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[PEMM]

We may be not responsible for our grandparents actions but we are responsible for sth like that to never happen again.

True, but it's all of our responsibility, not just Germans.

 

[Picanha]

Trump wants to have the Republican senate bill against Russia watered down.

He wants to replace must wordings with can and generally keep it "flexible" meaning Putler isn't hindered too much in raping Ukraine.

Trump quietly pressuring Senate to weaken Russia sanctions, WSJ reports

The White House reportedly asked Sen. Graham to insert waivers into the bill allowing Trump to choose which entities get sanctioned and changing the word "shall" to "may."

kyivindependent.com

And China happily continues its sucker play of I am not involved.

Time to sanction them too now.

But Trump didn't even do that. All he does is to expose himself.

China сuts drone sales to Ukraine, West but continues supplying Russia, Bloomberg reports

President Volodymyr Zelensky said China has stopped selling drones to Ukraine and Western countries while continuing to supply them to Russia, Bloomberg reported on May 29.

kyivindependent.com

 

[Hiryu2.0]

Germany’s conservatives eye return to compulsory military service

Germany ended the draft in 2011, but calls are growing for its return.

www.politico.eu

 

[Mike1976]

Trump wants to have the Republican senate bill against Russia watered down.

He wants to replace must wordings with can and generally keep it "flexible" meaning Putler isn't hindered too much in raping Ukraine.

Trump quietly pressuring Senate to weaken Russia sanctions, WSJ reports

The White House reportedly asked Sen. Graham to insert waivers into the bill allowing Trump to choose which entities get sanctioned and changing the word "shall" to "may."

kyivindependent.com

And China happily continues its sucker play of I am not involved.

Time to sanction them too now.

But Trump didn't even do that. All he does is to expose himself.

China сuts drone sales to Ukraine, West but continues supplying Russia, Bloomberg reports

President Volodymyr Zelensky said China has stopped selling drones to Ukraine and Western countries while continuing to supply them to Russia, Bloomberg reported on May 29.

kyivindependent.com

Wrong thread?

 

[Mike1976]

Germany’s conservatives eye return to compulsory military service

Germany ended the draft in 2011, but calls are growing for its return.

www.politico.eu

Important destinction that Germany like many other countries suspended conscription rather than ending it which makes it a lot easier to reverse the decision.

 

[haze99]

Since I cannot post in the German political thread...this might be safe to place here.

Germany plans to increase the number of troops by 60 thousand - Militarnyi

Germany's Ministry of Defense plans to increase the size of its armed forces by 50-60 thousand troops to meet new NATO defense goals.

militarnyi.com

Unless Berlin has heartburn with this.

 

[Hiryu2.0]

https://www.saab.com/newsroom/press-releases/2025/saab-achieves-ai-milestone-with-gripen-e. Saab, in collaboration with Helsing, today announced the successful completion of the first three flights integrating Helsing’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) agent ‘Centaur’ into a Gripen E fighter jet.

 

[Mike1976]

As it says in the thumbnail

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[PEMM]

Look guys, UN secretary-gn advertising how useless him and his organization are.

Calling for Finland, Baltics and Poland to stay in Ottawa treaty, while Russia is out. Meaning it's fine for our soldiers to step in a mine, but not for invader.

Reasoning is something logical, like protecting sheep herders in third world. As if we were going there to mine.

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[Ivan le Fou]

Thing with these treaties is they are meant to set the "hope" similar measures will be followed by whoever is on the opposing side.

Or, to some extent, expecting the opposing side to show restraints in its use of such munitions.

Is it meaningful in any ways? No. As I said, it relies on "hope" and "expectations".


Though in time of war mines are useful in a variety of ways, the real concern is more about the time that comes after the war.

It is no secret that demining operations are very complicated and time consuming, then comes the issue of locating the minefields (if they have been kept tracked of in a rigorous way) and also the one linked to detecting them.
You can either find them by knowing where they are, or finding them by stumbling upon them.

 

[PEMM]

Though in time of war mines are useful in a variety of ways, the real concern is more about the time that comes after the war.

It is no secret that demining operations are very complicated and time consuming, then comes the issue of locating the minefields (if they have been kept tracked of in a rigorous way) and also the one linked to detecting them.
You can either find them by knowing where they are, or finding them by stumbling upon them.

