Major win for Saab as France places their order for 2+2 GlobalEye. Interesting to see whether ”Today's order underscores the robust partnership between Saab and France” hints at something more…

There’s a little known chapter in the murky history of 🇰🇵North Korean submarines involving 🇩🇪German technology. In the early 1980s, the German company Bruker sold NK an innovative mini sub with a closed-cycle diesel engine. News mag SPIEGEL reported on US criticism of that deal, rejecting it naively.

Yikes!

Anyone got a handy chart/table for how the US Army 2030 armor division template compares to the early-90's 'heavy' division one when it comes to the number of people, vehicles, and tanks?

Apologies for my earlier Reuters re-post - the "exclusive" they claim ist not that exlusive after all:

The last week of 2025 will bring us the strongest windstorm of the year. Forecasted maximum gusts of ~140 km/h (39 m/s) and the affected area are more or less similar to the recent extreme northerly windstorms in Finland (Aapeli 2019, Lyly 2024).

**BREAKING** Images of a Chinese merchant vessel with containerised missile launchers, radar/comms and close in defense are legitimate. Collaborated via other sources. Sobering. Merry Xmas

Warrior culture as some kind of state ideal is an idea which rarely turned out well throughout history, but framing it this way is strange. Sparta was a major power in Greece for centuries, including beating Athens outright in the Peloponnesian war.

Wishing a Merry Christmas to you one and all with this picture from the traditional Christmas play of the Swedish Lutheran congregation of Kokkola ✨

Something tells us that we're going to be correcting a lot of people today... maryrose.org/discover/his...

You know how all books on battleships have a few pages on Sovetsky Soyuz and H-39, with phrases like ”construction was plagued with difficulties”, ”technical challenges with the revolutionary [insert system] meant progress was slow”, and ”the partially complete hull was broken up”? This is it.

This. Good specifications and design can create flexibility to overcome the hiccups when the future doesn't turn out as expected (for the future not playing out as expected, see: a bunch of navies in WWII), but those good specifications and design come from first the why and then the how.

Bra för Linköping, bra för Finland, to paraphrase. Excellent news coming from our western ally 👍

It's wasn't without risk. 1937 two Tupolev SB bombers mistook the Deutschland (later Lützow) for a nationalist cruiser, and attacked it with over 100 dead and wounded as the result. Ironically, it would be far from the last time, as she operated against Soviet forces in 1944, often under air attack

During the Spanish Civil War, neutral (and not quite so neutral) warships of the major powers engaged in Non-Intervention patrols off Spain had wide stripes painted across the tops of their turrets for high visibility. Here are two examples, British and German. #NavalHistory

This is an older submarine in Japanese service

Historical example of pre-war 12,000-ton German frigate design 🙃 (Yes, I know that joke is getting old)

AI-assisted writing in 1716. #skystorians

The scandal about Finnish anti-Asian racism is a ridiculous parade of people doing ever more stupid things. Miss Finland did a stupid joke. People in their twenties tend to make stupid jokes, but if you’re a public figure that’s usually best avoided. She eventually apologised.

Likely a reference to the nationalisation in the 1970's. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History...

You know what, it's time for some nice old-school fighter propaganda. Sweden's A 32 Lansen, a key part of the Swedish strike force organised as its own high-level unit - E 1, Första Flygeskadern - as a single mailed fist in what otherwise was a rather decentralised and region-based force structure 😎

I’m just going to leave this one here.

Back in the good old days when you could build almost 600 aircraft only to retire the type after five years of service 😎

Was just talking to a friend who has been hearing about evangelical women organizing around these topics - still resolutely anti-abortion, but committed to notions of human dignity that is incompatible with ICE activities. Also, penetration of evangelical church into LatAm communities goes both ways

Happy Birthday, Nero!!! We can't believe you all forgot. 😭

🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

CONFIRMED: Several sanctions-violating VLCC supertankers that aren't on any official sanctions lists are making u-turns in the Indian and Atlantic oceans instead of proceeding to #Venezuela. #OOTT #Tankers

I'm going to use this poll as an excuse to once more state my old hobby-horse that the average Finn didn't know how bad a state the Swedish Armed Forces were in 10-15 years ago, but also these days fail to recognise how much of an improvement has happened since.

Meanwhile both sides have infantry wearing 21st Century Operator™ aesthetic with 70s era rifles- M16A1s for Thailand (left) and Type 81 and Type 56s for Cambodia (right)

The sun is visible in parts of Finland today. So the national news has a live stream of the sun rising in Helsinki. Just to give you an idea what the start of this winter has been like. 😅

39E Gripen demonstrating its higher internal fuel and longer range by three aircraft without drop tanks leading the traditional Swedish Air Force Christmas tree-formation flight over the country in front of their 39C counterparts who are doing the same trip with two (1,100 ltr?) underwing tanks.

Someone turned their Wi-Fi router up to '11' 😎

When Norway launched their frigate programme, I questioned whether their timeline was realistic. When the Swedish deadline for the Luleå-class crept closer, I said that it was rapidly becoming unrealistic. I'm sorry about the harsh words, fellow Nordics! Your schedules are downright conservative 😶

I think the answer is "More than we think we can, but less than we need to be able to do". That definitely applies in the NB region, where our NATO Enhanced Forward Presence contribution is underpowered & a long way from potential reinforcements in a crisis.

In 20 minutes I'll be giving my views on general conscription and whether it's time to bring in the women of Finland into the system on YLE's Radio Vega. You can find it at Yle Arena: areena.yle.fi/radio/suorat...

JF-501 is flying 😍 All low-viz paint jobs are basically the same, but I will say the Finnish Air Force crest on the tail is a nice touch 👍

Christianity is a rather wide tent, but if you adress a particular theological topic, you might want to run a fact check with someone who actually understands that topic to make sure you get it correct (though, as we know, fact checking to ensure things are correct isn't what they are known for).

The oldest one had gotten the task of writing and presenting three slides on the Korean War as part of a larger package where students in her course gave brief descriptions of different Cold War-topics.

*Something, something Black Friday*

I’m just going to note this is probably neither the worst thing we’ve seen from a non-proliferation point of view nor from a Finnish mining point of view 😁

During WWI, then minister-of-munitions David Lloyd George looked at the BEF's estimates for machine guns (4 per battalion) and quipped, "square it, multiply that result by 2, and when you are in sight of that, double it again for good luck." Which turned out to be the real final number.

BTW many thanks to all the experts who participated in this interesting exercise; very good to have a public example of a high-level wargame. And the content did have some surprises even for me! @keirgiles.bsky.social @corporalfrisk.com @elisabethbraw.bsky.social @phillipspobrien.bsky.social

'Get off my bloody ship' Top-notch officering right there 🫡

8 Dec 1941 // Gunboat HMS Peterel was sunk by Japanese gunfire at Shanghai after Japanese officers had boarded and demanded her surrender, which demand was firmly rejected. Three Japanese ships led by cruiser Izumo then opened fire on the gunboat, and Peterel fought back until overwhelmed. [1/4]

🧵

A major part of my Black Friday/Week/Arbitrary period-shopping this year was raiding Finnish second-hand bookstores. I am very satisfied with the outcome 😎

Amazingly, that particular RB-26C still exist and sits at the Hill Aerospace Museum! Although following modification to an transport version post-war, the restoration has seen it converted to a solid-nose A-26B. www.airfighters.com/photo/240342...

Being a strictly tropical fruit the banana is not the natural enemy of British shipping, but like all predators, when given an opportunity its natural instincts will kick in... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

I recommend this highly. Very relevant to today's situation.