Combatintman

Way ahead of you ...

Had to reorient the map to get the roads to sit better.

Way ahead of you ...

Had to reorient the map to get the roads to sit better.

Way ahead of you ...

Had to reorient the map to get the roads to sit better.

Way ahead of you ...

Had to reorient the map to get the roads to sit better.

Way ahead of you ...

Had to reorient the map to get the roads to sit better.

The intact bridge is actually two and possibly three crossings.  Nonetheless, that is a nasty fight if the Ukrainians choose to make it so.
Location:
Intact Bridges.kmz
Satellite View:

Oblique view looking SW-NE

The intact bridge is actually two and possibly three crossings.  Nonetheless, that is a nasty fight if the Ukrainians choose to make it so.
Location:
Intact Bridges.kmz
Satellite View:

Oblique view looking SW-NE

The intact bridge is actually two and possibly three crossings.  Nonetheless, that is a nasty fight if the Ukrainians choose to make it so.
Location:
Intact Bridges.kmz
Satellite View:

Oblique view looking SW-NE

The intact bridge is actually two and possibly three crossings.  Nonetheless, that is a nasty fight if the Ukrainians choose to make it so.
Location:
Intact Bridges.kmz
Satellite View:

Oblique view looking SW-NE

I was a month out on my assessment of the fall of Kabul - my first assessment in late May had the house of cards collapsing on September 14.  Hence me getting shipped out on July 02 and covering the final days remotely from my home office, rather than scrambling to get on a plane.  Not everyone in the intelligence community was wrong - just the ones the media/beltway chooses to blame.  It was apparent in 2015 (and before then for anyone who'd had any dealings with them) that the ANDSF weren't going to cut it.

The likes of Steve, @The_Captand I have been saying same for weeks - he's just nicking our stuff Doctors eh ... what do they know 😉

Christ on a bike ... that is truly shocking.  If they'd bothered with cam nets they'd all fit under the same one.

The likes of Steve, @The_Captand I have been saying same for weeks - he's just nicking our stuff Doctors eh ... what do they know 😉

Christ on a bike ... that is truly shocking.  If they'd bothered with cam nets they'd all fit under the same one.

I disagree, I think it was more to provide obscuration for an extraction to cover.  The trouble was that it was a poor throw and landed too close to both the door and casualty.  Having been in close proximity to a smoke grenade in similarish (training) circumstances and throwing my guts up for about three minutes almost instantly, I'm not surprised that nobody ventured out or the guy outside the building moved towards the casualty.

I was a month out on my assessment of the fall of Kabul - my first assessment in late May had the house of cards collapsing on September 14.  Hence me getting shipped out on July 02 and covering the final days remotely from my home office, rather than scrambling to get on a plane.  Not everyone in the intelligence community was wrong - just the ones the media/beltway chooses to blame.  It was apparent in 2015 (and before then for anyone who'd had any dealings with them) that the ANDSF weren't going to cut it.

Points to note - consistent with what the likes of me, @LukeFFand other veterans have been saying for a while on the long list of buddy aid threads, the extraction attempt was epic, no weapons or ammunition were harvested and nobody tried to give buddy aid from the prone position. 

Points to note - consistent with what the likes of me, @LukeFFand other veterans have been saying for a while on the long list of buddy aid threads, the extraction attempt was epic, no weapons or ammunition were harvested and nobody tried to give buddy aid from the prone position. 

I was a month out on my assessment of the fall of Kabul - my first assessment in late May had the house of cards collapsing on September 14.  Hence me getting shipped out on July 02 and covering the final days remotely from my home office, rather than scrambling to get on a plane.  Not everyone in the intelligence community was wrong - just the ones the media/beltway chooses to blame.  It was apparent in 2015 (and before then for anyone who'd had any dealings with them) that the ANDSF weren't going to cut it.

I was a month out on my assessment of the fall of Kabul - my first assessment in late May had the house of cards collapsing on September 14.  Hence me getting shipped out on July 02 and covering the final days remotely from my home office, rather than scrambling to get on a plane.  Not everyone in the intelligence community was wrong - just the ones the media/beltway chooses to blame.  It was apparent in 2015 (and before then for anyone who'd had any dealings with them) that the ANDSF weren't going to cut it.

I was a month out on my assessment of the fall of Kabul - my first assessment in late May had the house of cards collapsing on September 14.  Hence me getting shipped out on July 02 and covering the final days remotely from my home office, rather than scrambling to get on a plane.  Not everyone in the intelligence community was wrong - just the ones the media/beltway chooses to blame.  It was apparent in 2015 (and before then for anyone who'd had any dealings with them) that the ANDSF weren't going to cut it.

I'm sure there was a similar discussion about the .50 cals on the turret rear of some sort of US Tank Destroyer in either the Normandy or Final Blitzkrieg boards.  I can't recall the outcome but, if it does fire it seemed to be the exception rather than the rule.  Maybe the same under the hood factors are in play here.

Don't get hung up about the ISR nomenclature - I've been through Recce, RISTA, ISTAR, ISR etc .... all of which amounted to the same thing employing almost the same but slightly fewer resources with each name change (peace dividend, lighter and agile and other great buzzwords) - the bottom line is that FIND is a core function in combat and has been for donkey's years.
The Russian/Soviet Army has never had dedicated/organic recce assets below regiment/brigade level in the 30+ years I've been looking at it (on and off).  The recce component that you see on the oft posted slide of a BTG is, in essence, what used to be called a regimental recce coy and some sources indicate that the old regimental recce companies in the new-fangled brigades were retitled as brigade reconnaissance companies.
Now ... I apologise for being vaguely parochial and slightly platform focused ... but bear with me ... that 'company' that sits in either the old school Soviet regiment, the new fangled brigade, or chopped to a BTG is what in the two armies I've served in would be called a recce platoon.  If you've got CMSF crack open any of the UK battalions (minus the formation reconnaissance regiment) and see what I mean.
Anyway ... back to effect, rather than platforms ... you can have all of the information/reporting in the world, but it is no good if you don't have an HQ that is capable of processing it and empowered to act on it in a timely fashion.
In my trade and in the reconnaissance game, you are looking for redundancy and multiple source information so there is nothing wrong with UAVs and SIGINT in the mix.  I'm sure I posted an example on this thread a few days back as to how you cross-cue your collectors to confirm or deny various activities.  Doing so; however, (I'm getting boring now) requires grown-ups to be able to plan, task, process and act on what is collected.

That withdrawal is timely, maybe they read my post about 57 Motorised Brigade at risk of being cut off ... 😉
Bridge in more detail here:

Dropped Bridge.kmz
More of a nuisance to the Russians than anything else because it can be bypassed but certainly a taste of more to come if they want to push into the woods on the Rte T0514 axis.

That withdrawal is timely, maybe they read my post about 57 Motorised Brigade at risk of being cut off ... 😉
Bridge in more detail here:

Dropped Bridge.kmz
More of a nuisance to the Russians than anything else because it can be bypassed but certainly a taste of more to come if they want to push into the woods on the Rte T0514 axis.