That is what you get when you think that you are "exceptional". No rules for Americans it seems.
They always make it across in the movies... from his perspective the gap would look small... he might not have realised it was not closed.
The impact into the other part of the bridge probably would have killed him or knocked him unconscious with the impact... going from normal speed to stopped is hard on your body... air bag or no air bag.
But
internet "experts" claim that Russians were just throwing their men and equipment away like the Ukrainian side.
Well they must have done this at least once a week to justify 70K dead Russian soldiers...
Next they will claim that it was the HIMASS system that was "stolen" by Russia.
Or HighMiss...
This is the picture being painted for the people who vote on funding and arming Ukraine.
When you can't admit mistakes you have to double down and go harder... nothing for the US public, but quite painful for the people of Ukraine... but if they don't care why should I...
Any theories about what Ukrainians will get when Lend Lease starts in September?
A live concert from Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison...
Ukrainians were trained and equipped for last 8 years. Who gives a crap, these rag tags won't end doing anything.
They will be hoping the war ends before they finish their training so they can seek asylum in the countries they were sent to...
Ukie psy-op designed to stiffen the backs of their orcs in trenches.
Yeah, cuz this is how the winning side behaves...
It will work because the conscripts they show the video to wont get the critical scrutiny it is getting on the internet and they will just assume it is true.
Although rumours I find it difficult to believe if your planning on surrendering why wait 3-4 weeks?
Makes complete sense... you need to talk to everyone and work out who is going with you and who might shoot you in the back if you try and therefore need to be shot first.
By looking at their performance, they probably squandered money for training and drank goryachka during it.
I am more interested in what equipment they will bring
To be fair... what sort of training teaches soldiers to deal with artillery and air power attacks 24/7...
This is not the military of the Soviet Union... their helicopters and attack systems work 24/7.
Yes, it is discussed on other forums too. People have never known that Panzerhaubitze 2000 has this "feature" that it can't handle 100 rounds per day. It was considered the best SPG in the world before Koalitsiya was introduced by Russia...
Ironic as some criticism of new Russian stuff was often directed at them being great for air shows and parades but no good for real conflicts.
Obviously the western response to this will be that German artillery in German service will hit 100 Russian targets a day with a single shot and the Russians will run out of vehicles before the German guns are worn out...
The case with ZSU family is a lack of proper ammo. And lack of proper ammo is due to the round size limits. You cant resolve that. Plus as it was effective against soft-skinned, low-flying aircraft, next-generation planes started to fly faster&higher, while choppers became more and more resistant.
To be fair it is still very effective, but not against very small targets like drones or incoming missiles... the point is that in Soviet and Russian service it was never intended to operate on its own, it was always intended to operate with SA-9 and then SA-13 vehicle in a gun and missile regiment, while the other AD regiment had OSA and then the vastly more capable TOR. When the TOR started replacing the OSA, the Tunguska started replacing the Shilka and SA-13...
Now that they have command detonated 30mm shells the Tunguska should be very effective against small drone targets and missiles, as well as heavier aircraft... of course the missiles will kill at much greater ranges than 35mm shells will... but then the 2S38 is on the way as well bringing the 57mm back.
All the mods made in years were hardly serial, and that applies to Russian, Belarusian, and Polish ones. You can count the number of modified pieces with two hands in total...
I guess the most extensive modernization of Shilkas was performed in countries like Cuba and Vietnam.
Spending too much money on a platform that is being phased out doesn't make a lot of sense... upgrades to keep relevant and be cheaper to maintain make sense but massive upgrades not really value for money.
Probably the cheapest and most sensible upgrades would be take out the four 23mm cannon and install a single twin barrel 2A38M cannon and some SOSNA/Pine SAMs with a new EO ball turret...
A similar towed mount for the 30mm cannon could replace the ZU-23-2 which would allow the 23 x 152mm calibre to be removed from the inventory...
