Putin and Russia in Syria

Raoul said:
Carrier groups are usually equipped with enough firepower to repel any threats, including the likes of patriot missiles, subs, and air power. It would be hard to overcome that if they have water and air superiority, as well as anti-missile technology.
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Would any of this work against a ballistic missile?
 
712 said:
Technically true, but the Chinese for one have been developing carrier-busting ballistic missiles which would render them obsolete overnight. In much the same way as British battleships were rendered obsolete by aircraft carriers. I wouldn't underestimate Russia's abilities on this either. In the future carriers are likely to be a target rather than an asset.
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The missile destroyers and cruisers do have systems to intercept ballistic missiles though. Its obviously just theoretical exercises, even though they all wargame these scenarios, some unknown capability or tactic of one side might be the deciding factor in any confrontation. The macro advantage you'd give the americans though is that they have poured more $ into technology (although not all dollars equal, see the F-35 debacle), but mostly they've poured more $ into the training hours and those make a huge difference.

Also on carriers, they're certainly a big strategic target and losing one would never be a small thing. But the fact that the americans have 10 vs. 1 small one for most adversaries means this: the US would fight Russa or PRC in their seas, never the opposite. Its all mostly irrelevant though, because nukes.

EDIT: See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegis_Ballistic_Missile_Defense_System
 
adexkola said:
How Russian is Brighton Beach?
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Brighton Beach was the destination for many ex-Soviet citizens, mostly Jewish, when a big wave of immigration from the USSR happened back in the 1970s. There's still plenty of them living down there, but mostly it's the senior citizens who still watch US based Russian language TV channels, read Russian papers published in the States and still speak poor English because they've been living among their own and are surrounded by Russian speaking businesses in the area.

Nowadays majority of Russians that arrived in NYC over the last twenty-thirty years live all over Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, to lesser degree in the Bronx. Back when I lived in Brooklyn, my place was in Bensonhurst, which used to be predominantly Italian, but now there are plenty of Russians, Chinese, etc.

So to answer your question Brighton Beach still have plenty of people speaking Russian, but most modern immigrants from the former USSR don't live there and don't visit the place often. If you're an immigrant with Russian being your first language and you want to adapt and assimilate in the US, Brighton Beach is the last place you'd want to live in.
 
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Raoul said:
I think that's what the AEGIS system does, which not coincidentally had the Russians bricking it when news of the system was made public.
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Yeah, looked it up and 64 out of 80 tests successful, up to 3 simultaneously. Impressive, but only one has to get through. And of course an attacker would be using unknown counter-technology that you wouldn't get to practice on first.
 
712 said:
Yeah, looked it up and 64 out of 80 tests successful, up to 3 simultaneously. Impressive, but only one has to get through. And of course an attacker would be using unknown counter-technology that you wouldn't get to practice on first.
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I suppose anything could happen. For me the overarching issue is that the US and Russians meet and coordinate as much as possible to deconflict potential accidents over Syria, so we never find ourselves in a situation where the two sides are locked in a standoff after an accident.
 
antihenry said:
Brighton Beach was the destination for many ex-Soviet citizens, mostly Jewish, when a big wave of immigration from the USSR happened back in the 1970s. There's still plenty of them living down there, but mostly it's the senior citizens who still watch US based Russian language TV channels, read Russian papers published in the States and still speak poor English because they've been living among their own and are surrounded by Russian speaking businesses in the area.

Nowadays majority of Russians that arrived in NYC over the last twenty-thirty years live all over Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, to lesser degree in the Bronx. Back when I lived in Brooklyn, my place was in Bensonhurst, which used to be predominantly Italian, but now there are plenty of Russians, Chinese, etc.

So to answer your question Brighton Beach still have plenty of people speaking Russian, but most modern immigrants from the former USSR don't live there and don't visit the place often. If you're an immigrant with Russian being your first language and you want to adapt and assimilate in the US, Brighton Beach is the last place you'd want to live in.
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Cheers!
 
antihenry said:
Brighton Beach was the destination for many ex-Soviet citizens, mostly Jewish, when a big wave of immigration from the USSR happened back in the 1970s. There's still plenty of them living down there, but mostly it's the senior citizens who still watch US based Russian language TV channels, read Russian papers published in the States and still speak poor English because they've been living among their own and are surrounded by Russian speaking businesses in the area.

Nowadays majority of Russians that arrived in NYC over the last twenty-thirty years live all over Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, to lesser degree in the Bronx. Back when I lived in Brooklyn, my place was in Bensonhurst, which used to be predominantly Italian, but now there are plenty of Russians, Chinese, etc.

So to answer your question Brighton Beach still have plenty of people speaking Russian, but most modern immigrants from the former USSR don't live there and don't visit the place often. If you're an immigrant with Russian being your first language and you want to adapt and assimilate in the US, Brighton Beach is the last place you'd want to live in.
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You were friends with Beastie Boys then, eh?
 
Don't know about the Beastie Boys, but back in the 70s, 80s and early 90s Bensonhurst was well known as the mob stronghold, and that's where Anthony Spero, a consiglieri and at one time acting boss of the Bonanno crime family resided and ran his business from. By the time I got there in the late 90s most mob guys were either dead or incarcerated by Giuliani and the feds and quite a few Italian families had moved to Jersey or Staten Island, but I've heard plenty of stories that remind you of the kind of stuff you only see in one of those Scorsese movies.

