A reminder that as the US continues to threaten countries around the world, fedposting is to be very much avoided (even with qualifiers like "in Minecraft") and comments containing it will be removed.

Image depicts the aftermath of a Yemeni missile impacting King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.


My weekly preamble is in spoiler tags below.

preambleIt's been a much slower week than last week, consisting mainly of consolidation and (so far, empty) threats.

In Yemen, Ansarallah continues to battle Saudi-backed mercenary groups. Gains have been relatively slower compared to the lightning offensive earlier that took the western coastline, which makes sense with all the new territory they have to administer and generally sort out, including fortifying towns and cities against potential Saudi assaults from the north. The biggest news so far has been Trump apparently being on the verge of striking Yemen over the weekend due to Saudi insistence, to the extent that embassies across the region issued alerts warning that they might soon be attacked, but then deciding not to when people in his administration told him not to. I haven't cared for Trump's theatrics for several months now, so I won't care to speculate whether this is a bluff or a double bluff and so on; all I will say is that a couple years ago, a significantly stronger US military tried and failed to dislodge Ansarallah's control of the Red Sea, and that this time, they even seem willing to hit Saudi oil facilities in response.

On that note, diesel continues to break new price records, and gasoline isn't too far behind it. Outright shortages haven't yet become systemic, as tempting as it is to look at a couple gas stations running out and drawing trend lines from there, but it's certainly going to be where we're headed if there isn't a diesel export ban eventually, which Russia and others have already implemented. A ban would somewhat alleviate US price hikes, but would cause major instability throughout the rest of the world due to the ubiquity of diesel in transportation infrastructure, and if you've created a favourable international order over the past century or so, you really don't want to blow it up.

Next up: Poland's been amping up their anti-Russian rhetoric to new heights lately, joining Germany and others in advocating for further aid to Ukraine and the creation of modern national armies in Europe to send into Ukraine to battle Russia directly. This type of thing would have been rather frightening to me back in 2023 and 2024, but at this point, all I can do is shake my head. We all saw how the US military, which is more powerful than yours, has faired against Iran, which is weaker than Russia - and you want to arm yourself with largely American weapon systems, or at least systems heavily inspired by the American MIC? Lol. Lmao, even.

Lastly for today, Trump seems to have taken a victory lap over their more-or-less annexation of Greenland after Denmark permitted it. As I and many others noted back when this was all over the media initially months ago, the US has had a military base there for decades already and has been investing in mining there too for a while, so this is more of a formalization of the de facto status quo. Denmark previously technically had a veto on US military activity there, but now seems to be gone; after all, there is little chance that Denmark would ever have the courage to actually use said veto anyway at this point. So, geopolitically, it's a fairly minor news item that serves mainly as yet another humiliation for Europe in a long chain that stretches far into the past and continues to stretch into the future. For the Greenlanders themselves, however, this does seem like pretty catastrophic news, with any and all non-US foreign investment (such as by China) likely to be cut.

(and as a postscript here just before I hit post: yes, the Iranian president physically travelling to the US is embarrassing for Iran and very embarrassing for him. at least Araghchi going makes sense given he's the foreign minister. the silver lining of this debacle might be a further discrediting of the non-hardliner side?)


Last week's thread is here.

Please check out the RedAtlas!

The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.

The Zionist Entity's Genocide of Palestine

If you have evidence of Zionist crimes and atrocities that you wish to preserve, there is a thread here in which to do so.

Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:

UNRWA reports on the Zionists' destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.

English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.

Mirrors of Telegram channels that have been erased by Zionist censorship.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict

Sources:

Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.

Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.

Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:

Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.

https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.

Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:

Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.


