SPAM

By Terry O'Carroll (Terryoc) on Saturday, July 12, 2025 - 11:40 am: Edit

Re: defending against drones

Some units are using shotguns to defend against drones. (IDK if they're just using birdshot or specialized anti-drone net throwing ammunition.) I saw a fundraiser for semi-automatic shotguns by Yuri Chornomorets, a Ukrainian sniper and trainer of snipers, raising funds for just this purpose.

On Bluesky I saw a photo of a newly-developed Ukrainian anti-drone net-throwing pistol that looked a bit like a flaregun.

The eternal game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock continues.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Saturday, July 12, 2025 - 11:51 am: Edit

Some years ago, I imagined a shotgun shell where, instead of pellets, someone (NOT me) used sewing needles (with threads tied through the eyes to serve as fletching) as a sort of armor piercing shotgun load.

Dumb? Probably, BUT maybe not.

What do y'all think?

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Saturday, July 12, 2025 - 01:04 pm: Edit

As a thought exercise, take a "Nail Gun", just modify the nails into flechettes....
Wouldn't be great, but better than nothing, the weapon is commonly available, just need to find the proper ammo for it....

By Shawn Hantke (Shantke) on Saturday, July 12, 2025 - 01:18 pm: Edit

Maybe punt guns need to make a comeback?

By MarkSHoyle (Bolo) on Saturday, July 12, 2025 - 02:11 pm: Edit

Seems the President made the title "Secretary of War" a trending term after his comment the other day......

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Sunday, July 13, 2025 - 07:56 am: Edit

There are videos posted on youtube showing Ukrainian operated drones (the suicide-explosive kind) being used to attack Russian soldiers.

Any number of them show the last few frames of several soldiers attempting to shoot the drones as their last action.

In such a situation, a long barrel shotgun would be less effective than a short barrel type… but the trade off is proximity… too short an effective range of pellets would still be in the blast radius of the high explosive armed drone.

There are videos purporting to show that the United States Marine Corps is arming some marines with shotguns.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, July 13, 2025 - 08:40 am: Edit

Most military units today have a mix of weapons, a thing that started in WW2.

Back then, a German squad had one MG and one SMG. A US squad had one AR (automatic rifle) one unofficial SMG, and one rifle with a grenade launcher.

By the time I was leading a squad in the Army reserve we had two ARs, two grenade launchers, and maybe a true MG. There were two fire teams of four men, each with a buck sergeant ( usually a SP4 subbed in), an AR, a GL, and the fourth man was either the new guy or a scrappy veteran used as a scout.

These days that squad has two light MGs, two rifle/grenade launcher combos, and maybe an MG. There very well might be one man with a shotgun instead or a rifle but that has more to do combat in urban areas where shotguns are used to destroy door locks.

In the State Guard, our arming plan had three levels for a nine-man squad. Level one had three pistols and two shotguns, level two had five pistols, two rifles, two shotguns. Level three had seven rifles, two shotguns, and the squad leader also got a pistol. We used to joke about Level Five that included M249 LMGs and AT4 anti-tank rockets.

By Jeff Anderson (Jga) on Sunday, July 13, 2025 - 02:33 pm: Edit

What would the soldier weight load difference be between carrying the M249 (I think is the standard squad level machine gun) and a standard rifle with an underbarrel mounted twelve gauge?

By Douglas Lampert (Dlampert) on Sunday, July 13, 2025 - 03:25 pm: Edit

M249 is being replaced by the M250 (which uses the same ammo as the new M7 rifles).

A rifle with an underslung 12 guage is likely to be quite a bit lighter than Rifle+underslung 20 mm grenade launcher, much less the even heavier LMG.

I'd guess that an underslung shotgun would be replacing the grenadier rather than the LMG. You could go with a fireteam of 1 M250, 1 sniper or Javelin and M7, and 2 rifles with 12 guage if the decision is that 12 guage is the appropriate anti-drone weapon, or you could have just one 12 guage and the 4th guy sticks with a grenade launcher or carries extra ammo for everyone else.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, July 13, 2025 - 07:09 pm: Edit

