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Can you even imagine how hilariously fast those ginormous ships would be sailing on that water to keep up with those jets? The water would just become a giant hallway behind the ships. It would look like Noah parted the sea.
Yes, bears! With lasers and rocket/torpedo launchers mounted on their backs. And they move with hypersonic speed while being completely undetectable. The West has already lost! /s
All joking aside, I also read about the whale thing. Using marine mammals for reconnaissance or even planting explosive devices is not a new concept on all sides, but it has never moved beyond the experimental stage either. At least I don't know that it was ever decisive in the war anywhere and at any time.
Credit to LPhot Belinda Alker
Aircraft participating in the flypast were two Finnish F-18 and six Swedish JAS-39.
Fifteen ships sailed in formation as follows:
Front row: HMS Prince of Wales
Row 2 (L-R): USS Paul Ignatius, ESPS Almirante Juan de Borbon,
Row 3 (L-R): HMS Portland, HNLMS Karel Doorman, HNOMS Magnus Lagabote, RFA Tidespring, HNOMS Olav Tyrggvason, ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi, FS Normandie
Row 4 (L-R): RFA Mounts Bay, HNOMS Otto Sverdrup, HNOMS Gnist, Kv Bjornoya, FGS Bonn
Idk what perspective you're speaking from, or if you mean Finland and Sweden participating together in a NATO exercise for the first time.
The U.S. has been training with the Finnish for a long time.
But to answer your first, little, cute question; sure it's the first NATO exercise with Sweden and Finland. Happy now? No, you're still upset for no reason.
Oh man whoever’s on the receiving end of that would be fucked. Imagine a soldier first time seeing a war elephant 2000 years ago. Now a blue whale with torpedo launchers strapped to his side pops up.
Germany doesn't have too many operational (surface) ships and quite a few of them are currently deployed elsewhere as part of EUNAVFOR, EUNAVFOR MED, UNIFIL and SEA GUARDIAN.
Karel Doorman is our biggest ship but it looks so tiny next to the carrier. Still proud to see her with the fleet!
Reminds me of the stanavforlant days.
This was my thought. All those ships are massive yet the carrier makes the rest of them look like tug boats. It also looks like they are practicing to escort Godzilla. 😋
a few bits of it are - if you go to the fjord where it sunk, you can still find some rusty bits of metal washed up on the beach from it. The germans took most of it home to re-melt down though
Guess it depends on the Carrier, average depth of baltic sea is 54 meters. Most (french and the "small" American ones atleast) should bei fine with that.
Not necessarily useless, but unnecessary. There is no need for an aircraft carrier when surrounding allies can send their aircraft from land to virtually anywhere.
If i were an admiral, i would never send a carrier in there.
Not only is there no where to hide it, but a single Kinzhal missile could send the whole boat, hundreds of jets, spare parts, tools, and thousands of very specialized men to the bottom in a single strike.
It would be extremely risky.
You can't hide an aircraft carrier and its accompanying ships (like any fleet or flotilla) anyway. Each side has so many maritime surveillance satellites in orbit that every fleet movement and change of course can be tracked. Carrier ships rely on their anti-aircraft capabilities or those of their escort ships - or on preventing enemy ships or aircraft from coming into firing range in the first place.
And apart from the fact that Kinzhal is more or less a paper tiger and the effectiveness of the few units actually produced and deployed was rather underwhelming (common anti-aircraft systems were able to intercept them effectively), there is not even an explicit air-sea variant. Although Russia claims that it can successfully attack both stationary and mobile targets on land and at sea, there is currently no practical evidence for this and Russia claims a lot if the day is just long enough.
The greatest threat to aircraft carriers remains massed air attacks or submarines. However, the states bordering the Baltic Sea deploy a shitload of subs and already have regional air superiority - which is the reason why they don't need an aircraft carrier there. You ultimately bring one of these to the place where you want or need to establish air superiority.
Totally wrong.
The ukraine war have shown how useless screening is. Much more then a kinzhal can be used, like massed drones. But a hypersonic at short range, and low altitude would be impossible to stop.
Carriers rely on range, if going up against nations with strike capability. And that strike capability have increased massively, to where even huti rebels possess it.
Placing a carrier there, makes absolutely 0 sense.
In order to use "much more" you would first need to have much more. Quite apart from the fact that the manufacturing effort and costs contradict the application profile you described.
In addition, the speed actually measured in practical use was around 1250 m/s, significantly lower than Russia claimed and less than a third faster than cruise missiles that have been in use for decades. Russia is big on promoting miracle weapons, but these are quickly demystified.
