[GK3]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/new...025-05-16/

This is Putin's new head of ground forces. It is my guess he is being appointed to end the war in Ukraine "soon". Whether he can actually do that is a good question, but IMO it isn't indicative that Putin is thinking about peace in the immediate future. Even if he is, he is at the very least creating a viable "plan B".

On another tangent, I have been reading about France's new laser weapons designed to fry drones and other electronic equipment from range.  This report covers a turret mounted device with a range of 1 km.  I have read other stuff that indicates they now have a man portable unit with a range of 500 m. I have no idea if this weapon gives away it's launchers location or whether or whether it simply fries the target and know ones knows where it came from.

https://www.google.com/search?q=French+l...e&ie=UTF-8

It gives away its launch location only if something else is the the direct line of fire to "see" it. Since the beam gets wider the further away you are it is conceivable a very sensitive laser detector could target the shooter. However, given the geometry constraints it is unlikely to be a very effective option. My concern would be how well the French weapon actually works, and even if it does it seems probable that a laser hardened drone could be easily built. We shall see.

Another major improvement in an old weapon is the ramjet 155 round.  I wonder if it will be accurate enough to make the payload downgrade worth it.  They are talking of making them available by the end of this year.  If you can actually bring targets within 150 km under accurate fire it would probably require some major rethinking of where you put supply dumps, refueling points etc. 
https://euro-sd.com/2025/05/major-news/4...s-sceptre/

[GK3]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/new...025-05-16/

This is Putin's new head of ground forces. It is my guess he is being appointed to end the war in Ukraine "soon". Whether he can actually do that is a good question, but IMO it isn't indicative that Putin is thinking about peace in the immediate future. Even if he is, he is at the very least creating a viable "plan B".

On another tangent, I have been reading about France's new laser weapons designed to fry drones and other electronic equipment from range.  This report covers a turret mounted device with a range of 1 km.  I have read other stuff that indicates they now have a man portable unit with a range of 500 m. I have no idea if this weapon gives away it's launchers location or whether or whether it simply fries the target and know ones knows where it came from.

https://www.google.com/search?q=French+l...e&ie=UTF-8

It gives away its launch location only if something else is the the direct line of fire to "see" it. Since the beam gets wider the further away you are it is conceivable a very sensitive laser detector could target the shooter. However, given the geometry constraints it is unlikely to be a very effective option. My concern would be how well the French weapon actually works, and even if it does it seems probable that a laser hardened drone could be easily built. We shall see.

Another major improvement in an old weapon is the ramjet 155 round.  I wonder if it will be accurate enough to make the payload downgrade worth it.  They are talking of making them available by the end of this year.  If you can actually bring targets within 150 km under accurate fire it would probably require some major rethinking of where you put supply dumps, refueling points etc. 
https://euro-sd.com/2025/05/major-news/4...s-sceptre/