The central route China is getting fed up with Russia and wants to cut them out of the picture and take their sphere of influence from Central Asia all part of the European Silk Road project
They just had a major conference in Vienna just after Thanksgiving to discuss further enhancements of the One belt, One Road Initiative and the China Europe Railway Express specifically bypassing Russia taking a litany of different routes main route though goes from China through Uzbekistan Turkmenistan and then into Iran and either from there going to Azerbaijan, Turkey and then Bulgaria or going from Iran through part of Syria into Turkey and then Bulgaria. There are other lines as well that go from China through Tajikistan, Afghanistan and then into Iran and from China through Kyrgyzstan into Uzbekistan and then the aforementioned routes to Turkey.
China Europe Railway Express has had massive shift in policy from Russia through Central Asia into Europe since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 due to shippers concerns about rail volumes being caught in sanctions were they to pass through Russia.
Trans-Caspian International Transport Route has seen goal of four-fold increase of Chinese goods going to European markets this year.
Other metrics of the China, Europe Railway Express this year have seen 10,000 trips in 200 days primarily along Central Asian routes and have opened freight rail from Chongqing to Istanbul
China-Kazakhstan (Xi'an) Trade Logistics was also created this year in 2024 for the creation of a railway hub specifically to accommodate increased Chinese goods to move through Central Asia to European markets instead of going through Russia.
More metrics over the last year due to tons of resources poured into railway infrastructure upgrades across Central Asia. Travel times from China to Europe through Central Asian routes bypassing Russia decreased by 2 days making travel from China to Europe. A 10-day trip 2 days faster than going through Russia and reduced stopover time from 8 hours to 6
USS Gettysburg (CG-64) shot down an F-18 Hornet from the USS Harry S Truman (CVN-75) over the Red Sea while coalition aircraft were conducting strikes on the Houthis.
Both pilots recovered safely one with minor injuries.
USS Gettysburg (CG-64) is the cruiser escort for USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75) part of Carrier Strike Group 8.
Other ships in Carrier Strike Group 8
USS Harry S. Truman (CVN-75)
USS Gettysburg (CG-64)
USS Stout (DDG-55)
USS Jason Dunham (DDG 109).
Ukraine throws OWA-UAV'S into apartment buildings in Kazan and continues to ignore the trains coming across the BAM and TSR you could have spent those drones destroying a shit ton of rail, infrastructure and military equipment moving towards Kursk
Literally hundreds of traction stations that can stop this train dead in it's tracks and finish with other drones many dozens of bridges as well.
Remember folks 86% of Russian Freight moves along 50% of the rail network that is electrified. In short, no electricity on the electric rail lines. No trains
Also don't give me this. Oh it's hard to target a moving train. Ukraine literally just did this a couple days ago and they've demonstrated the capacity five times with the drones and the Russians just did it earlier this month against a Ukrainian train and the Russians have also done it with missiles several times.
Do you have a Topol?
If yes does it have MIRV's?
If yes it's a Yars.
If you remove the 3rd stage of the Yars ICBM, it is now Rubezh.
If you modify the MIRV's it is now a Oreshnik.
The Oreshnik/Rubezh it both a ICBM and IRBM.
This is like unlocking, a tech tree same base model and just replacing components like it's a Lego set
Russia instead of making a whole new name and whole new marketing for each tiny little modification to Topol keep it simple it's a Topol modified range or you could abbreviate it as Topol-MR
Nato stop giving every little modification its own separate reporting name.
Ukrainian OWA-UAV's struck Russian 105th assembly and testing building at the site located at the Kapustin Yar Nuclear Missile Test site at Kapustin Yar Cosmodrome.
This strike was in response to Russian ICBM strike on Dnipro.
Kapustin Yar Cosmodrome is Russia's premier missile test range since 1947 and had most recently conducted on April 12th 2024 a successful test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The site has mainly been focused on launches of the RT-2PM Topol aka SS-25 Sickle over the past decade and had a S500 test in 2011.
Ukrainian OWA-UAV's struck the facility on July 9th 2024.
If I'm reading the map correctly should be the area highlighted in red where Ukrainian drones struck will wait for geolocation.
#Ukraine
Ukrainian ATACMS and Storm Shadow Strikes into Russia.
ATACMS 1. 67th GRAU Arsenal, a critical ammunition storage facility in Bryansk Oblast.
Storm Shadow 2. Palace Mar'ino of Prince Baratinsky
Kursk Oblast.
Ukrainian OWA-UAV strikes on Russian OTHR sites in
1. Container OTHR Kovylkino, Mordovia
2. Voronezh-DM OTHR Armavir, Krasnodar Krai
3. Voronezh-M OTHR Orsk, Orenburg Oblast
Other Ukrainian OWA-UAV strikes
NIP-16 Space Tracking and Communication Center in Vitino, Crimea