Machor

In the 2000s, I served in a foot company that had been assigned a single M48A2, complete with the original 90mm gun. The base we were defending had been overrun by the PKK in the 80s, when it was held by only a platoon, and the entire platoon beheaded, so me and many other conscripts were full of fear when we arrived there. When I started pulling guard duty along the base perimeter, I realized the M48 was the cornerstone of our defense: It was in an elevated overwatch position with an LOF over most of the base perimeter and beyond RPG range. It was great to have the 'Cadillac', as the M48 was affectionately called, covering our back. Conceivably, the M48 could have been swapped for an AIFV, and I assume the AIFV's 25mm autocannon is deadlier for AP work than the 90mm, but I cannot imagine the AIFV acting as the same kind of morale booster. For the conscripts - excepting smart alecks like me - the M48 was a 'tank'; they didn't quite understand what the AIFV was, but they knew it wasn't a 'tank'. 'We have a tank' went a long way for morale. [That should be a W40K rule.] Therefore, fielding the T-62 with conscript formations, as Haiduk wrote, makes perfect sense.

You wrote "foreign made," but I think the context implies "foreign designed." Off the top of my head: Stryker M777 Howitzer M119 Howitzer M120 Mortar M252 Mortar M136 AT4 M9 Beretta

I may soon need to start a new CMSF thread: "U.S. raises concern over Turkey's plans for new offensive along Syria border" https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/new-offensive-northern-syria-would-further-undermine-regional-stability-us-state-2022-05-24/?taid=628d4c079c851e00019e0f83&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter ""We recognize Turkey's legitimate security concerns on Turkey's southern border, but any new offensive would further undermine regional stability and put at risk U.S. forces and the coalition’s campaign against ISIS," he said. Erdogan on Monday said Ankara would soon launch new military operations along its southern borders to create safe zones 30 km (20 miles) deep to combat what he characterized as terrorist threats from these regions. The operation will likely target the north of Syria, where Turkey has launched several military operations since 2016 to undermine the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG), an armed Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Ankara has conducted three incursions into northern Syria since 2016, seizing hundreds of kilometers of land and pushing some 30 km deep into the country, in operations targeting mainly the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish YPG militia. It has also stepped up military operations against PKK militants in northern Iraq in recent years. Turkey views both groups as a single terrorist entity. Its NATO allies only view the PKK as a terrorist group, not the YPG. The United States was expecting Turkey to live up to a October 2019 joint statement, including a halt in offensive operations in northeastern Syria, Price said. "We condemn any escalation. We support maintenance of the current ceasefire lines."" "Analysis: Erdogan's vow to expand Syria operations raises stakes in Turkey-NATO row" https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/erdogans-vow-expand-syria-operations-raises-stakes-turkey-nato-row-2022-05-24/ "Erdogan hopes to leverage the issue of Swedish and Finnish membership of NATO into an opportunity to achieve his long-held goal of creating a buffer zone free of Kurdish fighters along Turkey's entire border with Syria, analysts said. His move comes as opinion polls show support for Erdogan and his ruling AK Party sagging amid deepening economic woes. Turkey holds presidential and parliamentary elections in 2023." My take: - I'm not buying the previously posted account that the Biden administration greenlighted this. Much more likely to be an explicit or tacit agreement between Turkey and Russia. If so: - Masterfully played by Russia. We've been blasting them for their ineptitude throughout this thread, but this time they killed several birds with one stone: Sow division within NATO; divert Western publics' attention away from Ukraine; etc. - Erdoğan, too, gets an 'A': More bargaining room for the arms embargoes and F-16Vs; ongoing Turkish Lira crash explained away as hostile manipulation; chance to win elections in 2023 and not have to 'pull a Lukashenko'.

@sburke Sorry, but I have to wade into this, because you guys are getting into 'crazy' territory. For the record, I'm fully opposed to Erdoğan and all his oppressive policies, including the ones against Kurds. I also recognize that the secularists governments that preceded Erdoğan's Islamists also led oppressive policies against Turkey's Kurds, and I would like Turkey to apologize to its Kurdish citizens for the policies of the military junta of 1980, in particular. That being said: Turkey has had two Kurdish presidents. The head of the current secularist opposition - whom I vote for - is a Kurd. Moreover, all Turkish Kurds - unlike Syrian Kurds and Palestinians in Israel - have Turkish citizenship. Can you please direct me to any Palestinian president of Israel, or a Palestinian leader of the Knesset?

