I mean, most of it will, but they for sure degrade in quality even if they’re still “edible”.
Though note that, in a lot of countries MREs, some of the stuff in there is just off-the-shelf store-bought stuff, and those things don’t last any longer in an MRE than they do anywhere else.
Yeah, I keep looking at the eastern part of the country. The bulk of Ukraine’s military is there, and is in danger of being cut-off. Yet, as the general notes, withdrawing is a difficult decision. It’d be like giving up everything east of the Mississippi.
Tim_N
4560
Question for those who know more:
I would have thought a big risk of sending weapons to Ukraine is that they’ll inevitably end up in the Russian army. These anti-tank and anti-air infantry weapons, are they limited use or such that the missile itself is most of the cost not the launchers? If not, would be a huge sadness to see the equipment captured after a battle and used against Ukraine.
Houngan
4562
It seems a stretch to worry about Russia having weapons; they got 'em already. If they could capture and turn Ukranians themselves, then they have something better than what they’ve got.
The politics of that is going to be super tough. Zelensky is from the east, and is the first of Ukraine’s Presidents - according to the Economist - to have avoided positioning themselves as either a representative of ethnic Ukrainians or ethnic Russians. He campaigned and tried to govern on the basis of Ukrainians all being Ukrainians whatever their mother tongue.
So 1. can he bring himself to just give up on where he grew up? 2. how much would it damage national unity and will to fight if he ordered any military move that looked like prioritizing the defense of the West above the defense of the East?
Also, I wonder whether the Ukrainian Armed Forces have the ability to correctly orchestrate that kind of large-scale maneuver in the face of hostile air power (however weak Russia’s air effort has been so far.)
Yeah, but at the same time, Ukraine’s cause is bolstered as long as it has an army in the field. If that army is largely destroyed…
Also, they won’t have any training on the NLAWs or the Stinger and I bet all the instructions are in the wrong language and the wrong alphabet.
vyshka
4566
We use encrypted comms all the time, and we do frequency hopping. Nothing connected to defcon.
Yup, it’s super tough. :(
vyshka
4568
How about the omlette? I never got the courage to try that damn thing. It just looked and smelled so fucking horrible.
Horrible. There were about 6 things I could eat in a 12-pack of MREs. I lost a lot of weight in the proving test.
Beef Stew was the best. Chicken a la King had the same consistency and aroma of vomit.
Fortunately, I don’t think we had “omelettes” when I was in.
Chicken a la King was the absolute worse. You couldn’t even trade it for something else. Nobody wanted it.
RichVR
4572
Maybe, as a favor to Tom, we could take the MRE discussion here:
vyshka
4573
That is the kind of MRE where you eat the crackers and everything else and chuck the meal.
Chow on a surface ship during an extended WESTPAC can get really fuckin’ dire.
(My 90’s “software company” was named pusRo → after “Pusrocket” → after what hotdogs become after being reheated about 10 times)
MREs served at midrats were actually considered a treat
Papageno
4576
Wow, if Finland of all countries decided to become a NATO member, that would certainly stick a finger in Putin’s eye.
vyshka
4577
