Sgt Joch

Yes, Aim-9 works, although I also read the Aim-120 has an easier job of tracking drones. This is from 2008, most likely a heat seeking AAM:

Well not sure what you are upset about. Haiduk’s attitude seems to be pretty much mainstream in Ukraine. The Ukrainian LGBT community has few of the rights enjoyed in North America, but that has been known for a long time so hardly news. For example, as I understand it, Trans sexuality is still classified as a psychiatric disorder in Ukraine. The West supports Ukraine because of Russian aggression which means we have a mutual enemy. The West does not choose allies based on shared values, i.e. Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Turkey, etc.

Since the topic of countering drones came up, the U.S.Navy is confronting the problem head on dealing with Houthi drones and coming up quickly with stopgap solutions.

As I see it, UAVs reign as a potential Uber weapon will most likely be short lived. On a macro historical level, I suspect we are in 1915 when the Germans deployed a new Uber weapon and the Allies were panicking: Fokker Scourge - Wikipedia UAVs are just a new type of aerial weapon and as we have seen over the past 100 years, there has been a constant back and forth between offensive and defensive weapon systems. Most likely the same general types of defensive systems are being developed: 1. ground based AA defenses: radar/guns/missile/EW to detect and shoot down UAVs before they can reach their targets; 2. air based defenses: fighters/ hunter-killer drones to hunt UAVs in the air and shoot them down. Most likely within the next 5-10 years, we will have reached the same equilibrium we currently see in traditional aerial warfare.

Basically, because they are still situations where a gun is useful, whether stopping enemy/hostile vessels, supporting ground troops, etc. where a missile would not work or would be overkill. Most modern warships, like U.S. or RN destroyers also only typically have 1x 4.5 or 5 inch gun as its main gun armament.

Hi, not sure I understand your point. I did like your earlier post on Russian tactics. My overall point was that players should not feel obliged to play a certain way, but should use whatever plan/tactic works best in the situation. By 44-45, tactics used by all combatants were pretty similar and the characteristics pertinent to the Russians: greater tolerance to casualties, TO&E, artillery restrictions, etc. are already baked in by the game mechanics or can be programmed by the scenario designer.

sorry, I thought we were talking about Wespe. Yes, Grille works as well as some other infantry guns.

Just to add to this, as WW2 went on, it was common for combat leaders to use tactics that worked as opposed to following doctrine, which usually meant copying what the Germans were doing. So TC fought unbuttoned, fighter pilots followed Luftwaffe organization and tactics, infantry attacked in small groups with heavy AFV/artillery support, etc. Soviet HQ knew it and looked the other way, as long as it worked. This is confirmed by a lot of memoirs/histories.

article on the War Zone showing no damage at Russian airbase despite claim by UKR of 6 AC destroyed/8 damaged. https://www.twz.com/news-features/no-major-damage-seen-at-russian-air-base-after-drone-attack Just shows again that we should always be sceptical of claims until they are verified.

No, you are mistaken, as noted above, a unit like a Wespe is only available for indirect fire, i.e. artillery, if it is a off map artillery asset. It is easy to verify if you setup a test scenario. I also checked out the 3rd mission of the German CMFB campaign, I presume this is the "Kampfgruppe Peiper" campaign? but there are no Wespes in that one.

As pointed out above, assets like the Wespe or the Priest can only be used in a direct fire mode if they are an on-map asset. You can only use them in an indirect fire mode if they were purchased as an off map artillery asset. On the other issue, when you want to issue an order to a on-map mortar, you need to have a radio and C2 link from the spotter to the mortar. There is an exception as explained in the CM Engine Manual 4.0 (page 77):

Well that is one of those “it depends” thing. Ejecting from an aircraft is always dangerous and can cause injuries, but not necessarily in all cases. In wartime, a pilot will also be returned to duty quicker even if he has mild injuries.

Whoa, that 1st mission is tough! I have tried several different approaches, but I see Paper Tiger anticipated all of them…

https://www.politico.eu/article/energy-infrastructure-target-attack-ukraine-russia-war/ Another article that apparently the Biden Admin is asking Ukraine to stop targeting Russian Oil infrastructure. Since the whole focus now is on the election, the cynic in me thinks Biden is worried that if this causes Oil prices to go up, it will increase the chances Trump gets elected.

Bogging in CMx2 has always been on the light side. I worked on a scenario for the last CMFB module and set the ground conditions as “muddy” to force players to stay on the roads, but even when the AI moved AFVs cross country, there was very little bogging. To minimize chances of bogging, 1) check the off-road rating; 2) check the ground conditions and 3) watch your speed. The faster you go off-road, the greater the chances of bogging.

