Good point.
Not necessarily. We would have to invoke Article 5, its not something that is automatically triggered. Once it is, yes, there is an obligation for NATO members to provide assistance, that dosnt mean we'd have the entirety of NATO steaming down the Atlantic. That assistance can come in many different forms, vast majority of which probably wouldnt come in the guise of direct military action. But then I guess that would depend on the nature of the conflict if it were to actually happen.
Which is essentially what happened in the last Falklands war, with the USA and France giving us the needed capability to retake the islands.
The safety system at Chernobyl was designed to prevent moronic operators from blowing up their reactor, they switched it off (maintenance bypass to allow the system to keep running).
The Pantsir is actually a Russian design that entered service a decade ago, hence why it's garbage xD
It's almost certainly something that has been known about for decades, certainly since widespread use of thermal imaging as it's one of the most basic ways of finding "hidden" stuff, the only thing that is new is probably that they're using relatively cheap drones to look for mines*.
Yup, hardly a secret. We were using this method to spot IED's in Afghan, One of the easiest ways to spot ground disturbance. Prior to any Ops going in we'd soak the area with UAV's and PGSS/PTDS (HUGE aerostats with powerful cameras and sensors) for a few days prior to work out pattern of life, look for possible IED's and insurgent movement within the area.
It really does sound like the Ukrainians have done what they've done with so much other stuff, take the expensive method that works well and convert it into something that is cheaper/more available to them to have a similar effect.
Clearly not completely effective given how many IEDs were successfully used to kill or maim Western forces.
