Archive through July 24, 2024
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Non-Game Discussions: Real-World Military:
Archive through July 24, 2024
Heh, yeah people are suspicious when their perceived enemy comes bearing gifts. There otoh is where the WHO is useful as a neutral actor. (Although afaik the people on the ground are usually locals.)
I expect the IDF to be alarmed, and will probably start screen their troops.
New report from a member state of the Russian Federation (state owned and run television network) posted video from July 18th of another trainload of (in this case T-54) tanks enroute for the war in Ukraine.
I do not remember what the differences are between the T-55 and the T-54.
But this was another trainload of about 100 T-54 tanks being released from a Moscow repair / modernization depot.
The narration indicated that this was only one of a number of shipments of older model tanks to fight in Ukraine.
The source of this report has been dropping a lot (at least twenty) reports in the last few days documenting Russian war preparations, down to the level of describing locations, transportation routes and approximate date/time of sighting.
Make of it what you will, but on the face of it, it looks like All is not well in Putin land.
As with so much else in the Ukraine/Russia war, I'm reminded of an event in "Red Storm Rising."
T-54 and T-55 tanks.
RSR; late in the book, when Soviet reserves were thinning, Category-3 units, people Alekseyev referred to as "Fat, out-of-shape reservists with obsolete equipment," were being moved to the front, where Pavel Leonidovich predicted that they'd be slaughtered like fattened cattle.
T55 has NBC protection.
However, they both have been through so many upgrades that unless you get granular they are about identical.
Wiki has a decent article.
The T55 is still a tank. Any anti-tank weapon on the modern battlefield can kill it, but that doesn't mean there are clever ways to get some use out of it.
The last article I read stated the T55 are not being used as MBT but as Mobile Artillery. I am curious how many modernish MBT the Russians actually have left in the Ukraine and at home.
Dal, back on July 15th, I posted a reference to a Forbes article that indicated that Russia has been maintaining about 3,000 tanks active in Ukraine combat since the begining of combat back in 2022.
The article was attributed to “a Forbes military analyst “ and stated that of the 3,000 tanks, 1,400 were T-62. Models. The balance were (back in June 2024) were various more modern designs, none of which, individually, numbered anywhere close to the number of T-62 tanks currently in use.
It also mentioned that While Russia claims to be building new tanks up to 1,500 per year, the actual number of new production tanks appears to be 500 to 600 per year.
The rest are reconditioned older model tanks.
I made the comment then that eventually, Russia might run out of T-62 tanks and eventually have to start reactivating older types, which has now appeared to have happened sooner than I could have imagined.
The article also mentioned that russia still has 1,000 TO 1,500 T-72 and T-72a models thatt are in inventory, but appear to have been passed over for being re activated to modern standards.
That led to a discussion as to why the T-72 and T-72a might have been intentionally passed over, but no final reason was agreed to here on the BBS, yet
Another Forbes article posted that MB-LV Armored Personnel Carriers (APV) are disappearing from Russian storage facilities.
Not stolen, reactivated for service in Ukraine.
There appear to be several categories of readiness, and apparently, the number of MB-LV APCs still visible to satellites is down to just 800 vehicles.
Used to be thousands.
Early reports on storage sites out of everyone's purview have been raided over the previous decades, stealing parts, mainly tech parts...
With the ongoing embargo, Russia can't get the electronics required to get them operating in a quick manner
Another video on you tube, a repost from a Russian Federation government television news program.
This one had”breaking News” of a Ukrainian secret weapon that is decisively effective at defeating Russian military drones.
Behold the YAK-52 propeller radial engined mono winged 2 crewmen aircraft from World War 2!
The gist is that the YAK-52 has a very small radar signature, no electronics or computers and flies nape of earth, and most often operates a 1,000 feet or less.
The trick is the trained sniper in the rear seat that shoots down Russian Drones
The program narrator suggesting that such tactics are “unfair” and “may constitute a war crime”.
On April 27, 2024, over Odesa, Ukraine, footage emerged from the perspective of a Russian drone showing a Yak-52 being flown by Ukrainian pilots with the canopy open. The first crew member, the pilot, flew circles around the drone as the second crew member attacked the drone with a shotgun. Through this method, a Yak-52 has reportedly attained 6 kills against Orlan 10/30 series drones and 2 against Zala 421-16E drones. Two more kills are attributed to lightning striking one UAV in front of the Ukrainian pilots, and another to a drone encountering a birdstrike.
Sounds like the after action reports of WW1 reconnaissance aircraft from the first year of the war, some of the enemy pilots were actually engaging the other aircraft with their side arms.
My how things have changed in 110 years!
If one is expecting trouble, it's really not a bad idea to bring a shotgun.
--Mike
Wouldn't be surprised if "Bird Dog" type recon planes showed up there....
Can't forget, that before seeking missiles, early jets mounted rockets for Air to Air.....
Fine bird shot through rotor blades ought to put enough vibration in them to shake the drones apart. Same fine bird shot in the motor can stop it. Same is true for the control electronics.
Ironically, perhaps the best semi-automatic shotgun in the world, the Saiga, is made over there.
Using #4/BBs (Turkey Rounds) would be more effective, carry further with better penetration...
While dove hunting as a youngster, many would use #8 Shot, personally preferred #6 Shot, better likelihood of a kill, instead of just damaging a wing...
Have to wonder what "Gauge" and "Choke" being used...
I say just use a long net similar to those banners you see ads on.
Put a crossbar on a similar cable to the ads, mount long chains on it......
Less likely to tangle the drone up in it and cut mission short....
I assume the plane is faster than the drones and can approach it from the rear....
Ryan McBeth on YouTube discusses a Houthi "Yaffa" drone launched from Yemen to Tel Aviv, a crow-flies distance of 1200 miles, but the drone in question may have flown over sea using waypoints before arriving at the target. This means, as McBeth points out, that non-state actors have long-range weapons like this.
The Yaffa drone that killed someone in Tel Aviv was built in Iran. Non-state actors have such things if state actors provide them.
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Ukraine has damaged the rail ferry Slavyanin in port, apparently with either a Neptun missile or a drone. Since Ukraine damaged the Kerch Strait bridge, the weight of rail traffic that the bridge can carry has been limited, forcing russian federation forces to use the ferries for heavy cargoes. They have 3 ferries. Two were previously damaged by ATACMS, Slavyanin is the last to be hit. There's video of it in port, blazing.
There is something seriously wrong with the way Russia has been handling the War with Ukraine.
I have been trying to find a historical comparison, but nothing seems to be a good fit.
Italy in its attempt to capture Ethiopia in the 1930’s has some of the characteristics.
As does the British and French effort to fight Russia in the Crimia in the middle of the 19th century.
But there are some aspects that do not fit well.
It is like Putin wanted to win it cheap and fast and got slow and mind numbingly expensive in terms of lives and treasure.
Only tactic Russia had since the 30s, is line up Divisions one behind the other...
Charge forward, when the first is depleted, pass the next one through, continue till all are destroyed...
Problem is Russia doesn't have the forces to do that anymore....
It was evident the invasion was doomed to fail when it was recognized as not being possible...
Staking everything on an immediate capture of the Government and Capital in the first 24 hours of the invasion is a lot like staking everything in a tournament on a narrow salvo of overloaded photons at range 8.
If the dice gods are in your favour, it's a stunning victory. If they aren't, you're in for a *world* of hurt.