kevinkin
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Posts posted by kevinkin
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1 minute ago, Battlefront.com said:
What I'd like to see is more R&D money put into developing less expensive alternatives to the weaponry we currently have. We do need to move away from deliberately pursuing the most expensive solutions. Back in the Cold War this was a good strategy to bankrupt the enemy and it most definitely helped win the Cold War. Now? The economic scales have tilted and it's more likely Iran and North Korea can bankrupt us than the other way around.
High quality of product, speed to market, low cost of product. We have to decide which one to drop. Given there will always be a defense industry and it helps fuel the overall economy, we might consider dropping speed to market. Another thing to think about is how aggressively China steals technology. We need to stop that as well. Projecting power across two oceans to keep sea lanes open is costly and to lower the expenses significantly would require rethinking platforms like 13 billion USD carriers and how the military is structured and fights. I am afraid will will not see that in our lifetimes. The defense industry and government move at snail's pace. I am all for out of the box thinking. But those two entities struggle with that.
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20 minutes ago, Hapless said:
chalk up yet another failure for strategic bombing to achieve strategic effects.
I think Steve et. al. are on the correct path. Targeting energy infrastructure has not worked. Ukraine's allies would not let that decide the war. I hate to use another historical example; but Germany stopped going after British airfields and targeted cities. But civilians and the homes could absorb the attacks better than the critical infrastructure at airfields. Maneuver warfare. Distract the enemy while making their attacks not relevant to the war goals overall. It also helps that ER Murrow broadcast the ongoing bomber attacks and fighter battles in defense of a city like London. Sometimes minor things keep the public engaged and the effort moving.
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2 hours ago, sross112 said:
I think that the best way to do this (and to increase available mass of all types) for most countries is by expanding their reserve forces. Personnel costs are one of the major inhibiters to a large standing army, so maybe some sort of system like Finland or a hybrid of it. I think almost all western nations have dropped the conscription/draft, but especially those next to Russia or other belligerents should consider stockpiling equipment and trained reserves.
All across the spectrum should probably do this and not just the army. Pilots, airframes, ships, etc pretty much everything that a country can afford. If it is truly the age of you fight the war with what you have and won't have time to train and produce then some serious consideration is merited.
This would make for a great research study in the basic economics of the work force. What costs less? A large standing military or a smaller one backed by reserve forces. Reserve forces cost money too. However, allowing them to earn a higher income and benefits in peace time (commercial pilots are a long time example) is not new and a great incentive. I believe this study has been completed by many nations and especially those aligned with the west. It may come down to how quickly a nation needs to respond to a direct threat or meet its obligations with its allies. The US, for better or worse, has decided to have a force that can respond quickly via technology to emerging situations against its interests. The Reserves and National Guard remain key parts of America's defense plans. A nation like Australia would have more time to "mobilize" and join in with its allies. Israel puts all its youth through basic training, but most go back to the civilian economy. I would be interested in seeing how South Korea and Israel handle the economics. Throw in the 30K US troops stationed in SK into the equation, the math gets even more complex.
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16 minutes ago, sross112 said:
I think that the best way to do this (and to increase available mass of all types) for most countries is by expanding their reserve forces. Personnel costs are one of the major inhibiters to a large standing army, so maybe some sort of system like Finland or a hybrid of it. I think almost all western nations have dropped the conscription/draft, but especially those next to Russia or other belligerents should consider stockpiling equipment and trained reserves.
All across the spectrum should probably do this and not just the army. Pilots, airframes, ships, etc pretty much everything that a country can afford. If it is truly the age of you fight the war with what you have and won't have time to train and produce then some serious consideration is merited.