A schoolgirl in Dagestan protested against the war during the last day of high school ceremony: "No to war!" "Freedom for Ukraine!" "Putin is a devil!" According to a tweet in the replies, her and her mother [Where's the father? This is Dagestan, not Canada.] have since released a video where they fully apologize. Also of note is the very fact that this video was uploaded and began circulating on social media. Remember that Dagestan has a very large share of the Russian personnel losses in Ukraine [Where's the girl's father?], and is one of Russia's poorest regions, its GDP per capita by PPP equal to Azerbaijan, whereas Moscow is equal to the Netherlands, and St. Petersburg to South Korea [This was in 2009; it had probably gotten better since then, but will now fall down again.]: I confess when @LongLeftFlank started speculating that the war may lead to the Russian Federation's dissolution some two months (?) ago, I was reading it with a smirk. I'm taking it seriously now.

Yet another nation joins the long list of those supplying the Ukrainian military... Iran: The 81mm version of the same mortar in its element: in the hands of AQAP:

100% on topic on the CMBS forum: A Russian ZALA 421-08 has supposedly been shot down by a Ukrainian Strela-10, impossible in CMBS: Are we sure the Ukrainians haven't misidentified the Zala? Pics for comparison:

Which is why I'm curious about the public opinion in Hungary. For comparison: Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia Warsaw Pact losses, excluding accidents and 'suicides' (?): 12 Soviets, 2 Bulgarians killed Czechoslovakian losses: 137 civilians and soldiers killed Hungarian Revolution of 1956 Soviet losses: 722 killed Hungarian losses: 2500-3000 fighters & 3000 civilians killed

While it was an eye-opener, the ammo expenditure did not really surprise me. What did surprise me was the massive increase in fuel usage, considering the US in WW2 was already a motorized force. [I am assuming the vast increase in the rations issued is due to the use of field kitchens in WW2, and not gluttony. ]

Some expert opinions: I believe this part of the impasse is quite solvable by easing the EU arms embargo on Turkey (e.g. by excluding sub-systems) and Sweden taking at least symbolic steps to curtail the activities of the PKK - an EU designated terrorist organization, after all. However, there were also these news - Greece is receiving a squadron of F-35s: Meaning, the Hellenic Air Force will soon be fielding the following: 24(?) F-35, 24 Rafale, 84 F-16V; 36 Patriot launchers After the cancellation of Turkey's F-35 order by the US, it applied to procure 40 new-build F-16V and 80 upgrade kits, which the Biden administration cut down to only 70 upgrade kits, which will still likely get vetoed in the US Congress. As Turkey's S-400 have been mothballed, Greece will soon have air supremacy over the Aegean and Cyprus. Therefore, it's worth watching for any signals from the Congress about the F-16V upgrade kits. Coming back to topic: No, in no way is Turkey's objection due to it acting as a 'Russian Trojan horse'.

An insightful thread on Russian logistics for the current fighting, where the supply lines of frontline BTGs are stretched longer than the Soviet norm for divisions: TL;DR: Popasna direction is in trouble: Soviet logistic tails: Daily supply needs of Russian BTGs and artillery brigades, not including fuel and water: Interesting expenditure statistics for the US:

Ukrainians showing how it's done: Bridging the Donets:

I remember back when the 'hot' thread was "Russian army underequipped?", there were certain folks who made much of the 'Ratnik' project. Turns out one of the key components of Ratnik - the commander's tablet - is simply a repackaged commercial tablet imported from Taiwan: "the main part of it is commander's tablet. "Research and development works were carried out by dozens of Russian defense enterprises" as its creators claim" "Which exactly "enterprise" "developed" this tablet you would ask? The battery is a clue:" "It's 2012 Leica CS25 GNSS plus" "It even had Leica serial numbers, but all labels are removed."

