Peter Cairns

Just watched this summary; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8ec7Wohdt0 is it just me or is everything Chinese, more advanced modern and in better condition than Russia's? Peter.

Saw a report last week that the Russian defence Ministry is claiming it has tested almost 200 new weapons or systems in SyriaD This week we saw pictures of two new SU-57's on the ground as well. Does anyone know of a list or anything substantive that gives an idea of what is on it? I did see reports of T-90's being deployed but the details are either for the T-90A ( which I would assume is the export T-90S) or the T-90SM ( which I think is the export T-90AM). On a second point this is the wiki entry on the T-90SM, (which looks like a translation cut and pasted); T-90MS – Also known as T-90SM is a new modernised (M) version of the export tank T-90S, with a 1130 hp engine, a PNM Sosna-U gunner view - system surpasses the world analogues, effective defeat of the target in any weather (in the movement itself and in the movement of the target),[78] a 7.62 mm turret UDP T05BV-1 RWS, GLONASS, inertial navigation systems, new explosive reactive armour(ERA) and steering wheel.[79][80][81] A new removable turret bustle is included, which provides storage for eight additional rounds. T-90MS is ready for serial production.[82] 4 video cameras of a circular view, full coverage of ERA Relikt (Area under the protection of Relikt ~twofold greater than Kontakt-5 of the T-90 A/S/M).[83] The management is united up to the division command. Wheel is used for steering.[84] Thermal imaging sight. The minimum range of night detection of a tank through a thermal imager 3300 meters[85] Tower rotation speed 45 degrees per second. Does the T-90AM in Black sea have the four video cameras and are there for commander observation or part of an APS system? Peter.

Thought people might be interested but on the App Store you can now download a free App from the UK ordinance survey that gives you free detailed contour maps of the U.K. Including detailed building outlines. Not sure how to import them into CM but I am sure you can work that out. here's the link; https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/shop/os-maps-mobile.html Peter.

Forgot to add the link; https://russiandefpolicy.blog/2017/08/06/an-ordinary-conflict/

Found this site and thought this was an article that would interest people. tends to reinforce the view of those, like me, who think that behind the arrival of things like the T-14/15 there is more wrong than right. worth reading through other articles to. You might not agree with them but they do represent an alternative source of information. Peter.

CsK, "Artillery and air delivered anti-tank mines...by the bucket load." Sort of; the MRLS round has roughly the same dimensions as a Hellfire, so I'd try putting the UK Brimstone front end on an extended range MRLS round and target with MALE UAV's or the JSTARS replacement. All you need to do is avoid the longer range Russian Artillery! Peter.

Found this when looking around and thought people would be interested. http://carnegieendowment.org/2017/05/03/assessing-russia-s-reorganized-and-rearmed-military-pub-69853 lots of interesting stuff and it does raise the possibility of three scenarios that could be the basis for an updated Black Sea around Belorussia and Poland. Peter.

Armourgunner, Thanks, nice clear close up pictures. peter

For me the best base Scenario for this would be the internal collapse of the North as a result of a political crisis like the cultural revolution or just famine. In this scenario, as the North Imploded, all of it's neighbours would either be drawn in or face attack. Therefore it's not US v China or China v Russia, but as series of Campaigns; South; US/SK & Japanese forces in the South are attacked by NK units or need to cross the border to create a buffer zone or sieze nuclear weapons. North; Chinese and Russian forces both cross into the North to neutralise the threat to themselves and gain control of parts of the North. The Campaigns or Battles wouldn't have East v West but all the stuff would be there to create your own. Peter.

Here's link to today's Moscow Victory Day Parade! Not much new. I don't think I've seen the Tigra with a remote turret before, it's not in BlackSea. Most seem to have a Grenade Launcher MmG combo (not sure which MMG it is) where as in game it's one or the other. about 6min in their is what I think is a command version of a BMD. Sure it's old but I can't remember seeing one and it's not in the game. The Artic Articulated is a beast, I've seen it before but not an Airdefence version. Even in a Uktainian Winter I am not sure it would make an update. you can pretty much stop after 9min unless you want to se the Russian entry for Eurovision!!!! Peter.

