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Unborking the [Ukraine] discussion
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they also may be fairly willing to be involved in secondary explosions.
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/38083
( ) I do NOT agree that my checked item may be jettisoned in the event of a slight headwind. [+$50]
I think it's more likely that the plane needs to make an unscheduled landing at a closer airport because it had a slight headwind and wasn't able to make it all the way to the planned airport.
The real problem is the combination of an aging fleet, lack of maintenance (and because everything's old, there's more things that need replacing), and a brain drain (so the people dealing with the emergencies that inevitably occur have less experience). And greedy management, of course. That's perfect conditions for the kind of disaster that kills everyone on board.
I'm honestly surprised we haven't seen a high-profile disaster in the Russian aviation industry yet, that we haven't tells me the whole thing is probably being held together by the few remaining professionals who still give a shit... but that only goes so far as they're repeatedly told to do more with less.
A refined fuel for a more civilized age. Before the dark times. Before the Putin.
The pilot is walking down the aisle handing out parachutes:
"This flight is making an unexpected early stop at whatever we're currently flying over. A parachute fee will be added to your ticket."
The Omsk refinery that was either hit or had a catastrophic accident a few days ago produces produced 10% of all Russia's refined oil products. That's a lot, especially when more than 10% of other capacity has also been hit, and your nation is at fucking war.
I was watching Konstantin the other day, and he mentioned that from his experience he believes the Ukrainians are targeting cat crackers specifically because the required mechanisms to produce specific distillates can only be imported from the west. They're heavily protected and patented trade secrets, requiring a great deal of very specialised mechanical and metallurgical knowledge to design and produce. Russia can try and reverse-engineer them, sure; I've no doubt they're trying. That's not something that can be done on the cheap and in a hurry though, and if you try then you stand a very good chance of re-'sploding your cat cracker.
Does this mean that the Russian military will run out of fuel? No, overall probably not - although Ukraine are also putting a deal of effort into fucking up the supply lines, so local shortages and temporary interruptions are certainly on the menu. If Ukraine keeps wacking every oil depot within range, then it will become slower and more inefficient for Russia to keep moving that fuel to the front lines.
The civilian economy, though? As Konstantin rightly observed, high prices at the pump are one thing; no gas at all at the pump is another.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/29/europe/ukraine-f16-crashes-intl/index.html
I think Ukraine had what, 6 jets in country as of the start of F-16's? And a similarly low number of pilots, presumably?
I imagine that's got to be a significant loss, so early in the F-16 program. Damn.
Do it Biden
Lend lease is right there