Vet 0369
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Posts posted by Vet 0369
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On 5/13/2024 at 2:43 PM, Probus said:
I have a feeling that future APS systems are going to be responsible for quite a few bird... eliminations...
You bet! In the USMC, we refer to those “eliminations as CHOW TIME!
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On 5/13/2024 at 12:19 PM, Battlefront.com said:
Every time I see that video I think of something like the British having great success against the colonial militia on the Battle Green in Lexington. "See, our well practiced musket line tactics can crush anything!". Then the colonists picked them off as they marched to and from Concord along narrow, wooded roads where the British tactics didn't work at all. If YouTube had been around back then I'm sure the British would show the first part of the battle that they won and not shown how in the end they were operationally defeated.
Steve
Wellll, in reality, the myth that the Red Coats were “wiped by the militias on the march back to Boston is just that, a MYTH! The Rebels lost about two to three times the number of casualties that the military lost. This was due to the Light Infantry flankers that the Red Coats sent out on both sides of the road to clear out the Rebel scum with one of the main weapons of the British Army, a thing called the bayonet.
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On 5/13/2024 at 3:07 PM, LongLeftFlank said:
Good! The slow blade penetrates the shield.
Dune!
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22 hours ago, Carolus said:
Girkin is being accused of treason in Russia.
Welp, if you can’t beat them, kill them!
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On 5/6/2024 at 3:09 PM, FancyCat said:
People....STOP GOING TO RUSSIA. For crying out loud...
I understand it was a simple case of”d#$k gets hard, brain gets soft!”
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3 hours ago, LongLeftFlank said:
Assuming a straight translation, this cri de coeur was written by a starshina (senior NCO), so perhaps born around 1980?
Say what you will about Russia sux, but.... I just can't imagine a US Army master sergeant of similar vintage (high school diploma late 1990s, maybe some college) being able to organise their thoughts in writing in this way.
Compare the late Roman chronicler Ammianus (5th century AD):
The affair caused more joy than fear and educated flatterers immoderately praised the good fortune of the [Emperor Valens], which unexpectedly brought him so many young recruits from the ends of the earth, that by the union of his own and foreign forces he would have an invincible army. In addition, instead of the levy of soldiers, which was contributed annually by each province, there
would accrue to the treasury a vast amount of gold.TL:DR For all its dysfuntions, Russian civ clearly had some things far better to offer to the world than what they are showing now... a country where chess is a spectator sport. Those of us with Russian friends would agree with this, I suspect. (But no doubt foreigners with educated German friends thought some of the same bemused thoughts in 1941)
...I can't even begin to imagine the fury I would feel, were I a Russian, at the cynical throwing away by Putin and his mafiya of an entire generation that includes among the 'meat' many well-educated and motivated people.
This! The National prejudice attitude that many on this forum seem to have toward Russians tends to color their comments and lead them to dehumanize and demonize the Russian people as ignorant savages who are always drunk, raping and killing babies. Yes, possibly the conscripts and prisoner “volunteers” are more brutal and resigned to their deaths than seems the norm. Can you say Igor Sikorsky, Tolstoy, Tchikovsky? Not everyone is ignorant, uneducated, and brutal. No one should be surprised by Russians who make intelligent and insightful statements. I see the same ignorant and prejudicial statements about every opponent the U.S. has ever faced. It’s much easier to kill a fellow Human being when you make that person out to be so inferior to you.
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2 hours ago, Ultradave said:
Worse than that, he could also immediately withdraw from NATO. Based on past statements, I think he'd have to be convinced to remain in NATO. I'm not sure who would be trying to do the convincing though.
Dave
Actually, I’m not so sure about that. His threats to withdraw from NATO when he was President, were. Based on an actual desire of a population of Americans that “some” members of NATO weren’t fulfilling their commitments. That was actually true, and those members began fulfilling their commitments. Why did Putin wait until Trump was out of office to attack Ukraine? I think it was because he was unsure of how Trump would respond, and thought Trump’s successor wouldn’t do anything, exactly how he handled the invasion of Crimea and the succession of the Ukraine provinces.
