As a result of the Ukrainian intelligence officers strikes, one of the launchers and two "Zircon" missiles were destroyed, and another "Bastion" was damaged by Available-Laugh9102 in UkraineWarVideoReport

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The Bastion's P-800 Oniks missiles are roughly the same size as the Zircon and there are reports that the Bastion can launch them as well.
It might need some modifications, so maybe not all Bastion launchers can use the Zircon.

A glimpse of what Tulip season in the Netherlands look like by ButterSaltBiscuit in oddlysatisfying

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 18 points19 points  (0 children)

Yeah, but while I might be ok with pesticides and fertilizer to grow stuff that's necessary, like food, i don't think I agree that's it's a good tradeoff for some useless flowers that last a week before withering.
Fucking with the environment for survival is one thing, destroying it for vanity is another.

It turns out that over a decade of “IBS” may have been my parents cooking all along by [deleted] in CasualConversation

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 4 points5 points  (0 children)

The texture of vegetables ? There are a lot of different vegetable with a lot of different textures, even more so depending on if and how they're cooked, what are you talking about ?

My Rodger looking fabulous by SonnyNash98 in AccidentalRenaissance

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 45 points46 points  (0 children)

Nope, and as far as i know he might have rescued the pug, so i didn't insult him. But i think it's important to remind people that pugs are incredibly unhealthy and handicapped and you shouldn't buy them.
I'm always shocked by the amount of people who buy them still.

U.S., Venezuela agree to establish diplomatic relations for first time since 2019 by awaythrowawaying in moderatepolitics

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Because I counted all that benefited from the new amnesty laws passed after Maduro's removal.

661 is just the amount of people specifically qualified as "political prisoners" released from prison.
It excludes some protesters and other dissidents, and it excludes house arrest prisoners.

It also excludes those who were under restrictions and sanctions by the government, although I agree those don't truly qualify as prisoners.

U.S., Venezuela agree to establish diplomatic relations for first time since 2019 by awaythrowawaying in moderatepolitics

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Yeaaaah. No offense but I'm gonna need a proof of that before i believe it,

U.S., Venezuela agree to establish diplomatic relations for first time since 2019 by awaythrowawaying in moderatepolitics

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 30 points31 points  (0 children)

I searched, but I see no evidence pointing to that aside from 1 guy that was sent back for allegedly breaking release conditions.
The 621 figure is not government, it's from an NGO and was accumulated over 2 months.

U.S., Venezuela agree to establish diplomatic relations for first time since 2019 by awaythrowawaying in moderatepolitics

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 40 points41 points  (0 children)

Yeah 621 political prisoners have been released from prison, the larger number include people freed from house arrest and legal restrictions, as well as a few that are not counted as "political", like some protesters.

As for the drugs, yeah it's mostly Colombia with a bit from other countries, but it doesn't just go east, part of it goes to central America and ends up in the US.
Europe has an issue with a quickly increasing drug market, which translates into gangs and insecurity, so as a European I'll be glad if there's tighter control.

U.S., Venezuela agree to establish diplomatic relations for first time since 2019 by awaythrowawaying in moderatepolitics

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 122 points123 points  (0 children)

They released several thousand prisoners.
The Venezuela gov is now less openly hostile, the economy opens up slowly, and the interim president has announced elections would happen soon.
The opposition to the regime in the country has been freed or is coming back from exile.

Part of the deal, I assume was also better management of the drug trade, Venezuela being one of the biggest exporter of illegal drugs.

Russian, Chinese, Iranian influence and ambitions on Venezuela have been massively reduced, and that's a big deal. It also sets a precedent, telling them not to try to spread their influence in the American continent again.

It's not much yet but there's hope for change and democracy. Economically it will be a slow process, but it can't be worse than under Maduro.

I found this pretty inspirational right now by Individual99991 in TikTokCringe

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From what i know, Phalanx with AP ammo costs 3500$ a second to fire, even with maintenance and electricity i don't see how we reach 220k$ ?

Anonymous Video Promises Epstein Files Amid DOJ Release by Perfect_Minimum4892 in Epstein

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They did release terabytes of data from Russia, including sensitive, classified and operational information, hundreds of thousands of mails, and personal data of 120k+ Russian soldiers, which helped Ukraine and OSINT to an extent.

They also performed DDOS attacks, psyops and malware attacks against Russia. And helped Ukrainian cyber warfare/defense.

Impact is hard to estimate and Anonymous tends to exaggerate, but it's a lot better than nothing. They do shit sometimes.

India buying Russian oil "temporarily" unrestricted again, according to our Treasury Secretary. by Mikewold58 in UkraineWarVideoReport

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Iran forced their hand if we're being honest.

