poesel

As I understand it, the Russians need: airplanes to drop glide bombs, artillery, (any) IFVs, (any) tanks & lots of men for their 'successes' on the battlefield. Which of those will run out first? I thought that would be artillery, as that was heavily targeted by Ukraine for a while. The hope was that Russia would run out of tubes. But that didn't happen, no? The types of IFVs or tanks used seems to be irrelevant. The difference in duration on the battlefield (between old & new types) seems to be negligible.

Panther turret '24. Not that useful anymore. Destruction of an unusual Russian firing position, which is a BMP-2 buried in the sand. By the 38th Brigade of Ukraine. https://t.me/argus38/68

RSA could restrict the export of arms & ammunition. IANAL, but I'm pretty sure they have laws for that. But I doubt they would use that card unless they want to be cut off from western arms, too.

I read a lot of 'too little, too late' comments to this post. I have some experience with production lines and at that scale it is usually one year to plan, on year to build. Under the assumption that the decision has already been made and you have the funds. In this light, this is not too bad.

With such a defensive line, aren't you basically giving up the territory between the line and the enemy? Because that line works both ways and will make supplying the western side very difficult. Train cars seem to also be very susceptible to HE fire so you can't put anything in them. You can hide behind them, but why? I don't understand how this would be useful at all.

Sorry to derail the thread with stories from Ukraine... Not that much news for the folks here, but still interesting:

Probably of this kind: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxodium_distichum

Wrt to Scholz meeting with Biden: it's a bit funny that Germany, who was scolded for its pusillanimity, seems to have become one of the main driving powers behind the support of Ukraine. How the tables turn. Even inside Germany, there is no real opposition against that support. There is an ongoing-heated debate here about the funds for the fiscal year of 2024 with, amongst others, huge farmer protests. But no one (important) has proposed to cut the funds for Ukraine. That has surprised me TBH. But then it is very German to take a long time to get around to one thing, but then we stick to it forever (for better or worse).

Who in the US needs to sign off on arms purchases from NATO partners, and who sets the price? Is there a loophole for delivering arms to Ukraine?

I'd like to add that the CASEVAC drone just needs a magnetic compass and a barometer (or LIDAR) to fly towards the friendlies. Neither of which can be jammed. As soon as it is out of EW range, it can fly with all sensors towards its destination.

Could someone please explain what this Zelenskyy / Zalushny thing is all about? Is that only a political quarrel, and Zelenskyy is trying to get rid of a rival? Or is there some real concern that a general is trying to reach for political power?

Adding to what @TheVulture said: there is not much difference in the end result between sending a drone into a zone with the order to kill any human it can find and sending an artillery shell into the same area. Apart from hand-to-hand combat, everything is a remote kill. The really scary part is when the AI can decide when to send a drone to kill somewhere. Hello Skynet.

Germany considers delivering Taurus to the UK in exchange for Stormshadows for Ukraine. https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/taurus-marschflugkoerper-deutschland-erwaegt-ringtausch-fuer-ukraine-a-5c9a23d0-fd34-4706-9de0-b85cab5e3ed8 Is 'Ringtausch' already an English word?

DW has a longer article (in German) about the situation in Baschkortostan. TL;DR: will it topple Russia? - no, but it is a sign. https://www.dw.com/de/was-es-mit-den-protesten-in-russland-auf-sich-hat/a-68026361

Let's assume that this is correct (and I think it's likely) and also that Putin is aware of this. So his counter-strategy is to dig in to keep what he has and to mount some attacks to be seen active to the Russian public. And at the same time not annoy the important people and get rid of the unwanted or unnecessary. I don't see Putin run out of money or people anytime soon. The same goes for (enough) support from the West, and the Ukrainians have no choice.

How come that they can press those company workers into service? I thought Petersburg & Moscow were mostly exempt from such actions?

Ecuador and The US concluded an agreement on the exchange of Soviet weapons worth $200 million for modern equipment. The deal should be completed by the end of this month. Ecuador doesn't know for which purpose the US is receiving them.. could be Ukraine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_equipment_of_the_Ecuadorian_Armed_Forces Ecuador has some Soviet manpads and light AA. Nice to have, but nothing fancy. But why is the west not doing that more often? Should be quite some kit floating around.

Thanks Butschi for writing that, so I don't have to write it. There has been some slight grumbling about Ukrainians having it a bit too easy wrt to other refugees, but this will be normalized. Apart from that, there have been no noteworthy troubles.

Because politicians want to stay in office. It doesn't help if your voters are dead. As an autocrat, you don't have to worry about that. It may even help if the right ones die. Case in point: Russia. Because we don't relate to them culturally. You care about people you 'know'. I do care more about Ukraine than Gaza, although my co-worker is Palestinian and I personally know no one from Ukraine!?! I guess this is some basic human tribal thing.

That does not surprise me. Object recognition and tracking are well into the capability range of €10 microcontrollers for years now. It just (*) needed someone to merge it with the flight control of a drone, and here we are. (*) just is the engineer's term for a few months to make it work

Thanks all for the S-300 answers. Yes, it was really a question.

How come that S-300 rockets are so good at ground attacks? They were build for ground-to-air combat!? Why do they hit anything, and why are they intercepted so seldom?

I'd like to point out that this is probably a case of lost in translation. I'm pretty sure that they would have received a manual ('Handbuch'). A 'Anleitung' is usually something like a step-by-step instruction. More suitable for field repairs than a thick manual.

Yes, already wrote Steve. He's got probably nothing better to do today anyway

Sorry, the forum is acting weird.