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French soldiers in Ukraine...wow!

As we are still in France for a day or two, we saw the news from the Elysee Palace that France was sending troops to Ukraine.  What was interesting was the type of troops being sent a combination of military observers and maintenance people.   You figure that out when you dig deeper and find out what units are being deployed.

It makes perfect sense, the Ukrainians have developed truly amazing new tools of war, the recent attack on Russian oil and gas refineries speaks not only of the distance they have reached but the portability and control they can exercise.  This is truly a game changer, in addition, their amazingly cheap and successful waterborne guided drones are a truly inspired solution.  For less than $30,000 the Ukrainians have transformed jetskis into guided munition that have decimated the Russian Black Sea fleet.  If the stories are true it seems that the Ukrainians have developed drones that fit in a backpack and can deliver guided munition 3 or 5 kilometers away.  Small devices, but precision munition is far more effective than thousands of dumb bombs.  What has emerged in these attacks is that the small bombs were delivered at neuralgic points causing substantial damage.

On the other side, the French have brought the engineers to where the equipment has to be fixed, instead of bringing the equipment to the engineers.  This alone will not only lead to the training of Ukrainian engineers but will speed up the re-deployment of damaged equipment.  

The question is why are the French getting involved now?  France is in the far West of Europe, and Germany stands in front of France, which itself is protected by Poland, Czechia and Slovakia.   But France has always been different, and it wants to learn.  Sure it wants to know what the Russians are doing, but they are more interested in finding out the Ukrainians' ingenious solutions.  France as a land power understands that this is a unique opportunity to fully understand how the modern ground-based assault will now be fought.

I am surprised that the Americans, Germans and Brits are not doing the same...unless they are!

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