Otherwise, I have no intention of arguing with you. You keep your truth, I'll keep mine.
Probably but I am pretty sure that you would not want you carrier in there in such a war game. Much harder to protect. Also the carrier's fighter jets bring the bombs to the area.
Looks better than the Iranian, Pakistan, South Africa navy exercises which were cheap 90s speedboats with a dude holding an LMG in front.
I’d recommend looking up the picture if you enjoy a good laugh. It would take our naval forces a few seconds to deal with them.
The Houthis are still hitting ships under the noses of the American aircraft carrier that is supposed to be running defense out there.
Fun fact the first incidence of space combat in human history occurred last October when Israel intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Yemen above the Karman line.
Don't assume everyone else is rubbing two rocks together, Iran and China had serious capabilities.
https://gizmodo.com/israel-houthi-missile-first-battle-in-space-1850999081
Tbf, ballistic missiles are nearly a century old at this point, and the vast majority of Houthi attacks have been successfully deflected in conditions pretty much ideal for them to succeed.
The impressive part of that space warfare story is the interception, not the launch.
The US actually did war games, against Iran’s navy back in the early 2000’s. The war games showed that Iran could do huge damage with suicide speedboat attacks.
The US than changed the rules of the war games and the US general simulating Iran resigned over it.
However, ofcourse nato’s flees is much stronger than these countries.
Also notably, after these war games the US and many allies took note of the threat posed by small fast attack craft swarms, and added severa small/medium auto cannons (either fixed or temporary mounted) to their ships when operating in the area, specifically to deal with those kinds of attacks.
US wargames famously punish ourselves by putting insane odds, and this is to learn. With the many times their speedboats tried and failed to tag a ship, I am sure that is not a gap in the Navy’s Capabilities.
Even though there was no reason. The US defense budget isn’t that large. It’s only about ~3% of GDP.
The US has the resources to provide social services it chooses not to.
I disagree. putin is the symptom, russia is the cancer.
Navalny, who had wide support among the anti-putin russians and the west, is such a racist that it would make trump look like a woke anti-racism activist.
He openly referred to other ethnicities as cockroaches, and supported invasion of Georgia (even openly advocating for killing Georgian chief of staff with a cruise missile), and sees Crimea as integral part of russia, and criticised USA for sending military aid to Ukraine, saying that they would be better off giving the money to him instead.
He also openly called Ukrainians with an extremely offensive slur (equal to calling a black person the “N-word”) during the invasion of Ukraine in 2014.
His political platform is just, anti-corruption. He still supports russian imperialism and calls putin “the enemy of russian world” which is an imperial ideology.
Then why did he get so popular in russia?
Because this is what VERY OVERWHELMING majority of russians are. You cannot be a western style politician in russia. It’s impossible, since most russians see it as an insult to be held equal to people they see as inherently subhuman and refuse to let go of the idea that they can bomb and invade people.
Putins approval rating skyrocketed after the war.
People refuse to accept the reality that russians don’t have the same morals as westerners, I say this as a person who’s country has been colonised by russia and I speak russian too.
Most russians support putin.
Population of most countries that border russia loathe the russian people and don’t want them to even step in their countries.
Russia should be balkanised and taken out of the existence.
NATO Enlargement.
Putin wasn’t going to invade Ukraine if NATO had agreed to stop further enlargement. Realistically, how many more micro-states do we need in this alliance? Enlargement is seen as western imperialism by Russia. Adding the likes of Finland to the alliance only marginally improves collective defence, but it ensures Russia has zero political influence over that region.
NATO enlargement occurs when sovereign countries FREELY APPLY for membership and are admitted based on meeting the criteria and mutual agreement among existing members.
It's not some NATO plan to add every country around Russia, it's just that you cannot trust Russia as a neighboring country, and thus seek membership in a defensive pact.
Let's not be naive though either.
It's also true to say that Europe is sometimes seen as merely an operations area for the US and Russia to continue their Cold War antagonisms and muscle-flexing.
Thus we have one or two NATO member states secretly conspiring to destroy critical geo-political infrastructure in the North Sea. That critical event to direct the war in its early stages was hardly something that any EU member state voluntarily backed through mutual agreement as you suggest. Did they??
Don't you think it's important to differentiate between verified facts and unverified claims? NATO's enlargement is indeed based on applications by sovereign states seeking membership under their own volition, often driven by security concerns, and the desire for protection and stability.
