acrashb

I’m sorry, but that was f’king disgusting! There’s no reason for showing vids of soldiers burning to death! When we show those, we become desensitized to them still being human beings.

We saw in the video of the RA soldier being chased around some trees that you can't run from small UAVs.  I posited that you can't hide either.

This relatively well-hidden RA soldier gets knee-capped:
 
Of course there are counter-measures like chicken wire on all the gaps in your cover.  But that adds friction to the whole thing, cost, and is vulnerable to counter-counter measures.  Like a small UGV with good loiter time, waiting for someone to emerge from cover.

As already alluded to - high power lasers are typically pulsed.  They might be powered by a system that’s in the kW range and hit GW in pulses that are a few ns long.    And the short pulses typically are putting all the power in a small area virtually instantly, so you get tremendous local heating and ablation with every pulse - you neglected thermal diffusivity in your bierdeckel calculation. For example, you can power a laser that can engrave rock using a 9V consumer battery.

I think the SOB got a little more than kneecapped based on the size of the explosion.

It is the ability of various artillery, and soon if not now drone, deployed systems to throw mines into a lane even before the clearance has finished that makes the problem almost completely unsolvable. 

I'm no expert but if you pulse your laser you cause a tiny explosion that will do more damage than the pure heating effect. It's late here and it's a long article but here is more information than you ever wanted to know on laser guns:
https://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/sidearmenergy.php

Now that was funny. Thanks for the laugh

I am highly skeptical about direct energy C-UAS, let alone C-RAM.  It may be technically feasible for static point defence systems one can plug into a power grid.  But for mobile defence I think the energy bill is just too high.  Further one would need thousands of these systems (which is what GD wants) to deal with the levels of systems we see in this war, let alone swarms likely in the next one.  These things will be 1) highly visible as that much energy being pumped into the environment is going to get detected…bit more juice than a pigeon heart, and 2) will be a prime target for all the systems that can see it.  We would likely lose them too fast to replace.
And then there is volume.  A direct energy weapon that can target and engage dozens or even hundreds of small tac UAS/loitering munitions at range would be a game changer for more than AD.  Such a weapon could target people and vehicles at ranges and rates that would change warfare forever if such a system existed.
No, this is typical western military industrial planning.  We have swarms of small UAS that costs a few hundred to a few thousand dollars each that we need to stop.  Of course we will develop and buy a laser- phased AD system that costs hundreds of millions and needs to be put on a big truck….makes perfect sense.
Or we take another UAS that costs a few hundred dollars and built it to kill other UAS.  

More specifically Mi-29NM and Ka-52M. Fortunately, Russia probably only has a handful of these models available. The contracts were signed in 2021 and the first 10 Ka-52M were delivered in January of this year.

I recall discussing lessons learned from the Iraq war and I commented that nobody's going to un-invent the roadside IED. The 'great powers' have been facing the problem of cheap-vs-expensive asymmetric warfare for quite awhile

Watching that video tells me several things, both IRL and in-game:
IRL:
1) tanks are done in their current role, which means' they're overall done, unless 40-plus-ton pieces of armour that can only be significantly hardened from the frontal aspect can somehow be rendered invisible in an active/passive multi-spectrum detection environment.  We are in the "what can be seen can be killed, and everything can be seen" era.  No combination of APS or point-defence is going to stop DPICM or its replacement AWP, or suicide drone swarms, etc.  Of course there are counters to everything (suppressing artillery, counter-drone swarms, advanced camoflage, etc.), it's just that a meshed defensive system seems to beat big offensives consistently, and the much-noted lack of air superiority isn't really relevant.  Air superiority would not have changed the outcome from the video, although it might have made it less likely (the artillery might have been suppressed / destroyed before the armoured push through the minefield) - and with cheap manpads etc., I'm not so sure that air superiority in the sense of full overmatch is even achievable in a peer-to-peer conflict.
So I'm not seeing the point of MBTs in future warfare.
For extra fun, the future of UGVs - not mini-excavator-sized tracks, but goats (not the men who stare at them): Marines are preparing to send 'robotic goats' with rocket launchers into battle (msn.com) 
2) Mines are back, baby!  One assumes every major armed forces is reviewing their mine-laying technology and inventory.
In-Game:
1) in CM:BS it takes minutes to adjust indirect fire.  In the video, it looking like it was being adjusted in real-time - so when do I get my real-time indirect patch?
2) in CM:BS and other titles, heavy armour (MBTs) are almost immune to indirect fire, even large calibres, and pretty close to the same for IFVs and other light armour, which has been mentioned before in this thread. Please fix or do sumfink.
 

Why bother with the $100K ghillie suit with a person inside?  Just wrap it around an autonomous robot.

