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Originally posted by Officer of EngineersView Post
Someone better come up with the money to input all those new NSNs and as far as I know, that still needs to be done by hand.
In the US DOD it is now automated and integrated to our financial systems. And, yes, it can handle nonstandard items (read stuff belonging to our Allies).
Sometimes I think the US DOD is a wholly owned subsidiary of SAP...
“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
Mark Twain
NATO had largely kept its promise not to create any permanent Western NATO (pre 1997 NATO) bases on any former Warsaw Pact territory, including Eastern Germany. I believe the "rotating" of NATO soldiers through Eastern NATO members only got off the ground after the Crimean annexation. Finland and Sweden are not former Warsaw Pact. Maybe a few permanently stationed non-Finnish NATO bases? Finland has a nearly a 1000 mile border with Russia after all.
Sometimes I think the US DOD is a wholly owned subsidiary of SAP...
SAP can rot in hell as far as I'm concerned.
“He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”
Russia on Thursday threatened to deploy nuclear weapons to the Baltics if Finland and Sweden join NATO, despite the fact it's already assessed to have such assets in the region.
"If Sweden and Finland join NATO, the length of the land borders of the alliance with the Russian Federation will more than double. Naturally, these boundaries will have to be strengthened," Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said on Telegram.
"There can be no more talk of any nuclear-free status for the Baltic — the balance must be restored," Medvedev, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, said.
Lithuanian Defence Minister Arvydas Anusauskas responded by saying the Russian threat is "quite strange" given Russia currently has nuclear weapons in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave on the Baltic sea, per Reuters. Kaliningrad is located between Lithuania and Poland, both NATO members.
"The current Russian threats look quite strange, when we know that, even without the present security situation, they keep the weapon 100 km from Lithuania's border,"
"Nuclear weapons have always been kept in Kaliningrad...the international community, the countries in the region, are perfectly aware of this...They use it as a threat," he added.
The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) in 2018 published satellite images that it said showed "a major renovation of what appears to be an active nuclear weapons storage site in the Kaliningrad region, about 50 kilometers from the Polish border."
Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden, in a tweet said Medvedev's warning was a "fairly empty threat" given the apparent presence of Russian nukes in Kaliningrad.
Hans Kristensen, the director of the nuclear information project at FAS, also downplayed Medvedev's nuclear threat and challenged the Russian politician's suggestion that a "balance" would need to be restored if Finland and Sweden joined NATO.
"What balance? Even if Finland/Sweden join, there will be no nukes in east Europe," Kristensen tweeted on Thursday. "This is a good reminder that Russia uses nukes to compensate for what it sees as inferior conventional capabilities. Ukraine flop and NATO expansion will likely reinforce that."
Russia's war in Ukraine has pushed Finland and Sweden closer than ever to joining NATO. The leaders of both countries on Wednesday signaled a decision on whether to pursue membership in the alliance could be made in the near future.
_____________
Tell me you're full of impotent rage without telling me that you're full of impotent rage.
Emphasis on impotent.
“He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”
NATO had largely kept its promise not to create any permanent Western NATO (pre 1997 NATO) bases on any former Warsaw Pact territory, including Eastern Germany. I believe the "rotating" of NATO soldiers through Eastern NATO members only got off the ground after the Crimean annexation. Finland and Sweden are not former Warsaw Pact. Maybe a few permanently stationed non-Finnish NATO bases? Finland has a nearly a 1000 mile border with Russia after all.
…or the island of Gotland.
A Swedish island in the middle of the northern part of the Baltic Sea between Sweden and the Baltic republics,
that by the way also controls the entrance to Bay of Finland (Saint Petersburg!)
There’s a reason that the Swedish Defense forces rushed heavy reinforcement to the island when the Ukrainian War went hot.
Its placement means that it’s prime real estate. Strategically I mean!
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. - Anais Nin
Well it finally made DOD auditable so we got that going for us....
Alright I'll give them that. Now if only they'd update their DOS-looking crap to at least a 1990s level of usability.
“He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”
So any new increase in Finnish and Swedish defence budgets just got swallowed in costs for data massage migration, transition protocals, new SAP interfaces, data engineering, and lining the pockets of SAP execs. Might be cheaper just to input manually. Certainly a hell of a lot less headaches and heartaches.
Originally posted by Officer of EngineersView Post
So any new increase in Finnish and Swedish defence budgets just got swallowed in costs for data massage migration, transition protocals, new SAP interfaces, data engineering, and lining the pockets of SAP execs. Might be cheaper just to input manually. Certainly a hell of a lot less headaches and heartaches.
The Finns & the Swedes already use SAP. They were ahead of us. When I used to run the fielding of the Army's SAP based supply ERP program (called Global Combat Service Support System-Army) for PM, GCSS-Army I had to do the new materiel introductory briefings when we first visited a unit prior to fielding. One slide we used was to show a slide which talked about current users. The Swedes and Finns were non-NATO European militaries we listed. The one commodity SAP did poorly for us was ammunition...the Bundeswher does ammo differently than us...factory straight to ammunition supply point. The Finns & Swedes were part of the defense working group, to include the US, Israel, Australia, UK(?) and a few others asking for an ammunition module...which SAP S4/HANA specifically provided this upgrade.