Russia’s use of air-launched anti-ship missiles with only and limited secondary land-attack capability to attempt to strike Ukrainian targets suggests its dedicated land-attack cruise missile inventory is running low.
Not at all... when the Russians worked with the Indians on the Brahmos... essentially a modified Yakhont for the Indians, they added full land attack capacity to what used to be essentially an anti ship missile. It seems that that experience led to them modifying all their anti ship missiles to add land attack capacity... including all their missiles like Kh-35 and the heavy ship launched missiles too like Granit and Vulcan. The Kh-22M and the Kh-32 launched from Tu-22M3s were already land attack capable as the Tu-22M3 is a strike platform for land and sea targets.
Even Russia wasn't successful in exporting the Sukhoi Superjet 100 because the PowerJet SaM146 engine was being designed jointly with France and the latter ensured that Superjet won't be able to rival Airbus.
Superjet incorporated western components specifically to make it appeal to customers who already had such items in their inventory... the current split with Europe means all Russian designed and made planes will become the priority going forward.
Airbus and Boeing are not going to lose market share for a long period of time.
Actually Boeing and Airbus had factories and facilities in Russia making all sorts of bits and pieces and used Russian titanium components in their aircraft and designs... most of the titanium that goes in to the F-35 comes from Russia... the last lot of sanctions the EU announced included rollbacks of sanctions against a Russian company that makes steel because they were worried that same company that makes titanium parts for western aircraft engines might sanction them back...
The market is going to be shitty for the next few years anyway... oversupply of planes and so many fired workers they will need to replace as travel returns to what it returns to.
It is the normal state of roads in Ukraine for many years. So for the locals it is nothing new
The locals were probably astounded that the holes from the last attack were fixed... the last 30 years in the Ukraine probably has not seen a lot of money spent on their road quality... especially in that part of the country...
I recall that Soviet/Russian guns have several thousand round lifetimes. NATzO weapons are not going to be any better in this regard.
Last number I remember seeing was something like 2,500 rounds for a 152mm calibre gun before it needed replacement because the rifling would be gone and accuracy would drop.
Ironically with the fuse mounted guidance kit a smoothbore barrel would work just fine so you could probably keep using it in that case... till the barrel blows of course.
But this sort of terrorism is not going to save the Kiev regime. It will not even slow down the Russian campaign.
Might make a few realise who wants them dead to send some message to the west about how loyal they are... might cause even more internal division... when you know your leaders are sending you to death and if you surrender they will kill you from behind... maybe shooting them when their backs are turned is the best solution... then you can surrender safely...
At the time South Africa had some of the best artillery pieces (G-5/G-6) but they lost the ability to manufacture replacement barrels. Most of these pieces are now in storage. Even the basic service rifle can't be serviced properly anymore, but we do have some of the biggest potholes.
I am hoping BRICS can drag South Africa up out of the hole it is in and get it on to a better road for all its people...
It lacks the engagement envelope. I guess that sooner or later, all will just end up as ground support vehicles as you said.
The Soviets and the Russians use the ZU-23-2 the way the US uses 50 cal HMG... but it is so much more than a 50 cal HMG.
On gate guard duty and even against light armoured vehicles it is a very very powerful system...
The core problem as you say is of course that its replacement is in the process of being supplanted in some roles.
For the Soviets and the Russians there is not a huge distinction between an air defence gun and a fire support gun... during WWII the best anti tank guns were often AA guns like the 88mm German and the 85mm Soviet guns, but 20mm cannon were used against infantry attacks, and as the task of the air defence guns got harder the solution till the 1970s was smaller and smaller calibres with higher rates of fire... when the ZSU-57-2 was made obsolete by fast flying jets they were still using 14.5mm KPV HMGs very effectively against all sorts of air targets.
We complain that a 23mm gun only has an effective range of 2.5km, but the towed mounts are actually rather hard to spot and 14.5mm HMGs even harder so stumbling in to their kill zone is actually quite likely... in the ground support role they are devastating.