So far this year, a number of oil tankers with murky ownership and travel documents have suffered serious explosions in their engine spaces, leaving them adrift, towed to port, and facing months of repairs. These include Seacharm, Grace Ferrum, Seajewell, Koala, Vilamoura, among others.
These are part of the Russian shadow fleet, a few hundred ships that export Russian oil in violation of sanctions. There are thought to be 350-400 ships. Some claim 600 ships. Of these, 189 have been specifically identified and are banned from European ports.
These are thought to have been hit by Ukrainian naval drones, robot speedboats loaded with explosives. Others were sabotaged by members of the crew or foreign dock workers. Some were hit well outside the war zone in the Mediterranean or Baltic Seas. One was hit in an Italian port, another in a Russian port. Ukraine’s attacks aren’t even a pinprick in the greater scheme of things.
One can only assume that Ukraine is trying to shut off Russia’s only source of cash. Russia exports about 4.5 million barrels of oil and oil products per day, triple last year. Russian front men with suitcases of cash are buying any oil tankers that come up for sale anywhere in the world and are making extravagant offers for tankers not actually on the market. Most of the shadow fleet is over 20 years old. Shipping companies are happy to sell antiquated tankers for more than the cost of a new ship.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, July 13, 2025 - 11:08 pm: Edit

Recruiting for the Russian Army is getting interesting.

Conscripts cannot be sent outside the country, and there was a lot of pushback when Putin tried to claim Ukraine was part of Russia. That obviously isn't the case. Conscripts are heavily recruited to become "contract soldiers" who can go into combat.

Physical fitness and medical checks have long since gone by the board. Everyone who shows up gets taken, contract or conscript.

The laws have been changed to allow the Army to keep people in uniform up to age 70. It takes some tricks and artificial promotions to sergeant and lieutenant or a new technical warrant rank, but it's done. Veterans in their 50s and 60s are being recalled. Contract soldiers find their contracts extended.

Increase numbers of men in their 50s and 60s are being taken as volunteer contract soldiers. They get paid $3000 a month, three times their civilian wages. If they get killed, the family get a bunch of cash. For a 55-year-old Russian with little to look forward to in life, getting a few months in uniform and then killed (putting their entire family on an upper class income) sounds better than working in a factory for another 15 years at poverty wages.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Sunday, July 13, 2025 - 11:16 pm: Edit

There are lies, •••••• lies, and statistics.

Something I hear a lot these days is: "Trump promised to take the worst first but 70% are not convicted criminals."

Interesting number, but it only reflects felony convictions in US courts. Convictions in their home country, known gang members, people on the terrorist watch list, amount to over 50% of those swept up and deported. The number of non-criminals deported is under 20% and mostly includes those who volunteer to leave and the families of the deported criminals who decide to leave when daddy gets thrown out. The number of "innocent of anything but illegal entry but got accidentally swept up when ICE raided a criminal hangout" is under 5%.

You can argue semantics, but ICE says if one of their official marked vehicles pulls up in a Home Depot parking lot and four guys start running, there is probably cause to arrest and identify those guys, and if illegals (even "innocent except" illegals) they are deported.

The claims that ICE is deporting "anyone with brown skin including US citizens" is nonsense. ICE may detain and identify anyone who does any of ten things to make ICE want to check their identity, but US citizens don't get deported without a massive court action to revoke their citizenship. Remember that the "innocent Maryland dad" had a legal suspension of deportation only because as an identified gang member he feared a rival gang would kill him if he went home.

GATOR WARNING! NO MORE OF THAT!

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Monday, July 14, 2025 - 10:30 am: Edit

SVC, a lot of dead Russian soldiers are officially listed as "missing" so their families get nothing. This happens even if command knows perfectly well that they are dead.

On the plus side, Trump is for the moment acting like he understands that "peace" with Putin is a mirage.

It looks increasingly likely that US weapons will resume, and Putin will start losing (which was already happening in some ways even without US weapons). At that point he may push for "peace". It will then be an interesting question whether Trump will leap at whatever horrible deal Putin offers up.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, July 14, 2025 - 01:48 pm: Edit

I have said before that i see no solution to Ukraine or Gaza. I generally think well of our president, but now and then one of his bold new ideas makes me shake my head in reverse amazement.

The point being, don't expect me to explain/defend that stuff.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Monday, July 14, 2025 - 03:24 pm: Edit

By Jean Sexton Beddow (Jsexton) on Monday, July 14, 2025 - 04:32 pm: Edit

The Political Swamp is very, very close.

