Archive through August 03, 2024
Star Fleet Universe Discussion Board: Non-Game Discussions: Real-World Military:
Archive through August 03, 2024
Hard to win anything on the ground till you have the defenders on their heels, didn't get that and the attackers took a break... giving Ukraine the initiative....
Bolo,
Russia had largely switched to their battalion tactical groups in their 2008-2010 reforms, which were decidedly not the old "throw human waves until you win" method.
The main problem they ran into, ironically enough, is that they didn't include enough infantry with the BTGs to both protect their flanks and conduct an attack. The Ukrainians were aware of this vulnerability, and exploited it to the utmost. Mind, it didn't help that a fair lot of the Russian soldiers involved in the initial attacks didn't realize they weren't just going on exercise, and had sold off both equipment and fuel for alcohol and sex while still in the staging areas.
What's happened since the initial failure of the BTGs has been oddly reminiscent of First World War trench warfare; defenses on both sides have hardened, and offensives/counteroffensives by both sides has switched to drones and artillery timed with local infantry pushes.
Gallipoli.
Churchill's attempt to take Turkey by storm.
If you ever have been there, you can readily see that once the invasion stalled, it was doomed.
The reason the Gallipoli failed, was a leadership failure.
The admiral in command landed the troops as ordered.
and they sat there waiting for the enemy to arrive and besiege the beach head, instead of moving inland.
Just like Anzio in WW2, and Lord Hoods capture of the French Mediterranean fleet base early in the Napoleonic Wars.
Imagine what would have happened if the Normandy invasion June 1944, if the leadership kept the troops dug in on the cliffs overlooking the Normandy beaches instead of moving inland.
IIRC, the Turks reacted faster than the Commonwealth Command anticipated. Plus Ataturk was pretty amazing.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/what-went-wrong-at-gallipoli#:~:text=A%20key%20reason%20for%20these,and%20down%20the%20Allied%20lines.
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North Korean Bulsae-4 anti tank vehicle was illustrated on Russia television as having destroyed an Ukrainian T-90 tank “near Kv”
A fact checking web site is “throwing a flag” on the play as several things don’t square up.
First, the T-90 was listed by the Ukrainian government as having been destroyed back in May, 2024.
Second, the tank’s location at the time it was destroyed was near the front line combat area in Donbas (eastern Ukraine, nearer to Crimea than Kv.)
Third, the fact checker claims that there have been no sightings of North Korean Bulsae-4 vehicles in Ukraine. Inside Russia proper, yes. But not in combat in Ukraine.
I have not seen any reports of North Korean troops or equipment in combat in Ukraine.
Idea, could the Ukrainians repaint one of their aircraft in a Russian Unit colors, fly it to a Russian base and see if they could get it refueled and armed....
Mark, you should write movie scripts!
But as badly as some Russians have behaved in this war, it isn't reasonable to think the Russians security is that bad.
To be fair, the Russians have improved quite a bit since the start of the war.
I haven’t heard a military analyst talk about the sorts of mistakes made at the beginning of the war (unit failures, communications issues, having to resort to civilian satellite phones, or, (at least it was claimed at the time…) civilian cellular phones ) lately.
And apparently the need to have one, two and three star generals handling majors and lt Col. Jobs clearing up logistics messes.
(I know, it boggles the mind, but the high casualties of field grade officers early in the war was attributed to failures of junior officers not able to get the job done. Which exposed high ranking officers to combat.
And according to several defense related trade journals, the Russians counter battery fire capacity has improved.
And Inspite of a huge surprise at how effective Ukrainian drone use was in the early part of the war, the Russians appear to have fielded their own battle field drones.
Both sides are bragging about how effective the drones are at prosecuting the war effort.
It will be interesting to see just how effective both sides are in the end phase of the war.
Certainly none of the “experts” among the mainstream media expected Ukraine to survive, let alone fight Russia to what appears to be a stand off.
While that idea sounds wonderfully nasty, Bolo, methinks IFF transponder codes would probably ruin the potential for an effective use of it. 
The Sun(U.K. MSM site) is posting video of Ukrainian piloted F-16 fighters in combat with Russian Forces.
They claim it is the first sighting of u.s. mad F-16 fighters in Ukrainian service.
Make of it, what you will.
This is a provocation that Putin and the Russian government has said will be responded to.
