Following is our translation of an article in ria.ru reporting on the transfer of new Russian military aircraft to Venezuela, followed by a Spanish-to-English translation from hispantv.com. Comments are by Vince Dhimos.
 
Donald Trump, whose candidacy seemed to hold out hope for peace and US non-intervention in the internal affairs of foreign countries, has suggested repeatedly to aides and foreign leaders the possibility of invading Venezuela. The most likely scenario would be a US-led invasion by Brazil or Colombia.
 
He and the members of his bellicose cabinet are frustrated because the opposition in that country has repeatedly failed to come up with a workable alternative to the Maduro government. And of course, with re-election hopes on the horizon, Trump knows that American voters invariably rally around a war time president no matter how flimsy the pretext.
 
The problems in Venezuela are economic, eg, galloping inflation and increasing poverty. No one there is really happy with the way things are going. But Venezuelans have seen what happens to countries that the US invades and many of the Venezuelan ex-pats I meet think an invasion would lead to a worse disaster than the one they are currently coping with.
 
And help is on the way if the US and its puppets will just stand back and give it a chance. China and Russia have both invested heavily in the country’s oil industry. China has invested in an infrastructure project involving a revamping of the oil industry. They will pay themselves in oil. No money will change hands. The most recent investment was from Russia, just this month.
 
But Russia is not sitting on its hands waiting for the bombs to drop in Caracas.
 
It is most unfortunate that Washington’s military and White House officials are monolingual – or at least do not read New Silk Strategies.
 
BEGIN TRANSLATION
 
Russia sent strategic missile carriers to Venezuela
 
7 Nov 2018
 
MOSCOW, December 10 - RIA News. Two Tu-160, an An-124 and an Il-62 of the Russian Aerospace Forces have flown to Venezuela, according to the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Ministry of Defence.
 
According to the report, the flight took place over the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, the Barents, Norwegian and Caribbean Seas. The pilots flew more than 10 thousand kilometres. The flight was carried out in strict accordance with the international rules for the use of airspace.
 
The defence department noted that at certain stages of the flight, the Tu-160 missile carriers were shadowed by F-16 fighters from the Norwegian Air Force.
 
The ceremony of the meeting of Russian crews was attended by the Minister of Defence of Venezuela, General Vladimir Padrino Lopez, and representatives of the Russian embassy.
 
Cooperation between Moscow and Caracas
 
Last week, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu expressed the hope that flights of the Russian military aviation to Venezuela’s airfields will continue, and that Navy ships will call at the ports of this country.
 
“I think that we will continue this practice. Especially since it benefits both Venezuela and Russia,” said Shoigu at a meeting with Vladimir Padrino Lopez.
 
The minister noted that Russian servicemen get "an opportunity to gain important long-range flight experience in aviation, and, of course, in maintaining equipment in good combat condition."
 
END TRANSLATION
 
And now our Spanish-to-English translation from hispantv.com on the same topic. There is little discussion of the Venezuelan air force in Western media, which are not particularly interested in creating the impression that Venezuela could fight back effectively if attacked.
 
So far, the airforce is modest but the addition of the new Russian aircraft mentioned above and below makes a significant difference. Further, Venezuelan power is magnified by Russia’s presence, as reported in our translation below.
 
If the US and its satellites are as wary of attacking a Russian stronghold as they are in Syria, Venezuela should be safe for now.
 
QUOTE:
 
" ‘We are also working so that Russian military aircraft and ships can continue using the airfields and ports of Venezuela and I trust that this practice will continue,’ he stressed during the meeting held during the visit of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to Russia.”
 
BEGIN TRANSLATION
 
Russia hopes to continue using airfields and ports of Venezuela
 
6 Dec 2018
     
Russia remains confident of continuing to use Venezuela's airfields and ports for its fighters and its warships within the framework of military cooperation.
 
During his meeting with his Venezuelan counterpart, Vladimir Padrino López, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu emphasized on Thursday that the cooperation between Moscow and Caracas "is going quite well" due to the "regular exchange of specialists and delegations" and "good work in the field of education", among other aspects.
 
Shoigu has pointed out that, thanks to this collaboration that "benefits both Venezuela and Russia," the Russian military "get significant experience" with these long-haul flights and have the opportunity to "keep their combat equipment in good condition."
 
"We are also working so that Russian military aircraft and ships can continue using the airfields and ports of Venezuela and I trust that this practice will continue," he stressed during the meeting held during the visit of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to Russia.
 
The Venezuelan minister, in turn, has declared that Venezuela is interested in modernizing the land and air equipment previously supplied by Russia.
 
"We are also working so that Russian military aircraft and ships can continue to use the airfields and ports of Venezuela and I trust that this practice will continue," Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said during a meeting with his Venezuelan counterpart, Vladimir Padrino López.
 
Within the framework of military cooperation agreements with Russia, Venezuela has managed to build a military 'fortress' for the defence of its sovereignty.
 