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On 4/24/2024 at 2:18 PM, The_Capt said:
Seriously this Kerch Bridge lust has to stop. Taking it out will be an annoyance and likely be spun as some sort of humanitarian disaster. It is not a war winner.
So the primary difference between HIMARs and long range drones is that there is no real defence against HIMARs once fired. They can try GPS jamming but all those advanced ATACMs come with inertial guidance for the last mile. If you point an ATAMCs at something it is going to die. So if the UA were to take 25-50 ATACMs and decide to conduct a strategic strike campaign on the oil and gas infra in range…and then layered drones on top of this…they could severely damage the Russian energy industry. And do it at a rate that Russia could not keep up with.
My guess is the US sees this as an escalation too far as it may trigger bad things we do not want. So these systems will likely be pointed at hard military targets…like airfields and C2….maybe rail/tn. The ‘so what’ is that the US has likely crossed a rubicon of providing targeting support directly into Russia. They may have before but when those ATACMs start to fly it will be undeniable.
Edit: well that did not take long https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/ukraine-uses-long-range-missiles-secretly-provided-by-u-s-to-hit-russian-held-areas-officials-say-1.6860160
I suspect that Ukraine has already balanced the military value of interrupting supply by way of the bridge vs creating the Sun Tzu “Cornered Rat” result of taking it out. One also has to consider the civilian population in Crimea that has remained loyal to Ukraine.
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On 4/24/2024 at 2:06 AM, Battlefront.com said:
Sadly, the caveat "for now" has to be kept in mind.
OK, so aid will start flowing to Ukraine on Wednesday of this week. I've seen some reporting out there claiming the stuff won't get into Ukraine's hands for weeks or months. Poppycock
That wasn't true even when Russia was in its initial attack phase. Stuff started showing up RIGHT AWAY and that was all improvised. So no way is that going to happen this time around.
The most important thing the US has to send Ukraine are replacement AD missiles. There are only a few points for these to head to and the logistics hurdles between them are VERY small. At lest for an immediate influx. I'm guessing by this weekend Ukraine's AD forces will already have an improved situation.
Artillery shells isn't quite as easy. To move hundreds of thousands of shells into the frontlines will take time. Fortunately, they don't need hundreds of thousands of shells to start making a difference. Even getting a few thousand to a couple of key places could make a big difference. And that's the sort of thing that could happen within days.
HIMARS type artillery is more like the AD stuff. Ukraine only has a few of these systems and the number of missiles they need to increase their impact on the battlefield is very small. Especially if the first ones they receive have a 300km range. As I suggested a few pages ago, this allows Ukraine to effectively put its HIMARS systems out of harm's way while still being able to hit any target within Ukraine's borders. Popping them off at the Kerch Bridge wouldn't be my top priority right now because the real threat is coming in the Donbas which doesn't use the bridge at all.
To summarize... more Russian things go boom within days, not weeks or months.
Steve
I expect that all of the munitions and equipment was “prepositioned weeks ago.
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On 4/23/2024 at 10:15 PM, Sojourner said:
I really wish they wouldn't do that. The only one that needs to be informed is Syrskyi. Let the Russians find out the hard way. I understand "public right to know", but there's no need to get into specifics. FFS stuff from WWII was kept secret for 50 years in the US, long after it was obsolete and of no intelligence value.
The administration had to publish that so it has “plausible deniability” when Ukrain does use them on targets in Russia proper. That way the administration can say “Hey, we told Ukraine the ATACMS were only for use within sovereign Ukrainian territories.”
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On 4/20/2024 at 11:56 AM, LongLeftFlank said:
Plus ca change...
LOL, just like “Willy and Joe” in the Stars and Stripes, or “Sgt. Mike and Sledge” in the Navy Times!