Jean
WebMom

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, July 14, 2025 - 04:40 pm: Edit

Air Defense: Countering The Chinese Carrier Killer
July 11, 2025: China now has ballistic missiles that can hit ships, especially aircraft carriers, at sea. The U.S. Navy has not been open about how it plans to defend its ships against Chinese ship-killer ballistic missiles. The navy quietly expanded its layered air defense system with the addition of new electronic defenses. The navy has conducted realistic tests of its defenses against Chinese ballistic missiles.
In 2010 the Chinese carrier killer missile was ready. After two decades of effort, the Chinese Navy now had its DF-21D ballistic missile equipped to hit warships at sea and over a thousand kilometers distant. The basic DF-21 is a 15 ton, two stage, solid fuel missile that is 10.7 meters long and 140cm in diameter. Range varies from 1,700-3,000 kilometers depending on model. The DF-21D is believed to have a range of 1,500-2,000 kilometers. While the 500-2,000 kg warhead usually contains a nuclear weapon, there are also several types of conventional warheads, including one designed for use against warships. Some of these conventional warheads are for use against targets in Taiwan. This is because the DF-21, as a longer-range ballistic missile that comes down on the target faster than the 1,200 shorter-range ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan, is more difficult to intercept. The DF-21D warheads were too fast for the American Patriot Pac-3 Ballistic Missile Defense/BMD missiles Taiwan was installing around crucial installations a decade earlier. BMDs have improved since then, but so has the Chinese ballistic missile arsenal.
In 2020 China tested the DF-26B, a longer-range version of the DF-21D. The 20-ton DF-26B has a max range of 4,000 kilometers. This is a larger 14-meter long 140cm diameter missile that entered service in 2016 as the conventional DF-26. By this time the DF-21D had been tested and proved that it could work. Why not a larger version that could hit enemy warships, especially aircraft carriers, even farther away? Five years later the DF-26B was tested and in service. By 2022 China had the smaller YJ-21 missile that could be carried by bombers or large destroyers or cruisers and use the same target detection tech as the DF-21D and DF-26B to hit distant ships.
Until 2013 there was no evidence that the complete DF-21D system had been tested. But then satellite photos showed a 200-meter-long white rectangle in the West China Gobi Desert with two large craters in it. This would appear to be a target for testing the DF-21D, and two of the inert practice warheads appear to have hit the target. American carriers are over 300 meters long, although the smaller amphibious ships with helicopter decks are closer to 200 meters long. It appears China is planning on using the DF-21D against smaller warships, or perhaps they just wanted to see exactly how accurate the missile could be.
Over the previous five years several similar missile testing sites were discovered in the vast desert areas of western China. Some of these test targets portrayed air bases or even larger targets like naval or army supply depots as well as harbors where American warships are regularly found. China was seeking a way to carry out another Pearl Harbor type attack and they appear to have found it.
Out in the desert China also found ways to improve the accuracy and reliability of their remote-sensing satellite. Back in 2011 an odd, geometric pattern was spotted in a Chinese desert that was used to calibrate satellite sensors, including those used to locate and identify targets for DF-21D type missiles.
Between 2011 and 2013 various components of the DF-21D were tested, but until these satellite photos showed up there was no evidence that there had been any tests of the complete system against a carrier size target. Since 2012 there have been photos of DF-21Ds on Transporter Erector Launchers/TEL vehicles, and announcements of the first units activated three years previously. By 2013 there was evidence of the successful tests. What has not been tested, apparently, was a dress rehearsal test against a large ship like a retired tanker or container ship at sea and moving. That might yet happen.
Before the 2013 tests China put three remote sensing satellites in orbit, moving in formation at an altitude of 600 kilometers across the Pacific. Equipped with either SAR or synthetic aperture radar or digital cameras, these three birds can scan the ocean for ships, even though the Chinese say their purpose is purely scientific. A typical SAR can produce photo quality images at different resolutions. At medium resolution of 3 meters the radar covers an area 40x40 kilometers. Low resolution of 20 meters covers 100x100 kilometers. This three satellite Chinese posse looks suspiciously like a military ocean surveillance system. This is the missing link for the Chinese ballistic missile system designed to attack American aircraft carriers.
China has been developing the DF-21D since about 2002. Most of the development effort was devoted to targeting systems that would enable them to seek out and find aircraft carriers. On the DF-21D warhead itself, sensors would use infrared heat seeking technology for their final approach. This sort of thing had been discussed for decades, but China appears to have put together tactics, sensors, and missile systems that can make this all happen. The key was having multiple sensor systems which would include satellites, submarines, or maritime patrol aircraft that could find the general location of the carrier before launching the ballistic missile. Those sensors were eventually revealed as operational, as was the DF-21D itself. At present China has the DF-26 with a range of 5,000 kilometers. There is also the SS-19, an anti-satellite and ABM version of the DF-21. The KF-21 is an air-launched version of the DF-21.
Meanwhile the U.S. Navy has quietly upgraded its ABM defenses that use short range Rolling Airframe Missile/RAM and long-range SM-2 missiles that have proved very effective against ballistic missiles and, in one case, a space satellite. The navy is more secretive when it comes to its electronic defenses, which involve lasers and other light-based devices as well as a growing assortment of electronic devices that apparently concentrate on disabling or diminishing the terminal guidance systems of the ballistic missiles that make them accurate enough to hit individual ships. The navy and air force are apparently also developing techniques for disabling China’s remote sensing satellites. Developing multiple attacks on Chinese satellites and ballistic missile sensors is what the layered defenses are all about. This adds a degree of uncertainty about the usefulness of the Chinese anti-ship ballistic missiles. Uncertainty is a goal here and one of the more important aspects of the layered defense systems. The Chinese can collect some details about the new American electronic defenses by following announcements in the trade journals, where new features are mentioned, although not always with links to any specific navy system being upgraded. A lot of Chinese espionage, using human agents or hacking, is devoted to sorting out specific new capabilities the Americans have introduced and for what piece of equipment.

