Ukraine Conflict - continuing

[Malcador]

Guess they'll finally drop the bridge. The articles amazed that US weapons do indeed work will be a good read.

[Mamoulian War]

12 hours ago, pmp10 said:

It seems ATACMs will be part of the US weapons package.
That should be about the last entry from Ukrainian wish-list.

It will also increase the pressure on Germany to send Taurus missiles.

Some ATACMs were already donated last year. UA hit with them a few Airfields and destroyed more than 15 helicopters. German opposition asked Sunak to make pressure on Scholz, as UK is donating biggest weapon package to the fight since WW2. AFAIK, they already met, but I have no clue yet, if Taurus was a topic.

[Malcador]

Still no Taurus, apparently. I am sure clowns like Melnyk will spew bile over it.

They used ATACMS already, sort of a open secret if they were trying to, with strikes in Crimea.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-quietly-shipped-long-range-atacms-missiles-ukraine-2024-04-24/

"Russia's use of North Korean-supplied long-range ballistic missiles against Ukraine in December and January, despite U.S. public and private warnings not to do so, led to a change in heart, the U.S. official said. Also a factor in U.S. decision-making was Russia's targeting of Ukraine's critical infrastructure, the official said. "We warned Russia about those things," the official said. "They renewed their targeting."

[Sarex]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/poland-ready-help-ukraine-get-military-age-men-back-minister-says-2024-04-24/

[Lexx]

Sounds like germany will have a few more ukraine refugees soon.

[Malcador]

3 hours ago, Sarex said:

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/poland-ready-help-ukraine-get-military-age-men-back-minister-says-2024-04-24/

""I think many Poles are outraged when they see young Ukrainian men in hotels and cafes, and they hear how much effort we have to make to help Ukraine," he said, without giving any details on how Poland will help."

Those Poles should sack up and join the Legion.

Lithuania planning to join in as well.

https://kyivindependent.com/lithuania-to-assist-ukraine-in-returning-military-aged-men/

Ukrainian men should have left these countries last week.

[pmp10]

Another update in the forever search of wunderwaffe:

The GLSDBs have failed in Ukraine.
I bet that played a part in finally officially transferring ATACMS.

[Zoraptor]

Abrams have apparently been withdrawn too. Did better than the Challenger where we saw one knocked out and another up to its turret in mud and everything else was publicity shots before they got pulled.

If jamming is the problem it will effect ATACMS as well. End of the day they're old systems, and GPS signal is intrinsically and unavoidably extremely weak at earth level.

[xzar_monty]

9 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

If jamming is the problem it will effect ATACMS as well. End of the day they're old systems, and GPS signal is intrinsically and unavoidably extremely weak at earth level.

Yesterday, a Finnair flight had to return to Helsinki because it couldn't land in Tartu because of some serious GPS jamming. Russia has been doing this near its borders for quite a while now.

[Mamoulian War]

21 hours ago, Zoraptor said:

Abrams have apparently been withdrawn too. Did better than the Challenger where we saw one knocked out and another up to its turret in mud and everything else was publicity shots before they got pulled.

If jamming is the problem it will effect ATACMS as well. End of the day they're old systems, and GPS signal is intrinsically and unavoidably extremely weak at earth level.

Ukrainian Command says that the news about removal of Abrams from frontlines is not based on true information.

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/04/27/7453276/

[Zoraptor]

Both stories could easily be true: there are muddy conditions, and the Abrams is a very heavy tank, plus the 47th was off the line until it got firebrigaded back into the Avdiivka front a couple of days ago. So it was an ideal time to upgrade their Abrams with what had been learnt from previous losses and current state of the art countermeasures*, and the Abrams is a notoriously hard tank to maintain. Then with the problems Ukraine is having around Avdiivka they had to be rushed back.

Information based on 'anonymous insider' sourcing is of course fundamentally suspect, but in this case it was at least consistent with other factors. And to be fair to AP, while the 47th is back on the line there's no (caveat: that I am aware of) recent footage of them using their Abrams whereas there was a fair bit in their previous stint in and around Berdychi.

*M1A1 Abrams 'Testudo' incoming? Would certainly be a laugh.

[Malcador]

I am amused by the Russian turtle tank and its adventures.

[pmp10]

Some interesting weaponry lessons from Ukraine emerged.
Most interesting point being:

Quote

The peak efficiency of a new weapon system is only about 2 weeks before countermeasures emerge.

Chances are that whatever technological edge Ukraine enjoyed has been lost by now.

[Sarex]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68934205

[Zoraptor]

There does seem to be a certain amount of, hmm, posterial discomfort about that display. To be fair to Mr Rosenberg he does actually mention the Ukrainians doing the same unlike a lot of others.

2 hours ago, pmp10 said:

Some interesting weaponry lessons from Ukraine emerged.

Interesting read that, though I rather doubt a lot of the issues can be solved via software update. Bit of 'have hammer, so nails solve all problems' situation.

