OneWeb takes $229m hit from satellites not returned by Russia OneWeb has taken a $229.2 million hit after it cancelled launches from Russia's Baikonur facility, and a number of its low Earth orbit satellites that were waiting to be sent to space were not returned. The detail was disclosed in OneWeb's annual report [PDF], in which the company announced revenue for the financial year to 31 …
as BJ is fond of saying why did we spunk so much on fuck all?
what is the point of this boondoggle, thought is was for alternate GPS bollocks (tricky as none of it is designed to do that!)
can we just get a list of the Boris/cabinate mates that got the cash (directly or indirectly) from this?
Sorry, that’s what caused the war.
I do *not* support Russia deciding to kill hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, who want to be members of the EU rather than Soviet Union. However, the direct cause of the war was EU attempting to enlarge its territory to include a part of the former Soviet Union. It thought it could do so without consequence. It thought that the self-congratulatory whiffle would somehow confuse Putin into not seeing what was going on. But there are consequences. There are always consequences, and at this point unfortunately the Ukrainian people are suffering those consequences.
EU Commission did their usual trick of promising the moon on a stick to Ukraine since 2000, lavishing tens of billions of other peoples money, and dangling the promise of hundreds of billions more. The European Investment Bank between 2005-2018 has given, sorry “loaned”, upwards of thirty billion for Ukrainian infrastructure, and that’s less than half of EU total inducements towards them. Then EU made all sorts of vague statements of unity, including plenty of stuff that *sounds* like a promise of military support against Russia, but with weasel words so they weren’t committed.
This encouraged a colour-revolution amongst local Europhiles. And ever since then, Russia has been faced with the EU likely to subsume a part of its traditional heartland. Trotsky was from Ukraine. Brezhnev was from Ukraine. This isn’t ancient history fer Chrissake. It’s very very close to Moscow. The border of Ukraine is just 320miles from Moscow, which puts Moscow just in range of HIMARS from Ukrainian territory.
It might not be right that the Russians invaded. But on what planet did you think that Russia would just sit there and tolerate EU soft power sitting in a former part of the Soviet Union, located within long-range artillery fire of Moscow? Delusional. Just delusional.
Obviously, Putin pulled the trigger on starting a horrific war that will kill at least hundreds of thousands of people before this is done. But it’s quite clear this is a proxy war. What do you think Putin wants out of this…sunflower seeds?
If this is a proxy war, who is the other side from Russia? This is just the same war that has played out century after century after century, between the Great Powers for control of smaller buffer countries. You’ve got Napoleonic France, Austro-Hungarian Empire & Prussia teamed up in Blue corner (aka Holy Roman Empire, the alliance has had so many names in its time), and Russia in the Red corner. It’s so much of a re-run, they’ve even used *Crimea* as the stage for their play. England has no dog in the fight, god knows why the Tories want to get involved.
The Teutonic Knights and the Tsar dress in their finery and make speeches, while the rivers run red with the blood of the peasants. Always the peasants.
Note the word "former". Ukraine is not a Russian territory, it is not part of Russia, and since the Soviet Union no longer exists decisions on its future and governance come from Kyiv, not Moscow. That means choosing whether it throws in with the EU or Russia. The EU has given Ukraine investment and solidarity and asked them to join the club. Russia could have done the same, but instead has given them theft and mass murder and told them to submit to tyranny. The only delusional person here is you, thinking that under those circumstances Ukraine would choose anything other than Europe.
And you're beyond delusional if you think the EU has ever intended an act of aggression against Russia, let alone shelling Moscow. If you believe that then your grasp of international politics is as feeble as your grasp of geography - Moscow is almost 500km from the Ukrainian border, which is about 30 times the range of a typical long range artillery piece and almost four times the range of the Paris Gun.
Persuading part of the former Soviet Union to join your club, *is* an act of aggression. Doesn’t matter that they do it voluntarily. Doesn’t matter what you think. Flirting with the ex-girlfriend of a mafia boss, however consensually, is going to end with you looking down the wrong end of a shotgun. You can write all the white papers about freedom of choice you like. But he *will* shoot you.
Moscow is indeed “almost 500km” from the border….or more precisely 320 miles which sounds a bit less comfortable. HIMARS range limit is 500km. The world has changed since the Paris Gun. You may think “the EU doesn’t intend aggression against Russia”, but what would you be thinking in Paris, if you saw Russian heavy weaponry in…Strasbourg. Because it really is that close.
If a man kills or hurts his ex-wife and/or her new partner, a sane and rational person does not say it's her fault for leaving him. Likewise, if Ukraine or any other former Soviet republic wants to move on from its own abusive past partner it is not an attack on Russia.
And yes, if I were in Paris and saw Russian heavy weaponry in Strasbourg I would be deeply concerned. Because that would mean Russia had invaded France, you halfwit.
Really? Are you that deluded?
Vlad is using the "threat" from NATO expansion and EU expansion to justify another land grab. It's total bollocks and he knows it. Just something to tell the Russian populace to keep them on side.
"Traditional heartland" is irrelevant. Ukraine is not part of Russia. Russia and Ukraine were part of a failed polltical bloc that no longer exists. Vlad wants those days back, and is using flimsy pretexts of nazis and existential threats from NATO and EU to get buy-in.