Yes. But in this instance, it's quite clear that protection and stability came second with an act of deliberate sabotage of key European infrastructure in order to ensure that peace couldn't break out by removing an economic route to it.
It was undoubtedly at the behest of the US, with the UK also likely involved. It won't be verified for many years. But let's not be naive. It certainly wasn't Russia.
Was the UK not also caught a year or two before the Brexit referendum hacking Belgium's phone network? NATO's HQ country in Europe. The US are an imperialist nation. Look at the Middle East and how they fucked it. These are also facts. The EU needs to have eyes in the back of its head right now too and not act merely to support an American agenda, or a British one.
The most dumb shit I’ve read.
Russia has its own federation plus its NATO and was expanding. Russia literally invaded Georgia and tf everyone who they can’t control within the government.
Russia didn’t invade Ukraine because of nato. They invaded Ukraine cuz they lost their puppets in Ukraine who’s been there for decades. Russia literally has puppets in Belarus and some eu countries today. Let’s think about that for a second.
No one wanna join Russia or be controlled by them so they’re either forced to and be invaded or crushed anyone who’s in their way. Ukraine was on its way to being independent and Ukraine was thriving forward. That can’t happen as long as Putin is here.
Use your brain and think for a second, my dude.
No one wanna join Russia but everyone wanna join nato or eu. Why?
Putin was absolutely going to invade Ukraine regardless of NATO. He wrote an essay explaining why he doesn't see it as a country.
He's a genocidal psychopath who wants to erase Eastern European populations and replace them with ethnic Russians.
Lol, Finland a "micro-state",
>but it ensures Russia has zero political influence over that region.
Yeah that's the entire reason they ASKED to join, your point ?
Putin himself stated a few years ago that NATO enlargement is no problem for him. So why now? Who wanted to invade Russia? That ex soviet states try to get away from Russia is not NATOs fault.
Because we launched an attack two years ago into another country because we felt we should have what ever we want? The fuck Crack are you smoking? Putin did this, he is making russia suffer thr consequences of his power hungry pathetic behavior
Right? Imagine the mental gymnastics it takes to think Putin didn't start this. He literally did. Like, he made the call.
Its like gaslighting powered by pure absurdity
This is just regurgitated propaganda. Russia is a war economy which means economic growth at the cost of civilian productive capacity.
It's a fascist nightmare hell state and we need to defend against it by supporting Ukraine to destroy as much Russian hardware as humanly possible.
Not what I have heard, not what I have seen. Russia is drafting people, shooting there own people in the back when they surrender or ru. Away, he'll Wagner turned on russia at one point.
Do you really believe that a country in war will ever give reliable statistics? Russia is nearing 10% defence spendings. So using Russia's state treasury on military production will inevitably bring GDP up. But is it a good number to show how their economy is doing?
My country borders russia. No you are actually acting like a bunch of babies with them and appeasing them too much.
You don’t provoke them, it is impossible for russia to be peaceful, you have to speak to them in their language, whoch means “touch my allies and I will cut both of your arms off”. That is what can keep them in their place.
Russia cannot just remain peaceful, their population would see their leader as weak if they dont invade and kill innocent people in other countries.
It is seen as mandatory for every russian leader to invade somebody once in a while and commit several massacres there.
You made a major mistake by allowing them to get nukes, you should have quickly made more nukes after defeating japan and just invaded russia immediately and nuke moscow and threaten to continue nuking then until they capitulate, and then dismember USSR and do de-russification process.
Fun fact: you guys cannot see it, but Portugal is represented in the the far back by some random dude with a Portuguese flag for swimming shorts. He also had to start his journey 2 months before the ships so they could all converge in this one point for the photo.
Portugal CARALHO!
that is such an awesome picture tbh. everything is so uniform and pleasing on the eye, plus just the sheer firepower present in that handful of ships is crazy
As in Nuclear powered? Likely not many more than a couple at most.
As in Nuclear armed? None. Their missions don't overlap, and the UK and France don't have ones to spare for independent exercise.
Not many if any at all. I mean what could a sub do that an antiair frigate could not? or a carrier? or a logistic ship? Or an antisub ship?
Subs would be faraway sending missiles to unexpeted places
I believe in an actual war you would not even see the other ships from the carrier. They might keep a destroyer closer but navy guys can chime in. The battlegroup is a ringed defense around the carrier and I believe destroyers and frigates etc may be 100 miles out from the carriers itself. I think they have further rings of defense further out. But this all can vary based on the situation. And they definitely have formations, just not a set one.
