BLUF

I'm going to start something in addition to talking about current defense. I had family in the Indiana 99th Volunteer Infantry Regiment (one of 4 family members I know of that fought for the US). His regimental chaplain wrote a book after the war. 1/5 en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/99th_Indi….

#OTD in 1864 the #99thIndiana marches 6 miles, camping within a mile of Kingston, in column of Regiments. They remain here until 23 May.

@Microinteracti1 FPV drones are a weapon, they are far from the only weapon. Pretending like they are the only weapon system you need is pretty foolish. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

The West Has Already Lost the Drone War. It Just Hasn’t Noticed Yet. Here is something that should ruin your Monday. A Ukrainian AI drone engineer has gone on record to explain, calmly and with considerable evidence, that Western military planning is not behind the times. It is not lagging. It is not in need of reform. It is dead. Obsolete. A relic propped up by expensive acronyms and men in uniforms who still think the tank is the apex predator of land warfare. Yaroslav Azhnyuk, founder of AI drone company The Fourth Law, has done the maths. FPV drones now account for somewhere between 70 and 80 percent of frontline casualties in Ukraine. Not artillery. Not missiles. Not the armoured columns that NATO has spent forty years and several fortunes preparing to counter. Small, cheap, autonomous flying machines that cost about as much as a decent restaurant dinner and kill with the precision of a surgeon. But here is where it gets genuinely terrifying. China can produce four billion FPV drones per year. Ukraine, a country that has been at war for three years and is building faster than anyone in the West, manages four million. That is the kind of number that makes you want to lie down on the floor and stare at the ceiling for a while. The West is not losing the AI arms race because it lacks the technology. It is losing because it is still arguing about procurement frameworks while the future arrives, uninvited, at four hundred kilometres per hour with a shaped charge attached. Latest 👇 gandalv.substack.com/p/ukraine-the-…

@heatloss1986 Why are there so many companies working in this field? Is it possibly because there is an emergent need? In times of emergent need would it be justified to accept a little more risk in order to accelerate the testing cycle?

@StratBLUF I know that a number of these companies are making those exact mistakes with explosives safety. They don't have the experience necessary and so they don't know how to do things right.

Someone I know with combat experience DMed me out of the blue and said, and I quote, "If my commander told me that I would immediately start looking for a new unit holy fuck lol"

@heatloss1986 And you have more first hand knowledge of the incident in question than the command, and can make an informed statement? Do you know for a fact that is was a safety issue and not negligence?

@StratBLUF I disagree with that assessment from command but that's a very different statement from "accidents happen, and we should be okay accepting safety issues in equipment"

@heatloss1986 And the command says that isnt a fact based observation so.

@StratBLUF x.com/i/status/20553… this is what he's replying to. This is not "emphasizing it too much" this is "don't blow up soldiers for no reason"

#OTD in 1864 the #99thIndiana starts moving at 10am. The Confederates have evacuated Resacca. The regiment halts to allow the 14th Corp to pass and march another 6 miles to cross at the Calhoun ferry where they camp for the night on the left center of the Brigade.

@heatloss1986 Your 100% missing the point of the post amd the comments. Nobody is saying safety isnt important, they are saying we emphasis it too much at certain times. Im not sure how that is so hard to understand.

@StratBLUF lol. You're funny. How very Soviet of this comments section to not care much about the safety of their soldiers

#OTD in 1864 the #99thIndiana is called to attention at daybreak and ordered to support a gun battery. They are under fire all day, 2 men wounded. A third man was accidently wounded the day prior.

#OTD in 1864 the #99thIndiana marches 4 miles, halt in line for about 3hrs, then move forward under fire from enemy guns un Line of Battle and then in Columns of Divisions.

#OTD in 1864 the #99thIndiana moves 1 mile forward, deploys a company of skirmishers and erected breastworks at night.

@EchoesofWarYT Almost a full quarter of Lee's army was killed, wounded or captured at Chancellorsville, his "greatest victory." He will loss another 40% of it at Gettysburg. Lee sure was good at losing huge portions of his Army and still being remembered as a "great" general in some books...

