Question: why does it make sense to use the ASMs in this fashion? Am I missing something?
In land attack mode? It provides them with more flexibility in terms of launchers. And since the Black Sea is closed to shipping those anti-ship missiles aren't of much use right now.
As for Russia, the EU has no solution. The EU rely on Russian gas. That is a undisputable fact, and even the USA can't solve. The US's grand plan and recent agreement with the EU to provide LNG can ONLY hope to replace one third of all current supply of Russian gas to the EU by 2030!
Replacing all the gas with LNG is a pathetic plan. Even if the US and Qatar step up for this and the natural gas gets replaced with LNG near the end of the decade it will not be cost effective. Japan had to increase coal and gas electric generation after they shut down nuclear post Fukushima. They found their economy basically dying as a result. They are now trying to get the nuclear power plants back online. Japan's economy is not cost competitive and is losing out not just to China but also to countries like Vietnam.
That is almost 8 years from now, and only one third. These LNG hardly earns 10 billion dollars per year for Russia, a pretty small sum, yet the shortage of these will be detrimental on the EU industrial capacity. How can the EU survive without her industrial output? How can sustain their industrial output without enough natural gas? How do they even make up for the potential shortages right now?
I do not see how Europe will replace Russian energy even in 8 years. They have basically done nothing of consequence even with the current energy crisis. There is no viable long term energy plan by them either in place or in the works. Just see the trash they put out. 40bcm gas consumption eliminated with energy preservation. Yeah right. Just keep wearing more sweaters. I think these people forget why Jimmy Carter was not elected to a second term.
The Russians has the EU by the balls. Just like how the US had Japanese Empire by the balls, once the Japanese Empire went into a quagmire war in China (which earns them no strategic industrial resources or capacity to even remotely make up for the cost).
Russia is pretty much as close to an autarchy as you can get in the modern economy. Europe has basically no way of strong arming the Russians economically to stop this war. As for the US, their economy has next to no linkages with Russia so there is little they can do directly. Which is why they are trying to convince everyone else to stop trade with Russia.
Russia's true colors are revealed. And NATO will grow stronger. Defense is being taken seriously again, it hasn't been for the past 20 years. And NATO will grow.
Oh right. Such delusions. How come the US left the ABM, INF Treaty, and the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty? It is NATO which started the military arms race first. The US is convinced they can win the war economically, that they are far enough from Russia there will be no blowback for them, and then they can rape Russia just like they did in the 1990s afterwards. Or like they are doing in Iraq right now. Whichever pain Europe endures, is no issue for them.
