dan/california

Unit that did that needs HIMAR's attention. We don't need an outbreak of brighter orcs.

The salients geometry just let the Russians shell it from too many angles at once. Happily it was really the only place on the entire front with that unfortunate geometry. Straighter lines and HIMARS working day and night should bring the Russians to a dead stop.

I am really thinking these were remotely triggered IEDs. This was clearly a targeted strike. It will be interesting to see if we ever get any more information, because this was a fair bit of effort for a couple of civilian cars that couldn't have held 8 guys

So secret there is 20 minutes of video in the SUN......

They have scraped the bottom of barrel, then cut up the barrel with a torch and thrown the pieces into the fight. When that couldn't keep up with the cargo 200 coming back by the trainload, or just being burned in pits, they got out an excavator and started digging a hole where the barrel used to be, sort of, maybe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASAMS It is a ground launched AMRAAM, with a very good associated radar and data link. Range varies quite a lot depending on the exact missile. Range is ~30 km and -30,000 ft. It is really exactly what the the Ukrainians need. The only flaw is that it is not a truly mobile system. It has to unloaded from a pretty good sized truck and set up. And the Ukrainians needs dozens of them. Yet another factory someone needs to get started on like they mean it. Edit: Huba is much faster than I am...

I don't think they spent a lot of time checking, Russian crews seem to have deeply internalized it is safer outside with the bullets.

It is worth pointing out that this corner of Ukraine tucks right up against Romania. It is more than likely that this operation was covered a NATO AWACS putting out enough radar to cook seagulls halfway to Crimea. Anything launched at that artillery would be spotted the instant it launched. The gun would have time to redeploy. It isn't the Ukr air force that is holding them back, it is the SAMs The_Capt, we don't deserve you , but we sure as bleep appreciate you! https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/army-to-test-its-biggest-interactive-drone-swarm-ever-over-utah The U.S. Army seems to have gotten the memo on drones, at least for the most part. Unfortunately they don't seem to have gotten the memo that helicopters are just over. They are utterly vulnerable in Ukraine now, and as you eloquently point out neither side in Ukraine is playing with anything close to a full suite of modern capabilities Let me preface this comment by reminding everyone that I am the guy that thinks NATO air power should just join the war and The Polish Army should be passing through Kyiv on the way to the front as we speak. You can't be more anti Russian/pro Ukraine than I am without arguing for a straight up nuclear first strike. I don't think we should cut the Russians off from the hybrid seeds. The disruption in food production is one of the strongest levers Putin has at the grand strategic level in this war, and I honestly think hurting Russian grain production costs The Ukraine/NATO/The West more problems than it causes Russia. Putin doesn't care how many Russians starve. He won't even blink if all of Africa does. Honestly, I am right back to NATO joining the war and trying to end this thing quickly... The world clearly needs to bring more grain production on line as quickly as humanly possible, but it was getting grown in the belt extending from Ukraine thru Russia to Kazakistan for a reason. It is not going to be trivial to replace that production. Edit: And the U.S. Congress needs to pass the bill to subsidize a BUNCH of U.S. semi conductor production NOW, before China attacks Taiwan and the world economy just dies.

100 percent agree, it is nothing but the bullseye on a firing range.

Better hurry before they appoint you to command the brigade!

Well we were reading the STAVKA's email near as I can tell...

The idea of a 105mm high velocity gun just won't die. A 120mm breach loading mortar with a couple new "common launch rails" make a thousand times more sense. And even that assumes any sort of direct fire vehicles are still a thing. I assume this comes standard with the successor to the Trophy APS?

Maybe Lithuania can leverage this to get Ukraine two three hundred more pieces of 155 artillery.

The very big question is does this coup result in a clean takeover and massively increased war effort in Ukraine? Or the immediate abandonment of the Ukrainian effort as they desperately try to consolidate power in Russia. The 1917 revolution took a decade to play all the way out really. And the then nebulous Soviet government spent most of that not even answering its mail with regard to the rest of the world.