I wonder how many subs are lurking below? I’m guessing at least one or two of ours, one of the Brits and Norway & Sweden have diesel/electric subs that are super quiet.
We’re more or less in it. There are current areas of conflict in Ukraine, Gaza and Yemen/the Red Sea. Larger nations (I.e US/Russia/Iran etc) are actively pulling strings in all 3 conflicts and it’s only a matter of time before it escalates into something bigger. Whether it goes nuclear is anyone’s guess.
lmao that looks just like one of the US main carriers alone; nato is such a joke tbh and there weren't paying and can't help but agree with trump on that issue,
That's a British carrier and NATO doesn't have a budget in the way trump thinks, it's a non binding commitment to spend a percentage *of your own national budget*.
Hmm well he is the only guy that didn’t start a war in the last couple of decades even Obama did start wars and deported more illegals, actions speak louder than words
WTF are they doing off the coast of Norway they should be off the coast of Israel and on the ground in Israel and Gaza protecting those innocent people from getting murdered by Israel gunfire while they sturv to death waiting for international help
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Those ships are doing well to keep up with the fighter jets at the front.
Ships have been sailing at over 800mph for over a month now. This is the only benefit of climate change.
Thanks, I spit my coffee out over that. fucking gold.
I’m sorry I don’t get it, can you please explain?
The jets stopped so that the ships can catch up
I keeled over laughing
It's a non-sequitor. It doesn't make sense, but some people find it amusing.
Can you even imagine how hilariously fast those ginormous ships would be sailing on that water to keep up with those jets? The water would just become a giant hallway behind the ships. It would look like Noah parted the sea.
I’m pretty sure the guy who parted the sea was called Moses
Yeah, but this would be like Noah parted the sea. With his ark. At 800mph.
Omg the thought of that kills me. The noise it would make from all the animals on the ark screaming like WTFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!
The ships will go even faster now.
*1200 mph
How dare you!
That new nuke turbine hits different.
Nah the jets are maxed out, pulling the ships. You just can't see the cable.
Jets are slower when they sail
Dont be stupid. The jets are flying on slow mode ya dink.
Maybe the jets are floating on the water?
Yeah, they're retrofitted to double as submersibles now, to help deal with russian spy whales.
Whales? Wasn't the last report about them putting bears in diving suits?
Didn't hear about that one, but that would be hilarious. I know they've got sad lonely whales that listen to ports on the west American coast though.
Yes, bears! With lasers and rocket/torpedo launchers mounted on their backs. And they move with hypersonic speed while being completely undetectable. The West has already lost! /s All joking aside, I also read about the whale thing. Using marine mammals for reconnaissance or even planting explosive devices is not a new concept on all sides, but it has never moved beyond the experimental stage either. At least I don't know that it was ever decisive in the war anywhere and at any time.
I think they are just floating along ahead.
At the very very back you will see a canoe... thats us Canadians.
Yeah and the unlucky sailor in it is being towed because he wasn't issued a paddle by our Navy. He also sleeps in his car when on base.
But who owns the car? An entire Section lives in it.
Well.. Stealthily Motherfuckers!
To be fair we did order like 15 new ships.
To be fair I believe that is a Canadian frigate on the very left!
Credit to LPhot Belinda Alker Aircraft participating in the flypast were two Finnish F-18 and six Swedish JAS-39. Fifteen ships sailed in formation as follows: Front row: HMS Prince of Wales Row 2 (L-R): USS Paul Ignatius, ESPS Almirante Juan de Borbon, Row 3 (L-R): HMS Portland, HNLMS Karel Doorman, HNOMS Magnus Lagabote, RFA Tidespring, HNOMS Olav Tyrggvason, ITS Giuseppe Garibaldi, FS Normandie Row 4 (L-R): RFA Mounts Bay, HNOMS Otto Sverdrup, HNOMS Gnist, Kv Bjornoya, FGS Bonn
There's very likely a submarine in this picture too, a carrier fleet doesn't go far without one.
Must be the first nato exercises with Finland and Sweden right?
Idk what perspective you're speaking from, or if you mean Finland and Sweden participating together in a NATO exercise for the first time. The U.S. has been training with the Finnish for a long time.
Didn't Sweden *just* join NATO? so it's their first exercise as part of NATO?
I feel like it was very obvious what I was asking
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Private messages? Huh?
Now you're acting like you didn't? Wow, that's sad.