But also keep in mind per STANAGs logistics is the one NATO Warfighting Function that remains a national responsibility. I know we are interchangeable in a lot but CL I, II, III Package, VII & IX all are national pure. Any common parts usually come through FMS to the using country.
There will be some bumps which need ironing out but adding the Swedes & Finns will be a net positive.
“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
Mark Twain
Finland and Sweden Seem Likely to Join NATO. What That Means for Europe
One of the many justifications Vladimir Putin has offered for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is that NATO’s post-Cold War eastward advance threatens Russia’s national security. But if he hoped his assault on Ukraine would push the transatlantic alliance onto the back foot, Finland and Sweden are about to disappoint him. Both are preparing to join NATO in coming months, instantly doubling the length of the border that separates Russia from the largest and most successful military alliance in history.
Many Americans may be surprised to learn that Russia’s large Nordic neighbors weren’t already members. Before and during World War II, Finland fought two wars with the Soviet Union that ended in stalemate. That allowed Finland to keep its independence in exchange for a pledge to remain neutral in the Cold War battle between East and West. For its part, Sweden has safeguarded neutrality as a central pillar of its foreign policy for 200 years.
After Soviet collapse, the two countries joined the European Union, but neither felt an urgent need to sign up for a post-Cold War military alliance whose continuing purpose was unclear. Russia’s 2014 seizure of Crimea persuaded both countries to build cooperation with NATO, but there was no groundswell of public opinion to join. That remained the case until Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Why would Finland and Sweden want to join now? Because growing numbers of voters in these countries are now convinced that NATO membership provides necessary and urgent protection. After all, Russia has harassed but not attacked former Soviet republics Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. They are full NATO members. And non-alignment hasn’t spared Ukraine. “Russia is not the neighbor we thought it was,” said Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin after its soldiers crossed Ukraine’s borders. “When Russia invaded Ukraine, Sweden’s security position changed fundamentally,” read a statement from Sweden’s governing Social Democratic party earlier this month. “I do not really see how Sweden and Finland will be able to guarantee our security outside NATO when Russia is ready in 2022 to start completely unprovoked a full-scale war against a neighboring country,” wrote the political editor of a Swedish newspaper linked to that party, which has been historically reluctant to support joining NATO. Record numbers of people in both countries now favor NATO membership.
How quickly can they join? Finland will probably file a membership application before a NATO summit in Madrid on June 29. Sweden’s governing party has made clear its position that Sweden should follow Finland’s lead. The Biden administration and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg have sent positive signals that their applications should be quickly accepted. A unanimous vote of all 30 current members will be required for acceptance. The only foreseeable opposition would come from Hungary’s Putin-friendly Prime Minister Viktor Orban but, given the financial leverage that European officials continue to hold over Orban’s head and Orban’s willingness so far to support EU sanctions against Russia, he’s not likely to stop the process.
And from a military standpoint, the joint exercises Finland and Sweden have conducted since Russia’s 2014 invasion on Crimea have erased any possible concerns about the interoperability of Nordic and NATO forces. In addition, Finland already spends 2% of its GDP on defense, and Sweden appears headed in that direction.
NATO, Finland, and Sweden will have ample reason to accelerate the accession process. From the moment the two countries file membership applications until acceptance gives them formal NATO protection, Finland and Sweden will be especially vulnerable to various forms of Russian attack. Both countries and NATO will want to narrow that time window. As EU members, Finland and Sweden already have some protection from Article 42.7 of the Lisbon Treaty, which requires all EU states to “aid and assist by all means” other members that are under attack, but NATO will still want to move quickly.
Speaking of Russia’s reaction, what’s it likely to be? Its effective options are pretty limited. Russia won’t be able to spare many troops to place in threatening positions near Nordic borders as long as the war in Ukraine grinds on. Russian officials have already warned that NATO membership for Sweden and Finland means that Russia will deploy nuclear weapons in the Baltic region. That threat would mean more if Russia didn’t already have nuclear installations in its Kaliningrad region, which is less than 500 miles from both Helsinki and Stockholm.
Still, it’s a warning that will put Finns and Swedes on edge. Russia can train more cyberattacks on Finnish and Swedish government and big company networks. It can provoke both countries with submarine incursions into Nordic waters in the Baltic Sea and fighter jet intrusions into Finland and Sweden’s airspace. But Russia has done all these things in the past. The result of NATO expansion will likely be limited to heightened tensions of various kinds for the foreseeable future, but by itself it won’t heighten the risk of confrontation with Russia any higher than NATO support for Ukraine and Western sanctions on Russia already have.
