poesel

Doesn't GLSDB have an IR seeker? Shouldn't that work at least against hot targets?

Some of these chips are VERY common and have lots of non-military use. IIRC, I have one STM32 and the SIM800 somewhere in a cupboard. Denying Russia access to this kind of chips is impossible, unfortunately.

The projectile shown is a Vulcano round produced by Diehl, not Rheinmetall. Vulcano is already in Ukraine (since last year?). Apart from GPS, it uses inertial guidance and has a laser mode. So I guess they are talking about something different.

Shooting HARMs at GPS jammers is probably a loosing game economically. Drones that triangulate jammers and drop grenades on them may be feasible. The problem that Excalibur has is likely to be attributed to the lack of a proper antenna. That makes GPS jamming especially effective. I don't see a way to mitigate that. OTOH Smart/Bonus type of projectiles where the shell only needs to be shot in the vicinity of the target don't have that problem. But they are of course a different type of projectile.

Ukraine would piss off the rest of Europe in a mayor way if it bought from China instead of Europe after the war. That would throw a real big spanner in any EU ascension plans.

GPS is only one possibility in the 'P' of PGM. Since image recognition has developed in leaps and bounds recently, there is no reason why munitions shouldn't be able to fly by looking out the windows and comparing it with a map. They actually do this already but AFAIK by radar and height data. That is not wrong but do not forget that China currently just moves back into the slot they took over from the Romans and lost to Britain in the 18th century: the leading industrial nation of the world. The main difference to then is that the US didn't exist at that time. It could also just be to enhance the uncertainty for Russia. Storm Shadow covers a lot of Russian soil measured from Ukraine.

Georgia now looks like Ukraine 2013...

I guess a problem for reporting losses by respectable media outlets is that you can't really verify the numbers. Both sides lie, and they would be nuts if they didn't. So there are basically only rumors to report, and it's IMHO better that they don't. Another problem is sources. If the news channels don't have their own teams, they have to use 'official' material. Again, that will be propaganda from both sides, some side more than the other (ahem). We are used to watching Twitter videos. But those are all 'unverified' and you can understand them only in context. Another thing that makes them unusable for mass media. This war is a difficult topic. Even though this is the one war since WWII where it's clearest which side are the baddies.

Because it is an easy-to-understand metric that is good to measure and visualize. Single value metrics for complex systems usually suck. Better metrics are hard to understand unless you know what's going on. Since the public does not, its km^2.

Well, scientific proof that BFCs potty mouth filters are no match for English football songs.

The Russians already knew that ATACMS could attack the bridge and since the bridge is officially still on Ukraine's territory they didn't need a green light from anyone. Ukraine could always attack its own territory with western weapons. So explicitly stating the fact only does, as the_capt would say, enlarge the uncertainty space for Russia. Btw, are those arches only decorative or are they a structural necessity for the bridge? I would imagine they are easier to hit than a pillar and easier to damage. Even something like napalm may weaken the strength of the steel enough.

If I add 'Ukraine has long range weapons' and 'don't hit oil before the election' together, I would like to put some money on spiking oil prices on November 6th. No matter how the vote goes, this is the day the Russian oil industry will go down the drain. IMHO...

This conversation is ongoing for more than 60 years. The trend is 'country' but that is a loooooooong way off and far from a certainty to ever happen.

You got me a bit wrong here. The Kerch Bridge is symbolic for the Russians. Any damage to it is highly visible and forces Russia to use assets to deny that to Ukraine. Its a long bridge that can be attacked by air, land & sea. That means a lot of Russian stuff has to be deployed there and not on the front. That is a non-symbolic win for Ukraine. It is only necessary that the Russians believe Ukraine could attack it.

It is necessary for Ukraine to attack Kerch Bridge once in a while, so Russia cannot stop wasting resources to protect it. Its high symbolic value forces Russia's hand, no matter what the actual military value is.

About the influence of Russia & China into German politics: both the number 1 & 2 for the upcoming vote for the EU parliament of our local fascist party AfD are under the suspicion of taking Russian money. Additionally, the head of the office of #1 has been detained for being a Chinese spy. And people still vote for them: they get about 15-30% (depending on state). If we had only two parties, I guess the political landscape wouldn't be much different than in the US.

Found this in the thread of the GOBLN: Ukraine has developed a drone mine-detector called “Brave 1”. It can survey 3000 m2 on a 30 minute charge. The drone scans the surface and creates a map of metal containing objects using GPS tags. It grades the size of each detection and attaches photos or video of the ground.

Does drone supremacy (tm) solve the minefield problem? Or in other words: if you absolutely swamp one sector in drones and suppress every movement in a 10km(?) radius - is that enough to make breaching a minefield a possibility (under the assumption that you have half decent AA, too)?

Should Trump win, couldn't (and wouldn't) Biden just value old weapon stocks at one cent per piece and have it ship to Ukraine out of his own purse? Not exactly very gentlemanlike for an outgoing president but in this case...

Not to dispute the general direction of this post, but I have to set some things right: - no one is using solar panels instead of fences in Germany. But some people have installed solar panel as(!) fences. That did occur, but is very rare - Germany has willingly killed her own solar industry herself about 10 years ago. Mostly by ****ing up subventions which went to China instead of European manufacturers. Germany basically paid for the creation of the solar industry in China, and we lost 5-figure jobs here. Thanks to the ignorance on the side of the Merkel government which believed that solar (and wind) had no future Now China owns the market and the US is paying immense subventions for solar factories so that companies relocate there. Currently, it is pointless for Germany (and Europe in general) to push money in that direction because that would only end in an economic fight with the US & China. OTOH if China would embargo solar panels that would be annoying but would mostly hurt China itself. The biggest market is the West.

Russian milblogger Romanov confirms that the AFU expanded the bridgehead in Krynky 500 meter to the west. While this information is not that new, Romanov reveals Russians just left this position without a fight. He also claims Russians made a small advance in the center of Krynky. So Krynky still exists, and the Russians have voluntarily retreated (a bit). Did they finally understand the futility of their actions, or is there another reason?

Just to set the record straight: 'not long ago' is about 60 years (depending on which law you mean).

Real life is very different from what you read in social media. Those things you mentioned do exist, but they are few and far between. It is blown out of proportion by the media. Take it with a grain of salt and don't fall for the propaganda. Live in general changes very little and very slow.

I guess the economics for supplying and carrying an extra sensor package just for the last 20m are not there. Especially since radar works in that range, too. Ultrasonic is only good if you need to detect stuff that radar doesn't bounce off - like a fly. So unless drones become THAT stealthy, sound is off the table. Wrt to swarm communications: the swarm could communicate in ways that are designed to be low range. Like weak IR for example. No physical chance to pick that up from distance. With mesh networks, the swarm can also be quite large if its density is high enough to relay the communication. All doable - only question is when we will see it.

Not enough precision at range. Also, comparatively slow (speed of sound vs speed of light) against anything electromagnetic. I put my money on radar for counter drone. IIRC the Serbs managed to detect F-117s by analyzing bounced mobile signals in the 90s. Now, drone are slightly smaller than F-117s, but then this is 30 years ago and signal processing has made huge leaps. I wouldn't be surprised if we would see automatic counter drones this year. The pressure to have them is high as never, and the technology is there (in principle).