Russian special military operation in Ukraine #34

British fighters with the International Legion try to find a weakness in the Russian line in the woods outside Bakhmut, come across a defensive position, find themselves outnumbered and outgunned instead, retreat. Some safari.

What is that startup device on the msta? The sound and flame looks like a gas turbine but it runs on a diesel engine?

They are generally gas turbines to generate enough electrical power.

GTs get a bad rap for high fuel consumption but a dedicated turbine used to generate a specific level of electric power and not running under load like trying to move a T-80 or M1 abrams tank a gas turbine can actually be very efficient running at an efficient rpm and without load just turning one or two generators to produce power... and they are rather small of course and just use the standard tank engines fuel... a small GT would use a fraction of the fuel per hour that the main engine would to keep all the electronics going and the heater on.

These GTs are often used for internal heating (of the crew cabin in extreme cold places) and keeping the main engine warm so it can be started quickly if needed.

Slovakia is ready to transfer its MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine, preparations for this may begin in the coming weeks-Slovakia Foreign Minister

The US has been bitching and moaning about ex Soviet equipment in the inventories of Eastern Europe, so this conflict offers a chance to purge them of these weapons and equipment and ammo so they can be replaced with expensive new western (US) gear so the US applies more suckers to the EU economy... this will be good for Russia because they are essentially getting rid of good reliable if dated weapons for modern stuff not designed for real wars and rather more expensive too...

Hilarious!! Looks like the Ukrop misfired, with the round exploding either in the barrel or in the breech while loading.

Looks like they are digging deep into old stocks that might not be safe to use any more...

Bad ammo, barrel obstruction?

I would guess most likely bad ammo, but could be sabotaged ammo too. Not every country donating ammo and weapons is happy about their governments giving everything away, and not everyone in the west wants more Ukrainian immigrants.

Sympathy for Ukrop murderers is misplaced. I hope they all die in agony and despair. They deserve nothing less for the untold misery and suffering that their disgusting regime has inflicted.

Please reserve your expressions of humanity for their victims.

To be fair the ones wielded into their tanks who turn their turrets backwards and drive forward into Russian positions could be spared... but these guys were trying to shoot Russian tanks...

The Ukrainians have suffered incredible losses in the Bakhmut area, perhaps 10,000 already, and continue to throw meat into the grinder like the morons they are.

If there is any kind of "genocide" going on in Ukraine it is Zelensky's doing. And the west is complicit. But that's what they chose to do, so.

You can bet anything you like when the conflict is finished and it is revealed how many Ukrainian soldiers died both from Russian and also their own weapons... they don't seem to care, that the West will then blame the Russians for being so evil murdering their neighbours and fellow Russians in cold blood like that...

Offensive operations on other hand, they can pull them off quite well if there is little to no resistance

All offensive operations are easy when there is little or no resistance.

I remember reading about a landing on the aluetian islands by the Americans to capture them from Japanese occupation... the landing went rather well, the American forces only lost about 35 men in the operation. There were no Japanese on the island, but the landing went well. (landing are dangerous).

The moment you chose to forget to be human you've lost your humanity.

I agree with that but it is naive to think these people who have spent the last 8 years and likely much more hating, can be converted over night with hugs and love.

Before 8 years ago these idiots were fringe assholes everyone hated, but when the US and EU bought a democratic "election" and kicked out or burned to death people who were pro Russia or just not anti Russia enough they had to fill the positions of power so these loser outcasts suddenly got positions high up in government and military... it didn't matter that they were incompetent, just that they hated Russia and Russians and anyone who supports Russia and Russians.

After 8 years of spewing their bullshit and being in well paying jobs with power over others of course they are going to believe what they believe is true and will kill anyone who tries to remove them from that position.

The job is to get some Ukrainians notionally on Kievs side but not really buying in to the rabid Russophobia that want to save their own people... group them together and get them to start rooting out the problem nazis and nationalists that can't be reasoned with and would fight to the last Ukrainian... and then run to the west.

The Americans and other foreigners that got key jobs should be targeted first but all the nutters should be removed with subtlety so before they know it Zelensky can make statements more like the ones that got him elected without being shot and thrown down a disused mine.

Add the Europeans in the Ukraine infrastructure too...

You always have a few rotten power hungry apples doing horrible things to captured soldiers or civilians but I refuse to believe that is the majority.