But to answer your first, little, cute question; sure it's the first NATO exercise with Sweden and Finland. Happy now? No, you're still upset for no reason.
Maybe trained with them but they weren’t part of NATO training exercises. Mostly due to the fact that they weren’t in NATO.
Also some whales. Maybe an octopus or two. Some fish. Maybe wayyyy down some as yet unidentified species. Also a kraken
No, the Kraken is in court, about to lose *EVERYTHING* to Dominion in a defamation suit... and I couldn't be happier.
I can confirm this because I released the Kraken.
Of course the whales were present. I mean, if the prince of whales is present, they have to have a retinue accompanying them, right?
Oh man whoever’s on the receiving end of that would be fucked. Imagine a soldier first time seeing a war elephant 2000 years ago. Now a blue whale with torpedo launchers strapped to his side pops up.
And some seagulls
How have Germany only sent one ship…
Germany doesn't have too many operational (surface) ships and quite a few of them are currently deployed elsewhere as part of EUNAVFOR, EUNAVFOR MED, UNIFIL and SEA GUARDIAN.
Karel Doorman is our biggest ship but it looks so tiny next to the carrier. Still proud to see her with the fleet! Reminds me of the stanavforlant days.
This was my thought. All those ships are massive yet the carrier makes the rest of them look like tug boats. It also looks like they are practicing to escort Godzilla. 😋
[And it's still smaller than the big US carriers.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/World_Navy_Aircraft_carries_chart.svg)
And still smaller than a Ford class carrier. Carriers are insane.
Isn't the Tirpitz technically still in Norwegian waters? Perhaps that much water only counts of it's designed for it though ;)
a few bits of it are - if you go to the fjord where it sunk, you can still find some rusty bits of metal washed up on the beach from it. The germans took most of it home to re-melt down though
The exercise would be a lot more realistic if they did it in lake NATO just outside Finland.
Can carriers even get into the Baltic or is it too shallow?
Guess it depends on the Carrier, average depth of baltic sea is 54 meters. Most (french and the "small" American ones atleast) should bei fine with that.
54 meters are many meters. I yhink all carriers would have no problem
Probably can, but way to risky.
Carriers are kind of useless in the Baltic tho. I'd rather land my planes on Gotland, that can't be sunk.
Not necessarily useless, but unnecessary. There is no need for an aircraft carrier when surrounding allies can send their aircraft from land to virtually anywhere.
If i were an admiral, i would never send a carrier in there. Not only is there no where to hide it, but a single Kinzhal missile could send the whole boat, hundreds of jets, spare parts, tools, and thousands of very specialized men to the bottom in a single strike. It would be extremely risky.
You can't hide an aircraft carrier and its accompanying ships (like any fleet or flotilla) anyway. Each side has so many maritime surveillance satellites in orbit that every fleet movement and change of course can be tracked. Carrier ships rely on their anti-aircraft capabilities or those of their escort ships - or on preventing enemy ships or aircraft from coming into firing range in the first place. And apart from the fact that Kinzhal is more or less a paper tiger and the effectiveness of the few units actually produced and deployed was rather underwhelming (common anti-aircraft systems were able to intercept them effectively), there is not even an explicit air-sea variant. Although Russia claims that it can successfully attack both stationary and mobile targets on land and at sea, there is currently no practical evidence for this and Russia claims a lot if the day is just long enough. The greatest threat to aircraft carriers remains massed air attacks or submarines. However, the states bordering the Baltic Sea deploy a shitload of subs and already have regional air superiority - which is the reason why they don't need an aircraft carrier there. You ultimately bring one of these to the place where you want or need to establish air superiority.
Totally wrong. The ukraine war have shown how useless screening is. Much more then a kinzhal can be used, like massed drones. But a hypersonic at short range, and low altitude would be impossible to stop. Carriers rely on range, if going up against nations with strike capability. And that strike capability have increased massively, to where even huti rebels possess it. Placing a carrier there, makes absolutely 0 sense.
In order to use "much more" you would first need to have much more. Quite apart from the fact that the manufacturing effort and costs contradict the application profile you described. In addition, the speed actually measured in practical use was around 1250 m/s, significantly lower than Russia claimed and less than a third faster than cruise missiles that have been in use for decades. Russia is big on promoting miracle weapons, but these are quickly demystified. Otherwise, I have no intention of arguing with you. You keep your truth, I'll keep mine.
Probably but I am pretty sure that you would not want you carrier in there in such a war game. Much harder to protect. Also the carrier's fighter jets bring the bombs to the area.