(If you have a transmit signal to a drone or GPS it will weaken very very quickly as distance increases as a basic physical process about which nothing can be done without reworking the laws of the universe. Software updates can't effect that. You'd hope for the expensive stuff they'd already have obvious stuff like software to get GPS and INS talking to each other to help vs spoofing/ jamming of the GPS signal; that's fundamentally why they retain the INS system after all.

Pretty much the whole point of a drone of the type(s) used ubiquitously in Ukraine is that they're cheap and easy. Even if they're 'only' 20% effective... well, they're still cheap at 1/5 working especially so if they take out a million dollar+ system. What are you realistically going to do, take them apart before use and put a military grade receiver in plus proper I/O, flashable memory for the software updates... new CPU? FPGAs? AI adaptive module? etc? At some point it kind of defeats the purpose of them being cheap and easy, especially so if it's going to drop back down to one on five working again after two weeks)

[Malcador]

1 hour ago, Sarex said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68934205

I liked the sign that Western staff can skip the queues, at least they have a sense of humour

[Gorth]

1 hour ago, Sarex said:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-68934205

I'm fairly sure those national flags on the vehicles are not part of the original paint scheme 

[xzar_monty]

Russia's main message of "Our victory is inevitable" looks fairly amusing given that this was supposed to be a quick and decisive foray but has now lasted well over two years. I don't think there's any doubt that Russia's position does look significantly better than Ukraine's, but the posturing is silly.

But then, that's Russia for you. The abbreviation of their first nuclear bomb, RDS-1, stands for "Rossiya delaet sama" which means "Russia does it itself". A nice name, given that Russia was effectively stealing what others had done in the Manhattan Project. What interests me the most is the psychology behind it: Russia was lying and everyone knew they were lying, but despite all that, they simply had to lie. It would have been more honorable to give the bomb some other name, something that didn't involve a blatant lie, but apparently that was impossible: it just had to be a lie. (A Russian writer recently pointed out that the "Russian psyche" -- such that is displayed in the country's posturing, not the mindset of the individual -- is a curious mixture of almost megalomaniacal grandiosity and almost debilitating lack of self-esteem.)

[bugarup]

Wonder how long till they start flaunting corpses of their kills. 

[Mamoulian War]

Macron had another speech, and he delivered even stronger wording about the French intervention in Ukraine. He has now officialy put it on same level as past French interventions in Africa to counter terrorism.
 

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/05/2/7453964/

[xzar_monty]

10 minutes ago, Mamoulian War said:

Macron had another speech, and he delivered even stronger wording about the French intervention in Ukraine.

It's so hard to take Macron seriously here that I instantly pictured a forthcoming chemical war involving soldiers with yesterday's garlic on their breath on the one side, and soldiers with yesterday's vodka on their breath on the other.

BUT let's hope Macron delivers, should the need arise.

[BruceVC]

50 minutes ago, Mamoulian War said:

Macron had another speech, and he delivered even stronger wording about the French intervention in Ukraine. He has now officialy put it on same level as past French interventions in Africa to counter terrorism.
 

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/05/2/7453964/

Lets hope its not as  unsuccessful as the French African military interventions  

But to be fair to France you cant defeat Islamic extremism in Africa without also changing the economic and social conditions in these African countries and only African governments can do that

France cant do that for them 

 

 

[Malcador]

1 hour ago, Mamoulian War said:

Macron had another speech, and he delivered even stronger wording about the French intervention in Ukraine. He has now officialy put it on same level as past French interventions in Africa to counter terrorism.
 

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/05/2/7453964/

It's worth considering if Russia breaks the front line and if Ukraine asks. Very strong indeed.

"I have a clear strategic objective: Russia cannot win in Ukraine. If Russia wins in Ukraine, there will be no security in Europe. Who can pretend that Russia will stop there? What security will there be for the other neighbouring countries, Moldova, Romania, Poland, Lithuania and the others?"

I guess he, too , forgot NATO exists.

[Mamoulian War]

3 hours ago, xzar_monty said:

It's so hard to take Macron seriously here that I instantly pictured a forthcoming chemical war involving soldiers with yesterday's garlic on their breath on the one side, and soldiers with yesterday's vodka on their breath on the other.

BUT let's hope Macron delivers, should the need arise.

Yes, I am looking at it with a pinch of skepticism as well, but I am glad, that at least someone opened this topic, and I am pretty sure at least Poland, Baltics and probably Romania joins this initiative soon. I am pretty sure, this notion might have something to do with the danger in Moldova as well. Some time ago, Romania planned to change their law, which should give them right to send some kind of direct military help as well. Moldova has now Romanian language as official state language.

[BruceVC]

2 minutes ago, Mamoulian War said:

Yes, I am looking at it with a pinch of skepticism as well, but I am glad, that at least someone opened this topic, and I am pretty sure at least Poland, Baltics and probably Romania joins this initiative soon. I am pretty sure, this notion might have something to do with the danger in Moldova as well. Some time ago, Romania planned to change their law, which should give them right to send some kind of direct military help as well. Moldova has now Romanian language as official state language.

Mamie what  is the historical connection between Moldova and Romania,  did they use to be one country?