Russia and Venezuela are developing their technical and military cooperation on the basis of the intergovernmental agreement signed in May 2001. The first military contracts were signed in Caracas in 2005: in May a contract was signed for the supply of Kalashnikov rifles (AK-103), which was handed over to the Venezuelan Army in 2006.
 
Russia also supplied helicopters of the Mi brand, anti-aircraft systems Tor-M1, fighters of the Sukhoi brand and other armaments. In 2006, the two countries signed a contract to build a Russian-made helicopter repair and maintenance centre (opened in 2013) and a Kalashnikov rifle and ammunition plant that will begin production in 2019.
 
In addition, the two countries carried out joint military aerospace drills in September to boost their bilateral cooperation in the military field.
 
While the USA has unveiled its concern about the growing and "alarming" presence of Russia in Latin America, which in the case of Venezuela joins the two countries in a "political and economic alliance" that may constitute a threat to Washington, Russia accuses the US of treating Latin American countries as if they were their backyard.
 
END TRANSLATION

Vince answers at Quorum.
​
Russia has cancelled the mass production of the Su-57, its counter to the F-22 and F-35. What does that mean for the Su series and future stealth fighter development as a whole?

The Russians have defeated stealth with their modern wonder radar and with electronic warfare systems. They expect the US to do likewise at some point. Essentially Russia has rendered stealth obsolete, first by means of electronic warfare that disables all radar navigation and onboard radar and communications around any enemy plane attacking a certain region (whether or not they can see the plane), and second, perhaps by developing stealth radar. They are not telling us if or how they managed to “see” stealth aircraft like the F-57 but there are several possibilities, including quantum radar, based on quantum optics, wherein tangled protons are split and one half is fired into space while the other half sits in a repository in the system. Einstein theorized the phenomenon on which this is based but said it probably would not work. He was wrong. He called it “spooky action at a distance.” Why? Because whatever happens to the half particle fired into space will also happen to the half left in the system, for example, if it strikes an object in the air and is changed accordingly. No one can fully explain why and it defies logic. The Chinese just exhibited such a quantum radar system at an arospace show a few weeks ago, claiming it can see stealth aircraft at a distance of up to 100 km. Russia has been working on this for years. No one knows how far along they have gotten. At any rate, stealth is either obsolete or will be soon. So why bother with the Su-57?

Our translation from nation-news.ru.
 
BEGIN TRANSLATION

Last evening Ukrainian army shelled four settlements in Donetsk with grenade launchers
 
28 November 2018
 
Settlements of the Donetsk People’s Republic came under fire from the Ukrainian military. The shooting lasted more than an hour.
 
For 1.5 hours the Ukrainian army shelled four settlements of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). This was stated in the representative office of the republic in the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination of the Ceasefire Regime (JCCC).
 
The Armed Forces of Ukraine (APU) opened fire at 16.30 Moscow time. Spartak village to the north of Donetsk was fired at with grenade launchers. For 20 minutes the Ukrainian armed forces also fired from infantry fighting vehicles.
 
At 5.30 pm, the Kiev security forces began shooting at the village of Krutaya Balka in the north of Yasinovataya. Fixed 15 grenades from automatic grenade launchers. The Ukrainian armed forces used heavy machine guns. These and small arms were used to shoot at the village of Sakhanka in the south of the DPR.
 
From 17.25 to 17.55 Yasinovataya was fired at with machine guns.
 
END TRANSLATION

Following is our translation of a Russian expert analysis of the “tense” situation in Ukraine with commentary by Vince Dhimos. Source rueconomics.ru. 

 
Essentially, the "tension" between Russia and Ukraine is an illusion, or rather, a ruse on the part of Ukraine to manipulate the US and NATO. It is a false alarm, pretty much as I wrote yesterday when I reminded the readers that it is all political, not military, and that NATO will not intervene militarily in the Ukraine’s dispute with Russia, as Mecheev observes. The standard US response these days when it senses danger is to levy useless sanctions and send outdated weapons.

Political science is similar to other sciences if the principles used in a political analysis are truly scientific, and as in other sciences, a scientist in one country can see his own research confirmed when reading reports of studies done in places thousands of km away, and written in another language. This cross-cultural and cross-linguistic confirmation produces a thrill like no other in investigators and is one of the drivers of scientific research.

In the present case, the Russian researcher had observed the behaviour of the US authorities from a different vantage point from mine but we both came to the same conclusion. Though we would never meet, I understood that the Russia analyst was my brother.
 
BEGIN TRANSLATION
 
Mikheev explains why the United States and Europe will not support Ukraine in the conflict with Russia
 
November 26, 20184 637Moscow
 
https://rueconomics.ru/363415-mikheev-obyasnil-pochemu-ssha-i-evropa-vozderzhatsya-ot-podderzhki-ukrainy-v-konflikte-s-rossiei
 
Ukraine’s reliance on NATO’s help in confronting Russia will not be justified as soon as the alliance faces a real military threat. This was stated by independent political analyst Sergei Mikheev.
 