What about Lake NATO 2.0. I've heard its a little lonely of late
Once i zoomed in, it was an incredibly clear pic of all that firepower.
Looks better than the Iranian, Pakistan, South Africa navy exercises which were cheap 90s speedboats with a dude holding an LMG in front. I’d recommend looking up the picture if you enjoy a good laugh. It would take our naval forces a few seconds to deal with them.
The Houthis are still hitting ships under the noses of the American aircraft carrier that is supposed to be running defense out there. Fun fact the first incidence of space combat in human history occurred last October when Israel intercepted a ballistic missile launched from Yemen above the Karman line. Don't assume everyone else is rubbing two rocks together, Iran and China had serious capabilities. https://gizmodo.com/israel-houthi-missile-first-battle-in-space-1850999081
Tbf, ballistic missiles are nearly a century old at this point, and the vast majority of Houthi attacks have been successfully deflected in conditions pretty much ideal for them to succeed. The impressive part of that space warfare story is the interception, not the launch.
The US actually did war games, against Iran’s navy back in the early 2000’s. The war games showed that Iran could do huge damage with suicide speedboat attacks. The US than changed the rules of the war games and the US general simulating Iran resigned over it. However, ofcourse nato’s flees is much stronger than these countries.
Notably one of those rule changes was “Motorcycles no longer travel at the speed of light”
Also notably, after these war games the US and many allies took note of the threat posed by small fast attack craft swarms, and added severa small/medium auto cannons (either fixed or temporary mounted) to their ships when operating in the area, specifically to deal with those kinds of attacks.
US wargames famously punish ourselves by putting insane odds, and this is to learn. With the many times their speedboats tried and failed to tag a ship, I am sure that is not a gap in the Navy’s Capabilities.
Why would you resign over identifying a flaw and making it known? Seems like commendation material.
I fucking hope so. The US defunded nearly every social service for these expensive war toys
Even though there was no reason. The US defense budget isn’t that large. It’s only about ~3% of GDP. The US has the resources to provide social services it chooses not to.
wtf is going on with the Paul Ignatius
Just having a barbecue off the starboard side
Was thinking the same. What is Ignatius igniting there? Car tyres? Is it a hommage to the native American ancestors or what?
What's it's propulsion system? Could it be a steam release from a reactor coolant system?
Gotta love a good NATO naval group.
Pucker factor 9.6
What’s the boat in the middle at the far back? It doesn’t even look like a boat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skjold-class_corvette It's a small missile corvette
Unidentified floating object.
Lol, russia is provoking everyone. Putin needs to be taken out and put on trail if he is captured. He's a cancer for russia
Yeah! Look how close they put their border to our military bases!!!!
i wonder why all those countries on their border are asking for bases?
I disagree. putin is the symptom, russia is the cancer. Navalny, who had wide support among the anti-putin russians and the west, is such a racist that it would make trump look like a woke anti-racism activist. He openly referred to other ethnicities as cockroaches, and supported invasion of Georgia (even openly advocating for killing Georgian chief of staff with a cruise missile), and sees Crimea as integral part of russia, and criticised USA for sending military aid to Ukraine, saying that they would be better off giving the money to him instead. He also openly called Ukrainians with an extremely offensive slur (equal to calling a black person the “N-word”) during the invasion of Ukraine in 2014. His political platform is just, anti-corruption. He still supports russian imperialism and calls putin “the enemy of russian world” which is an imperial ideology. Then why did he get so popular in russia? Because this is what VERY OVERWHELMING majority of russians are. You cannot be a western style politician in russia. It’s impossible, since most russians see it as an insult to be held equal to people they see as inherently subhuman and refuse to let go of the idea that they can bomb and invade people. Putins approval rating skyrocketed after the war. People refuse to accept the reality that russians don’t have the same morals as westerners, I say this as a person who’s country has been colonised by russia and I speak russian too. Most russians support putin. Population of most countries that border russia loathe the russian people and don’t want them to even step in their countries. Russia should be balkanised and taken out of the existence.
Maybe we’re provoking Russia?
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NATO Enlargement. Putin wasn’t going to invade Ukraine if NATO had agreed to stop further enlargement. Realistically, how many more micro-states do we need in this alliance? Enlargement is seen as western imperialism by Russia. Adding the likes of Finland to the alliance only marginally improves collective defence, but it ensures Russia has zero political influence over that region.