If it was all of them they would have no prisoners with which to trade, though some recent lots have been "damaged" which suggests they are running out of Russians to swap and are swapping the ones they didn't want to acknowledge because it is a war crime.

Along with a couple of African countries, it was one of the very few in the world to have actually witnessed a GDP decrease as compared to 1990. And yes this applies to before this war.

The fact that the first war broke out in 2014 was also a result of the same elite's and coupists decisions. It could have been avoided likewise.

Ironically many African countries have civil wars when corruption of the government is exposed...

Kadyrov talks too much.

The way this goes is in Kievs hands more than in Moscows hands, if Kiev chooses not to stop then Moscow wont stop either...

They were so conserned about ABM capabilities of the US that they stoped production of cheap ballistic missiles. Iskander with its technology is a total overkill for any target including US ones.

They stopped producing cheap ballistic missiles like Frog-7 because the Tochka had better range and much much better accuracy, the Iskander has double its range, but the longer ranged missiles like the SS-12 Scaleboard or the SS-20 were cancelled due to the INF treaty.

ABM concerns were totally justified because the US could base ABM systems all over Europe and Canada and it would be very destabilising in the sense the US might think a quick attack that destroyed some of the Russian ICBMs and SLBMs and ALCMs before they were launched would mean the few left over that were launched could be taken out by their ABM systems all over the place.

In other words ABM systems make nuclear war more likely, not less likely.

Iskander and its maneuvrability + decoys is good for best targets like AD with ABM capability which represent not even 5% of the targets.

Iskander is affordable and is intended to take out HQs and Comms centres and enemy SAM sites and a range of other targets and can use a 650kg HE warhead, a 500kg penetration warhead, and a cluster bomb warhead of 650kg... (and also a nuclear warhead but the accuracy of the missile means the nuke warhead would only be needed for large area targets.)

Kh-15 was also a good basis for a new air launched BM with good accuracy, conventional warhead and good range.

The Kh-15 is gone, and will be replaced by a scramjet powered missile with over three times more range and slightly faster.

Iran, North Korea and China are way more advanced in that field, eventhough USSR was the leader of that technology. They are also way better in drone field. That's 2 field they needed for this war.

I think you over estimate the value of a 300km range unguided rocket system, plus the Russians have a range of missiles that can perform the same job including old anti ship missiles upgraded for the purpose... Granits and Vulkans as well as Kh-22Ms and Onyx missiles seem to have been used as well as new missiles like the Kh-69 and LMUR and other weapons too.

Honestly they are actually spoiled for choice really... and they are developing new cheap 1,500km range cruise missiles designed to be carried by tactical aircraft.

The Iranian drones seem to be very good, but we don't know about the NK and Chinese drones... some early buyers complained about reliability and support for the Chinese drones.

Using drones earlier in the war would have just ended with lots of shot down drones...

The Russians keep hinting at new weapons based on new principles... new rifles, new helicopters, and other new systems.... frustrating, but I am looking forward to seeing them.

The kh-15 would have been very useful to have now, and would have made the tu-22Ms much more useful in this war.

The Kh-15 is a rocket powered missile that only comes with a nuclear warhead... an anti ship version was suggested in the west but it does not exist.

The Kh-32 flies faster and further and has a much bigger warhead.

Not that much. 3 versions existed, a nuclear one, an antiship one with an active radar and a passive one for anti radar use.

Nope.

There was no anti ship missile, and the one version with radar could detect radar use, or could hit large objects like buildings or bridges, but it flew to a coordinate in 3D space and exploded or it hit a radar on the ground based on that radars emissions.

that missile range limitation is pretty funny. I guess the Russians would have to put more fuel in them? lol.

It used old solid rocket fuel, so new solid rocket fuel could probably double its range and increase its flight speed by a mach or two, but the replacement is going to be scramjet powered.

5 March 2015: "If the Minsk Agreements are seriously violated, European leaders and the European Commission stand ready to prepare and impose new sanctions."

December 7, 2022: “The Minsk agreements of 2014 were an attempt to give Ukraine time. It used this time to become stronger, as you can see today. Ukraine 2014-2015 is not Ukraine today. <...> It was clear to all of us that the conflict was frozen, that the problem had not been resolved, but this gave Ukraine precious time.”

December 8, 2022: The Minsk agreements of 2014 were seriously violated by France and Germany and Kiev, and so Russia will now impose sanctions on those countries... let them sit in the naughty chair...