According to the expert, the Kiev declaration of martial law raises the issue of breaking all agreements and relations with Russia, including the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. By this, Ukraine will declare to the whole world its claim on the development of its own nuclear weapons, which will unprecedentedly increase tensions in Europe and will teach Europeans a lesson by showing whom they have supported on the Maidan.
 
On the other hand, Mikheev notes, Ukraine has no resources for nuclear weapons. Since 2014, Kiev has been engaged in “lifting the bar” to levels that are unattainable for the country, making statements that are categorically inconsistent with Ukrainian reality. "They can be dangerous, like a bunch of wild teenagers on a binge, but they have neither the strength nor the determination to pursue the resource-demanding policy that they threaten to pursue," he explained.
 
“All that they are counting on is a NATO bloc on their side. But NATO will abandon “Ukraine as soon as it senses real danger, as the Europeans and Americans have always done” said Sergei Mikheev on Radio Vesti .
 
The political scientist called such a belief in NATO assistance the “Slavic complexes” common to the entire Slavic and Russian world.” Ukraine is still rejecting the Russian world, but continues to be part of it. We are used to believing words, people and promises. But America and Europe are completely different. They will tell you anything, but at the crucial moment, they’ll abandon you, as they did with the Georgians,” the expert recalled.
 
We note that an indirect confirmation of Mikheev’s words about NATO’s unwillingness to actually help Ukraine, was the general tone of the US and EU statements after the incident in the Kerch Strait, where three naval forces tried to illegally break into the Sea of ​​Azov through Russian waters, but were detained by the Russian Navy. Experts in Kiev drew attention to the fact that the West is likely to confine itself only to words without a transition to real actions.
 
The author: Grigory Egorov
 
END TRANSLATION

 
Our translation from rueconomics.ru follows below with a foreword and embedded notes in square brackets by Vince Dhimos.
 
Poroshenko is trying desperately to get the US and NATO involved in solving the problems he himself, with US backing, caused. (Yesterday we posted his admission that Ukraine is the poorest state in Europe, thanks to the illegal and violent US-backed Maidan coup). That is no doubt why he sent 3 military ships into the Russian territory so that a small exchange of fire would take place and give rise to NATO intervention. Let's hope there are cool heads prevailing on the Western side. The West is already getting sick of this guy. Let's hope they don't latch on to this as an excuse to slap more sanctions on Russia or cut them off of SWIFT. Poroshenko’s fond wish for war, however, is not likely to come true.


BEGIN TRANSLATION
 
Poroshenko has become a political corpse": the consequences of the martial law in Ukraine, said an expert


Poroshenko fears "land invasion" of Ukraine by Russia
 
November 26, 2018, Kiev, Ukraine
 
https://rueconomics.ru/363424poroshenko-napugal-ukraincev-sukhoputnym-vtorzheniem-rossii 
 
Intelligence speaks of an "extremely serious threat" of a land operation against Ukraine, President Petro Poroshenko said in a televised address to the people.
 
Poroshenko: the Russian army ready to launch an “immediate invasion” into the territory of Ukraine at any time.
 
https://www.president.gov.ua/Administration of the President of Ukraine.
 
According to Poroshenko, there are several pages of text [from Ukrainian intel] with a detailed description of all Russian forces that are allegedly located at a distance of several tens of kilometres from the border. [NSS note: The presence of the Russian forces is easily explained by the warlike insinuations that Ukraine might invade Russia]
 
[NSS note: Such irony! NATO has staged the Trident Juncture drills right at the Russian border and the Russian officials did not issue a hysterical message like this. That is because Russian officials are adults and behave as such, and they realize it is legal under international law for the militaries of one or more countries to concentrate troops anywhere they choose at anyone’s border just so they don’t cross over. Thus Russia is in its perfect right to amass troops and materiel at its own border and that is none of Ukraine’s business. But Poroshenko’s situation is desperate. He is in serious internal political trouble and could be ousted at any time by his disgusted populace, so he needed a diversion, and therefore sent in 3 military ships to enter Russian territorial waters, provoking the Russians to fire on the vessels so that he could instigate NATO intervention. It is unlikely to succeed because, unlike Poroshenko, NATO officials know that they cannot deal militarily with Russia. They learned that in Syria. But apparently Poroshenko doesn’t read the news.]
 
They are ready at any moment to launch an “immediate invasion” on the territory of Ukraine - these are airplanes, helicopters, tanks, rocket complexes, and armoured personnel carriers, the head of state asserts. [NSS note: THIS IS ABSOLUTELY ABSURD!]
 
He also explained that he proposed TO the Verkhovna Rada to impose martial law for 30 days, not 60 days, in order not to disrupt the presidential election. [NSS: So it’s election time and time to pull any stunt that might scare the populace into re-electing the old president, no matter how incompetent he may be.]
 
Recall, on November 25, the ships of the Ukrainian Navy "Berdyansk", "Nikopol" and "Yany Kapu" violated the Russian border in the Kerch Strait. Since they ignored the warnings of the frontier service, they had to be detained using weapons.
 