FYEO

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, July 14, 2025 - 04:46 pm: Edit

Attrition: Ukraine Strikes Drone Factory in Tatarstan
July 12, 2025: Last April Ukrainian drones were used to destroy a Russian drone factory in Tatarstan. The target was about a thousand kilometers from Ukraine. The Russian plant produced about 300 drones a day. Earlier in April Ukrainian drones destroyed a Russian munitions facility 200 kilometers east of Moscow. Before that Ukrainian drones attacked a Russian missile base in Kurk province, that borders Ukraine.
Meanwhile, NATO has supplied Ukraine with lots of weapons but declined to provide rockets or missiles that could reach military targets deep inside Russia. The longest range weapon the Americans have sent to Ukraine is the ATACMS, with a range of 300 kilometers. Last year Ukrainian long-range attacks eliminated numerous warehouses and bunkers containing Russian munitions along with vehicle and aviation fuel. This meant that for several months the Russians were unable to launch major military operations. Attacking with just infantry and no artillery or airstrike support proved suicidal and counterproductive. Russian infantry losses have been so heavy since 2022 that Russia is running out of untrained and ineffective infantry, and even equipment and weapons for replacements. Ukraine has no choice but to keep defending their country and now it appears that the Russian offensive operations will not only collapse, but that the Russian occupation forces in Crimea and eastern Ukraine are so thin that Ukrainian forces could regain these lost territories.
Recently Ukraine carried out a series of bold drone attacks deep inside Russia using a method they have used many times. Since there are many Russian speaking Ukrainians while Russian border guards and police are easy to bribe, Ukraine sent in dozens of trucks carrying what the drivers said, to Russians, was commercial goods. The real cargo was hundreds of drones programmed to attack military airbases deep inside Russia. The truck drivers drove to preplanned locations and, in the darkness, opened the crates to enable the drones within to be launched to fly off to nearby Russian bases.
The drones came in low, below what the airbase radars could detect. The attack destroyed or disabled a third or Russia’s long-range bombers. The cost to Russia was over seven billion dollars’ worth of aircraft that are no longer built. Now Russia plans to move the surviving bombers to even more distant bases, making these aircraft less effective against Ukrainian targets. These bombers usually carry long range air-to-ground missiles. Ukrainian drone strikes have previously attacked some Russian air bases where Russian MiG-31 fighter-bombers as well as Tu-22M and Tu-95 bombers are based. At least six of these aircraft have been destroyed or disabled before the recent series of attacks.
No one anticipated widespread use of drones. This has changed ground, air and naval warfare. Long range drone attacks are terrifying because the attacker does not risk the lives of pilots, who cost over a million dollars to train. Pilots lost in combat cannot be quickly replaced. Drones have no pilots and the men and women who build, program and in some cases operate drones are far from the combat zone. Ukrainian annual drone production now exceeds annual Russian artillery shell production.

FYEO

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, July 14, 2025 - 04:51 pm: Edit

Attrition: Russia Exhausts Cold War Stockpile in Ukraine
July 14, 2025: In Ukraine Russia is using munitions faster than they can be replaced. In 2021 Russia had vast stockpiles of Cold War era armored vehicles, artillery and munitions. Since the war began in early 2022, Russia has lost over 14,000 tanks and other armored vehicles. Russia has only one factory still producing tanks and its output is sent directly to Ukraine, where those new vehicles are disabled or destroyed within weeks. Until recently Russia received shipments of artillery and other munitions from North Korea and Iran.
The supplies from Iran have ended after a recent Israeli aerial blitz destroyed most of Iran’s weapons, reserves and factories producing munitions and weapons. Now Russia can only depend on what it produces. Russia admits that their heavily sanctioned economy is in trouble. Russia describes an imminent recession. Satellite photos reveal Russian railroads grinding to a halt. Russia is dependent on rail transportation far more than NATO countries. Russia is vast and there are few roads and not enough navigable rivers and canals.
Last year Western economic analysts predicted that the Russian economy would grind to a halt by August 2025. That prediction now appears accurate and the Russians have confirmed it. Russian leader Vladimir Putin remains defiant but he has few options when his troops run out of ammunition and replacement armored vehicles. The Ukrainians are already preparing to take back the Crimean Peninsula and the two eastern provinces Russia has held since 2014. The Russian reaction, or lack of action should be interesting to observe.
FYEO