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On 4/18/2024 at 10:24 AM, Battlefront.com said:
Looks like Russia is finally using widescale CS gas on Ukrainian positions. We've seen this here and there for most of the war, but it seems there is much more of it going on now. This report documents its use pretty along the whole front:
Steve
Is using a crowd control irritant banned by something? Tear gas and CS gas are, or were, classified by percentage. IIRC, tear gas is classified as 7% and CS gas is classified as 100%. We had to pass an annual gas training that used CS as the irritant so I’m very aware of the effects of CS gas, even without breathing it in. In fact, I used CS gas canisters as an MP in Japan to quell a race riot in town, and was asleep when some drunken Regulars tossed a couple of CS gas grenades into our barracks because they had to change barracks so our Reserve Unit had a place to bunk during our two-week active training. One Marine was missing during the emergency muster, so our Staff NCOs (me included) went back into the barracks without masks to find him and get him out. Yes, I’m very familiar with the effects of CS gas.
As far as I know, unless some treaty has prohibited it since the Cold War, use of CS gas is not prohibited or illegal. The problem is that it can affect the attacker just as much as the defender.
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On 4/18/2024 at 9:22 AM, Battlefront.com said:
It used to be that mental illness, extreme immorality, blatant lying, obvious criminality, etc. were frowned upon. The sad fact of the GOP, for a while now, is that as long as you parrot various right of center talking points nobody within the party will do anything. Look at how much effort it took to get rid of Santos.
There's so many downsides to a political party that values power over policy, however on topic with this thread we're seeing that it can also cost lives and come at a steep cost to national security. The Ukraine funding bill should never have been held up, but even the Republicans angered over its delay stayed quiet for months because they put party over country.
Obviously there was a lot of pressure building up behind the scenes, and it is why this thing finally is on the way to a vote largely intact, but so much time slipped by that didn't have to. It would have taken only one pro-American GOP House member to have gone to Johnson and said "I'm going to leadership challenge your arse if you don't put this bill to a vote" to get things moving faster. Johnson needs to fear the majority of his caucus more than the insane fringe.
Steve
Ok, I don’t intend to get into or start an off topic political discussion, but I have to respond to this. Unfortunately, we in the U.S. are living in a blatantly partisan political environment. The Democratic Party are just as partisan as the Republican Party, and will pull the same crap. They are mostly more concerned about getting a leg-up over, and embarrassing the other party than doing the “right thing” for the American people and its allies. The two extremes of the parties have driven out all of the “old moderates.” Yes, the Republicans have their MTGs, but the Democrats have their AOCs. Both are equally destructive to the process.
I keep hearing about how disruptive Republican Mitch McGovern was as the Senate Majority Leader, but everyone seems to forget about Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who refused to allow a single proposed bill that was proposed or passed by a Republican House, to go to the Senate floor for a vote.
I’m really sick and tired of the extremely partisan comments and camouflaged attacks that are constantly being posted by Liberals and Conservatives on this supposedly neutral Forum Thread. How about everyone who is doing it, stop and consider whether whether or not the Left and Right Wing garbage they are posting is appropriate to this thread.
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On 4/16/2024 at 3:04 PM, sburke said:
whoa! 40 years! Don't make em go by faster than they already do!
I remember that time better than most. One of my childhood best friends was a Marine Captain who was killed in the truck bombing of the Marine Barracks at the Airport.
On 4/16/2024 at 3:04 PM, sburke said:whoa! 40 years! Don't make em go by faster than they already do!
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On 4/16/2024 at 1:39 PM, Battlefront.com said:
Yup. I even bet the section on latrine building will need revision.
Steve
You bet! In today’s cultural environment, they would be considered toxic waste sites. In fact, when I was in Norway 48 years ago, our latrines were frames with large plastic bags that had to be collected and disposed of (God bless those dahlin Combat Engineers that had to collect and dispose of the bags). If you were caught peeing on the ground, it was a pretty hefty fine!
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On 4/16/2024 at 10:27 AM, The_Capt said:
If one cannot hide a fortified position then wire is probably not doing much for defenders in the first place. Enemy can hammer the position until wire is gone because he can see it from space. We have seen dug in defence in this war and it got severely pounded. Dispersion and mobile defence may be a better way to go.