Watching that video tells me several things, both IRL and in-game:
IRL:
1) tanks are done in their current role, which means' they're overall done, unless 40-plus-ton pieces of armour that can only be significantly hardened from the frontal aspect can somehow be rendered invisible in an active/passive multi-spectrum detection environment.  We are in the "what can be seen can be killed, and everything can be seen" era.  No combination of APS or point-defence is going to stop DPICM or its replacement AWP, or suicide drone swarms, etc.  Of course there are counters to everything (suppressing artillery, counter-drone swarms, advanced camoflage, etc.), it's just that a meshed defensive system seems to beat big offensives consistently, and the much-noted lack of air superiority isn't really relevant.  Air superiority would not have changed the outcome from the video, although it might have made it less likely (the artillery might have been suppressed / destroyed before the armoured push through the minefield) - and with cheap manpads etc., I'm not so sure that air superiority in the sense of full overmatch is even achievable in a peer-to-peer conflict.
So I'm not seeing the point of MBTs in future warfare.
For extra fun, the future of UGVs - not mini-excavator-sized tracks, but goats (not the men who stare at them): Marines are preparing to send 'robotic goats' with rocket launchers into battle (msn.com) 
2) Mines are back, baby!  One assumes every major armed forces is reviewing their mine-laying technology and inventory.
In-Game:
1) in CM:BS it takes minutes to adjust indirect fire.  In the video, it looking like it was being adjusted in real-time - so when do I get my real-time indirect patch?
2) in CM:BS and other titles, heavy armour (MBTs) are almost immune to indirect fire, even large calibres, and pretty close to the same for IFVs and other light armour, which has been mentioned before in this thread. Please fix or do sumfink.
 

Watching that video tells me several things, both IRL and in-game:
IRL:
1) tanks are done in their current role, which means' they're overall done, unless 40-plus-ton pieces of armour that can only be significantly hardened from the frontal aspect can somehow be rendered invisible in an active/passive multi-spectrum detection environment.  We are in the "what can be seen can be killed, and everything can be seen" era.  No combination of APS or point-defence is going to stop DPICM or its replacement AWP, or suicide drone swarms, etc.  Of course there are counters to everything (suppressing artillery, counter-drone swarms, advanced camoflage, etc.), it's just that a meshed defensive system seems to beat big offensives consistently, and the much-noted lack of air superiority isn't really relevant.  Air superiority would not have changed the outcome from the video, although it might have made it less likely (the artillery might have been suppressed / destroyed before the armoured push through the minefield) - and with cheap manpads etc., I'm not so sure that air superiority in the sense of full overmatch is even achievable in a peer-to-peer conflict.
So I'm not seeing the point of MBTs in future warfare.
For extra fun, the future of UGVs - not mini-excavator-sized tracks, but goats (not the men who stare at them): Marines are preparing to send 'robotic goats' with rocket launchers into battle (msn.com) 
2) Mines are back, baby!  One assumes every major armed forces is reviewing their mine-laying technology and inventory.
In-Game:
1) in CM:BS it takes minutes to adjust indirect fire.  In the video, it looking like it was being adjusted in real-time - so when do I get my real-time indirect patch?
2) in CM:BS and other titles, heavy armour (MBTs) are almost immune to indirect fire, even large calibres, and pretty close to the same for IFVs and other light armour, which has been mentioned before in this thread. Please fix or do sumfink.
 

From the Deep State Telegram Channel:
https://t.me/DeepStateEN/2646
🗡 The enemy lost at least 63 armored vehicles on the northern front of the Avdiivka direction
 
🛰 After analyzing the changes on satellite images, the loss of more than six dozen pieces of equipment was recorded. Almost all of the equipment was destroyed in the area of Krasnohorivka (A) and at the entrance to the settlement. As the classics would say - an illustration to the General Staff's reports.
 
🔥 These images show the entire "success" of the enemy's actions, which was mainly present in their information space. On the battlefield, despite their superiority on all counts, the katsaps lost the battle. Of course, it is difficult to estimate the enemy's losses in manpower. In this area alone, the number of dead ruzzians is measured in hundreds.
 
😑But there is also unpleasant news. This attack is yet another proof of the ineffectiveness of the armored fist tactic, when one side concentrates its equipment and tries to achieve success on the battlefield by using its superiority. Our destroyed columns near Mala Tokmachka, Verbove, Robotyne, Staromaiorske, Novodonetske and Rivne, as well as the enemy's destroyed columns near Vuhledar, Novoiehorivka, Makiivka, Andriivka, Marinka, and now Krasnohorivka (A) and Vodiane-Pervomaiske, are further proof of this thesis.
 