Experts believe that by this planned provocation Kiev was trying to remind the world community of its existence, and besides, it wants to thwart the negotiations in Argentina between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. 
 
END TRANSLATION

It ought to be clear intuitively that any government that bases its important policies on fantasies is inviting trouble. After 9-11 2001, it was clear that Sunni Wahhabist terrorists were a serious threat. So what did the US do? It strengthened its ties with Saudi Arabia, the country that originated and cultivated the violent, intolerant Wahhabism espoused by all infamous terror groups, and attacked countries – Afghanistan and Iraq – that Saudi saw as a threat. I explained this weird behaviour here.
 
In keeping with this weird policy, Trump again blamed Iran for the killing of Jamal Kashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Turkey.
 
As long as the US keeps rewriting history as it happens, based on politically motivated narratives, Washington can never be expected to solve any of the problems it faces. If a lab technician writes diagnoses based on fantasy, some patients will die on the operating table as a result. Some will have the wrong limb amputated. Hospitals will be seen as killing fields. Eventually no one will ever go near a hospital. Likewise, when the US government issues false diagnoses of its problems and invents enemies out of thin air, wars are fought and lost, or worse, prosperous states are converted to failed states, as happened in Iraq and Libya; foreign states lose their trust in the US, mountains of debt crush the economy and the US eventually sinks into irrelevance. Example: On Oct 27, 2016, a summit was held in Istanbul to discuss the post-war fate of Syria. Only Germany, France, Turkey and Russia attended. The US – which had absurdly claimed it had “defeated ISIS” in Syria (ISIS is still there and wreaking havoc) – was not invited.
 
By pretending that Russia and China are mortal enemies – with a view to maintaining “defence” spending at astronomical levels, earmarking it for Rube Goldberg toys that have no relevance to future combat scenarios – the US is opening the door for Russia and China in Africa. The latter are working there to establish military and economic ties that have been abandoned by the US, which now has no chance of ever re-establishing a meaningful presence on a continent that no longer trusts it. There is in fact a real enemy there. Boko Haram is an ISIS wannabe that has kidnapped school girls and staged bloodbaths in various African states. It is a major concern for the Central African Republic (CAR). US “news” ignores it. It doesn’t fit the Washington narrative. The Pentagon could care less about Africa – except as Russia and China are becoming players there. Russia has started to fill the vacuum, offering its military services to the country. As for China, I had written about how its persistent strategy of building infrastructure is having a positive influence on the economy of Zambia.
 
As the US focuses on its false narrative of Russia and China as enemies, these same countries are winning the hearts and minds in Africa and emerging as powerful partners of the African people.
 
Our translation of a Russian analysis from nation-news.ru of this failure of the US and the consequent success story of Russia and China in Africa follows below.
 
BEGIN TRANSLATION
 
Changes in US policy have become an opportunity for China and Russia to increase their military presence in Africa
 
20 November 2018
 
The United States reported on the withdrawal of troops from Africa to focus on confronting its main opponents on the world stage. At the same time, Russia and China are engaged in building up their military presence on the continent.
 
Changes in US policy have become an opportunity for China and the Russian Federation to build up their military presence in Africa
 
The war between the authorities and the rebel movements in the Central African Republic has pushed Russia to increase humanitarian and military aid to those affected by the conflict. This desire of the Russian Federation was met with suspicions in the United States and some Western countries. Their reaction was compared with “jealousy” in the Russian Foreign Ministry, which indicated its readiness to provide more support to the African state in case it is required. Ekonomika Segodnya (Economy Today) reports on this.
 
Russia is not the only country interested in security in the CAR territory. The Republic is one of the 26 African states whose territories have become a place for the deployment of US troops as part of a counter-terrorism initiative. Information on this can be found in the project "Cost of War," which also recorded that during their wars, the Americans spent about six trillion dollars on conflicts that killed 500 thousand people. [The author is referring to 2017 report on a project of Brown University. The full 41 page report is available free on line here – Vince].
 
Changes in US policy have become an opportunity for China and the Russian Federation to build up their military presence in Africa
 
Now the United States announced a review of policy in African countries, pointing to the need for the Americans to confront Russia and China. It is noted that we are talking about a 10% reduction in the number of military personnel serving on the continent.
 
China, in turn, has managed to open its first foreign base, and also to demonstrate military power in Africa, where it has launched a number of projects. It is noted that some of them were commercial. The United States calls the actions of the Chinese side a threat to their own interests, appealing to African countries not to accept investments from the PRC. Despite this, Beijing’s ties with parts of the continent are not losing strength.
 
Later the US was concerned about the prospect control of the Doraleh terminal would be transferred to China following the termination of the agreement with the United Arab Emirates. At the same time, China and Russia believe that the inaction of Americans in Africa is an opportunity to increase their presence on the continent. In addition, Moscow and Beijing, faced with criticism from the US, are stepping up defence ties between each other.
 