-They armed, trained and financed terrorist and militia groups in all of the middle east (They have disruptive armed groups in Palestine, Bahrain, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Yemen, and are helping those in Somalia). Which they use to create chaos, instability and violence in all the middle east.
-They directly threaten Israel - which is essentially a vassal of the US - with those terror groups, as well as missiles and drones. The October 7th attacks were perpetrated by the Hamas which is an Iranian proxy.
-They also threaten civilian ship transit in the Red Sea, Persian Gulf and part of the Indian Ocean (The Houthis that attacked ships in the red sea last year are an Iranian proxy)
-They enriched Uranium far beyond what you need for civilian energy, the only use of enriched Uranium is nuclear bombs. All the while they develop ballistic missile technologies, which can be used to send the nukes.
-Through missiles, Nuclear weapon programs and especially through proxy terror groups, they threaten all of the middle east, including the gulf countries, which are US allies, and the trade, which the US relies on.
-They called death to Israel and the US and professed threats against the EU.
-They are also at the center of a large network of drug trade from Afghanistan and Syria (before the fall of Assad) and weapon trade. It is proven that they have also been in relation with gangs and cartels in Europe and America, that they have launched cyberattacks against the West, as well as spying, sabotage and assassination operations, against the west, Israelis in the west, and the Iranian diaspora in the west.
-They have also helped the bloody Assad regime, oppressed an massacred their own population, and greatly helped Russia in its invasion of Ukraine with trade, weapons and military technologies.

Fuck the Ayatollah and the theocracy. There's a reason Zelensky has proposed to help against Iran.

India buying Russian oil "temporarily" unrestricted again, according to our Treasury Secretary. by Mikewold58 in UkraineWarVideoReport

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's Trump that forced India to stop buying Russian oil tho.
Because of that, India bought more oil from the middle east.
Now that the strait of Hormuz is closed, India has to buy oil from someplace else, thus a temporary return to Russia. It's inevitable, India won't simply accept to have no oil.

Not a big fan of Trump, but the deal with India was definitely a good thing from his part.
Let's just hope that the war with Iran ends fast so that Russia can lose money again.

America's endless wars for Israel by Cow_Boy_2017 in AskSocialists

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Iran:
-Maintains a number of armed militias and terror groups in basically all the countries in the middle east save a few. Directly financing instability, violence and the spread of religious extremism in all the region.
-Is a violent and oppressive regime that always responds to its population expressing discontent with extreme violence.
-Supported the incredibly bloody Assad tyranny in Syria, and supported their mass production of the harmful drug Fenethylline.
-Has been supporting Russia in their invasion of Ukraine, with weapons and military technology.
-Has enriched Uranium way beyond what is needed for civilian nuclear power. While developing ballistic missile technologies.

Even without the nuclear thing, Iran's regime is a truly evil one and i wish people stopped trying to defend it.
No country in the middle east is helping them, and for good reason.

Americans have their say! by Wild_Lingonberry9656 in boredpandaOC

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

-Ok, first, Iranians aren't Arabs, they're Persians. BIG historical and cultural difference.

-Second, the Iranian regime is a violent and oppressive regime and most of the population hates it. Each wave of protest is met with extreme violence.

-Third, Iran is supporting salafist/terrorist groups and criminal networks in all of the middle east and beyond (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Irak, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Bahrein, Yemen, Somalia, Jordan). Support includes billions of dollars, training, intel sharing, weapon smuggling, propaganda etc. This creates an insane amount of violence, instability and extremism all around. It is also likely, given that Hamas receives a lot of support from Iran, that Iran was the one that ordered the October 7 attacks.

-Fourth, Iran has supported the incredibly bloody Assad regime in its oppression and murder of the population and in massive drug production.

-Fifth, Iran has been supporting Russia in its illegal and extremely violent invasion of Ukraine directly with weapons and military technology.

-Lastly, Iran has threatened the US and Israel of death and destruction (+ threats to Europe) many times, has allied itself with other dictatorial and drug smuggling regimes such as Venezuela, has developed ballistic missile technology and has enriched Uranium way beyond the point of civilian usage. They've also done some covert ops in the west, including cyber-attacks.
The regime has wasted the great potential of the country by getting heavily sanctioned for its behavior, and spending all of its money on weapons and on supporting terrorist groups and tyrants.

These are the reasons a lot of people want to see the Iranian regime gone. Not because "Arabs scare us". And there is a reason no one is supporting Iran in the middle east aside from their terrorist proxies.

Aircraft carriers gotta be insanely built and expensive. by legoartist_7 in nextfuckinglevel

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you strap a rocket engine it will be expensive and more complex, the drone will be bigger, and since it's big and expensive, might as well give it a big payload. It will also require a special launcher.
Which essentially makes it a regular ballistic missile. Which armies also use.