Ukraine decided it wants to be less Russian, more European. So what. It's the choice for country to make. Should not be up to anyone else, and it's certainly not a valid excuse to start a war.
Both sides are land-grabbing. They’ve been doing it, under very similar flags, since well before the Napoleonic wars. But I’m glad you’ve dropped any pretence of this being related to Ukraine at all. It’s a straight Holy Roman Empire vs Tsarist Russia artillery duel. There are some peasants in the way who are being slaughtered.
As to the peasants preference for either side: no, I wouldn’t want to live under Vlad the Impaler either. But if the Prussians win, I’ll certainly have some Molotov cocktails ready for those bastards too.
The UK voted to leave the EU. Scotland may decide to leave the UK and join the EU. Feelings are strong either way.
But do you really think that even the thought of Brussels bombing London or London bombing Edinburgh passed through any sane mind however opposed to a decision of the majority? Even if they have good justification to feel that majority was misled by a dodgy campaign and false promises by Leave.eu or the SNP? Oh, and justifying England 'liberating' the Rosyth Naval Dockyard to protect London's inalienabe and historical right to control the North Sea?
Its all about what people think it right for them not what you, I or Comrade Putin feel should be right for them. Democracy's (only?) refeaming feature is it allows power to be passed peacefully. Which was good until POTUS 45 made even that problematical.
You seem to think I was claiming something like “Russia has a historic right”. My point wasn’t about rights at all. It’s a simple *factual* statement.
If you seek to undermine the influence of a nuclear superpower in what *it perceives to be* its neighbour and rightful sphere of influence, it is going to punch you in the face. This is not a surprise to you. If you pretend to be surprised, you are simply lying. We can discuss whether Britain *should* have sent troops to the Falklands, but that action was 100% certain. We can discuss whether France *should* defend French Guiana against Bolsonaro if he invaded….but do you really doubt that they *would*? Now look at Ukraine next to Russia.
The deal, when Ukraine originally gained its independence, was very clearly stated and agreed by all. Agreed by USA, agreed by European nations. Ukraine was to remain a neutral buffer state. It was never to become part of the sphere of influence of Europe, it was never to join NATO. That was the deal. The EU broke the deal. The USA told the EU not to do it, and they did it anyway.
Now, all that’s fine and dandy. Ukraine are a sovereign nation, and can vote to do what the hell they like. People can choose to die for their country. Many do. But what *can’t* happen, is that Ukraine ask EU “if we join your club, will you protect us from Russia?” And EU say “yes, hold our hands and you will be safe, we have France, a nuclear power”. And then when the shooting starts, they just say “here have a few thousand mouldy German shells, maybe one fifty-year old MIG29 that’s actually a trainer, we certainly won’t risk any ground troops, or tanks, our wishes go with you good luck”. And leave the Ukrainians twisting in the wind facing hundreds of thousands if not millions of deaths.
That’s entrapment. And reckless endangerment. Behaviour beneath contempt.
If you want to support Ukraine, that’s fine. Just sign up two hundred thousand boys from *each* EU nation, five million total because that’s what it’s going to take to actually win this war. All between the ages of 14 and 20, give them a weeks training, and send them off to fight in a place they can’t pronounce for a cause they don’t understand. When you get the letters expressing regret. Then I listen to your opinion.
You are confusing the EU (who were not involved, and are 'grabbing' no land) and NATO (who are a mutual defence treaty, again no 'grabbing' of land). Russia, on the other hand, is unhappy about the choices of a sovereign nation and has invaded it to grab all of its land. Nobody has threatened Russia; whereas Russia has most definitely threatened and attacked several places. It's not surprising that Ukraine wanted to join NATO - they could see the threat from Russia and wanted to be safe like the Balkan states are.
Clearly you are a Russian shill, and so your crazy rhetoric is not unexpected.
We shouldn't grumble. The public money wasted on Oneweb is standard practice for our cabinet of corrupt, incompetent buffoons. They've spunked away billions on aircraft carriers with no aircraft, a non-existent "world beating" track and trace, ferry contracts to a company with no ships, unused Nightingale hospitals, fraudulent furlough loans, guns that can't fire bullets, etc, etc. Wasting a few hundred million on a satellite company with no rockets or satellites isn't such a big deal.
Not a big deal as long as one of their rich mates and party donors gets a slice of it, that is :-)
It's hard to believe the SA80 rifle was never replaced with something much more capable from any of our allies. If made in UK is that important, who's to say we couldn't get a license for one of the NATO standards?
Noting that the Challenger fleet is having to ditch it's distinguishing feature, the Rifled gun; in favour of a NATO-standardised smoothbore.
The mystery that is MOD procurement is one that I fear will never add up unless it is called upon in anger rather than on power-projection, country destabilising lunacy.
Did I see something interesting glossed over? The company is expected to cough up money for cancelling launches and that makes sense. Russians have some of the satellites and it is just accepted that those will never be seen again. Is this like "shrinkage"? Is it just assumed Russia is one of those places product is more likely to get "lost" and this is just the price of doing business? And the "lost" satellites can't be counted against the cancellation fees for some reason?
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