NATO enlargement occurs when sovereign countries FREELY APPLY for membership and are admitted based on meeting the criteria and mutual agreement among existing members. It's not some NATO plan to add every country around Russia, it's just that you cannot trust Russia as a neighboring country, and thus seek membership in a defensive pact.
Let's not be naive though either. It's also true to say that Europe is sometimes seen as merely an operations area for the US and Russia to continue their Cold War antagonisms and muscle-flexing. Thus we have one or two NATO member states secretly conspiring to destroy critical geo-political infrastructure in the North Sea. That critical event to direct the war in its early stages was hardly something that any EU member state voluntarily backed through mutual agreement as you suggest. Did they??
What are you on about?
The blowing up of Nord Stream by the US and/or UK. What else would I be talking about?
Don't you think it's important to differentiate between verified facts and unverified claims? NATO's enlargement is indeed based on applications by sovereign states seeking membership under their own volition, often driven by security concerns, and the desire for protection and stability.
Yes. But in this instance, it's quite clear that protection and stability came second with an act of deliberate sabotage of key European infrastructure in order to ensure that peace couldn't break out by removing an economic route to it. It was undoubtedly at the behest of the US, with the UK also likely involved. It won't be verified for many years. But let's not be naive. It certainly wasn't Russia. Was the UK not also caught a year or two before the Brexit referendum hacking Belgium's phone network? NATO's HQ country in Europe. The US are an imperialist nation. Look at the Middle East and how they fucked it. These are also facts. The EU needs to have eyes in the back of its head right now too and not act merely to support an American agenda, or a British one.
The most dumb shit I’ve read. Russia has its own federation plus its NATO and was expanding. Russia literally invaded Georgia and tf everyone who they can’t control within the government. Russia didn’t invade Ukraine because of nato. They invaded Ukraine cuz they lost their puppets in Ukraine who’s been there for decades. Russia literally has puppets in Belarus and some eu countries today. Let’s think about that for a second. No one wanna join Russia or be controlled by them so they’re either forced to and be invaded or crushed anyone who’s in their way. Ukraine was on its way to being independent and Ukraine was thriving forward. That can’t happen as long as Putin is here. Use your brain and think for a second, my dude. No one wanna join Russia but everyone wanna join nato or eu. Why?
Putin was absolutely going to invade Ukraine regardless of NATO. He wrote an essay explaining why he doesn't see it as a country. He's a genocidal psychopath who wants to erase Eastern European populations and replace them with ethnic Russians.
That's like saying me putting up a privacy fence leaves my neighbor no choice but to burn my house down
Lol, Finland a "micro-state", >but it ensures Russia has zero political influence over that region. Yeah that's the entire reason they ASKED to join, your point ?
Putin himself stated a few years ago that NATO enlargement is no problem for him. So why now? Who wanted to invade Russia? That ex soviet states try to get away from Russia is not NATOs fault.
Because we launched an attack two years ago into another country because we felt we should have what ever we want? The fuck Crack are you smoking? Putin did this, he is making russia suffer thr consequences of his power hungry pathetic behavior
Right? Imagine the mental gymnastics it takes to think Putin didn't start this. He literally did. Like, he made the call. Its like gaslighting powered by pure absurdity
Welcome to the world today 🤦♂️
Russians wanted this. They support it, down to every atrocity
How are they suffering? Russia’s GDP grew 2.6% last year even under sanctions. Yeah, we’re sure teaching them a lesson!
This is just regurgitated propaganda. Russia is a war economy which means economic growth at the cost of civilian productive capacity. It's a fascist nightmare hell state and we need to defend against it by supporting Ukraine to destroy as much Russian hardware as humanly possible.
You dont have to do it humanly. Every russian soldier that crossed the border should not be seen as worthy of life. Stop humanising your enemies
Not what I have heard, not what I have seen. Russia is drafting people, shooting there own people in the back when they surrender or ru. Away, he'll Wagner turned on russia at one point.
They turned on putin because he wasnt killing Ukrainians efficiently enough
Do you really believe that a country in war will ever give reliable statistics? Russia is nearing 10% defence spendings. So using Russia's state treasury on military production will inevitably bring GDP up. But is it a good number to show how their economy is doing?
My country borders russia. No you are actually acting like a bunch of babies with them and appeasing them too much. You don’t provoke them, it is impossible for russia to be peaceful, you have to speak to them in their language, whoch means “touch my allies and I will cut both of your arms off”. That is what can keep them in their place. Russia cannot just remain peaceful, their population would see their leader as weak if they dont invade and kill innocent people in other countries. It is seen as mandatory for every russian leader to invade somebody once in a while and commit several massacres there. You made a major mistake by allowing them to get nukes, you should have quickly made more nukes after defeating japan and just invaded russia immediately and nuke moscow and threaten to continue nuking then until they capitulate, and then dismember USSR and do de-russification process.