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, July 14, 2025 - 04:52 pm: Edit

Weapons: China Develops Thermobaric Bomb
July 14, 2025: China recently tested a 2 kg thermobaric explosive device. This weapon created a 1,000 degree Celsius fireball that lasted two seconds. This was fifteen times longer than any current conventional explosive. Normally, this effect can only be produced by a nuclear weapon. China used a solid-state hydrogen storage material composed of magnesium. There were no reports of how China would use this new weapon, but they will eventually weaponize it in one way or another.
Thermobaric explosions are created by fuel-air explosive devices. This effect was discovered in 1785 when an Italian bakery suffered the first known dust explosion. Modern fuel-air weapons duplicate this effect by putting a cloud of fuel into the air and then detonating it. This produces an overpressure and fire, removing all the oxygen from the area and killing anyone in the target zone. The US used such weapons in Vietnam to create landing zones and to destroy cave and bunker complexes; and subsequently used them in Afghanistan.
Russia uses thermobaric weapons in both large and small forms. The small rocket-propelled systems are often mis-translated as flamethrower units. The Russian Shmel launcher delivers a 2.1kg bomb to a range of 1,000 meters; the warhead causes a 50-meter fireball that reaches temperatures of over 1,000 degrees Celsius. The Russians also use the TOS-1, which is a 30-barrel 220mm rocket launcher on a tank chassis. With a range of 400-3500 meters, it can create a devastated zone of 200x400 meters. The Russians also have the ODAB-500PM aircraft bomb, the KAB-500Kr-OD TV-guided bomb, and the ODS-OD BLU dispenser which scatters a cluster of fuel-air bombs. The Smerch has twelve 300mm rocket tubes on a mobile launcher. The Uragan has sixteen 220mm rocket tubes on a mobile launcher. The Shturm anti-tank missile has a fuel-air warhead, as does the ATAA anti-tank missile. The S8D 80mm fuel-air rocket was used by aircraft, as was the S13D 122mm fuel-air rocket. The Kornet-E long-range anti-tank missile can use a thermobaric warhead.
FYEO

By William Jockusch (Verybadcat) on Monday, July 14, 2025 - 10:01 pm: Edit

SVC, not expecting you, or anyone, to defend it. Improving this attitude on the R side has been a major focus for me. I am glad to see that, at least for the moment, it has changed.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Monday, July 14, 2025 - 10:41 pm: Edit

I think that maybe some people who know more than he does have had the opportunity to discuss Putin with the president.

By Jeff Wile (Jswile) on Saturday, July 19, 2025 - 03:13 pm: Edit

Some recent updates concerning the U.S.S. Connecticut, SSN-22.

Some may remember that on October 2, 2021, the sub ran into an “undersea mountain.”

The Senior Enlisted man, the executive officer and the captain were all three relieved of duty, and the sub towed to Guam, then Pearl Harbor, and finally to a ship yard in the pacific North West, Continental U.S.

Congress passed a special authorizing to partially fund the repairs.

A military journal posted an update, that noted a few further details. One was that the sub is one of the three unit class Seawolf Submarines, (U.S.S. seawolf and the U.S.S. Jimmy Carter) the most expensive submarines ever built, each costing over a billion dollars USD.

Since both of the other ships are still in service, there is no source of spare parts because production of the Seawolf class was curtailed years ago.

What that means is anything that needs replacement due to the collision, must be fabricated. No source of cheap replacement parts.

Also, the collision resulted in extensive damage to the bow of the ship, requiring replacement rather than repair.

The U.S. Navy reported this year, that the time to return the Sub to service will exceed 5 years, possible even delayed until year 2027.

The navy hasn’t said, but the media site suggested that the final cost of returning the ship to service will exceed the initial purchase cost of the sub.

The implication being, that if the ship was anything other than a Seawolf class sub, it would have been scrapped rather than repaired.

By Jessica Orsini (Jessica_Orsini) on Sunday, July 20, 2025 - 06:35 am: Edit

Connecticut was laid down over thirty years ago, and the Seawolf class has since been superseded by the Virginia class. Perhaps it's time to reconsider the cost-effectiveness of her continued repair. SSN-806 Wahoo is currently under construction; perhaps she could be renamed Connecticut to carry on the name.