I actually feel sorry for these guys, knowing most of them are conscripts. Here, an LNR battalion withdrawing from the Kharkiv oblast has been waiting out in the open for two days outside the Russian border, since they are not being allowed to cross the border into Russia:

Girkin had lately been silent, leading to rumors that he had been 'silenced'. He's come back with a bang: Addressing Putin, he publicly accuses Shoigu of 'in the very least' criminal negligence, suggesting that he would prefer a charge of 'treason' [in Russian]:

This thread starts off with the contrarian argument that the reason Soviet tanks blow up so catastrophically is not the ammo carousel under the turret, but ends with the underwhelming conclusion that the real culprit is the ammo stored unsafely outside the carousel, the detonation of which causes the detonation of the carousel. I highly recommend the thread for the detailed look into ammo stowage on Soviet tanks, and will post three graphics from the thread below: First, I didn't know that the T-72/T-90 and T-64/T-80 had very different autoloaders: Here's a picture of the commander's and gunner's seats atop the T-72B carousel: And here's what that risk-taking gives you: T-72 and Abrams side-by-side:

Russian forces in Kharkiv oblast requisitioned and militarized a Zhiguli (the headlamps indicate a VAZ-2101, i.e. 1988 or older), only to lose it in combat - a sad end for a classic:

Russia refused an offer from Turkey and Ukraine to evacuate and intern the Azovstal defenders in Turkey in exchange for one thousand Russian POWs:

There was a Canadian documentary series where the presenters visited WW2 battlefields where Canadians had fought, and did something 'extreme' in each episode in addition to the history lesson; for Germany 1945, they crossed the Rhine on a restored DUKW. They learned from the operator of the DUKW that the river was entered and exited only at prepared points, and once in the river, the operator had to navigate it with precision like a highway, knowing the currents and parts to avoid. It was nothing like 'off-roading'.

They are already here: "A Military Drone With A Mind Of Its Own Was Used In Combat, U.N. Says" https://www.npr.org/2021/06/01/1002196245/a-u-n-report-suggests-libya-saw-the-first-battlefield-killing-by-an-autonomous-d "COLUMN-New era of robot war may be underway unnoticed: Peter Apps" https://www.reuters.com/article/apps-drones-idUSL5N2NS2E8 In this video from the manufacturer, you can see the drone's AI pick out a dummy technical as its target, and then home in on it:

@G.I. Joe already suggested CMO; I wanted to bring to your attention one of CMO's big DLC campaigns, which is exclusively focused on China: Chains of War. Same boat here with G.I. Joe: I've yet to play this, though I bought it long ago. What I can gather from the page I linked to is the campaign has China trying to pull the modern equivalent of what Japan tried to do in the beginning of the Pacific War: Quickly knock out or take all enemy strategic assets, and negotiate from a position of strength. China is diplomatically helped in this by the hostilities actually getting started by South Korea - hard to believe Russia started the current war without 'Ukrainian terrorists' blowing up apartment buildings before February 24.

I think I know why hapless DNR/LNR conscripts are issued Mosins instead of AK-47/AKM/SKS: This way, they can simply be distributed 7.62x54R ammo pulled from PK belts or intended for SVD, as opposed to worrying with the logistics of supplying 7.62x39. [Whoever lives long enough and is sufficiently fanatical to come back for more ammo gets the PK/SVD. ] Also, thank you, Steve, for clarifying the story behind the Woodland BDU. @G.I. Joe in case you missed Steve's post, it's on page 711.

The interior of a T-72B3 that apparently was penetrated in the turret from the gunner's side, Thales TI controls visible. The blood stains tell a story:

Azovstal: "... that our flag was still there" 100% certain this footage will be set to Ще не вмерла Україна. The faces of the defenders:

I too - quite literally - lost sleep over this. For beginners, Woodland pattern is omnipresent in the modern world, and could have been imported from anywhere: https://www.camopedia.org/index.php/Woodland However, there seem to be two local candidates. The first one is the BDU of the Ukrainian Federal Border Guards: https://www.camopedia.org/index.php/Ukraine The second one is the Russian MVD 'kirpichka' BDU: https://www.camopedia.org/index.php?title=Russia At any rate, we're faced with the same question as the conscript's issued weapon: Why has he been issued a Mosin where Russia has ample supplies of AK-47/AKM, and why is he wearing an exotic BDU where there should be ample supplies of the non-digital Flora in Russia?