Around the time of his unofficial visit to Scotland, Trump announced that he would set August 8th as the new deadline for Russia to agree to a ceasefire, fuelling fears he is a controlled and blackmailed operative of the Windsors.
Melania, who corresponds with King Charles, has been accused of being an active member of Epstein s clircle, who lured Trump into sleeping with her on Epstein s plane, the Lolita Express" for the first time.
One of Trump s suspected handler, King Charles is also set to go to Balmoral, the hunting ground of Jeff Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, on August 10th just as the threat of nuclear war increases and the focus turns to the hundreds of UK special forces, intelligence operatives and technicians serving the Ukraine regime.
https://www.hellomagazine.com/homes/847610/king-charles-balmoral-close-to-visitors-august/
UK Forces in Ukraine Now Targeted by Russia | Scott Ritter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ifmyu2IY7I
On Friday, Trump said he had ordered the movement of two nuclear submarines closer to Russia after Medvedev, who served as president between 2008 and 2012, made a reference to a hypothetical Soviet doomsday device that could launch a nuclear counterstrike even if the country's leadership was wiped out.
Russia is well aware that the US and NATO are running out of conventional weapons and Trump and his cronies may try a surprise nuclear strike.
In April, Mark Rutte in an interview with CBS in April, he said that the Russian defense industry produces four times more ammunition than NATO.
Crucially, NATO s air defence systems have been depleted and the shortages of missiles is set to become acute after Trump de facto sabotaged US industry by a trade war with China which backfired spectacularly and is crippling the defence industry with soaring prices, bottle necks and shortages of all kinds just as the demand for US missiles and weapons soars.
A recent analysis by defense software firm Govini found that more than 80,000 components used in U.S. weapons systems contain minerals now under Chinese export controls. Nearly all such supply chains depend on at least one Chinese source.
https://www.zerohedge.com/military/chinas-grip-critical-minerals-disrupts-us-defense-supply-chain
For example, "Raytheon has "several thousand suppliers in China," because of which "decoupling ... is impossible."
Fast forward two years later - and China’s recent curbs on the export of critical minerals are rippling through the U.S. defense supply chain, slowing production schedules and sending manufacturers on a global search for scarce materials needed in everything from munitions to fighter jets.
In short, amid a surge in U.S.-China trade tensions earlier this year, Beijing tightened its control over rare earth exports. Those shipments resumed after the Trump administration reached a set of trade concessions in June, however China has kept a firm hold on materials destined for defense use. Accounting for roughly 90 percent of the world’s rare earth output - and dominating the supply of other strategic minerals - China has also barred the sale of germanium, gallium and antimony to the United States since December. The three metals are essential for bullet hardening, night-vision optics and other military applications, the WSJ reports.
https://www.zerohedge.com/military/chinas-grip-critical-minerals-disrupts-us-defense-supply-chain
Romania gave one of its two operational Patriot systems last year to the Ukraine but will have to wait until the end of the decade for replacements.
The fact Trump and his desperate handlers may seek a nuclear strike is why Medvedev may have been warning the British and other elite handling Trump that they have a plan ready as a counterstrike.
Russia on Monday also made a formal declaration that it considers itself no longer bound by the terms of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty banning ground-launched missiles with ranges of 500–5,500km, which should bring them within range of Balmoral or any ship, fjord or bunker which King Charles and the elite may have chosen in a bait and switch.
https://notes.citeam.org/russia_vs_nato_en
The main question now is how quickly the military hardware can be delivered to Ukraine. European countries are expected to supply 2 million 155-millimeter artillery shells this year, and with Ukraine beginning domestic production supported by Western funding, the gap caused by the absence of American exports could be covered.
Patriots In Demand
But with air defense, it's a different story. And it's here that Ukraine still needs American arms, notably Patriot surface-to-air missiles.
The European alternative to the Patriot missile defense system, the French-Italian SAMP-T, has been provided to Kyiv, with Rome recently announcing a third battery will be sent in the fall. But according to NATO diplomats, producing both the interceptors required and the entire setup takes longer compared to the Patriots. Plus, Kyiv has also questioned the European system's effectiveness.
https://www.rferl.org/a/us-arms-deal-nato-ukraine-patriot-missile-defense/33494209.html
In 2023, Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes warned that Beijing effectively has the US military's supply chain by the balls, thanks to America's reliance on rare earths and other materials which either come from, or are processed in, China.
