Russian special military operation in Ukraine #54

Should have done this two years ago but better late than never I guess....

For the second day now, the Russian Armed Forces have been massively bombarding Ukraine with missile strikes.
Yesterday they hit mainly Kyiv (warehouses, decision-making centers, production shops, etc.).
Today , a massive blow was dealt to the energy system of Ukraine. Note that the Russians could have struck such a blow long ago, but they waited until spring. Although, perhaps, this is a response to the strikes by the Main Intelligence Directorate/SBU on Russian oil refineries and Belgorod. This is a warning that the response to Ukraine will be 5-8 times more powerful than the blow to Russian territories.

According to our data, the Armed Forces of Ukraine spent almost all of their air defense missile reserves in two days. Now all the remains of the missiles are being taken to Kyiv, mainly to protect the capital. The rest of the country will be defended only by “anti-aircraft guns and machine guns.”

Most likely, attacks on the energy system of Ukraine will intensify if the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to shell Belgorod.

We would advise you to stock up. There may be power outages.

https://t.me/legitimniy/17500

After the heavy strikes this morning, it seems like the SMO has been upgraded to an official war, according the Kremlin spox. Actual declaration upcoming?

It seems that the SBU ban on videos is becoming less effective. CHPP in Karkov



The Kharkov Transport Engineering Plant named after Malyshev (KZTM), part of the Ukroboronprom concern, which produces and repairs tanks, tank engines and infantry fighting vehicles for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as two thermal power plants, Ukrainian officers involved in attacks on the Belgorod region, and a group of foreign mercenaries, were hit by a Russian missile attack on Friday morning, the coordinator of the Nikolaev underground, Sergey Lebedev, told RIA Novosti, referring to his colleagues. - FRWL reports

Also Internet gone through the floor

ALAMO wrote:

Dnepr hydro electric power plant in Zaporozhye was fully demolished. Dam is fine, but all turbine rooms and hatch control system was demolished to pieces.

S p r i n t e r F a c t o r y
@Sprinterfactory
The moment of the second arrival at the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station. The missile is firing heat traps.



Do any Western missiles have this feature?

Rybar:

A clear illustration of the transformation taking place literally before our eyes in the nature of combat operations, which occurs as new technical means are introduced: the video of the Archangel Special Forces channel captured the moment of an FPV drone hitting a robotic platform.

The target of the Russian drone was the unmanned tracked vehicle THeMIS from the Estonian company Mildred Robotics, which has long been developing similar products and exporting them. In total, the company handed over 14 platforms to the Ukrainian Armed Forces for mine clearance and evacuation of the wounded.

If earlier in the NVO zone it was possible to observe battles between copters, now it has come to a fight between air and ground drones. Most likely, the emergence of specialized interceptor drones to combat aircraft-type drones is not far off.

Although a full-fledged war of anthropomorphic robots in the best traditions of science fiction film scenes is still far away, the massive use of unmanned platforms in battle formations is looking more and more realistic.

@rybar
11:13 PM · Mar 21, 2024
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This is airborne interception by FPV not the incident mentioned above

A flyby of the X-101 caliber, as well as the sound of a dagger passing during an attack on Ukrainians

https://t.me/intelslava/56255

Russia is in a state of war - Peskov

It started out as a special operation, but Western involvement turned it into a war.

Part of the territory of Russia is de facto occupied, it is necessary to liberate new regions and protect the people there , said the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation.

The FSB detained seven residents of Moscow who are supporters of the Ukrainian terrorist organization “Russian Volunteer Corps”

They were going to create a criminal group to carry out violent actions, the FSB of Russia reported.


https://t.me/intelslava/56259

unterscharfuehrer Haushofer wants to know if Ukraine has any energy infrastructure left for Russia to pummel

The missile hits the target, shooting off decoys to protect against potential air defense fire. True, judging by the footage from the Dnieper Hydroelectric Station, the air defense either did not work or worked very weakly.

https://t.me/intelslava/56260

Interesting video.
It's the first time I've seen a cruise missile firing decoys.

Night attacks on Kharkov as a result of which most of the city is without electricity today. Several thermal power plants and substations were damaged, in some cases the damage was very serious.

https://t.me/intelslava/56261

Question is why they went with the M54 casings for these new builds rather than a more UMPK-friendly one. Counting on UA AD being so attrited as to allow for direct overflights by Tu-22Ms?

As you probably already know the M54 bombs are designed for internal carriage and for aerodynamic breaking so when dropped at relatively low level they rapidly slow down as they fall so they don't hit the ground directly below the bomber that dropped it and damage the bomber.