This would make for a great research study in the basic economics of the work force. What costs less? A large standing military or a smaller one backed by reserve forces. Reserve forces cost money too. However, allowing them to earn a higher income and benefits in peace time (commercial pilots are a long time example) is not new and a great incentive. I believe this study has been completed by many nations and especially those aligned with the west. It may come down to how quickly a nation needs to respond to a direct threat or meet its obligations with its allies. The US, for better or worse, has decided to have a force that can respond quickly via technology to emerging situations against its interests. The Reserves and National Guard remain key parts of America's defense plans. A nation like Australia would have more time to "mobilize" and join in with its allies. Israel puts all its youth through basic training, but most go back to the civilian economy. I would be interested in seeing how South Korea and Israel handle the economics. Throw in the 30K US troops stationed in SK into the equation, the math gets even more complex.
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18 minutes ago, Seminole said:
don’t see the story anymore.
Good point. I have not seen anything either. Maybe the infrastructure in too hardened now and Putin thinks killing civilians is a better use of the assets he has.
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1 hour ago, Haiduk said:
Air raid alarm again. UAV approaches
May we all watch Putin burn in eternal Hell.
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4 minutes ago, Centurian52 said:
One thing that I think is worth keeping in mind is that neither the US or China has the capability to deliver a knockout blow to the other.
The conflict between the US and China is not over if one side conquers the other's land mass. It's about keeping international sea lanes open for trade and, via that, competing economically not kinetically. The mass of their armies is irrelevant right now. The US needs to out pace China technically (air/naval) to keep them away from key sovereign soil where mass in the form of ground warfare would be relevant.
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2 hours ago, TheVulture said:
exact dividing line between seasons is completely arbitrary
https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/seasons/en/
Off topic but interesting.
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Zelenskiy’s adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said
“It will be a hot spring-summer season. We will see catastrophic events befall the Russian army. It will be forced to leave the occupied territories very quickly,” he predicted. Asked when this might happen, he replied: “We don’t hint at anything. But there are only 17 days left until summer.”
Um, doesn't summer start on Jun 21? Maybe hinting at something big around Jun 1?
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https://www.newsweek.com/russia-eroded-ground-forces-big-problems-us-general-cavoli-ukraine-1800177
At West Point they teach how to defeat the enemy. But, perhaps they need to have a few classroom hours devoted to how to tell when an enemy is defeated. Not saying that's exactly the case with Russia in May 2023. But this general seems to be all over the place.
"The Russian military's demise in Ukraine is something that has to be studied very closely," the general said. "It has not been even. It's very easy to look and to think that the Russian military has collapsed, or is in dire trouble. But in fact, it's been uneven. The ground forces are greatly eroded, they have run into big problems. And they've lost a lot of people, they've lost a lot of equipment. On the other hand, they've also ingested a lot of people. And you know, the Russian army, the ground force, today is bigger than it was at the beginning of this conflict. So, it still exists. The air force has lost less than 100 fighters and bombers. They have about 1,000 remaining. The navy has lost almost nothing, cyber has lost nothing, space lost nothing. So really, when we talk about the Russian military, we have to study it across all domains. And we have to be ready to deal with the Russian military into the future in all domains.
I guess I will chalk this up the audience he was addressing in Estonia. Keep your eye on the ball etc. etc..
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The Ukrainian air defenders fired multiple missiles from the Patriot at different angles to intercept the Russian missile, demonstrating how quickly they have become adept at using the powerful system, one official said.
This will be interesting to get more info on.
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The Ukrainian air defenders fired multiple missiles from the Patriot at different angles to intercept the Russian missile, demonstrating how quickly they have become adept at using the powerful system, one official said.
This will be interesting to get more info on.
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1 hour ago, Centurian52 said:
And of course they managed to route the Russians and seize the position without pushing in anyway. Perhaps these experienced soldiers have learned that it isn't necessary or worthwhile to take that sort of risk. There appear to be other, less dangerous ways of making it untenable for the enemy to remain in a fortified position like that.
I agree. Self preservation, economy of force and just hoping the enemy surrenders before you have to close assault. That might not be in the field manuals, but it makes sense under a lot of tactical situations.