JohninMk wrote:
Almost all vehicles have high gun wear, and the crews of Ukrainian Armed Forces tanks regularly encounter bursts of ammunition in the gun breech, after which the vehicle is put out of action. The activity of the artillery of Wagner PMC and the RF Armed Forces also led to high losses of tanks: when a platoon (or company) of tanks is detected, heavy artillery fire of high density opens on armoured vehicles, which does not allow the equipment to manoeuvre and fire.

Hohols really memed themselves into thinking Russian artillery is all mass with low precision. If they had any idea what they're coming up against I don't think they would be so confident launching these suicide attacks at brick walls.

Pro-tip: Not every sector is guarded by volunteers and militia artillerists with old ass D20 guns, Soviet ammo and comparatively sparse drone cover. Sometimes you can run into well-trained and well-equipped professional artillerists who can bracket and disable a moving target with unguided shells and finish it off with a Krasnopol on top. You don't even get featured in a drone cam set to really cool Russian rock.

flamming_python wrote:British fighters with the International Legion try to find a weakness in the Russian line in the woods outside Bakhmut, come across a defensive position, find themselves outnumbered and outgunned instead, retreat. Some safari.

But I thought these guys have the superior C4ISR - how are they getting ambushed by those deaf and blind Russians?

The one good thing I like about Russia is their restraint. They know their place. There have been attack on Russian military bases and infrastructure INSIDE Russia. With NATO supplied Intel and weapons and they have not retaliated.

If it was a reckless country US oil refineries and gas storage tanks in Europe would be in flames, cyber attacks on banks,... Would be happening so as a deterance

You can call it restraint, I call it patience. Russia knows the place organized for it by the collective West, it has no interest in that, hence why the war broke out. Rest assured that every NATO-organized proxy attack will be retaliated against via third-state actors of Russia's own in due course. Right now the priority is neutralizing the puppet regime in the Ukraine. One war at a time, as they say.

@GarryB

The Mig-29s are going to replaced with crappy used F-16/18s. These eastern European outposts of NATzO can't afford the F-35
wunderwaffen.

The problem with Kiev regime tanks is that they have been over-used and the breeches and barrels are shot. It's the same problem as with
towed artillery. I think this was posted upthread. But it is possible that they got expired shells.

Even if the chimps in Washington think that this war is going to reap them a large crop of economic gain, in reality they will just degrade
their EU "allies". If history repeats as a farce, in this case it is a tragic farce. The EU is not going to be taking over Russia in the coming
years no matter how rabid it gets and how organized it gets. It missed its chance in the early 1940s. This time around, EU hordes are
not going to be swarming over Russia all the way to Moscow.

If we establish an objective metric what constitutes a collection of barbarians, it is the total lack of adherence to any standards of behaviour
and respect for agreements. The NATzO west ticks off essential features of a barbarian horde. It may be ironic that the self-anointed center
of enlightened civilization is actually degenerate but it is its own mindset about being exceptional and entitled to run other people's affairs that
leads to the barbarism. Clearly, NATzO does not believe in any limits on itself.

New post  flamming_python Today at 8:23 am

  The one good thing I like about Russia is their restraint. They know their place. There have been attack on Russian military bases and infrastructure INSIDE Russia. With NATO supplied Intel and weapons and they have not retaliated.

   If it was a reckless country US oil refineries and gas storage tanks in Europe would be in flames, cyber attacks on banks,... Would be happening so as a deterance


You can call it restraint, I call it patience. Russia knows the place organized for it by the collective West, it has no interest in that, hence why the war broke out. Rest assured that every NATO-organized proxy attack will be retaliated against via third-state actors of Russia's own in due course. Right now the priority is neutralizing the puppet regime in the Ukraine. One war at a time, as they say.

IMO it is one big war and this is just one of the battles or maybe campaign would be more appropriate here...

franco wrote:You can call it restraint, I call it patience. Russia knows the place organized for it by the collective West, it has no interest in that, hence why the war broke out. Rest assured that every NATO-organized proxy attack will be retaliated against via third-state actors of Russia's own in due course. Right now the priority is neutralizing the puppet regime in the Ukraine. One war at a time, as they say.

IMO it is one big war and this is just one of the battles or maybe campaign would be more appropriate here...

I completely agree, but touching the nuclear triad is a big no-no. There has to be an answer, or you risk inviting even more attacks, and who says they are going to limit their appetites the next time around?