✈️ This is all a consequence of the growing effectiveness of aerial reconnaissance and artillery. The same cheap quadcopters equalize the capabilities of both sides. And so far, there is no technology that can provide an advantage. The goal of our military-industrial complex is to find the key to victory, otherwise history will simply repeat itself.
 
🖼 Full-resolution image.
 
📍 Location of the village - deepstatemap.live/en#13/48.2069/37.7256

Possibly most effective use of DPICM seen yet:
 

On slightly lighter note- Russian sources also confirm that Alexander "Babai" Mozhaiev aka "Muppet of Donbabwe" died lately in occupied part of Ukraine. A persona that is perhaps known to folks who followed the conflict from 2014, this former spetsnaz member was accused of atrocities in Donbas and bullying western journalists. In short- typical example of career of local "freedom fighter".
 
 

Well, the wokesters haven't come after 'Paddywagons' yet.

I don't disagree that Israel, particularly in the past, has engaged in actions that we, today and then, look at askance.  Much of it through their proxies in Lebanon, as you noted.  So it's possible to say that the Palestinians have a legitimate, provoked cause - I don't, but it is not an entirely unreasonable position.
Having said that: Hamas put its headquarters under the Al-Shifa hospital; inculcates hatred of Jews in the Gazan population from a very early age, including in formal grade schooling and children's television shows; and literally worships death both in its charter ( e.g., death for the sake of Allah "is the loftiest of its wishes", Article 8 ) and its leadership's ongoing statements.
Now Hamas has deliberately committed large-scale atrocities: torture, rape and murder of now about 1400 people; kidnapping and hostage-holding of even (or especially!) babies and toddlers; murder and bodily desecration of babies.  And all deliberate, not an unfortunate side-effect of achieving military objectives.
Some say that Israel also does atrocities.  To conflate Israel's current behaviours with the above is to devalue the meaning of the above, which is abhorrent.  For example, Israel announces attacks in advance to encourage civilians to leave the area; Hamas encourages/forces said civilians to stay, using them as ammunition in the info war.
If the US lost as many people, proportionally, to torture, rape and murder, it would be about 52000.  If Mexican government forces crossed the border and tortured, raped and murdered the entire population of, say, Calexico, what would the United States do?  We know what they did when 2,977 were killed.
Let's sum it up with a Lord of the Rings analogy.  It's factual to say "Mordor is savage and evil, but Gondor has its problems."  Yes, Gondor is imperfect, sometimes significantly so.  But the worst of it can be fixed by the best of it, unlike Mordor.  
While I would not stretch that analogy too far, this is a good time for moral clarity, to pick a side. Then, when the dust has settled, make Gondor better.
With some luck, Hamas will be extirpated, Palestinians will have a chance at better government and culture, and in a few generations this will be in the past.
Absolutely.

https://wapo.st/3M5cxQv
You should be able to read this. I have a subscription and can gift 10 articles a month. There is a running update so you should be able to come back to this posting, click on it, and see newer updates. If you scroll on down a fair bit, there is a very short video of the rocket/missile hit, said to be verified by WaPo. Sounds like the zzzipp of a rocket (of some kind) passing close by the video taker, and then hitting. The article lists chronologically the conflicting claims and news updates.
Take it for what it's worth. Doesn't prove anything, but *to me* it sounds like a rocket, and not an air to ground missile with a large warhead. Could be a Hamas rocket, could be an aircraft fired rocket. Whoever fired it, the rocket might have hit something explosive.
I agree it would be supremely stupid to do something like this right before Pres. Biden gets there. Doesn't mean mistakes or misfires on either side don't happen. We have enough evidence of that from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Dave

Israel says it was a Hamas rocket that fell short, as 30-40% do, so I'm told.  As they are somewhat home made, it's a credible number.
So maybe best to reserve judgement for a bit.
Hi did.  He also noted the "... myth of six million dead jews in WW2 ...."  So, not a serious person.  Blocked him some time ago.

Israel says it was a Hamas rocket that fell short, as 30-40% do, so I'm told.  As they are somewhat home made, it's a credible number.
So maybe best to reserve judgement for a bit.
Hi did.  He also noted the "... myth of six million dead jews in WW2 ...."  So, not a serious person.  Blocked him some time ago.

Israel says it was a Hamas rocket that fell short, as 30-40% do, so I'm told.  As they are somewhat home made, it's a credible number.
So maybe best to reserve judgement for a bit.
Hi did.  He also noted the "... myth of six million dead jews in WW2 ...."  So, not a serious person.  Blocked him some time ago.

That particular like was to the killing terrorists part of the post. As an Iraq vet I have a deep hatred of terrorists and terrorism. I've seen and experienced first hand the chaos and death they cause.