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[–] 55 points 2 days ago* (2 children)

https://archive.ph/GtzUr

After hitting pilot training goal, resolving shortage will take years, Air Force official says

“It’s going to take 15 or 20 years to get those types of people,” said Air Force Lt. Gen. Clark Quinn.

more

The Air Force has revealed that the service will achieve a years-long goal of producing 1,500 pilots annually, a target that officials say is critical to reduce a shortfall of over 2,000 aviators. But even if the Air Force can keep up that tempo for the foreseeable future, it will be “quite some time” until the service’s pilot shortage is resolved, the Air Force’s top training officer said Sept. 15. “I can’t erase that pilot deficit in a short period of time,” Lt. Gen. Clark Quinn, the head of Air Education and Training Command, said in a roundtable with reporters on the sidelines of the Air & Space Forces Association conference. Predicting how long it would take to make up the existing shortage is complicated by unpredictable retention rates driven in large part by fluctuating economic conditions, Quinn reasoned.

well, good thing the economy isn't going to fluctuate any further! stonks-down stonks-up econony

Additionally, most of the current pilot shortfall is in staff positions, held by people well into their careers. That means replenishing those positions will take a considerable amount of time. “It’s going to take 15 or 20 years to get those types of people. I can make them today, but those jobs won’t be filled for quite some time,” the general said. “I do know that if we don’t make 1,500, we’re never going to get that number down.” The Air Force says that a new pilot training model implemented in 2024 has been key to achieving the 1,500 annual production goal. Under a new framework called the Future of Undergraduate Pilot Training, the service has partnered with civilian-led training programs for early stages, where students earn a private pilot license and learn the basics of flying. Students then move on to a military-led phase of instruction flying the T-6A Texan II, and candidates picked for fighter and bomber slots will also get time with the T-38 Talon. “That new way of doing pilot training has allowed us to make the number of pilots that we need per year, which is the way that we intend to man those new platforms that are coming,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ken Wilsbach said in a separate media roundtable Sept. 14, referring to training pilots for forthcoming aircraft like the F-47 fighter jet and B-21 Raider stealth bomber.

The introduction of autonomous platforms like Collaborative Combat Aircraft drone wingmen could also reduce the manpower needed for flying missions, Wilsbach reasoned. “We’re a few years off from having to reduce the number of pilots that we have, but in the meantime, we’re making 1,500 a year,” he said. In the long run, Air Force officials have floated the idea of consolidating flight training onto one platform: the T-7 Red Hawk. Quinn said he believes the aircraft — previously the focus of an investigation by Breaking Defense that found a series of unreported issues with the in-development trainer — will be “an outstanding airplane” that officials are “eager” to receive. Asked about consolidating all training on the Red Hawk, Quinn emphasized that no decisions have been made, adding that doing so would carry “pros and cons.” An upside, Quinn reasoned, would be reducing the footprint necessary to operate more than one aircraft, pointing to elements like logistics and manpower. But a downside, he said, is that “if something ever happens to that aircraft that would prevent it from flying for an extended period of time, I really don’t have a backup plan to that.” Quinn stated that the Air Force needs to give instructors more flying time in the aircraft to determine whether it might be suitable for all stages of pilot training. Up to now, T-7 flights have mostly been led by developmental test pilots, though instructor pilots are starting to get their time in the jet too. “Until I get the confidence that my instructors think that we can do this, that opens the door to then make that decision,” he said.

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  • [–] 29 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

    Overall this is a massive problem in civil and military aviation globally. Pilot shortages in the future (over 600 000 newly trained pilots are going be needed over the next two decades according to current estimates, makes the USAF shortage look tiny), Air Traffic Controller shortages currently, and the post COVID economic and geopolitical situation currently make it all very difficult. There are still backlogs of aircraft orders from COVID related delays, and the oil market making fuel expensive also effects things, even with shortages there are no guaranteed jobs, airlines still shut down due to that or mismanagement. Washout rates are also very high in aviation.

    Also, the Gulf nations just want to buy everyone out for their airlines and airports, so lots of experienced pilots and ATCs go there to earn large sums of money at the peak of their careers before they retire, and these experienced professionals cannot be replaced by new recruits, who need years and years of training and experience at minimum to get to that level, 15-20 is not an exaggeration on average. Yes exceptional people can reach those levels significantly quicker , but those are the exceptions, not the average. Even Gulf militaries buy out experienced pilots and maintenance crew as "trainers and advisors" to maintain all their US and European equipment and train pilots. Which does effect the military side of things. And most nations civil and military aviation institutions (both private and state owned in the case of civil aviation) simply cannot compete with the Gulf oil money. No amount of retention plans and payments is going to beat out the Gulf nations throwing out very high tax free earnings for those who want to move.

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