Found this on the Tank Encyclopedia page and thought people would be interested. http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/modern/syria/t-72av-shafrah Peter.

Here the video version with close up's! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/39272611 Peter.

A bit off topic guys (and girls) but how much of this stuff can people identify? BBC report on Interpol weapons seizure Peter

Lethaface, Is this the TOS-1A, if so they are using it again. Part way down the article there's a Pic. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-39061811 Peter.

Oh Oh can we have these as well!!!!!  Mad max's Humvee!

Just looking at the BBC News on the Assalt on West Mosel and saw this! Thought it was posting.Humvee Firing Rockets.

We already have some robo versions of Quadbikes, years back I saw a video of a university in Wales that was developing one as a robo sheep dog. We also now have robotic tractors in the works. it won't be long till we start to see driverless or optionally driven logistics vehicles doing resupply especially for things like artillery. i think a quad bike with a central mount that can be quickly changed for recon, support or antitank would be a useful and viable drone in the near term. Great for recon as small cheap and expendable. Maybe a future US squad will be a Bradley replacement with a four man team in the back each controlling one of the four armed quads that follow behind as it's swarm! Peter.

Wicky, the Telegraph is the Mail with longer words. The Mail article is a shock piece designed to sell papers to the man in the street who doesn't know the background! The Ajax is a replacement for current light tracked recon units like the Sabre and Sultan an as anyone who has played Shockforce will tell you they don't come off well against T-72's either. It's also actually an upgrade of the current GM designed Spanish Army ASCOD so not really new as such. It has incorporated many of the lessons of both Gulf Wars so it is indeed well suited to fighting an "Incompetent Enemy" on that it has better protection against close range RPG's, Mines and IED's! Not incorporating those lessons would be a disgrace!!!!! However like all MICV's and APC's it is vulnerable to top attack and PGM's and isn't going to take even a front armour hit from a 120mm gun. The new 40mm gun is a steep up from the Sabres 30mm Rarder and even the better 25mm Bushmaster, probably needed as every bodies own APC's have unarmoured post Iraq/Chechnia. The much talked about digital warfare capability is just an upgrade to modern technology and like the Armata more evolution than revolution. Not sure how accurate this is but I showed the spec on the computer side to my teenage son and he put it on a par with the new PlayStation 4!!!!!! Anyway, a needed overdue replacement for an old vehicle class but still in the same class, much like a Scout Bradley. The label "Minitank" is nonsense and of course it goes without saying that we are almost certainly once again paying far more for them than we should. Peter.

Saw the Telegraph article on the Armata and tried not to laugh. For those who don't know the Telegraph is an upmarket UK paper that has gone down hill in recent years and become more alarmist and sensationalist as time goes on. So it's doom laden predictions are to be expected. It takes the line that the Armata is Revolutionary, when in actual fact it is an evolution, a continuation of on going trends. better engine, suspension, gearbox and fire suppression are all things that bring it closer to current NATO tanks and are to be expected when you reach the point where an old design can't be upgraded any further but that's not a revolution. I did like the claim that it's Lower, Lighter and Faster than Western tanks which would worry anyone who didn't know that that's been true since the T-62 and was a fat lot of use in both Gulf wars! For me the really big thing about the Armata is that the arrival of HD Cameras feed to Screens has meant that the commander or gunners head no longer needs to be close to the sighting blocks be it directly or via an optical periscope. That means you can have a smaller turret ( you don't need the space for two men) and the crew can be somewhere safer. The Armata may be the first MBT to do it, but Stryer Fire support vehicle with 105mm gun does effectively the same thing! Oh and as I noted a while back, putting a Active Scanning radar in a tank seems a gift to any opponent with semi decent ECM. As to a future UK tank, Britain no longer has a tank factory so whether we could afford to reopen one and justify a production run and development costs is a debatable point. With Germany and France combining their two largest manufactures last year plans for a Leopard 3 look more promising but other than an interim upgrade with turret additions that looks unlikely to take to the field till 2030. Still between them France and Germany could perhaps justify a 400-600 production run and post Brexit we may see the EU move the single market to include defence. That would probably make a Leopard 3 the front runner for the likely tank replacement for most of Europe. I suspect Italy might still go it alone only because of it's tendency to prop up shaky domestic companies and I have little doubt that Turkey will continue to go it alone. As for the UK, post Brexit I think we could try to collaborate with someone, perhaps Saudi, but more likely was with, the JSF, Apache, Poseidon and Globemaster the next UK tank will most likely be American! Peter.