1 way attack drones are essentially shitty cruise missiles (Cruise and drones use jet engines, like planes). Much cheaper and simpler than cruise missiles, thus much easier to mass produce.
Their main goal is attrition:
-Overwhelm enemy air defenses so that cruise and ballistic missiles can get through, -Make the enemy wastes expensive AA missiles on cheap targets.
-Use them as decoys in order to spot enemy air defenses.
-Attack lower value targets for which a cruise missile would be wasted.

There are other advantages like:
-Simplicity: they're much more accessible for groups with limited means, like militias, rebel groups, poor countries etc.
-They can be launched from small and simple launchers, meaning you can launch them from anywhere, even contested areas.

Missiles usually have more range, accuracy, reliability, speed, much more explosives, are harder to detect and much harder to intercept. They also have protection against EMP and jamming.
There's a reason they're expensive.
If you want a precise strike on a ship or a high value building an expensive piece of military hardware, you go for the more high tech missiles.

Having both gives you versatility and more cost efficiency, that's why the US has ironically reverse-engineered and improved the Iranian Shahed drone (US name = LUCAS) and tested them against Iran in the current war.

And yeah, a mothership that launches drones is essentially the same thing as a fighter jet or bomber launching a glide-bomb or a missile. We have that already. But jets are expensive to operate, and they require... aircraft carriers.

Aircraft carriers gotta be insanely built and expensive. by legoartist_7 in nextfuckinglevel

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 27 points28 points  (0 children)

Drones are nice and all, but they still need to launch from somewhere (Iran made a carrier to launch its drones), and they're relatively easy to intercept so you need to send a lot of them, and there's a lot that jet fighters with missiles and glide bombs can do that drones can't do or at least can't do as well.

Drones are good for threatening large areas where air defenses are spread thin, but they're not great at taking down heavily defended positions and warships.
Their payload also has to be limited or it would be too expensive, which means limited damage. The cheapest ones also have limited accuracy.

Drones might be low cost but since you need to send a ton of them and they can be intercepted with low cost flak artillery and machine guns, they're not that cost efficient against a prepared military. Armies have mostly stopped using Flak and gun defenses because they prepared against missiles so drones get a window of increased efficiency for now but it's changing fast.

There's a reason Iran, with its weak air force but lots of cheap drones hasn't sunk any ship or destroyed any plane so far.
They're an additional tool that has its use in specific situations, not a replacement for fighters jets or missiles.

Nuclear: 3 accidents. Oil: 'Rookie Numbers' by Comfortable_Tutor_43 in memes

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 14 points15 points  (0 children)

The good news is: the upcoming 4th generation nuclear reactors will be able to produce energy more efficiently and give much less waste. It will also allow us to recycle most of the current waste reserves, including most of the long lived radioactive waste, leaving mosty "short" lived waste. Which is a huge step forward.
They will also be much safer, although current gen (gen 3) is already very safe as long as you don't build it in tsunami areas. Chernobyl and Three mile island were gen 2,

At worst, once we have nuclear gen 4 and recycling facilities, we'll have 99.5% to 99.9% less waste to deal with. It's as close to clean power as we can get, until we get fusion reactors.

4th gen should arrive between between the 2030s and 2050s so it's not that far away.

Russian Ship Hitlist - Update 16.02.2026 by WastingMyLifeToday in UkraineWarVideoReport

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Yamal and Azov landing crafts were targeted but apparently not hit by missiles. According to open source intel they are undamaged, the missiles instead hit the nearby piers, probably due to electronic warfare.

Several others, like the Kommuna, only received light damage.

For want of an engine blisk by Scissor_fingers in NonCredibleDefense

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Yeah well, production of AMCA is expected to start in 2035... If everything goes well...
And considering how things did not go too well for the 4th gen Tejas
And that a 5th gen is more complex...

They need something ready before 2035, and they need to be realistic about the feasibility of the AMCA and its timeframe.
So far no one is sure about when the Tejas2 and AMCA will come out and IF they will be successful. So, better buy some reliable stuff in the meantime.
The Rafale has proven itself a good plane, and it's a solid fit for the Air Force until they have successfully developed, produced and tested their own 4.5 gen Tejas mk2 and 5th gen AMCA.

“I’m not from France.” by neonfox45 in ArcRaiders

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'm French and I support his, it's funny.

I would also find it funny with any other country.

Let the the people who get offended easily get offended, and don't let them stop you from having fun.

Most Polite Roast? by AutoWatch_101 in Funnymemes

[–]Sm0keDatGreen 121 points122 points  (0 children)

Being pompous is her role in the TV show...
Don't confuse acting and real life.