Kinophile

Very Baldrik-ian if so...

Hopefully my dream of a FPV video with this sh*tbag's face at the end of it can still come through.... https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-girkin-strelkov-ukraine-invasion-prison/32899197.html

Well no, AIUI it (lack of readily available ammunition) was a major factor in the craking of the Ukrainian lines. The sheer number, duration and dimensions of RUS infantry assaults required far more arty than was provided. There were at least two major positions on the northern "shoulders" in lost because of lack of fires support. This didn't get better and eventually was a significant factor. Ukraine just couldn't kill and suppress the Rus infantry in sufficient numbers.

Cmon, you can't gave your cake and eat it too. Or whatever that stupid phrase means. There's a narrative growing that drones are the future be-all and end-all. That feels very binary and overwhelmed by the excitement of a new weapons system coming into its own. Sure 155 arty relies on radio coms (degradable) - and so do drones. Arty will always have the grid square fires advantage. Autonomous drones are not flying witches - and for sure there will be counters. I read articles several years ago about encoding lasers to hack the system behind optical sensors. These were simple brute force attacks, scrambling the input to DDOS the system. It required LOS to the hostile lenses but not 90*. It's not a stretch to extrapolate this idea to be effective against autonomous drones. Sure Trucks etc etc don't like mud - so what? Ukraine has had Caesars for at minimum 1.5 years now, and two winters later I havent seen any videos of bogged down Caesars. Or HIMARS. Or Archers. And even if someone can find such videos, again - so what? It certainly won't be at the occurrence rate to signify Crap Don't Use Caesars Coz Mud. I've seen plenty of MBTs and BMPs turning into land submarines, though... Sure the trucks weigh 4.5 tons, so what? It's disengenuos to say it's only there so the shell will survive launch. Its there to move the shell, aim the shell, fire the shell, track the shell and fire the next one in rapid succession in relation and correlation to the first shell. With firing on the move either just around the corner or already being implemented the mobility, the utility and effectiveness increases yet further, and that's because of the 4.5 ton truck. Sometimes you don't need precision or can't guarantee/achieve it - you need area suppression, denial. Even a dumb western 155 is reasonably accurate (Eg front line accounts thatvcompare Soviet 152 from Msta v US 155 from M777) and can suppress/scatter any human formation very quickly. It doesn't need to be perfectly aimed to do the job. But a drone not perfectly aimed, either autonomously or directed, is pretty useless. There will always be a need for rapid effects at long distances, using large scale area effect munitions that can ignore weather, strip terrain cover, ruin trenches, suppress infantry and generally **** things up over a wide area for days. Every single destruction of RUS's armored columns has used artillery. There's some examplrs of drones alone picking apart a column, but also plenty of Artillery doing the same with nary a FPV drone in sight. I'm very suspicious of using a new tech's promises to blanket kill/dismiss existing capabilities because they don't share the same characteristics. We haven't seen much counter-drone systems at scale - yet. But there is already work being done and it will only accelerate. We have seen zero instances of successful interception of plunging 155 HE, guided or not.

It's far more than that. Try 10 times more. €14-17m /pzh. https://en.defence-ua.com/industries/how_much_a_modern_155_mm_spg_gun_costs_now_examples_of_the_german_pzh2000_korean_k9_and_french_caesar-6251.html https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzerhaubitze_2000 By contrast the truck mounted Caesar / Archers are €3-4m / €4.5m. That's a far more useful price, lead-in times and replacability. This would put artillery back into the argument. The current price of 155mm is more a factor of ****ty policies and economic opportunism (demand >supply) than reflective of the actual cost of materials and labour. A proper wartime economy could absolutely churn out dumb 155 at a far lower cost, and probably guided shells too (through sheer scale of production). The all weather factor for artillery is definitely a plus over FPV and no matter what, the kinetic and explosive effect of a 155mm plunging from a big F-off height will never be matched by an FPV, cos physics. Modern Caesar and Archers can deliver very accurate salvos from just one gun at about 40km distance, within a few minutes, EW and weather be damned. The twilight of the MBT is upon us, but big guns will always have a singular use - massive effect on target in a very short time frame from really far away. But they must be mobile, relatively light (weight & logistics) and probably need their own organic drone spotting squad.

There are two issues here. Ju-87 were not military next-to-useless. This is not me being contrary - its well established and researched that in the initial years of the war, and when the Luftwaffe in general was dominant, that the Stuka was highly effective and useful in its intended role - striking enemy strong points and armor formations. They were very effective in France, Greece and the 1st-2nd years of Barbarossa. As the war went on conditions changed and pilot attrition, increased enemy AA and better Allied planes, tactics and numbers all forced the Stuka out as a viable platform. Even so, the weaker skilled Soviet Airforce meant that Stukas were viable for longer than in the West. This wasn't just an Axis issue - dive bombers in the Pacific gradually faded back as surface warships increased their AA weaponry, specialist AA Cruisers came into being, as the Japanese surface navy was attritted into a glorified armed coast guard and as better weapons came online. Secondly, V1s (but really V2s later) were never intended as battlefield weapons, so we cant don't an apples-to-apples comparison here. They were a long range strategic terror weapon, intended to flatten London, terrorize the British into negotiations and thereby buy Hitler time. He personally held the idea that the UK might actually cease fire but AIUI I don't think anyone else shared that as a real possibility. Just some nitpicky stuff to keep us accurate

https://mil.in.ua/en/news/the-armed-forces-of-ukraine-hit-russian-unmanned-mining-system/

https://thediplomat.com/2024/04/what-chinese-navy-planners-are-learning-from-ukraines-use-of-unmanned-surface-vessels/ Ukraine USV lessons are being absorbed worldwide...

Within reason there are only two players in this fight who are actually implementing battlefield developments. Even Western weapons are only provided as-is, with the ZSU doing the additional original work in implementation. WRT Drones Russia is really only a copycat of UKR cutting edge TTP.

However it certainly seems to be hardening.

Possibly 4 airfields

Yup, the they shot down 44...and what happened to the other c. 50? Ran away?

Thats exactly my understanding also. I did not read it as a "jokey" joke but a bitter sarcasm - Oh you say we're Nazis? FINE. They killed millions of you bastards so yeah We're Going To Be Nazis to you." Enemy of my enemy vibes.

Major (c. 90) drone strike against Russian Su-34 airfield. Possibly more than 1 airfield, there's mention of 3, but not confident.

Pedophiles and Russia. The beauty of it is that they flee incarceration in the US (pretty tough, but has toilets and you'll likely live) for Russia (awful and not enough toilets), and then join the Russian Army to fight on the Ukraine front (toilets are now literally a hole in the ground) and, because Russia does not give a flying damn about them, they are sent in the next sheep assault and die in confused agony. Its wonderful.

Helpful

Literally proves the point yet again, "Where there's the Will, there's a Way".

Here you go @sfhand, this is who you are a useful idiot for. But I'm sure they're just crisis actors to you. And onto the ignore list you go.

Shahed plant go boom. 1000km from front.

Always nice to see javelin kicking ***.

Oh for God's sake, are we still engaging with this guy? Cmon, that last post ("rigged elections in the US") pretty much seals the political troll label.

Second promise broken. Stilllll here...