All in all, it was a great neighborhood, one of the nicest in Brooklyn.
 
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Could get messy.
 
The pilot seized by the opposition (in Syria) is reportedly killed by them.

Some reports emerging that the other pilot made it to the SAA area.
 
What kind of response could we expect from Russia?

Also, I cannot imagine what that pilot's last moments were like. To be shot down then know you're being captured by some ruthless people.
 
Alarming this, hopefully everyone treads carefully as these things can snowball unintentionally.
 
Looks like this video is authentic. This might be one of the two Russian pilots killed inside Syria.

 
VeevaVee said:
Also, I cannot imagine what that pilot's last moments were like. To be shot down then know you're being captured by some ruthless people.
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Well I have zero absolutely zero sympathy for cowards who bombs children, women and elderly.

He is as ruthless as his captors.
 
Danny1982 said:
The pilot seized by the opposition (in Syria) is reportedly killed by them.

Some reports emerging that the other pilot made it to the SAA area.
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Any reports on which group captured him?
 
2cents said:
Any reports on which group captured him?
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"BrookingsDoha analyst Charles Lister says the video shows the dead pilot wearing Russian uniform and equipment. He says the dead pilot is now reported to be in the hands of anti-Assad rebels from the Alwiya Al-‘Ashar group". - From the Guardian "Live Update" feed
 
2cents said:
Any reports on which group captured him?
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Not confirmed, but some reports suggest "Turkmen fighters" in Syria. In this area many groups are active including Al-Nusra.

The video I posted in my last post seems to be authentic, showing the fighters who captured and killed him.

By the way I think killing him and publishing a video showing him dead, were both big mistakes.
 
milemuncher777 said:
Well I have zero absolutely zero sympathy for cowards who bombs children, women and elderly.

He is as ruthless as his captors.
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I know what you're saying, and I'm not saying anybody should be bombing anyone, but it's always going to happen fighting people like this, who aren't a regular army.
They likely see anyone left in those areas as part of the problem now or in the future. Why someone would hang around the vicinity of people who are going to be targeted, I don't know. That obviously excludes children and elderly, but why the hell would you stay if you had kids unless you are part of the problem? Which likely means your kids will grow up to be part of this deemed problem.
I'm not saying it's right, but it could be their line of thinking.

I went off on a bit of a tangent there.
Proper military aren't usually quite as ruthless when it comes to capturing their enemies though. At least you'd know there was more chance of living.
 
Maroon Lucifer said:
"BrookingsDoha analyst Charles Lister says the video shows the dead pilot wearing Russian uniform and equipment. He says the dead pilot is now reported to be in the hands of anti-Assad rebels from the Alwiya Al-‘Ashar group". - From the Guardian "Live Update" feed
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Danny1982 said:
Not confirmed, but some reports suggest "Turkmen fighters" in Syria. In this area many groups are active including Al-Nusra.

The video I posted in my last post seems to be authentic, showing the fighters who captured and killed him.

By the way I think killing him and publishing a video showing him dead, were both big mistakes.
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Thanks. I'm reading now that Turkmen fighters in that area are "mostly al-Nusra", although some are disputing it.
 
maniak said:
So if russian troops capture some rebels they should execute them?
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I haven't used the word execute at all anywhere.

Let me be more clear, anyone whether they're Assad's men, rebels or anyone else bombing innocents doesn't deserve any sympathy.
 
milemuncher777 said:
I haven't used the word execute at all anywhere.

Let me be more clear, anyone whether they're Assad's men, rebels or anyone else bombing innocents doesn't deserve any sympathy.
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You didn't use the word but that's what happened. For all intents he was a pow and should have been treated as such. Russians are not good guys but I bet they wouldn't just execute captured enemies.

It's a fecked up situation, sure, especially for civilians, but these kind of actions kind of remind us what sort of people these anti-Assad rebels really are.
 
This will end really, really badly.

The Russians aren't going to shake this off as one-off incident, not if FSA terrorists are parading a Russian pilot's corpse.
 
So are these one of the groups that the CIA and the Saudis have been arming?
 
They were warned repeatedly not to violate Turkish airspace and had been escorted out on previous occasions.

Supposedly this is the flight path:

 
Sir Matt said:
They were warned repeatedly not to violate Turkish airspace and had been escorted out on previous occasions.

Supposedly this is the flight path:

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The Turks are known to chat copious amounts of BS and are the biggest airspace violators in the region, so I'd take everything they say with a pinch of salt. Especially if it comes from Abu Bakr al Erdogan's mouth.
 
Kaos said:
The Turks are known to chat copious amounts of BS and are the biggest airspace violators in the region, so I'd take everything they say with a pinch of salt. Especially if it comes from Abu Bakr al Erdogan's mouth.
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Agreed. All the UK media seem to be taking Turkey's warnings claims as gospel.
Now reports of a Russian search helicoptor going down, according to the, er, Express.
Russia are massive airspace raiders too, it must be said.
 
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