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Comment by pixl97 | Hacker News Reader

I can only imagine in the US that if we could not use aircraft directly on the convoy, say they have very good air defense, we'd have dumped the bridges on the interstates in less than a day.

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Yes, and I'm pretty sure Russia could do that too - if they were getting Blitzkrieged by some outside enemy force. Here, it was a theoretically friendly and small force, that suddenly turned around and drove towards Moscow. Given how much damage blowing up bridges and highways would do to the country, and somewhat unclear threat from the approaching mercenaries, I don't think anyone on the defense side considered dropping a bridge on the highway to be a reasonable move.

From what I've heard (personal hearsay, got no independent sources), some excavators were sent to ruin highways.

Edit: here's a link but this is not on the main highway. Unsure of the scale of this "operation" and if this was ordered from top brass or local initiative.

https://meduza.io/news/2023/06/24/v-lipetskoy-oblasti-gde-na...

"I don't think anyone on the defense side considered dropping a bridge on the highway to be a reasonable move."

It surely was considered. I can imagine in the state of panic even tactical nukes were considered, but sure, not reasonable.

But if Wagner forces would have actually pushed through, then they definitely would have blown up bridges, if the alternative would have been Moscow under siege or house to house fighting.

they did bomb one of their own bridges (there is a video). and there were rumors that they plan to blow up few more

To be clear though, there is no convoy on earth that the US Air Force can’t strike.

The Afghans would like a word with you.

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