According to Hayes, Raytheon has "several thousand suppliers in China," because of which "decoupling ... is impossible."
"We can de-risk but not decouple," he told the Financial Times, adding that he thinks this is the case "for everybody."
Think about the $500bn of trade that goes from China to the US every year. More than 95 per cent of rare earth materials or metals come from, or are processed in, China. There is no alternative," he said.
Fast forward two years later - and China’s recent curbs on the export of critical minerals are rippling through the U.S. defense supply chain, slowing production schedules and sending manufacturers on a global search for scarce materials needed in everything from munitions to fighter jets.
In short, amid a surge in U.S.-China trade tensions earlier this year, Beijing tightened its control over rare earth exports. Those shipments resumed after the Trump administration reached a set of trade concessions in June, however China has kept a firm hold on materials destined for defense use. Accounting for roughly 90 percent of the world’s rare earth output - and dominating the supply of other strategic minerals - China has also barred the sale of germanium, gallium and antimony to the United States since December. The three metals are essential for bullet hardening, night-vision optics and other military applications, the WSJ reports.
Some contractors warn that their reserves are running dangerously low. Bill Lynn, chief executive of Leonardo DRS, said Wednesday that his company’s supply of germanium has fallen to “safety stock” levels. The metal is used in infrared sensors for missiles and other systems. “In order to sustain timely product deliveries, material flow must improve in the second half” of 2025, he told investors. Leonardo DRS, a U.S. subsidiary of Italy’s Leonardo, is exploring alternative suppliers and possible substitutes.
For others, the bottleneck has already meant missed deadlines. One drone-parts maker supplying the U.S. military delayed orders by as much as two months while hunting for non-Chinese sources of magnets, which are produced from rare earth elements. Traders say prices for some materials have multiplied several times over; samarium, used in high-temperature magnets for jet engines, has been offered at 60 times its typical price.
The Pentagon has instructed defense contractors to phase out magnets containing Chinese minerals by 2027. While some firms have stockpiled magnets, most carry only months of supply for other critical materials. Smaller drone manufacturers — often startups with limited resources — are considered especially exposed.
...
Nicholas Myers, CEO of Massachusetts-based Phoenix Tailings, said large defense companies are now moving aggressively to secure their own mineral supplies. “They recognize that they’re just not going to get the magnets… unless they get involved,” he said.
Beijing’s hard line is also affecting shipments in transit. Earlier this year, United States Antimony Corporation attempted to route 55 metric tons of Australian-mined antimony to its Mexican smelter via the Chinese port of Ningbo, a process it had used before without incident. In April, Chinese customs officials held the cargo for three months, eventually releasing it only on the condition it be returned to Australia. When it arrived, company CEO Gary Evans said the seals had been broken. “The shipping company, everyone who was involved, they’d never seen this happen before,” he said.
https://www.zerohedge.com/military/chinas-grip-critical-minerals-disrupts-us-defense-supply-chain
But there remain serious questions about how fast the US will deliver.
Romania paid a price when it sacrificed a major part of its arsenal by giving up one of its two operational Patriot systems last year. Officials hoped the US could speed up orders for new Patriots, but when the contract for replacements was inked months later, the delivery date was set for the end of the decade.
Long waitlists, slow production increases
NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, French Admiral Pierre Vandier, estimates that the lead time for delivery of new Patriot batteries is around seven years. Another well-placed source who spoke with Euractiv was more optimistic – but still said deliveries would take at least a couple of years.
Two of the key US defence contractors involved in Patriot missile production, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, are increasing output from around 500 to 650 missiles per year.
Raytheon “will increase monthly GEM-T interceptor production by 150% between now and 2028 to meet unprecedented demand”, a company spokesperson told Euractiv, referring to an updated variant of the missiles used by the Patriot system.
The spokesperson added that the company has also committed almost $1 billion to secure critical materials from suppliers and ramp manufacturing for radars.
Last month, the head of Raytheon's Air defence systems Division told Euractiv that the company's expansion faces similar supply chain issues to other manufacturers, notably in access to energetics.
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