Just saw an article that says the 2016 Armata order is for an initial 100 units with the programme date now to be 2025 not 2020. They also seem to be sticking to a requirement for 2,300 tanks, replacing the entire fleet. Like most her The idea of 2016 entry and building 2,300 mostly by 2020... over 500 a year was always nonsense and likewise the 2,500 tank total as too high for total fleet. So I suppose going for 7 years from 2018 to 2025 starting at 100 and building up would fit with an eventual core force of over 1,000 and possibly as many as 1,500 by the middle of the next decade, but for me that's still too high. Given Russia's economic issues I'd guess at a top figure of 700-900 Armata by 2026-28 backed up by 1,000-1,200 upgraded T-90AM+ ( the current T-90AM and T-90A's with some new add ons from the Armata programme). Peter.

Alex, Don't know about the woods, but the buildings are probably because that's what they are like where i live in Scotland....Not exactly Ukrainian but feels right to me. Peter.

Erwin, Next thing on my list, but I thought I'd get feedback first. Peter.

A while back I posted my first ( and so far only) Map on "A Few Good Men". Called "Junction 2" it was an attempt to design a major grade separated highway interchange ( one where you can change from any direction without having to actually stop at a junction). I was kind of wondering if anyone had actually downloaded in or played it and what people thought of it in general. In particular i was wondering if people actually tried to take the junction itself or took control of terrain around it instead. Originally when designing it I thought it would be mainly a battle for the main flyover but play testing it a bit I found I was usually aiming to take the road line to the North to achieve the same thing. More specifically I used the map to try out a series of ideas for features that might form the basis of future maps and i wondered what people thought of these. as they are sort of tests they are all a bit compressed in terms of size. 1) Drainage ditches; on the river in the NW tried to put irrigation ditches using ditch lock running down to the River. I don't really think this worked as unlike Shock Force there are no trenches in Blacks, and these make good field ditches and channels in that. 2) Gas station; Centre North I made a sort of gas station service stop. 3) Rail Yard; in the NE this is fairly compressed but it's the use of barns as sheds and warehouses plus the ground and walls that I hoped would get the feel right. 4) Quarry; This is in the SE and again too small but it's the general idea behind it that i'd like comments on. 5) Estate; Mid south an attempt at a large stately house with walled garden and some semi attached farm buildings. 6) Fishing Station; SW corner, using footbridges and fencing to try to creat the clutter you might see in a fishing village or shore line. 7) Sewage Works; here I set buildings into the ground at the rivers edge to try and create something that looked like the kind of concrete and gravel level structures you get in sewage works and industrial plant. Finally more generally I left some trees in otherwise cultivated fields with on slightly raised ground with longer grass. The is something I often see in real life and think it looks better than just trees on their own. I also used light forest and raised the fence line above roads and fields as I think this better represents long established farm land where over time fields have dropped from decades of cultivation. All or indeed any feedback, even critical, would be appreciated. Here's a link to junction 2; http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-black-sea/cm-black-sea-add-ons-maps/cmbs-map-junction-2/ Peter.

I tend to ditch lock the fence line 1 m higher than the road or field. I used both a fair bit on this map I did for black sea in "A Few Good Men"; http://www.thefewgoodmen.com/tsd3/cm-black-sea/cm-black-sea-add-ons-maps/cmbs-map-junction-2/

Sorry no game image... No matter what i do I can't seem to get a screen shot below 500kb for some reason on my Mac???? Peter.