Author: Vera Vyrvich
 
END OF TRANSLATION
 
Russia making headway in Africa
 
https://southfront.org/russian-advisers-mercenaries-and-political-operatives-expand-influence-in-africa-bloomberg/    

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Our partial translation of an article from the Russian msm follows, with a foreword by Vince Dhimos.
 
The Russian site Inosmi posted an into-Russian translation of an article from the Finnish site Ilta-Sanomat. The Finnish author, Jouko Juonala (who turns out to be the Editor-in-Chief), provided some important details about Russian electronic warfare, although he is badly misinformed about the quality of US vs Russian EW. He got it exactly backwards. In his introductory remarks he writes:
 
“Russian technologies and skills of Russian specialists are beginning to approach the western level.” [my emphasis]
 
Since most information available in the West on Russian EW indicates that the US lags seriously behind the Russians, I initially suspected that the Russian translator had misread the Finnish text at this passage, so I searched for the original article in Finnish and found it here.  Using Google translate I was able to determine that this was in fact what Jouko Juonala really meant. I found an email for the site and told him US military experts generally agree that Russian EW is superior to Western EW. I also tweeted this to @JoukoJuonala.
 
Based on this erroneous statement by a Finn, whose country, while not yet a member, is a NATO partner, it seems likely that the US is misleading its NATO partners into thinking that NATO and the US have superior weapons. At any rate, they must be doing a masterful PR job to convince them that Russia can be defeated at all and thereby persuade them to participate in military drills at the Russian border – the height of folly. Apparently the US correctly supposes that its partners and allies would be less likely to cooperate with them and to buy US arms if they found out US weapons are not only more expensive but also less effective than the ones used by the people misrepresented to them as the “enemy.”
 
Be that as it may, let us look at some of the information on Russian EW arms provided by Mr. Juonala. The following translation (by NSS) from the Russian translation posted at Inosmi shows that Russia has a dazzling array of different types of EW systems that can explain the complaints of both the American commanders in Syria, such as Special Operations commander Gen. Raymond Thomas, who, as we have told you previously, calls this country “the most aggressive EW environment on the planet,” and the complaints of the poor Norwegians, Swedes, Laplanders and Latvians who lost their GPS service during the NATO drill Trident Juncture at the Russian border. But before you cry them a river, consider how the Americans would feel if the Russians or Chinese or both conducted such menacing drills in Canada just north of their border.
 
Oh, did I mention this? The Miami Herald reports that Russia is weighing putting a base in Cuba.
 
BEGIN TRANSLATION
 
Electronic warfare systems are multistage and numerous, they can be divided into different groups according to their radius of action and mission. Here are just a few examples.
 
Zhitel
 
In Russian motorized rifle brigades and tank brigades, at least on paper, there is a company that conducts electronic warfare, which includes the R-330Z Zhitel system, designed to interfere with satellite communications. The Zhitel is a mobile station with a range that covers not only GPS signals, but also signals from the European Galileo navigation system and the corresponding Chinese Beidou satellite system.
 
The mission of the Zhitel is to create interference in the operation of communication systems and information systems of aircraft and guided missiles, as well as in a satellite navigation system at a range of 200 kilometres. It can protect the command centres of the division and brigade level from strikes by enemy precision weapons.
 
OSCE observers have reported that the Zhitel system is also used to interfere with unmanned aerial vehicles in eastern Ukraine.
 
Borisoglebsk
 
This is a mobile system similar to the Zhitel that entered mass production in 2011. The equipment is quite varied: it can interfere with radio communications, satellite communications and GPS signals.
 
Leer
 
Russia has developed the Leer system, which is installed on light unmanned aerial vehicles or on an armoured personnel carrier. Its task is to recognize and suppress mobile networks in the GSM band. The complex can also imitate the operation of a cellular base station and send false messages to mobile phones. It is known that the Leer was used to conduct psychological operations in Syria.
 
Krasukha
 
This family of systems is designed to interfere with aircraft radars. They can interfere, for example, with the operation of the NATO Radio Detection and Guidance Complex (AWACS) and distort the radar signals of military aircraft. The latest versions can have an impact, for example, on unmanned aerial vehicles as well.
 
Aircraft
 
A new reconnaissance aircraft of the Russian Air Force, the Tupolev Tu-214, can recognize and analyse the transmission of a wide spectrum of radio signals. Its equipment can be used to create interference.
 
The Ilyushin Il-22PP, Porubshchik, is a plane with a turboprop engine, equipped with new generation electronics. The first Porubshchiki entered service in 2016. The task of the aircraft is to distort the signals of the enemy’s radar both on the ground and in the air, and to interfere with the navigation systems of UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles).
 
END TRANSLATION

Vince Dhimos

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In a rare move, NATO recently cooperated with Russia during its massive Trident Juncture drills held between Oct. 25 and Nov. 7, 2018, mostly in northern Sweden, for the purpose of scaring Russia and spending tax money. Though Russia denies it, the country apparently availed itself of the opportunity to test its Electronic Warfare (EW) equipment to see if it could block communications on real enemy aircraft. One of the results of the test was that the GPS signals in northern Finland, Norway and Latvia were suppressed and the war planes rehearsing for the destruction of Russia temporarily lost their way as a consequence.
 
