Gap between US, adversaries’ electronic warfare capabilities growing into chasm

Retired US Army Lieutenant General and spec ops commander Mike Nagata has sounded the alarm about the state of US military’s electronic warfare capabilities, warning that America is “still falling behind” potential adversaries in this area in spite of the defense industry’s best efforts.

“The gap between where the United States should be and where we are, in my judgment, continues to expand not everywhere, but in far too many places,” Nagata said at a Special Operations Forces Week conference in Tampa, Florida.

“The US government, particularly its leadership – from senior military officers all the way to civilian policymakers – we have to be willing to take more risk in experimenting with, adopting and employing new technologies,” Nagata said, highlighting the unique challenges posed by Russian electromagnetic jamming equipment.

Hudson Institute senior fellow Daniel Patt told lawmakers earlier this month that Russian electronic warfare equipment has reduced the “efficiency rate” of the GPS-guided Excalibur artillery munition from 70 to 6 percent, with other weapons, from drones and small-diameter bombs to communications systems like Starlink and Starshield, proving similarly susceptible, in part owing to their high-energy signatures.

Last week, Business Insider reported that Russia’s EW systems have had a “shocking” impact on the accuracy of weapons like the HIMARS-fired Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System (GMLRS), and the air-launched Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) dumb-to-smart bomb conversion kit.

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Why Blinken's surprise visit to Ukraine is bad omen for Zelensky

💬 "Western media report that Blinken will send a strong signal of confidence to Kiev. In my opinion, on the contrary, such a hasty unannounced visit to Ukraine in the current conditions should rather raise alarm bells," Alexander Dudchak, a leading researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries and the Other Ukraine movement expert, told Sputnik.

According to Dudchak, Blinken has come to Kiev to evaluate the situation on the ground and offer new tougher conditions to Volodymyr Zelensky amid Ukraine's failures on the battlefield.

One of these conditions is to speed up mobilization and throw more Ukrainians into the conflict's meat grinder, the expert said, citing the fact that the new draconian draft law is due to come into force in a few days.

Blinken's surprise visit also coincided with the expiration of Zelensky's presidential term on May 20. Despite calls from Washington and Brussels, Zelensky refused to hold elections this year — under the pretext of Ukraine's martial law.

"In general, his legitimacy is determined by the West," Sputnik's commentator noted. "Nonetheless, this situation poses a threat to [Zelensky] personally, because he is of no value for the West, so his replacement is possible, and he understands this very well."

The researcher pointed out that Anglo-American competition for Ukraine adds to the ongoing controversy. The Ukrainian presidential office is currently controlled by UK intelligence services, but Washington wants to put its own protégé at the helm of the Ukrainian state, Dudchak concluded.

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☢️ US ban on Russian Uranium imports will suffer fate of other failed Western sanctions – energy expert

It could take the US “years” to replace banned Russian uranium exports, Dr Mamdouh G. Salameh, an international oil economist, told Sputnik. He pointed out Russia is the world's top supplier of enriched uranium, accounting for about 24 percent of all nuclear fuels used by US reactors.

“The US can’t replace Russian exports immediately because it doesn’t have the production capacity. It could take it more than two years to build a new capacity and arrange to import bits and pieces from Japan, France, Ukraine and Canada,” said the global energy expert.

He added that the ban would send prices of uranium fuels soaring, “thus enhancing Russia’s revenues.”

The US ban on Russia’s exports of low-enriched uranium will likely suffer the same fate as all other Western sanctions that have backfired on their proponents, Salameh stressed.

💬 "Therefore, President Biden’s signing into law a ban on Russia’s exports of enriched uranium won’t fare better," he concluded.

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🇬🇪 Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, who previously held French citizenship, has stated that she will veto the bill on foreign agents.

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US tries to clip Norway’s wings after getting outmaneuvered on EU gas exports

Bloomberg has published a soft hit piece targeting Norwegian gas giant Equinor over its ballooning share of the EU’s gas market, claiming the bloc’s newfound reliance on Norway for 30% of its imports is “raising questions” about whether Brussels has again put its energy-related eggs in one basket, and pointing to “fuming” in Brussels about Oslo “benefiting at Europe’s expense” by selling gas at prices higher than Russia’s.

💬 “Norway’s Equinor was asked by the EU to supply more gas to Europe and it has responded well enough. This, however, doesn’t please the US – which has been hoping long before the Ukraine conflict to replace Russian gas supplies with its LNG exports, most of which have been going to the EU,” Dr. Mamdouh G Salameh, an international oil economist and a global energy expert, told Sputnik.

Having taken Russia partially out of the picture in 2022 to make room for their own LNG exports, it’s only natural that US business circles are displeased with Norway coming in to pick up the market share left behind by Moscow, the economist said.

💬 “Even before the eruption of the Ukraine conflict, Norway was the second-largest gas supplier to the EU after Russia. Gazprom was the king of gas supplies to the EU, particularly the EU’s largest economy, Germany,” Salameh explained.

“It is an acknowledged historical fact that Europe’s economies, particularly Germany’s, have been built since the 1970s on cheap and plentiful Russian piped gas until the United States conned and pressured the EU to impose sanctions on Russia and ban its oil and gas exports.”

💬 “Mark my words: Once the Ukraine conflict is eventually resolved on President Putin’s terms, Germany and most of the EU countries will resume importing the cheap Russian piped gas to end the financial bleeding resulting from importing the US LNG which has crippled their economy,” Salameh summed up.

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🇷🇺 Sergey Lavrov: Cutting the Gordian knot of global politics

◻️ Lavrov was born on March 21, 1950 in Moscow. In 1972 he graduated from the eastern department of the Faculty of International Relations of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) of the Soviet Union's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA).

◻️ Following the collapse of the USSR, Sergey Lavrov had served as the Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations between January 1994 and March 2004 before assuming leadership of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

◻️ Since 2004, Lavrov participated in the negotiations of the Middle East Quartet – a group comprising of the UN, the US, the EU, and Russia – on the Israeli-Palestinian settlement.

◻️ In 2013, the Russian Foreign Ministry, under Lavrov's leadership, played a crucial role in resolving the Syrian chemical weapons issue. Additionally, between 2014 and 2022, Lavrov participated in meetings of foreign ministers from the Normandy Format countries (Germany, Russia, Ukraine, and France) concerning the post-coup crisis in Ukraine.

◻️ Under Lavrov's leadership, the Russian Foreign Ministry helps finalize the Iran nuclear deal in 2015 and arranged international conferences on Libya following NATO's invasion of the country in 2011. In 2017, Russia initiated the Astana format of negotiations on a settlement in Syria.

◻️ Lavrov holds the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia. He is a recipient of the Order of Merit for the Fatherland and has been awarded the Order of Honor (2010) and the P. A. Stolypin Medal. Additionally, the minister has received several foreign honors.

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