sides Russia and NATO could declare a number of instances as such, but they choose not to, since neither party is interested in a direct confrontation.
Because that would have serious consequences which might even come down to nuclear weapons, considering the imbalance of strength in conventional military. With NATO (especially the US) vastly outclassing Russia.
Yeah that makes sense. I was just curious about it
Because Russia doesn’t want to lose? They can’t even handle Ukraine with hand me downs.
If they don’t have a casus belli to be in Ukraine in the first place it’s hard to see how they could bitch about this
They’re also not a superpower anymore as evidenced by their 3-day special operation entering its 2nd year. Nowadays they’re just ex-USSR state with nukes.
Let them come
Because Russia (and indeed anybody else) doesn’t want open war with anybody they don’t think they can beat.
In most cases the cold war continues in proxy form.
In theory if Russia wanted to declare a war on the United States, it could probably use “they repaired (and indeed, sent in the first place) these pieces of enemy military equipment” as a justification to their population. It might not be as effective a justification as something like a direct attack from the US on Russian troops would be, but it’d probably be more effective at gaining public support than declaring such a war for no reason and maybe anger uninvolved parties slightly less, so in that sense it could be called a casus belli. However, having a casus belli does not require one to declare a war, and if war is desired, one can probably be fabricated anyway. Russia knows that the consequences of a direct war will the US would be disastrous at best and risk the very existence of their country at worst, depending on how far the conflict escalated, so it will not actually declare such a war over something like this, even if it technically could
Russia doesn’t want its front teeth kicked in?