And incredibly, NATO members like Norway and non-member participants in the drills like Finland and Sweden, pitched in and helped Russia evaluate the effectiveness of their EW testing. It turns out it was a smashing success, wiping out the GPS signals in Norway, Sweden, Finland, and also in Latvia. Well, the cooperation was not voluntary, of course. These countries all whined vociferously that evil Russia had put the lives of their flyers in danger, signalling to Russia that their EW systems were working. Finland even called its Russian ambassador to discuss this. Russia denied it, of course. There was no proof. I admit, I chuckled as I read this sad tale.
 
Now here is something to think about, Folks:
 
If you had the choice of temporarily losing the use of your GPS or having your country invaded or targeted by nuclear ICBMs, which would you choose?
 
Russia has chosen to treat the Russia-bashing Western psychopaths with silk gloves, jamming the war planes training to destroy their country instead of using conventional murder weapons that are the choice of the NATO bullies.
 
Russia’s EW systems could best be called Electronic Peacefare because they leave the enemy’s material assets and pilots’ lives intact.
 
But as I pointed out here, Russia is far ahead of the rest of the world in EW and air defences. But note that neither of these weapons systems are intended to attack the adversary, only to defend Russia in the most passive and harmless way possible.
 
You have to feel sorry for the organization that bombed Ghadaffi and plunged Libya into a civil war and a terrorist takeover, and rained hell down on hospitals and other civil structures as well as on peaceful citizens in the Kosovo war. What did they do to deserve this disruption of their GPS navigation?
 
NATO should thank Russia for focusing its arms development on defensive weapons. Of course, if they still want to play rough, Russia will oblige them because their offensive arsenal is also formidable – so much so that Trump assiduously avoided targeting Russian assets in his “humanitarian” Tomahawk attack last April.
 
What NATO is doing by complaining is like the actions of a C student beating up on an A student out of jealousy. They can’t fight back using their own EW systems because theirs are puny by comparison. They are admitting by their complaints, that Russia has clearly superior arms and that they can’t compete. Russia has beaten them at their own war games and all they can do is whine, showing off their impotence.
 
The embarrassment would be excruciating to an adult, but we are dealing with the kiddies of NATO, spoiled rotten little lifers who never worked a day in their lives, living off corrupt incompetent governments. Think about it: The US, NATO’s boss, has spent 10 times as much money on defence as Russia and is ten years behind it in these important military areas! This is because the Pentagon's mission is to fill the coffers of defence companies, while the Russian MoD sees its mission in the security of Russia,as explained here.

 
Yet instead of manning up and showing a bit of respect to their superiors in Moscow, all the US-sponsored NATO can do is whine. It’s an admission of defeat before the start of hostilities.


Click on the video below to see how NATO "protected" Kosovo by bombing them by the thousands:

​https://www.rt.com/news/440616-stoltenberg-serbia-nato-bombing/

“I stressed that we did this to protect civilians and to stop the Milosevic regime,” Stoltenberg [head of NATO] said, as quoted by the local media, claiming locals have painful memories of the events.

It's ok to cry.

Quantum radar detects stealth aircraft
 
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:40
 
Our translation of an article from Russkaya Gazeta with a Commentary by Vince Dhimos. Comments in square brackets are also by Vince Dhimos.
 
The Israelis are afraid that their stealth F-35s might be visible to radar employed by Russia as part of their new tiered air defences in Syria, although Russia has not said a word about their radar, except to say that they can see the F-35s. The Russians have performed miracles before, such as using electronic warfare wonder weapons to disable US aircraft used to kill Syrians, and they themselves have never told the world about these secret jamming devices – which are now part of the layered air defences in Syria. It was the head of US Special Operations who let the cat out of the bag at a high-meeting of the military where he complained that his AC-130 gunships were almost inoperable due to “the most aggressive electronic warfare environment on the planet.” So since the Russians are so close-mouthed about their wonder weapons, people are starting to wonder if they are secretly using quantum radar in Syria – something they have been working on for years (details below).
 
Quantum physics is kind of like religion. No one can fully explain its mechanism, but if you believe in it, you can work miracles to solve problems facing humankind. The article in translation below relates to a Chinese quantum radar system that can be used to see aircraft said to be radar invisible. The Chinese have developed it to the point that it can detect and image objects in the sky 100 kilometres away. I suspect that if the Russians have also reached this level of development, they won’t tell us, at least not until the war in Syria is over and the US has pulled out.
 
The mysterious field of quantum optics is based on the impossible: a particle (called an entangled photon) left in a radar system will undergo changes mirroring the same changes in a particle (another entangled photon) far away – as far as 100 km. It’s a phenomenon that Einstein called “spooky action.” Einstein predicted this based on his thought research but said it was unlikely to occur in the real world.
 
