IMHO

Any proof for more than 50pcs in a well-known tender?

Note how clean-and-green they were just few days ago

US/RUS buffer zones around Manbij (open in a separate window/tab to see a higher-res image)

@panzersaurkrautwerfer, is to correct to say the outer curved layer somehow helps with 20-40mm AP shells or it's just for precursor charges of tandem warheads plus HMG APs?

@John Kettler, have a look PS As per the articles - seems at the very moment the analysts know more about T-14 platform than the platform developers themselves

The guy on the far left on the second video is the commander of RUS/Chechen battalion in Aleppo

@Haiduk, as far as I understand Duplet uses the same ERA modules as Nozh. Right? Just in a very neat "three modules in a line" sandwich.

Fighting between YPG and FSA/Turkish Army still continues as of late March, 7. If it goes on like this then YPG will have little incentive to provide infantry grunts for Raqqa offensive. So Turkish stance may well be: "Give us Manbij or forget about destroying ISIS."

Yepp. And multi-hit capabilities are improved as well. Ceramics production methods, approaches to multilayering etc. I just wanted to point that compared to ERA - the main armour plate after ceramic tiles is weaker so the area will be way less resistant.

@Armorgunner, you can also elaborate on the pre-stressed ceramic matrices - the weakened area size should they break and less protection from the backplate...

"Show the flag" of last week at Manjib...

Well... Whom to accuse should an incident happens? Turks/FSA - that's an open confrontation with Turkey. Hardly a good choice. Kurds - then there's no manpower to attack Rakka. SAA/RUS - it will break down a mutually beneficial if unpublicized cooperation taking place in Syria. The real danger is Erdogan's irrationality. If he gets a grudge for not being given Manbij on a silver plate he'll respond in Idlib against SAA/RUS. It's still hot enough there and remembering that a lion's share of FSA/Idlib Sunnis are of jihadi kind...

@Sgt.Squarehead, http://www.dunyabulteni.net/dunya/377794/abdnin-kobanedeki-askeri-ussu-kullanima-acildi https://twitter.com/ibrahim_gezici/status/839032597640527872 Some more https://ruptly.tv/vod/20170305-051 (the bridge they are passing is Euphrates bridge at Süleyman Şah Türbesi on M4 road) https://ruptly.tv/vod/20170303-065 PS Strykers look exceptionally clean - as if very little mileage right after having been airlifted.

@Sgt.Squarehead A bit more than show of flag now. That was with Humvees last week but it didn't help - Turks/FSA still went on with their business. So now US is moving in a more capable force. This week's pics are intentional - that's a message to Erdogan. On the Western flank there was/is going back and forth between Turks demanding Manbij, Turks and Kurds agreeing to cede Manbij to SAA/RUS/US control in full and Kurds limiting SAA/RUS just to buffer positions in countryside. Again SAA/RUS responsible just for the Western flank - the North is US ground. Manbij was the major topic for Antalia meeting. PS US air assets to the south of Kobani The map - green arrow is the direction of Turk/FSA attack at Al Arimah

Corrections: sorry the videos I posted first were from the same Thai tests - not interesting

US is to cover Manbij from Turkishs attack from the North, from the direction of Jarabulus. SAA with some RUS support is to cover Manbij from the West. Exact deal on what to do with Erdogan's obsession with Kurds is being duscussed right now at Antalia. Limited show of flag by RUS and US SOF didn't help - SFA/Turks continued their attacks at Kurds.

As if answering @kinophile's question why fighting has not touched LNR - now it has. Here's the video covering the shelling of LNR on March, 5-6. The text is in Russian but mapings are quite understandable. https://youtu.be/mE1CyUWQZJI Disclaimer: it's an LNR version of events - nothing about their own actions if any. First hand account of how it looks with a close-up - reporters got under fire in an LNR village. It does not look like they were targeted specifically - just an unlucky day. What might be interesting, the village looks very much abandoned - no people, no servicemen and the shelling is neither intensive nor concentrated. So it seems for the moment those are shots for the sake of shooting. https://youtu.be/3StD8Giqh4c And the last one - SPAAG tries to shoot down an UAV during nighttime. No mention of whether it's Ukrainian or DNL/LNR SPAAG. https://youtu.be/Zz-UhO6S6ug