Yes, but… Further frustrations in Ukraine could darken Putin’s mood. In that case, another expansion of NATO can only add to the (already high) broader risk that Russia’s president, having lost face as the author of a massive strategic blunder in Ukraine, will find other ways to undermine Europe, America, and their alliance. And if the war in Ukraine begins to look like a defeat for Moscow, the risk that Putin will lash out in unexpectedly destructive ways can only rise. He’s already revealed himself to be both isolated from reality and reckless.
Still, Finland and Sweden now calculate that they’re better off within the transatlantic alliance than without its promises of protection.
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“He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”
(Bloomberg) -- Russia’s neighbor Finland will focus on defense as its no. 1 priority, whether the Nordic nation joins the NATO defense alliance or not, according to Finance Minister Annika Saarikko.
The northernmost euro member, which has a 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) border with Russia, began to reconsider its long-term stance of remaining outside of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after its former imperial overlord on Feb. 24 invaded Ukraine. While the extent of the attack came as a surprise, Finland wasn’t caught off guard, Saarikko said.
“We have always acknowledged the geographical realities and made sure our defenses hold,” she said in an interview at her office in Helsinki on Friday. “The first priority is always Finland’s defenses.”
The parliament this week began reviewing a white paper on security submitted by the government, which is seen paving way for a bid to join NATO within weeks. The debate hasn’t gone unnoticed in Russia, which has repeatedly warned Finland and Sweden against joining.
Finns and Swedes “should closely observe what has happened to the Azovstal” steel plant in Ukraine’s Mariupol, a target of massive Russian bombing campaign, according to Andrei Klimov. The deputy chair of the foreign affairs committee in the parliament’s upper chamber, the Federation Council, also called NATO “a suicide club,” in remarks published on his Telegram channel on Friday.
The parliament should have time to review the issue with care “because it needs to withstand time,” Saarikko said. “It’s not enough to back NATO membership this spring. One needs to be able to say it’s the right decision next spring and the spring after that, and that’s why this needs careful consideration.”
Still, her personal stance is clear. “My Finland is an open, western democracy that’s part of the European Union, and joining NATO would be a very natural step,” Saarikko said.
The country of 5.5 million people has a reserve of 900,000 troops and is able to deploy 280,000 of them in war time. It’s held on to a conscription-based system where most men and some women undergo military training lasting from six months to a year. Its military equipment are NATO compatible, and the country in December decided to buy 64 Lockheed Martin Corp. F-35A multi-role fighter jets in a 10 billion-euro ($11 billion) procurement.
This month, the government unveiled more than 2 billion euros of extra defense spending, mostly on weapons and training, representing about a 70% increase relative to the Nordic country’s regular 2022 military budget of about 2.8 billion euros. It meets the 2% of GDP NATO spending threshold.
“Finland’s decision to increase defense spending significantly is independent of any decision on joining NATO” and “will take place under all circumstances,” Saarikko said.
Finland’s economy is among the most exposed in the European Union to the impact of the war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia, and the pace of growth will slow by half to 1.5% this year, according to a recent forecast from the ministry Saarikko runs. Still, promoting growth will help pay for additional outlays, she said.
Sweden, the biggest Nordic neighbor, is also weighing the merits of entering the defense bloc, with Foreign Minister Ann Linde on Thursday saying it should speed up the review to mid-May to keep up with Finland. Sweden’s long-term plan is to increase funding for the armed forces by almost 30% from 2021 to 2024.
According to a recent survey, 84% of Finns think that Russia poses a significant military threat, and they’re nearly unanimous in saying their neighbor is “unstable and unpredictable,” with just 2% saying they did not agree with that characterization of Russia in the poll.
“This situation reminds us of how wise it has been to ensure defenses already in more stable times,” Saarikko said. “We do not have to make up for missed spending, like some other countries will have to do.”
_________
“He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”
Not that I think it likely, but what happens if Putin decides on a few missile strikes on Finland in the next three weeks? Or occupies a couple square miles of Finnish territory? If Finland is the subject of an armed conflict before May 16, does NATO accept its bid to join?
"Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."
Not that I think it likely, but what happens if Putin decides on a few missile strikes on Finland in the next three weeks? Or occupies a couple square miles of Finnish territory? If Finland is the subject of an armed conflict before May 16, does NATO accept its bid to join?
Damn good question. Technically I believe it means that NATO can't accept the bid if you've got a pre-existing conflict with a neighbor. On the other hand, I think NATO will see what a cynical ploy Putin is attempting and defend Finland anyway. (Pretty sure the Finns would react even more violently than the Ukrainians did....they've likely been preparing for this since the end of the Continuation War.
“He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”
I'm absolutely sure the Finns would fight like hell, but that's precisely what I'm thinking of, the possibility of some ploy by Putin to queer the pitch, as the Brits would say. It could be something quite minimal, to try to create a technical roadblock to NATO membership.
Maybe Putin does something like say the border markers are a few hundred meters from where they were agreed to after the Continuation War, and shells some empty patch of forest and sends a few hundred troops in as a spoiler action.
"Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."
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