He was wrong. Scientists have now observed this spooky phenomenon in real experiments in which “ghost images” are created. It has applications in medicine such as the imaging of internal parts of the body not visible to ordinary light.

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China has shown the world's first quantum radar
 
Nov. 8th, 2018
 
At the aerospace show in Zhuhai, the state-owned company China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) demonstrated a prototype of a proprietary quantum radar system.
 
“Work in this area has been conducted for many years by our 14th research institute. In 2015, the prototype radar was tested for the first time,” a CETC representatives told Aviation Week. In their opinion, quantum radar will be able to easily detect unobtrusive targets and will be immune to electronic jamming systems.
 
In short, the radar works like this. The beam of light is divided in half, part of the photons is sent into space to search for targets, the other remains in the emitter as a reference. The photon reflected by the target returns to the radar, connects with its pair and is processed by the computing system. All other electromagnetic particles that have fallen into the receiver: daylight, enemy-set interference, false targets, etc. ”do not have a reference pair and are therefore discarded. In addition to noise immunity, quantum radar allows you to see not the target mark, but its image, which makes it possible to classify an object and choose the best tool for its interception.
 
[Makes not sense to you? Quantum physics actually makes no sense to anyone. Einstein predicted that a change in a particle far away from another could cause an identical change in the other. He called it “spooky action” and said that in the real world, it probably could not happen, regardless of his theory. But it turns out that it does in fact happen. The result, applied in medicine, for example, is sometimes called “ghost imaging.” There is nothing to understand. It is like religion. Believing is sufficient. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 25:40]
 
Work on quantum emitters is being carried out in Russia - on the basis of the Institute of Long-Range Radar.
 
Radar will have eyes
 
A group of specialists based on the Research Institute of Long-Range Radar is developing a radically new X-band radar station operating on the basis of radiophoton technologies.
 
The work is led by the head of the working group of the scientific and technical council of the Military-Industrial Commission on radiophotonics, Alexey Nikolaevich Shulunov. The first steps that can be considered successful have been made. It seems that a new era is opening up in conventional radar, which now seems like science fiction.
 
Probably, everyone who has graduated from at least high school knows what radar is. But not even a very large circle of specialists knows what photonic radar is. To simplify, the new technology allows one to combine the incompatible - radio waves and light. In this case, an electron flux must be converted into a photon flux and vice versa. The task, which yesterday was beyond reality, can be solved in the near future. What will come of it?
For example, the basis of systems for radar missile defence systems and the tracking of space objects is huge radar complexes. The equipment is housed in multi-storey buildings. The use of photonic technologies will allow all control and data processing systems to fit in much smaller dimensions - literally in several rooms. At the same time, the technical capabilities of radar for detecting even small objects at a distance of thousands of kilometres will only increase. Moreover, due to the use of photon technologies on the radar screen, the target will show up not as a blip, but as an image – something that is unattainable with conventional radar. That is, the operator, instead of the usual dot of light, will see what is actually flying — an airplane, a rocket, a flock of birds or a meteorite — it is worth repeating, even thousands of kilometres from the radar.
 
Now all radar systems – military and civilian – operate in a strictly defined frequency range, which complicates the technical design and leads to a varied radar nomenclature. Photon radar will achieve the highest degree of unification. This radar can instantly tune in a very wide spectrum of operating frequencies – from the metre to the millimetre range.
 
It has long been no secret that so-called stealth aircraft are clearly visible in the metre spectrum, but their coordinates are most accurately provided by centimetre and millimetre-range stations. Therefore, in the air defence systems, metre stations with very large antennas and more compact centimetre-range antennas function simultaneously. But the photon radar, scanning space in the long frequency range, will detect the same “invisibility” without any problems and, by instantly changing to a broadband signal and a high frequency, they can determine the exact coordinates of the target in altitude and distance.
 
This is just radar. Revolutionary changes will occur in electronic warfare, in the transmission of information and its protection, in computing technology and much more. It is easier to say what radiophotonics will not affect.
 
In essence, a fundamentally new branch of the high-tech industry will be created. The problem is extremely difficult, and therefore many leading research centres of the country, university science departments, and a number of industrial enterprises are involved in its solution. According to Shulunov, the work is carried out in close connection with the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Science and Education. Recently, the president of Russia has taken control of these.
 
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About “spooky action”

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/08/140827-quantum-imaging-cats-undetected-photon-science/

All about stealth radar

https://www.slideshare.net/devireddypramodreddy/stealth-radar-53559001
 

Vince on Quora: What does Assad plan to do with the SDF? Is Syria going to be divided into a Western and an Eastern part?
 