Meaning it's much better to do it in trained and organized manner, rather than take them into use during wartime.

Mines can be a big problem for civilians, in Finland they were a problem as Germans had boobytrapped everything they could, when leaving the country. Took decades to clear, and there might still be something somewhere. Not how minefields would be used by our own soldiers of course.

Yet we didn't get rid of them until people started to put their faith on those hopes and expectations. And are now quick to reintroduce them, when reality sets in.

 

[Ivan le Fou]

Meaning it's much better to do it in trained and organized manner, rather than take them into use during wartime.

Mines can be a big problem for civilians, in Finland they were a problem as Germans had boobytrapped everything they could, when leaving the country. Took decades to clear, and there might still be something somewhere. Not how minefields would be used by our own soldiers of course.

Yet we didn't get rid of them until people started to put their faith on those hopes and expectations. And are now quick to reintroduce them, when reality sets in.

There is that, yes.

But also the fact modern landmines are developed with safety mechanisms rendering them inoperative after a period of time.
Does that mean such mechanisms work all the time? No. After all, even the simplest mechanism such as a ground impact shell or bomb sometimes fail to trigger. So "it happens" both ways.
Booby-traps are still a thing, though it is encouraged to have them deployed in a "conventional way" (as in: not Vietcong or WW2 kind of stuff).

UXOs will remain a thing as long as explosive munition exist.

 

[Mike1976]

Breaking News: Europe plans to triple Eurofighter Typhoon jet production to answer demand from allies and partners

Breaking News: Europe plans to triple Eurofighter Typhoon jet production to answer demand from allies and partners

armyrecognition.com

 

[PEMM]

UN moralizing had no effect. Leaving the treaty got a landslide approval from MP's, with just few left-green useful idiots voting no.

MPs approve Finland's withdrawal from Ottawa landmine treaty

Finnish MPs voted to approve the country's withdrawal from the Ottawa Treaty on Thursday, as Finland plans to resume using anti-personnel landmines.

MPs approved the measure to withdraw from the agreement by a vote of 157 to 18. There were no abstentions, and 24 lawmakers were absent.

Those voting against the measure included 10 MPs from the Left Alliance, seven Greens MPs, as well as one from the Swedish People's Party, which is part of the coalition government.

The Finnish government submitted a proposal to Parliament about withdrawing from the agreement late last month, while it announced that it was preparing to do so earlier in the spring.

The next steps in decoupling from the international agreement include a confirmation by President Alexander Stubb, then Finland sending a notice about the matter to the UN Secretary-General, the government said last month.

In 2012, Finland became the last EU member state to sign onto the 1997 treaty. The countries of Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland announced that they were withdrawing from the treaty earlier this spring.

MPs approve Finland's withdrawal from Ottawa landmine treaty

Parliament approved the measure to withdraw from the agreement by a vote of 157 to 18.

yle.fi

 

[muck]

The treaties of Ottawa and Oslo did have their purpose when they were laid down, particularly in reducing the proliferation of "dumb" mines and failure-prone ancient cluster munitions to the Third World.

But this isn't the 1990s any more, where one needed to worry about a generation of military hardware developed in the preceding decades. We have self-deactivating mine fields now, and self-destroying submunitions.

 

[PEMM]

The treaties of Ottawa and Oslo did have their purpose when they were laid down, particularly in reducing the proliferation of "dumb" mines and failure-prone ancient cluster munitions to the Third World.

But this isn't the 1990s any more, where one needed to worry about a generation of military hardware developed in the preceding decades. We have self-deactivating mine fields now, and self-destroying submunitions.

Problem always was that the great powers didn't join. Disarmament never should start from the weaker side.

And really, Finnish mines that were produced here never did much of anything for the issue in the third world. What did help was the mine expertise with Finnish pioneers de-mining in many ex-warzones. That of course decreased with the ban.

Dumb mines will also make a comeback being the most cost effective method. Even with them, modern tools will greatly simplify reporting mine locations and such.

And we never joined Oslo treaty, as one of the replacement for land mines was to be cluster munitions. Which is arguably more problematic.