Maybe not the South China Sea?

Maybe the Ukraine is where the next big confrontation takes place.  Normally, I think that Russia is a paper tiger, but I think Putin perceives weakness in the west.  He is not above exploiting such perceived weakness, especially if it gets him the Ukraine back.  He desperately wants the Ukraine back.

Space stuff

ULA and Blue Origin are having trouble delivering engines for their new launch platform.

The Chinese are looking to build a moon lander.  Hopefully Elon will get there before them.

A Russian rocket is going to fall out of orbit and burn up. (metaphor alert)

(All links in memory of Mike Nofsinger who would love the crap out of all of this.)

Su-75

The Checkmate.  It is just a mock up at present.  Apparently it is solely for the export market.  It is an attempt to make something cheaper than the Su-57.  We’ll see if it ever gets built.

How the mighty have fallen

MiG isn’t what it use to be.

We are not alone

The USN isn’t the only navy with problems.

Well, it looks like the Pacific Fleet's Marshal Shaposhnikov Project 1155 reclassified frigate did have a malfunction during its tests with a failed Kalibr cruise missile launch.https://t.co/xZbLEY09Af pic.twitter.com/1lQZn2bPSk

— Rob Lee (@RALee85) April 29, 2021

Ukraine moves west

This seems to be a very sane move by Ukraine.  Sadly, I am not sure that the current administration is willing to support them.

Wild

I am still amazed at what happened to several Soviet ships when the USSR collapsed.

A win for the good guys?

Looks like the US may have succeeded in spiriting a copy of Russia’s main short range SAM system out of Libya. (h/t to an alert reader of the blog.  Thank you)

Sweden is smart

While a lot of the NATO countries continue to whistle past the graveyard, Sweden is putting money where it counts.

Arma Sukhoi S-70

No, not that Arma.  But I am not to proud to admit, I need this kit in my life.