They've said that sort of thing many times before. "X is a red line," they loudly announce. Then we do/give Ukraine X, and then the rhetoric changes to "X doesn't change anything/we've already destroyed two dozen of them." In any case, I don't see what they can do to "respond". The russians are all-in, they can't up the ante any further (to mangle a poker metaphor).
An RAAF fighter jet was flying low and making a big racket here today. Couldn't tell if it was an F/A-18 or an F-35. All I can say is that had a twin tail fin and was very loud.
>> they can't up the ante any further
They could always nuke us, or Ukraine, or a NATO member, or someone.
Oh wait the Russians already said they'd do that, multiple times.
No nukes yet. Perhaps it's an empty threat?
--Mike
There is good reason to believe that their nuclear arsenal is not in good condition, given the economic chaos of the 90s and the general corruption of the whole system. It's a bad idea to go nuclear if you can't rely on your nuclear weapons functioning. On top of that, IIRC NATO has stated that any use of nukes will result in a massive conventional response from NATO. Plus they'd lose any support from nations currently sympathetic to them. I think the use of nukes is very unlikely. A bigger problem, nuclear weapons-wise, is the collapse and breakup of the russian federation and lots of little countries with nuclear weapons (in the same way that Ukraine inherited some russian nukes after independence from USSR in the 90s).
Modern Nukes use small amounts of tritium to "boost" the fision reaction.
I'm told without this the bomb will have a much smaller yield, it still goes BOOM, just not nearly as spectacularly as would be expected (variable yield bombs reduce the yield by reducing the amount of tritium, no tritium is equivalent to a variable yield bomb at the minimum setting).
Tritium has a half-life of 12.3 years, so the replacement interval will be on the scale of once a decade or so (depending on how much tritium you have initially and how much you need to get a full blast and other stuff that I don't know about and wouldn't be allowed to tell you if I did).
So the Soviet era bombs have almost certainly needed replacement tritium during this century. Have the gotten it? Beats me, but they're still dangerous even without tritium, and that's the big bit of maintenance that needs to be done.
Talking about “upping the ante”?
The Kviv Post (an english language media site based in Kviv), just posted video footage from Ukrainian drones attacking Russian aircraft in Syria. Apparently, the air base had been in use for years by Russia assisting the Syrian Regime.
This is the first time that I can recall that Ukraine has attacked Russia on foreign territory.
It is no wonder the talking heads in Moscow are demanding Biden return Russian sovereign territory (AKA Alaska)… they need more air bases far away from Ukraine!
Apparently the U.S. and Russia has come to an agreement on a prisoner exchange.....
A U.S. Journalist for ???
Also, hear the French/IOC removed the credentials of a Russian Journalist in Paris....
FBI just raided/occupied a bot farm operating in Phoenix, AZ.
No information as to how long it had been there and operating on US soil, but apparently was receiving orders and content from Russia.
Per the warrant, those responsible began purchasing the equipment to set up the bot farm in April 2022, and were affiliated with Russian news/propaganda agency RT in cooperation with the FSB.
With regard to the prisoner swap:
Returning to the US: Evan Gershkovich, Paul Whelan Alsu Kurmasheva, Vladimir Kara-Murza
Returning to Germany: Lilia Chanysheva, Ksenia Fadeyeva, Oleg Orlov, Ilya Yashin, Kevin Lik, Rico Krieger, Dieter Voronin, Patrick Schobel, German Moyzhes, Vadim Ostanin, Andrei Pivovarov, Alexandra Skochilenko
Returning to Russia: Vadim Krasikov, Vladislav Klyushin, Roman Seleznev, Vadim Konoshchenok, Artem Dultsev and Anna Dultseva, Pablo González, Mikhail Valerievich Mikushin
Jessica:
Wasn't there something about Slovakia/ Slovenia in the mix?
Snarky comment kept in check by me, in fear of Jean...
One person Putin wanted back so bad that his exclusion has long been a deal breaker is an assassin who had hunted down targets around the world for the Putin regime, according to a left-wing propaganda source.
If this crosses the line with the `Gators, I apologize and ask that this post be removed, but IMO, the fact that I heard this criticism of the deal from a left-wing source suggests that it may be a poorer deal than it might appear at first glance.
It’s always a bad deal with Russia. We give them real spies and criminals and they give us innocent civilians falsely accused of spying. But there is no other kind of deal with Russia, China, or Iran. Congress needs to make it illegal to go there.