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3 hours ago, billbindc said:
The Prigozhin story just keeps getting better:
Why does this remind me of the Zimmermann Telegram? Or Rudolf Hess? Not a one-to-one correlation for sure. And those happened years ago and can be evaluated. But something also bizarre that's happening in real time for us to chew over.
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Thanks for the post. There are so many things I could say about those tactics I think I will just be quiet.
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https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/ukraine-ammo-storage-site-obliterated-where-huge-fireball-seen
What exactly was stored at this site at the time of the blast also isn't clear. It likely held old dilapidated ammo and explosive material that dated back deeply into the Cold War era, but some have posited that newer ammunition used to support the war effort may have also been stored there. Regardless, Russia looks to be targeting these facilities to destroy any relevant materiel stored in them or at least to cause a massively destructive secondary blasts.
Another bump in the road. If anything of importance was in storage, it should have well defended. But let's see how this one develops.
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26 minutes ago, Artkin said:
AI triggers
One great wargame experience years ago was learning how to use them in small test scenarios in Scenario Designer mode. Makes for a fun evening or two.
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If I understand the technology correctly, the AI will have to be trained to do something highly specific. That's were the money is. What some are playing with is just a demo of the capabilities. But I read some people are using the demo as is to write documents for work. At least get them started.
OpenAI is an American artificial intelligence (AI) research laboratory consisting of the non-profit OpenAI Incorporated and its for-profit subsidiary corporation OpenAI Limited Partnership.
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What's hard about it? Everything you need is in the manual. Once you go through the process step by step, you can create a scenario using a master map (or sub section) in less than an hour. The real work comes from historical research, playtesting and balancing. Those are not related to the editor. Making a map from scratch is time consuming, but I can't see it being anymore user friendly given the level of detail the product allows. That' why I asked for a point of reference. Something I can compare CM to.
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3 hours ago, PEB14 said:
I wouldn't rate the editor as "top notch".
Could you point us all to a better editor given that the scenarios created by it are unrivaled. My wallet is open. Thanks.
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1 hour ago, Battlefront.com said:
If some sort of fight breaks out within Belarus, it's hard to imagine these guys wouldn't want to go back and tip the scales a bit.
Many of the young from Belarus left before 2022. All they want is to move their families out of the former USSR. Many do not have any wishes to go back. They may go back as part of small teams to bring people out. Perhaps armed teams. But never to stay in Belarus for a generation at least. Wish there was a link to this. Sometimes I speak to the husband very quietly about the war. It's a really sensitive thing - for his new wife - and for a young couple who love everything about America while their parents live in public housing far away.
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2 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:
I think the Belarus volunteers in Ukraine are going to be involved.
I am very interested in this angle since we have young friends from Belarus trying to get their family out of there into the US. We have never talked much about the war since the situation is very troubling to this couple. They came to the US on work Visas and did everything right in the hope to get their parents into the US. College grads etc. Couple got married without their parents being at the ceremony. If you have a link to post, it would be great.
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What type of training would be required to integrate MALD and Storm Shadow to use them together effectively?
Classroom training, simulator training, live fire training, all the of these? Is it just a matter of the ground teams learning how to input the coordinates/way points and the pilot getting into the correct position? Is this training occurring now or has it been completed over the winter? MALD has been used just recently. I am confident they are pretty much ready to go in tandem. I have played around with MALD in CMO over the years and they are interesting to use against well defended targets. So their implementation in Ukraine will be followed closely.
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25 minutes ago, dan/california said:
decent sandwich
I know a place with really savory (fatty) and scrumptious corned beef. Might not make their cardiologists happy, but at this point RA troops live's are short anyway. I might drop them soft shell crabs, but they might think they are a new UA drone and run back into their trenches.
How Hot is Ukraine Gonna Get?
in Combat Mission Black Sea
Posted
OK. I took the term "knockout blow" literally. I could see China using ground troops to extend down the coast of the South China Sea. But I would not lose sleep over that scenario. Otherwise, amphibious ops would too costly if the US and its allies got in the way.