The other reason may be that most infantry killing is happening at distance. We have seen some trench clearing but a lot of the engagements are happening well out with infantry running away. I am sure dismounted infiltration is still happening but if they can see all the wire, all that effort won't do much.
Wire can be tossed out but building an effective obstacle with it is labor intensive and takes a lot of time. My guess is that most troops are either not trained to do it, or have decided it is a waste of time.
Actually, I’ve always considered wire, like mines, to be more of a deterrent to guide or force an attacker into areas or avenues to be used as kill zones for my M60s and M2 60mm mortars.
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On 4/15/2024 at 11:46 AM, Beleg85 said:
Heard about this tactics before, but don't recall the clips from it:
This war provides never-ending stream of challanges as how to siumlate it for potentiall future Combat Mission games.
Do we actually have any confirmation from a Ukrainian source that this a real thing and not just Russian propaganda for their own internal consumption?
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On 4/12/2024 at 8:00 AM, Beleg85 said:
Example of caltrps dropped on road from drone near Krynki:
Amazing! Just think of it, still using a defensive weapon that was first developed thousands of years ago. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
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On 4/11/2024 at 5:15 PM, Sgt Joch said:
Since the topic of countering drones came up, the U.S.Navy is confronting the problem head on dealing with Houthi drones and coming up quickly with stopgap solutions.
Oh, wow! I guess I’m really out of touch with the power sources of the drones. I had the impression that they were primarily electric propulsion. That would be an extremely weak heat source for the infrared tracker of a sidewinder.
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On 4/10/2024 at 11:31 AM, Battlefront.com said:
Oh man, sometimes I feel like I'm the only one that ever saw that movie. IIRC I saw it in the theater!
Steve
Makes you feel old eh! My regular CM opponent was three or four years old when that movie came out. He’s over 40 now!
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On 4/13/2024 at 9:22 PM, MSBoxer said:
Not to nitpick, but the Union burned the Merrimack to keep it from falling into the hands of the confederacy.
LOL, you’re absolutely correct! A couple of minutes after I posted it, I said to myself “who actually burned the Merrimack?” This highlights the danger of a cranky old man hurrying to post before forgetting to hit “Submit Reply!”
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On 4/9/2024 at 11:37 AM, photon said:
You could maybe talk me into the main gun being useful for shore bombardment, but good gravy - if you're firing at hostile vessels, how many things have gone badly wrong by that point? I'm really curious when was the last time a ship fired its main gun at another ship in anger?
Even though I’m not Navy, if I remember correctly, on a modern Navy ship, the missiles are used against other ships and air threats while the “main gun” is usually radar controlled and rapid fire to be used against small, fast, agile boats (can you say Iranian gunboats). I don’t believe we use “shore bombardments” any more. We use air strikes, which are more accurate. Forget about all the movies showing shore bombardments from 70 to 90 years ago.
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On 4/8/2024 at 4:13 PM, Beleg85 said:
This little CSS Merrimack will only need to find its USS Monitor now...
Sorry my friend, but it was the CSS Virginia that fought the USS Monitor. It can be very confusing to those who haven’t studied the American Civil War (including most Americans) but it is very understandable because of how the battle has been recounted since the day it occurred. The Merrimack was a U.S. Navy ship that was burned by the Confederacy at the start of the war. It burned to the waterline. The Confederates raised the hull of the ship, and rebuilt it from the hull up. They then Commissioned the ship the “CSS Virginia.” To this day, I hear U.S. Historians refer to “the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack,” and they are wrong.
your comparison was dead on though!
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4 hours ago, sburke said:
"extremist" and "reasoning" are kind of mutually exclusive.
LOL, 100% agree! This is probably the biggest reason humans fight each other.
That wasn't true even when Russia was in its initial attack phase. Stuff started showing up RIGHT AWAY and that was all improvised. So no way is that going to happen this time around.
How Hot is Ukraine Gonna Get?
in Combat Mission Black Sea
Posted
First Amendment not withstanding, I personally wouldn’t use a publication from Politico to wipe my butt!