The Turks clearly got some of what they wanted. While the ongoing disputes with Turkey are not trivial, and are VERY significant for the Kurds, they do not involve the fundamental failure of the existing world order. The Russian war in Ukraine does. So the Turks getting a medium sized concession or three is just part of it. What Erdogan has flunked badly is the management of the Turkish economy. The inflation rate is ~100%, which is true melt down territory. He may have to cheat really blatantly to steal the next election. I am not sure how much that matters in the medium term. In the long term his son in law is the CEO and chief engineer of Barakyar, the drone manufacturer. So unlike Putin he a has an obvious and apparently competent successor in the family. REALLY curious to read and evaluation of his world view. Like a great meany things that need doing, munitions manufacturing comes to mind, the only way to ever finish is to get started.

DMS, Russia has started the most unnecessary war in approximately forever. Then proceeded to wage it with a unique blend of genocidal barbarity and complete incompetence. Russia then turns around and tries to play the victim, and claim everyone is out to get them. To put it mildly that isn't going to work. Russia has managed to focus at least two continents on ensuring that Russia can't do this again for generations. I mean what did you expect would happen? Putin's fantasy of a quick victory and a parade in Kyiv? That ship hasn't just sailed, it sunk with all hands I ma going to repeat Von Rundstet's quote to the German high command when it became clear D-Day had been a success. "Make peace, you fools". It was good advice then, and even better advice now. Because if Putin ruins the ENTIRE Russsian army in pursuit of his Ukrainian fantasy Russia will find out how much of its outer reaches are unhappy with Moscow's less than enlightened ruling style. You won't like the answer very much.

I don't know what the publication schedule is, but the first edition that really digs into lessons learned from Ukraine is going to e amazing.

. From page 22 of the spring edition "Unlike larger UAS such as Gray Eagle, the Shadow is agile enough to displace frequently and keep up with the squadron. It also allows for a manned/ unmanned teaming capability that increases the survivability of aviation assets against an enemy equipped with man-portable and SHORAD air-defense systems." They Army needs to have a hard think about virtually any system that cannot displace at least every few hours. The only alternative is one hundred percent reliable air defense system that can reliably intercept both SRBMs, and cruise missiles. Hitting fixed positions with those was the only thing the Russians have showed any competence at, at least until they ran through their newer stuff. I am as certain as I can be from open sources that the Chinese have a LOT of that capability. A merely bad CEP is good enough if they shoot enough of them. I am also fairly certain the Chinese consider the Western issues with cluster munitions to be faintly amusing if they think about them at all. Furthermore small to medium UAVs you can afford to lose and replace are better than bigger more capable systems that have to preserved at all cost. A competent near peer enemy will commit manned fighters to near suicidal missions to take down the biggest most capable UAVs if they have too. If a Global Hawk or Reaper is flying over your forces and has any fires capacity to talk to you are losing the bleeping war. The bad guys might do something underhanded and actually be READY for the next time after all.

Out of likes. All of it is excellent, but page nine of the spring edition has a very educational letter from a senior sergeant that would like to use a couple of defense contractors for targets on the main gun live fire course. He didn't put quite like that but his meaning was EXTREMELY clear... Edit: To put it another way the whiz bang stuff is only useful when it goes whiz and bang on command, every single time.

The Soldiers are orders of magnitude more important than Lisichansk.

The Ukrainians are systematically disassembling the military infrastructure the LPR/DPR have been building up since 2014. I strongly suspect the Ukrainians have been assembling a targeting list for just as long. It is just that between Russians already launching a full bore shooting war, and having HIMARS, they can do something about it in a very kinetic way.

Not saying you are wrong. But if Putin were to expire, with or without some 9mm/novachuck assistance the new bleeping bleep in charge might withdraw at least to the 2/24 borders and seek a medium term ceasefire. Whatever faction came out on top would probably have a large project with internal consolidation and spoils redistribution as the mansions got seized and then handed out to the successful faction at the expense of the others, and a whole bunch miscellaneous murdering. IF, BIG IF, Russia withdrew to 2/24 borders and offered a REAL ceasefire it would allow Ukraine to reequip with all NATO gear and become too strong for them to ever try again.

Kraze seems to be proving Letter From Prague correct. There doesn't seem to be any solution to except to ship CARGO 200s back by the trainload until Russia gets the point, or disintegrates. Eastern Europe needs to be massively reinforced.

And Ukraine should be ON THE NATO SIDE!

NATOs eastern border is going to have to be massively fortified for at least a generation...