The following is my response to a question on Quora. I want to remind readers that the most in-depth analyses by far of the Syrian war are being published at Russian-language sites and the best way to access these is to read www.newsilkstrategies.com. We are still not well equipped for mass mailing and rely on electronic “word of mouth” to drive traffic to our site. We therefore ask that you bookmark this site and visit at least twice a week. For those interested in Russian vs US military prowess and weaponry, we recommend regularly visiting our Military Affairs section.
 
https://www.quora.com/What-Assad-plans-to-do-with-the-SDF-Is-Syria-going-to-be-divided-into-Western-and-Eastern-part/answer/Vince-Dhimos
 
We need to focus on Russia, not Assad. In order to see Syria’s future, we need to look at current trends and behaviour patterns of the Russians in Syria. Almost since the beginning of Iranian involvement there, for example, the Israelis were firing missiles into Syria, destroying defence infrastructure and killing men engaged in fighting terrorists, many of these targets being Iranians.  The Iranians were the excuse that Israel used, but since they never fired back, it was obvious that these Israeli attacks were not defensive, they amounted to an attack on the sovereign state of Syria—completely illegal. These Iranians became martyrs. But creating martyrs is very dangerous for the US. They just don’t realize it. Russia exploits this martyrdom by creating propaganda memes. When Israel sent attack aircraft to Syria that hid behind the Il-20, which was then accidentally shot down as a result, that was perceived as an indirect attack on Russia. But Russia had always said that anyone attacking Russia will be dealt with. And they kept their word, sending in the S-300 system to the Syrian army ostensibly for the purpose of defending against the Israeli attacks, although the real reason was to set air defences to protect against US attacks, which were expected based on the false-flag chemical attacks that the US warned would happen and that this would trigger another – third – Tomahawk attack. The Israelis initially scoffed and said they would destroy on the ground the S-300 systems that can destroy enemy planes attacking Syria. (BTW, the defence minister who drafted this response, Avigdor Liberman, is now the ex-defence minister. Netanyahu knows that you don’t mess with Russia).
 
But the Russians made it clear that Russian personnel would be installing and manning the system until the Syrians could learn to use it. (I suspect they will actually always keep Russian personnel in charge of these systems). It bears noting that the S-300 is not the main issue here. This system is only part of a multi-layered defence system that includes the S-400 system long deployed at the Hmeimim base at Latakia and, most importantly, the highly effective electronic warfare (EW) systems that have no equivalent in the West (Russia is the undisputed master in both air defences and EW) and can jam all electronics on board enemy aircraft. Now how do we know these EW systems work? We know not because of what the Russians have claimed but because of the complaints of US general Raymond Thomas, head of US Special Forces, who let it slip at a high level meeting that the EW systems installed in Syria were making it almost impossible for the AC-130 gunships used for recon in Syria to do their job (BTW, these gunships were part of the attack force that killed Russian mercenaries at Deir Ezzor). He said the area where these planes were deployed was the “most aggressive EW environment on the planet.” He did not mention the Russians but that was unmistakably implied. So then when Russian defence minister stated, after the S-300s were sent to Syria, that the new multi-layered air defences would “suppress satellite navigation, on-board radar systems and communications of warplanes attacking targets on Syrian territory from the west,” no one seriously doubted him. Initially, the Israelis had been counting on the US claim that the F-35s sold to the Israelis would be invisible to radar. However, the latest Russian air defence systems can locate and target these planes (one method used is a laser system). A recent statement by a Russian expert confirms this. An exclusive translation of this can be found at the site newsilkstrategies[dot]com.
 
So let us once more review this long-term behaviour pattern of Russian strategists:
 
1—Tolerate the aggressive behaviour of a powerful enemy until a red line is crossed.
 
2—Then when the red line is crossed, deploy air defences and EW that are known by the enemy to work well and warn what will happen if Russian personnel and/or assets are harmed.
 
You have to realize that it is only a matter of time until the US crosses the line in Syria and the Russians already have a plan for when that happens. At present, there are no Russian air defence and EW systems deployed near the illegal US bases at Deir Ezzor and Al-Tanf. When the US killed a group of Russian mercenaries near Deir Ezzor, that did not cross a red line because these men were not officially part of the Russian armed forces answerable to the Ministry of Defence.
 
So Russia watchers know what is coming.
 
As for the area north of Manbij, although the US has bases there, the ultimate outcome of the conflict depends on the Turks. However, the US is already backing a Kurdish group, the Syrian Defence Forces (SDF) that contains militias of the YPG, which Turkey considers terrorists. In the long run, Turkey will therefore not allow the US to control territory under SDF control. And behind the scenes, Russia will be involved in the Turkish strategy for this region. Putin will push for an agreement that keeps Syria intact.
 
Idlib, where terrorists still hold hostages and reportedly kill some (as reported in this video), will almost certainly be the next stage in the Russian advance. The Russian-Turkish de-escalation zone there is already being violated, and when this becomes too obvious, Russia will no doubt use this as justification for a full-scale attack on the terrorists in the area. Turkey will not be able to object. Russia can say “we did all we could.”
 
But the Russians are wise enough never to allow the Americans to lose face. After all, the ultimate US goal in Syria is not to seize and control territory. It is to please the GOP constituents who firmly believe in MAGA. As long as Trump can continue to take credit for “defeating terror,” even if the Russians and Assad were the ones who did the work, then both the American side and the Russian/Syrian side will be happy and Syria will remain essentially intact.