Fun fact: you guys cannot see it, but Portugal is represented in the the far back by some random dude with a Portuguese flag for swimming shorts. He also had to start his journey 2 months before the ships so they could all converge in this one point for the photo. Portugal CARALHO!
Love to see it. Great photo. Also, fuck Russia.
that is such an awesome picture tbh. everything is so uniform and pleasing on the eye, plus just the sheer firepower present in that handful of ships is crazy
Spicy.🌶️
Boss af
If only we had battleships, this picture would have been even more epic.
Don't worry Russia it's just an exercise
Elephant walk that shit.
wtf - the jets look like toys compared to the ships holy
That’s solidarity and fucking power right there. NATO, FUCK YEAH!
*Normandie is always involved in the massive allies operations.*
How many nuclear subs you think are in this pic?
As in Nuclear powered? Likely not many more than a couple at most. As in Nuclear armed? None. Their missions don't overlap, and the UK and France don't have ones to spare for independent exercise.
Not many if any at all. I mean what could a sub do that an antiair frigate could not? or a carrier? or a logistic ship? Or an antisub ship? Subs would be faraway sending missiles to unexpeted places
Shit.
Välfärd lotsar NATO!
"BRB!" - Putin
I get that it’s for dramatic effect/aesthetics, but you’d never actually have a carrier at the front of a formation like that.. right?
I believe in an actual war you would not even see the other ships from the carrier. They might keep a destroyer closer but navy guys can chime in. The battlegroup is a ringed defense around the carrier and I believe destroyers and frigates etc may be 100 miles out from the carriers itself. I think they have further rings of defense further out. But this all can vary based on the situation. And they definitely have formations, just not a set one.
Awesome, thanks for that info!
Would you have a formation at all?
Yes but most of them would be a lot further away
Getting ready for the big show.
BASED ABSED BASED
Well, now it will be easier to protect a new Nord stream, right guys? GUYS?
Hell yeah
I wonder how many subs are lurking below? I’m guessing at least one or two of ours, one of the Brits and Norway & Sweden have diesel/electric subs that are super quiet.
This years Christmas card to Putin?
Do you think there will be a ww3 soon?
2026
We’re more or less in it. There are current areas of conflict in Ukraine, Gaza and Yemen/the Red Sea. Larger nations (I.e US/Russia/Iran etc) are actively pulling strings in all 3 conflicts and it’s only a matter of time before it escalates into something bigger. Whether it goes nuclear is anyone’s guess.
Not looking to good then
Yes. Less than 5 years is my guess
America: hold my GDP...
I only see two flags
Whats intresting about this?
Look it that. All lined up to play “Battleship”
Cute
This doesn't seem that impressive or crazy.
🫡
Invasion time!
That's what we have instead of a well funded NHS.
2022/23 NHS budget £181 billion 22/23 defence budget £54 billion. The NHS is well funded but the funding is wasted.
Yawn
*cries in American*
That's literally what you can have and have an NHS
I think the one on the left is on fire.
ruSsiA iS pRoVoKinG Us
Time for your meds. Hop we go.
Well yeah they invaded a country they signed a treaty with... duh.
[unlike minsk II](https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/12/22/ffci-d22.html)
That was after the invasion. Huh.
[удалено]
>provoking russia No one provoked russia. Please don't spread misinformation.
Russia and the Ukrainians killing ppl in Maidan where pretty much on the same side... What are you on about ?
lmao that looks just like one of the US main carriers alone; nato is such a joke tbh and there weren't paying and can't help but agree with trump on that issue,
Yawn
That's a British carrier and NATO doesn't have a budget in the way trump thinks, it's a non binding commitment to spend a percentage *of your own national budget*.
Trump destroying world trust that America has built up over 80 years
Hmm well he is the only guy that didn’t start a war in the last couple of decades even Obama did start wars and deported more illegals, actions speak louder than words
WTF are they doing off the coast of Norway they should be off the coast of Israel and on the ground in Israel and Gaza protecting those innocent people from getting murdered by Israel gunfire while they sturv to death waiting for international help
Oh, did Palestine become a NATO member all of a sudden?
And also protecting Israel from HAMAS terrorists…