Tuesday, 31 January 2023 — Moon of Alabama
NATO is continuing its disarmament mission.
France to send an extra 12 powerful Caesar howitzers to Ukraine
French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu’s announcement that France will send 12 additional Caesar howitzers to Kyiv is “clearly important for the Ukrainians, particularly the Caesar artillery system”, said FRANCE 24 Chief Foreign Editor Robert Parsons.
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“They’ve been very successful in Ukraine, so the Ukrainians will be delighted, I am sure, to get another 12. I think that brings that total to over 40 now, closing on 50 Caesars in Ukraine.
France has only 77 Caesar howitzer left. Others though are worse off.
Estonia Sending All Its 155-mm Howitzers to Ukraine
Estonia will donate all its 155-millimeter howitzers to Ukraine as part of its most extensive military assistance yet.
The package, previously reported to be worth 113 million euros ($122 million), is expected to boost Kyiv’s defense capabilities amid continuing Russian aggression.
Estonia currently operates 24 NATO standard FH-70 towed howitzers.
Apart from the howitzers, Tallinn will send thousands of 155-mm artillery shells and hundreds of Karl-Gustaf anti-tank grenade launchers.
We know how all that artillery will end.
Several weeks ago Russia launched a special counter-artillery campaign. There are dedicated counter artillery radars, electronic warfare and airborne surveillance systems and long range artillery batteries with precision ammunition engaged in this.
So today I did some staff work and summed up the claimed artillery destruction as listed in the daily ‘clobber list’ provided by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
Here are the results:
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In the last seven days Russia claimed to have destroyed a total of 40 truck pulled howitzers, 32 self propelled howitzers, 8 Multiple Rocked Launcher Systems (MRLS), 15 counter artillery radars and 23 local artillery ammunition depots.
On top of that it engaged Ukrainian artillery positions with normal counter fire on 651 occasions. This will have caused additional damage and losses.
Additionally 55 MLRS rockets and HARM anti-radar missiles were intercepted by Russian air defenses.
If you think that the field reports the ministry receives are exaggerating the numbers, which is likely, simply divide them by half.
In just one week it was still more than Estonia and France promise to deliver.
Yesterday I explained why a NATO or U.S. intervention with ground troops is unlikely. We can add the acute lack of NATO artillery and artillery ammunition to the reasons.
NATO has disarmed its ground forces and is no longer combat capable.
The New Dark Age 
Why is the US letting this disarmament undermine NATO’s strength and capability? It knows it will take several years at least to re-arm. In the meantime, NATO will not be able to even consider taking on Russia with any chance of success – unless it uses nukes!
I would like to know what the real agenda behind this is. I don’t think the US wants to use nukes against Russia (because it can’t win), although I do think it might against China – simply because China is weaker militarily than Russia – for now. That’s why it wants to confront China sooner rather than later when it’s more much powerful, as it inevitably will be in a few years.
Perhaps the actual US intention is to tie up Russia in a long conflict in Europe to prevent it from coming to China’s assistance later on, and at Europe’s expense, and without draining the US militarily too much. It seems that NATO may have finally fulfilled its purpose, and can then be discarded once used up.
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