NATO's newest member comes out swinging following latest Baltic Sea cable attack Sweden has committed to sending naval forces into the Baltic Sea following yet another suspected Russian attack on underwater cables in the region. The deployment of three warships and a surveillance airplane from NATO's newest member to assist the bloc's attempts to prevent more subsea cable sabotage marks Sweden's first such …
Ooof, you'll be Saar-y that you suggested that!
And Poland kinda did get a large chunk of what was latterly Germany/Prussia (at the expense of a lot of its own eastern territory).
There has sadly been a lot of blood shed over borders in Europe over many many years, I'm not so sure that we should joke that much about what is still quite a sensitive subject.
I'm just glad that, for the most part, the nations of Europe get along peaceably and co-operatively nowadays (Brexit notwithstanding, sadly). And it would be nice, for most of the ordinary decent citizens of Russia, and for the rest of us, if Russia could be a peaceful and friendly neighbour too (I want to add "again" there, but I think that there has always been some not always entirely friendly rivalry/tension between various "Great Powers" historically).
>Ooof, you'll be Saar-y that you suggested that!
This time we give eastern Germany to France and western Germany to Poland - confuse them !
>There has sadly been a lot of blood shed over borders in Europe over many many years, I'm not so sure that we should joke that much about what is still quite a sensitive subject.
Fine, we just take Aquitaine and Normandy back.
beast666,
You need to get your conspiracy theories right.
Even Noam Chomsky said it was only naughty Joe Biden persuading the Norwegians to do it for them. With, if I recall my conspiracy theories correctly, a ship that happened to be in dry-dock at the time.
Anyway the spicier conspiracy theory - which actually has some small amount of evidence to back it up, is that Ukrainian military intelligence did it. With a Ukrainian having hired a sailing yacht in Poland - that was just about big enough for the diving kit needed - though not enough for the required safety kit in case something went wrong.
The only evidence for this was leaks from the German investigation, that they were looking into it, but nobody's investigations into Nordstream II seem to have come up with anything concrete, at least that they're publicly admitting - there's just been a few leaks.
The pipeline wasn't running, and didn't look likely to start up, so my judgement is that the risk wasn't worth it for Ukraine to have done it. But I wouldn't bet my house on it not having been them... In my opinion, one of the consequences of the invasion of Ukraine is that GUR (Ukrainian military intelligence) has used the war to clear out most (if not all) of the Russian sleepers and to get good. They're something similar to Mossad now - and when this war ends the Russians are going to continue to regret helping to create this threat on their doorstep. Because they're going to use the same "grey zone" tactics as Russia - but they appear to be a lot more competent than Russia's GRU. They also live in a higher threat environment than Western intel agencies, plus they've been invaded, so they've got fewer scruples. But that could also have the effect of allowing other Western intel agencies to contract out naughty jobs to them - that their own parliaments wouldn't approve. "Oh we're just giving support and training to GUR - we didn't realise they were going to do that!" [shocked face]
Even Noam Chomsky said ...
Please get your informations correct : it was Seymour Hersch that unveiled the method that USA used to destroy North-Stream. And according to him the Norwegian marine only played a minor role in the plot. Seymour Hersch is (was) a world renowned journalist, while Noam Chomsky is a world renowned writer who doesn't know anything more about NATO than you or me.
Zolko,
You're correct. My apologies for getting my conspiracies mixed up. Seymour Hersch is the once-respected journalist who's descended into conspiratorial lunacy (like John Pilger over here in Blighty) - and Chomsky is the linguist who minors in conspiracies and how the US are at fault for everything, except for the slaughter in Cambodia because that didn't happen...
«"I don't know zilch about Hersch"
You don't know zilch about Hersch? Or you meant to say you know zilch about Hersch?»
I actually parsed this as "I don't [even] know zilch about ..."
Zilch being defined as near nothing as makes no difference but isn't common in all Englishes which might lead the reader to substitute something like 'shit' based on the context and the idiom "I don't know shit about..."
Sinking it is an act of war; selling it off is an act of piracy. I wish there were a better way, like grabbing them by the anchor chain.
BTW, I doubt that these cables were damaged by simply dragging an anchor across them. While that's certainly possible, the Chinese have patented anchor-cutting tools that can be dragged much more easily and which cut cables more effectively. Pull one of those up by the chain and then you have real evidence that can be taken to an international tribunal, or dropped on the floor of the UN. Literally.
I imagine Swede coastal rangers doing a touch of "Crew Expendable" from the original Modern Warfare and reversing the vessel's course back to Russia minus crew component would be effective.
Not for the leadership, mind. Big Guys never worry about the Little People getting squished, but feeding a superstition of a "ship that returned" might spook Russian mariners into playing nice when outside of the motherland.
Huh! Hadn't heard about that. (For other curious commentards, Wikipædia article on Swedish subs powered by Stirling engines.)
Reading that wiki article linked above is quite enlightening. It seems they have slow-turning props to avoid cavitation. How fast they can move when "slow turning" is anyone's guess though.
Since they're quiet enough to creep up on US aircraft carriers in naval exercises, I reckon they'd not have much of an issue with a Russian floating shit-heap trawler that has been retrofitted for grey ops.
Come to think of it, didn't a rusty old Russian tanker recently have a "fire in the engine room" and sink in the Baltic?
There are actual parking brakes(shaft locks) on large ships.
During Vietnam we (USS Midway) burned up #2 main shaft parking brake and thrust bearing in port when some knob engaged the jacking gear without disengaging the brake first.
The purpose of the jacking gear is to get the lube oil going in the main reduction gears and shaft carrier bearings before making turns(turning the shaft under power).
It did some major damage to the thrust block under power at sea and caused the shaft to move forward and screw up the reduction gears.
Not Good!
No, not Trump, but the frigate Tromp...
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