Some more Ukrainian irony. Ukraine officially does not buy Russian gas - it buys it in Europe. Generally speaking the price for the gas is an oil-linked base price plus per-kilometer transportation overhead. So Russian gas goes to Europe through Ukraine, then Ukraine buys it there paying the transportation price twice: on the way there and then - back. Ukrainian Oil and Gas monopoly estimates Ukraine is loosing 30 USD on every thousand cubic meters - about 520 mln USD per year. Again all of it while asking EU to provide financial assistance.

Yepp. Ukrainian artillery shelled Yasinovataya again. Is it really about the war? UKR "patriotic" battalions move onto the no-man's land - that looked like military action. Coal shipments are blocked from DNR/LNR - a serious overstretch of imagination as Ukraine looses more than DNR/DNR but still may look like military-economic goals. Proofs for "overstretch" are: EU officially says Ukraine is shooting their own feet, emergency situation is officially declared in the Ukrainian energy system, prime-minister of Ukraine estimates Ukraine losses at 4.5bn EUR plus 75 thousand people loosing their jobs against the backdrop of Ukraine continuing to ask for more financial assistance from the West, Ukrainian President calls people doing the blockage Russian agents. "Patriots" move to close coal deliveries from Russia and that really leaves Ukraine with no heating and electricity quite soon so Ukrainian police finally opens a criminal case. Point 3 has no military significance whatsoever - Russia has an internal coal market that's way larger that Ukraine's plus add foreign customers to this. So it finally becomes clear to everyone that it has nothing to do with the war - the "vocal minority" of Ukrainian politics just wants to redistribute seats in the Ukrainian Parliament and topple Poroshenko. But we cannot miss the irony of the process : The blockade is done by "patriotic" battalions and since the President of Ukraine said those who do the blockade are Russian agents we can logically conclude that Ukrainian "patriots" are Russian agents Now we quite officially have a Ukrainian police case against Ukrainian "patriots" who claimed to be war veterans So I'm sorry but you guys just want to drag everyone deeper and deeper into your own internal political mess. Even by military means...

"... if someone wants to draw broad conclusions about a country" I'd say never acknowledge being wrong Might be enlightening but you have not "posted the numbers of Russians leaving Russia..."

@Battlefront.com, Re: Russian emigration... I really love when people use numbers... And I just happen to know these specific figures by heart at the moment Steve, could you please elaborate what's the meaning of the numbers you've given here? Saying just "emigration" is not an answer - details are interesting

Haiduk, I was waiting for the proofs. So by enemy shelling you should have meant UKR side, should you not? Here's the video of Donetsk Filtering Station being demined and restored by DNR sappers and Emergency Services. At 01:17 on the second video DNR sappers are shelled by 120mm and the guys are trying to get in contact with the UKR side to request a ceasefire. Unless it's regular UKR line that it's only UKR side that's being shot at and when someone shoots at DNR - it's DNR shooting its own feet https://youtu.be/oSoUJ30gP9Y https://youtu.be/Q1vSL5uH1tQ Early election and removal of Poroshenko even at the cost of a chemical war! He's too peaceful, he might even want to implement Minsk! PS Would you also comment on the costs of coal blockade to the UKRAINIAN economy? It would add a good perspective to the videos - so the guys would know it's not an isolated incident but a systemic approach to using frontline action in the intra-UKR political maneuvering.

Nah, sorry - I understood how to use the source. This comment of mine was irrelevant. Apologies.

Sarge, the thread is exclusively for things that have no real life impact on the situation Like morality or a lack of it, five or six mines were lobbed over the LOC yesterday etc.

Steve, Jokes on heart attacks seem too mean to me - there might be people who have experienced it directly or went through it by close relatives. So NO, THAT'S BAD and it has nothing to do with Russia. If you expect I have a boner every time you say Ukraine is good and Russia's bad - you're wrong So I'd rather join you in having a good laugh than deny the obvious. Or even not so obvious but still true