poesel

Germany has offered Poland patriot missile systems, but Poland declined and suggested to station them in Ukraine: https://www.dw.com/en/poland-asks-germany-to-send-patriot-missiles-to-ukraine/a-63877843?maca=en-GK_RSS_SmartNews_Volltext_ENG-20051-xml-media Our minister of defense then said we had to consult with NATO, which was immediately answered by Stoltenberg that this is Germany's decision. Obviously, Germany cannot station a patriot system in Ukraine, only deliver it. How long would it take to train the Ukrainians on that system?

Luka precludes the use of the Belarusian army in this war. But of course he stands on the side of Putin... No surprises here, but still astonishing how Luka managed to weasel through this again. https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/belarus-alexander-lukaschenko-schliesst-einsatz-seiner-armee-gegen-die-ukraine-aus-a-948b93f5-a17f-45f8-9d0f-dfa3c5741336

About AA guns: why don't we see more of the ZSU-23-4? It should be on par with the Gepard (about the same age) and Ukraine has them (as well as many other former Warsaw pact nations). Should be more than adequate for all those small, slow drones we currently see. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZSU-23-4_Shilka ?

Yes, but no. It is 'similar coordinates', not same. So probably just coincidence. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_missile_explosion_in_Poland has the coordinates.

Rheinmetall buys Spanish competitor Expal Systems for 1,2b€. Expal is one of the biggest ammunition manufacturer in Europe. That means that they probably can manufacture Gepard ammo themselves (outside Switzerland) in the near future. https://www.handelsblatt.com/unternehmen/industrie/ruestungsindustrie-rheinmetall-kauft-munitionsfirma-mehr-gepard-munition-fuer-die-ukraine/28806920.html

That is by far the best thing any leader could do. You can be happy to have one of those. On the contrary, the worst leaders are those who think they know best and don't listen to others. IIRC that is basically the (or one of the) first chapter(s) in Machiavelli's book.

I guess there was an agreement between Ukraine and Russia over not fighting in Kherson. If not explicit, then implicit. Russia could have fought there, but didn't want to lose the kind of troops that could have fought. Ukraine would have liked to fight those troops, but not in the city of Kherson. This is, all things considered, a great victory for Ukraine.

This guy has a short video about a tank trying to cross one of the Russian dragon teeth. It is obviously staged but still interesting. https://t.me/brussinf

A laser link would be nearly undetectable, and a glass fiber cable absolutely undetectable (unless you stumble over it). A laser link would be very susceptible to interfering obstacles and somewhat to bad weather, so maybe not a wise choice unless you fight in a desert. Glass fiber is not very robust, but then it is also not expensive. Range is basically unlimited for both methods. A laser link could also be used for communication with drones. More useful for the more autonomous types, which likely have a more 'bursty' transmission characteristic.

Short thread on the state of the Kerch Bridge repair. TLDR: Car bridge is 1 lane and that lane seems to be damaged, too. Planned date of repair for both lanes: April '23 Rail bridge is also single lane, but not useable for heavy trains. Planned date of repair: September '23 I expect either Russia or Ukraine to **** up this schedule.

Yeah, no. But since the ammunition is quite old by now, it could be well past due date. Then we have to scrap it, of course. I guess in that case, Ukraine would win the call for bids. ? wut? No, we don't. Germany may be exemplary for some things, but it is definitely NOT for military spending. That is right in line with airport planning.

Switzerland bars Germany from delivering 12k pieces of ammo for the Gepard to Ukraine because of her neutrality. https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/krieg-in-der-ukraine-schweiz-untersagt-deutschland-lieferung-von-gepard-munition-a-0c124c66-4b6a-4a97-9351-42886f172ae2

A 12 kg drone with a push prop coming at you with 300 km/h is not exactly silent. I guess it will be a bit louder than an average RC plane. So there is a good chance that you can hear the thing and have a few seconds to react (if there is not too much noise around you).

I guess we will soon find out. Russian supplies tend to end up in Ukrainian hands quite often, and I'm unsure if Russia will do a (good) paint job on all of them.