Because they are designed for internal carriage they are shorter and fatter and much much less aerodynamic and are intended for use on subsonic aircraft like the Su-25 or to be carried internally in bomb bays, or in tandem on multiple ejector racks that are not going to be aerodynamic on the aircraft anyway.

The aerodynamic M62 design bombs are designed be carried externally on supersonic or fast aircraft like MiG-27, Su-24, Su-34, Su-27/20/35 and MiG-29/35 and are longer but of a more aerodynamic shape on the wing pylon so they don't impose as much drag on the aircraft.

Obviously that is the concept but in practice you will see Tu-22M3s dropping a cluster of 9 to 12 M62 bombs from their bomb bays when hitting targets so it is not a hard and fast rule.

The thing is that AFAIK there are M62 models of 100kg and 250kg and 500kg and 1,500kg bombs but I don't ever remember seeing M62 models of the FAB-3000 or FAB-5000 or FAB-9000 because they are almost never carried externally and dropping them at low altitude would be suicide unless they had a parachute to slow them down.

As shown, the high drag design of the M54 bombs can be negated with a sheet metal fairing over the nose to restore a level of aerodynamic performance to the weapon and even though these thing will mostly fall at subsonic speeds the extra weight of the bigger bombs will have more influence on their throw range than minor aerodynamic features.

When talking about a rifle bullet a pointed nose will massively reduce drag for a supersonic bullet so most rifle bullets are pointy, but for bullets that are mostly subsonic or near subsonic like pistol rounds from a pistol or SMG or carbine their noses are rounded because at subsonic speeds it is the shape of the tail or rear end that effects drag more than the shape of the nose.

With these big bombs I suspect the rear end effects drag more than the big rounded nose too for all the same reasons.

With an FAB-3000 the speed it hits the target is not going to matter a huge amount.

Especially if it is the FAE model...  

The design for these extremely heavy freefall bombs is old from 1954 series. Redesign is time consuming job and we have seen that these can be easily modified to be glide friendly attaching simple aerodynamic cover front of them.

They wouldn't redesign them. They designed the 1954 model to replace the pishpash of all the different previous bomb designs from WWI onwards to the mid 50s.

As planes started getting faster they realised they needed a more aerodynamic shaped bomb to be carried on the wings of their planes as they got faster and faster so in 1962 they introduced aerodynamic versions of the bombs... but AFAIK only the lighter bombs that would be carried on the wings of their faster aircraft, so there were no M62 versions of the really big bombs because they were carried in aircraft like the Tu-16 and Tu-22M family planes and the Myasishchev bombers. These were planes designed to carry the early big heavy nuclear bombs so the FAB-9000 could be carried in the Tu-16, while the Tu-22M could carry the  FAB-5000s.

Molds are expensive but can be everlasting. That is the case for the Soviet Union created metallurgy.
They simply have those on hand, in big numbers, and the aerodynamic cap costs are bargain.

They produce both because they use both. There is no real advantage to carrying FAB-250M62 bombs on the MER for the Tu-22M3 because putting 12 bombs on each pylon is going to generate drag no matter the shape of the bomb.

Russian political scientist Sergei Markov: "If there is a war between Russia and NATO, it will be for Odessa."

Will be interesting to see which side the people of Odessa support...

Today's edition of the Financial Times claimed, that US insisted on the Ukrs to cease attacking Russian energy infrastructure, as it can brig both retaliation and stress to global energy prices ...

So the US says you can kill Russians and hit Russian targets, but don't damage fuel or energy that might end up making us pay more for fuel... sounds like Russia should stop selling energy to the US and the west and reduce exports for a year or so... at least until the US elections are over...

Should have done this two years ago but better late than never I guess....

Doing it this way Russia has a legitimate way to respond to Nazi attacks and anyone effected by the destruction of these damns can say... well they didn't destroy them until Kiev did something to Russia so in a way it is Kievs fault.

You don't destroy the infrastructure on the territories that will be yours soon, until not an absolute necessity.

Unless it needs to be replaced anyway... A bit of temporary discomfort for them to blame Kiev on might be useful about now.

Do any Western missiles have this feature?

Not as far as I am aware... and more importantly AFAIK western air defence systems don't expect to be targeting missiles that release flares and chaff and decoys and contain disposable jammers.  (Iskander is one of the best equipped as well as being very very fast and manouvering all the way to impact).

Thread continued here