163 years ago today, Stonewall Jackson died at 3:15 PM on a Sunday afternoon in a small farm office in Guinea Station, Virginia. He had told his wife that morning, “It is the Lord’s Day. I have always desired to die on a Sunday.” He got his wish. Eight days earlier at Chancellorsville, Jackson had pulled off what military historians still consider one of the most audacious flanking maneuvers in American history. Lee had split his outnumbered army in the face of a force more than twice its size, and sent Jackson on a 12-mile march around Hooker’s right flank. At dusk on May 2nd, Jackson’s men came screaming out of the woods and rolled up the entire Union XI Corps. It was the high-water mark of the Confederacy. Then, in the darkness, he rode forward to scout for a night attack. The 18th North Carolina Infantry saw riders approaching through the trees and opened fire. Three bullets hit Jackson, one shattering his left arm. His own men. The bullet they later recovered was .67 caliber. Confederate issue. Union troops in the area used .58. His arm was amputated the next morning. When Lee got the news, he wrote: “Could I have directed events, I would have chosen for the good of the country to be disabled in your stead.” Days later, when told Jackson had lost his arm, Lee said: “He has lost his left arm, but I have lost my right.” For a week he seemed to recover. Then pneumonia set in. Modern doctors now suspect it was actually a pulmonary embolism from the amputation, undiagnosable in 1863. On the morning of May 10th, his wife Anna told him he would not live through the day. Jackson asked his doctor to confirm it. When McGuire said there was nothing more they could do, Jackson paused and said: “Very good, very good. It is all right.” He drifted in and out. At one point in his delirium he was back on the battlefield, shouting orders: “Order A.P. Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the front rapidly! Tell Major Hawks…” Then he stopped mid-sentence. A smile spread across his face, and he said quietly: “Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.” Those were the last words of the most feared tactician in the Confederate army. Lee never found a replacement. Two months later, at a small Pennsylvania town called Gettysburg, the absence of Jackson on the second day, when Ewell hesitated to take Cemetery Hill, would haunt the Confederacy for the rest of the war. Chancellorsville was Lee’s masterpiece. It was also the last decisive victory the Army of Northern Virginia would ever win. Jackson was 39 years old.

#OTD in 1864 the #99thIndiana starts marching at 5am, covering 8 miles and camping in line of battle on the Brigades extreme left flank by 2pm.

#OTD in 1864, at 2am the #99thIndiana detaches 31 men and an officer to report to the Division Quartermaster and then march back to Chattanooga to serve as guards for the Division wagon train. Rest of the Regiment will march 9 miles to camp near Villanow.

@mercoglianos Assuming it was something like an AGR-20 which would be about the most precise and accurate weapon available to any commander, yet along among the cheapest of any precision guided option... Not sure if it was, but it would be a scenario that makes sense.

I have some questions about this. Why use an F/A-18 to shoot out a rudder? I am not an aviator but that does not seem like the appropriate system to use. Also, if you are using a jet, does this indicate that the US is spread a bit thin as no ship was able to conduct the intercept. Every time we have a situation like this, it raises more questions.

#OTD in 1864 the #99thIndiana starts moving at 8:30am. They will halt and make camp (distance and time unrecorded, possibly just a relocation of camp vs a road march).

#OTD in 1864 the #99thIndiana is moving again. Part of 3rd Brigade, 4th Division, 15th Corp, Army of the Tennessee. They march 10 miles from Rossville to Crawfish Springs, GA.

@AppyOrtho Except they lost the war... pretty badly... so they dont have a right to it... thats sorta how wars work...

Map of the Confederacy, had they won. This is the South by right and by blood and it should all be reclaimed 💪

@EmpireEnjoyer3 Its a trade of raw payload for mobility and transportability. You dont always need more payload.

I’ve noticed this trend in military weaponry, why is the HIMARS less capable than the M270 it’s replacing? HIMARS can carry 2 precision long range missiles while M270 can carry 4. This plays out the same with the B21 replacing the B2 bomber. B21 has 1/3 the payload capacity as the B2. Same thing with submarines, the Columbia Class carries less missiles than the Ohio Class 24 vs 16. We are being robbed by defense contractors.

@Dauntlesssix6 @Havoc_Six How many thousands of missiles were fired? How many casualties? Can you stop pretending like you could have done any better, you couldn't have.

Secretary Hegseth: "We did every conceivable thing…to ensure the maximum force protection for our troops." This is a lie. We did not take even many rudimentary force protection efforts. That is not my opinion, it’s a fact. *Note: I was the chief of protection for a Division.