Sorry, couldn't resist

I've been involved a bit in the making of a production line for artillery shells. The problem is that it is not only about the parts that make out the round, but also about the machinery for making those parts. There is quite a lot of complex machinery involved. Much of it is also specialized machinery that is not used somewhere else. Even mothballed stuff breaks after a while. So you need replacements and your spare part package is not endless. After a while, you start to scrounge for stuff on eBay, and then you need to drag engineers out of the retirement homes because no one knows how to use that specific piece of tech anymore. Of course, you could unpack this thing once a year and try to run it for a week. Fix the stuff that broke and pack it up again. But that is very expensive for something, that is most likely useless (unless it's priceless, as someone else put it nicely). Good luck explaining that to your taxpayers. I guess that would be too big even for the US military budget. First, you need an engineer who knows how to design that. And then you need to have your design certified. And prototyped. And tested. And signed off again. And then produced. And tested again. Doable of course. But with a big price tag. Like the 100m€ for setting up a new production line for the SMArt 155 ammunition. Btw, the actual production for 10,000 rounds will cost another 800m€.

This one, for example: https://en.defence-ua.com/industries/germany_to_resume_the_production_of_smart_155_projectiles_in_5_years_which_have_shown_themselves_really_well_in_ukraine-4676.html We spend about 100m€ just to be able to produce them again in 5 years. That's a crazy long lead time to re-establish a manufacturing line from about 15 years ago. I wonder what components have to be recreated. That is really a problem. If you don't have customers who continually buy your stuff, you cannot just mothball an assembly line and unpack it whenever you need it. The supply chain is gone, as well as the skill required to run that line.

I live in the Ruhrgebiet. IIRC, last year they found about 6 unexploded bombs in a park that has 6 figure visitors per year. The park exists for nearly 70 years. The papers had that in the 'local' section. Well, her choice of words and her action are not especially a grace for the German nation, either. But then, I don't know what happened before.

May I ask why Russia is allowed to reinforce their troops in Kherson? In my understanding, the UA could blast all ferries and bridges whenever they want. Why don't they? Or do they and we don't know? Or is that intentionally to get the good stuff in range?

That is indeed a problem of Democracy - everyone has the right to speak up and voice their opinion, even the dumb ones. But you are not required to listen to them. Disclaimer: the first sentence was ironic (such things get sometimes lost in translation...)

Do say, how many countries are participating in that 'world series' of yours? You have to take into account German history here. Our last experience with a dictator is not so long ago, and many fled the country at that time. In retrospect, Germany is grateful for all countries that took our refugees. So the German perspective on Russian refugees is different from that of other countries. And if I may add: you might want to cut your posts into several, smaller and shorter ones. It's a bit hard to read all that stuff and to remember the beginning when you reached the end.

If the Russians stay in Kherson city and the UA would just pass them to cut them off like they did in Kharkiv region. Then the Russians could blow enough of the dam to make the area east of Kharkiv impassable. They would have made a moat in their backs, which buys them time because the UA cannot attack over it. It is a terrible idea because the water in the dam is not endless, so eventually the moat will run dry. But it would create a lot of chaos and problems for Ukraine at the cost of a few hundred or so mobiks who will be left behind in Kherson. I guess in Russian arithmetic, that's a win.

SPIEGEL magazine has a short piece about the use of the Gepard (and the PzH)(paywalled): https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/gepard-panzerhaubitze-2000-und-co-im-ukraine-krieg-die-rolle-der-deutschen-waffen-a-795b057f-e796-4a85-96ad-16bae97f6d2f Not too much of interest for us here, but a few tidbits: one Gepard covers an area of 4 km diameter, the gun they were visiting was near Saporischya, they were also used in the Kharkiv offensive and in Odessa. So far this gun has shot down only drones, Orlan-10 & Eleron. The commander needed 6 shots for his first kill. Other Gepards have shot down Shahed-136 drones and even Kalibr cruise missiles.

What if the RA holes up in Kherson city itself? Since the UA cannot just flatten every house as the Russian do, it would be a very, very bloody fight. And it would be an even fight since there is no technological advantage on either side and the Russians soldiers are the best they have. That is a better chance than anywhere else. UA also cannot just bypass Kherson because Russia could then blow up the dam. I doubt Putin would hesitate to pay the price in blood if he sees a chance that this battle is 'too much' for western stomachs.

I know those, they are quite informative. But what is the connection to my post? What I meant with the 'split' leadership modifiers for officers & NCOs is, that when you buy a battalion, and you want bad NCOs you wouldn't have to click on every squad to make them bad. Not an actual change of functionality, but quality of life. If you change the leadership of the battalion, you automatically change the leadership of ALL squads.