Read it pretty much every time it comes out. Best source out there on the ongoing air war. Tom Cooper is primarily an aviation expert.

“Road to Bastogne” was designed for H2H.

Don’t know if this was posted before. Apparently, Russia imported U.S. $1.7 Billion of computer chips in 2023. Obviously a big help for there war effort and sign that sanctions are still too porous. https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/russia-buys-chips-from-intel-amd-and-others-to-fuel-war-efforts-the-country-bought-dollar17-billion-in-2023 p.s. I was going to Tomshardware to get more info on the new Nvidia 40XX Super GPUs, but seems you can’t get away from war news.

Hi, so as to what the Russians seem to be targeting, Tom Cooper came up with some plausible conclusions based on available facts (see above). Last winter, the Russians seemed to be targeting the Ukrainian energy grid and this year, they seem to be targeting UKR defence industries, command facilities and UKR air bases. https://xxtomcooperxx.substack.com/p/ukraine-war-4-january-2024-q-and?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2 The problem in trying to make sense of what is actually going on is that the Ukrainians, quite rightly, keep a tight lid on what info is released and, of course, tend to highlight the Russian strikes which cause civilian casualties.

Short answer, no. Tom Cooper had an interesting write up on this. The F-16/AIM120 combo is out ranged by the SU35/MIG31/R37 combo. You also have to remember the F16 Ukraine is getting are upgraded A models which while competent are not as deadly as the latest models in the U.S. inventory. https://xxtomcooperxx.substack.com/p/its-the-range-stupid-part-1?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2 Way too much emphasis has been placed on the F16 and aircraft in general. One important feature of this war is the way in which SAMs dominate the air battlefield and shape all air operations. Both Ukrainian and Russian air forces are very skittish about coming into range of the other sides SAMs since that is almost guaranteed death. More Patriot batteries would be a lot more useful to Ukraine than 40 year old F16s.

Yes, it’s too bad the expansion pack is dead, there was a lot of interesting stuff in there, although I understand BFC’s decision. Now CMBS itself is not dead, the game still works fine. There are some mistakes since a lot of stuff had to be guessed at, but on the whole it is pretty accurate. Now in terms of simulating the current war, that can actually be done as well, you can build immense minefields, fortified lines, play around with morale/command capacity, give both sides lots of UAVs, etc. You can also easily upgrade UKR forces. The scenario editor is flexible enough that you can easily add U.S. weapons to UKR units. I have done various quick and dirty scenarios and UKR forces with Abrams, Bradleys, U.S. artillery and drones are VERY capable. Unfortunately, any U.S. vehicle you add to UKR forces will still show up as U.S. and speak English, but that is a minor point. Hopefully, that could be addressed by modders. All CMx2 games are ultimately sandbox games and you can do a lot with them.

Well any private U.S. citizen who conspires to kill or maim citizens of a foreign country with whom the U.S. is at peace (i.e. Russia and which would include Russian soldiers in Ukraine)is guilty of a criminal offence and is passible of a sentence of up to life under the U.S. neutrality act. I presume other countries have similar laws. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/956 Now if anyone actually wants to fight for Ukraine, the answer is simple, move to Ukraine and volunteer to serve in their army. A lot of foreigners have already done the same thing. https://ildu.com.ua

The big difference between WW2 and now is that in 1942, the U.S. public realized beating Germany and Japan was not a given and were willing to make the personal sacrifices necessary to win the war including rationing, higher taxes and seeing their boys, brothers, friends go to war and possibly be killed or maimed. Now, most western citizens will "support" Ukraine, but only as long as it does not cost anything: no inflation, higher taxes, restrictions on consumer goods and god forbid, losing a single service man/woman/non-binary/whatever. That makes it very hard for western politicians who are forever on the tightrope of trying to provide support while trying to argue the support actually does not cost anything.

Great news, looking forward to trying this.

sanctions can be effective IF properly applied. WW2 is not a good example, increased German production was a bit of an illusion. As Tooze pointed out, it was achieved in part by a reallocation of production, i.e. fighter AC and AFVs at the expense of other stuff and general lowering of quality, i.e. partly completed ACs booked as produced and general shoddiness. Speer "cooked the books" to make it appear as though production was increasing much faster than it actually was. The current problem is that the sanctions against Russia are also a bit of an illusion. EU, US, Canada and a few other countries have sanctions in place, but most of the world, including major economies like China and India have no sanctions in place, so even though in theory U.S. technology cannot be supplied to Russia, there are many ways it can get there indirectly/illegally, no matter what parties are saying. For example, China has officially said it would "respect" U.S. sanctions, but you have increasing anecdotal evidence that Chinese made parts are appearing in Russian weapons.