L0ckAndL0ad

There he goes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYhyzJ7jdGE&feature=youtu.be

First photos of Armata (covered, on railroad platform)
http://icdn.lenta.ru/images/2015/03/23/20/20150323203939590/pic_9b8904dd957d7435422c17600ab57c67.jpg

Link to news record (Russian): http://lenta.ru/news/2015/03/23/armata/

Chassis seen on phot have 7 wheels.

Also, Kurganets-25
 
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=231182

You guys have no idea how funny and amusing is it to read how people from other side of the world discuss Crimea. Keep it going, please!

I should have learned some basic 3d model computer software skills.  I could have made bank in Russia making new tanks.

Steve I honestly don't have the time or the interest to go through your multi-page tirades (75% of which seem to be self-reflective notes and are of no value to me what so ever).

My point is pure and simple – your "analysis" (which IMHO is not a right word to use for what you do) is biased and slanted. Every single one of your arguments on the subject that I've read is formulated with intent of making excuses for the Ukrainian side; marginalizing any of our (Western) responsibility for the mess that’s going on there, and accusing the Russians of all the ills. You speak on those matters with position of authority, which is definitely backed up by extensive research; but not by any kind of original ideas or conclusions (which is why I propose that you follow a formulated model). This wouldn’t be too bad on its own (especially if you were writing this on a Russian forum), if your model and your conclusions were not the exact replicas of what we are already fed in our mass media… so I have to question the value and overall benefit of all the research that you have done. That’s my personal take on it (and let’s just say that I am no scrub when it comes to this subject matter either), but it appears that many other forum members who have tried to take you up on this (many of whom are actually from the areas in question, have studied the conflict no less than you, and happen to have first-hand exposure to what you read about on Google-translate from some blogger-de-jure) ; but you either shut them up as “Russian Propaganda” (thankfully you have not put me into that bracket yet), or drag them into your endless debates where you never allow yourself to deviate from the model and dismiss other people’s views (including personal accounts) as less relevant than your beliefs (that’s where I see myself fitting in right now). This makes for a very dull and one-sided debate that might be enjoyable to you, but few others.

I have been warned by several forum members (who are obviously smarter than me) to avoid getting into debates with you on this subject due to their complete fruitlessness, but I saw it otherwise. Now I hear their point loud and clear. So if you consider someone bowing out of the debating you because they see it as fruitless and don’t get any enlightenment from it, then by all means call it “avoiding the tough questions” and “running away”… as I’ve said to another poster here – I certainly would not lose any sleep over it…

I am sorry if the above sounds harsh, but that is my honest take on your self-imposed status of an expert and a moral authority on “All Things Ukraine”.

I do very much enjoy your games and I hope that our disagreement here would not lead to your (and your colleagues’) response to my (technical and much more tangible) suggestions in game-related threads - which in the past has been stellar and is very much appreciated and valued by this loyal customer.


Peaches and luv!

Of course I will not post here anymore as apparently it is pointless. Every John Doe living thousands of miles away, not understanding the language, not knowing anyone personally and who has never been to Ukraine or Crimea, is suddenly an expert on Ukraine, but people who understand Russian and Ukrainian and having their cities swarmed by Ukrainian 'students' are suddenly internet trolls. If you question the validity of Azov picture go to Lviv to one of the Right Sector pubs, you're gonna get more along with personal autographs.
 
Your understanding what is going on in Ukraine and Europe is well...lacking at best. Half dozen of Region Party politicians committed 'suicide' since the beginning of the year, corruption is bigger than before, all anti-maidan people living on Ukraine are devoid of any parliamentary representation and I read that Ukraine is building 'democracy'. Greece is demanding enormous war reparations from Germany on top of its poor economical situation and I will not even start on potential conseqences - enough to say that Europe could be on the brink of biggest crisis in its most modern history - but yeah, it is going to 'rebuild' Ukraine no matter how much it is destroyed.
 
Please also consider tagging this forum in an appropriate way so everyone knows which side is 'right' and 'wrong' and what the 'propaganda' is. Great way to prevent trolls from posting! Fox news would be proud!
 
Have a nice debate sirs!

And know what it does with some level of credibility. I'm sure whatever armor it has according to the Russians can defeat smaller nuclear explosions and resist Captain America's sheild but combat mission thus far has well modeled what we know about vehicles vs propoganda claims.

John, I can completely appreciate and identify with what you are saying. It is extremely difficult, and many scholars would say "completely impossible" to study and analyze the policies of foreign states without knowing their language and having some on-site exposure to their culture. I very much appreciate you acknowledging this point.
 
I did not mean to criticize your post, but rather to point out that Russian SSO (and other spec ops and VDV units) involvement in annexation of Crimea is pretty much a given; and no serious scholar/observer would try to debate that... Of course, that does not contradict the fact that the overwhelming majority of Crimeans wanted nothing to do with Ukraine post-Maidan either...

I'm not really trying to be antagonistic, but I would qualify that with "it does what it says on the tin if you hold it right, and it's not a day ending in "y" or "in the strictest technical sense that labeling a day optic with a decal that says "night sight" does make it technically a night sight, but it doesn't make it a very good one"
 
All the Russian hardware I saw generally did what it was supposed to, just with appalling quality and shoddy worksmanship. Maybe it's better now, but it is the same companies doing it since the stuff I handled was cranked out, so perhaps not. 
 
Granted it was mostly infantry gear, but I expected "rugged and simple" not "did something just fall off?  I think something just fell off"
 
Also
 
 
then
 
 
RUSSIA IS SUPERIOR BUT I AM NOT GOING TO BE POLITICAL SO I WILL NOT TALK ABOUT THE FACT THEY ARE SUPERIOR.  ALLOW ME TO INSERT SOMETHING ABOUT HOW SMART RUSSIANS ARE INTO A TOPIC ABOUT PUFF THE MAGIC RUSSIAN TANK THAT IS TOTALLY REAL AND MY BEST FRIEND YOU JUST CANT SEE HIM.
 
I like the UN's education index.  They're not trying to sell me something
 
Additionally can we just have one Armata thread?  It seems to be the pattern that RT publishes how Aramatatata will eat all the American babies from 10 KM while jumping a ditch and someone sees fit to post another thread because we cannot possibly have heard of this tank that is the promised one instead of simply adding to the existing half dozen Armata threads.

Sorry to leave this topic, but with forum moderation policy imposed by Steve in #78 any discussion, IMO, is pointless. 
 
Have good conversation and good luck

About Ukranian (and sometimes Russian meida). There is a one guy in youtube - Anatoly Shariy. He is regularly exposes fakes in media. He mostly is focused on Ukraninan sources but occasionaly slams Russian news as well  
 
Overll conslusion from his videos is that current news from these sources generally should be dismissed as intentional fakes or instances of incompetent journalism. 

I found that pairing Khrizantema armed TDs with BMP-3s to provide IR blocking smoke screens is a viable tactic against US tanks.
 
I managed to easily destroy, with multiple frontal penetrations, ten M1A2 SEP tanks (some w/APS) losing only three TDs, and a couple IFVs (smoke cover doesn't last forever).
The radar system on the Russian TDs is capable to see through IR blocking smoke effectively while the sensors on an Abrams tank are blinded.

OPFOR's back.
 

Following RL TTPs (Tactics, Techniques and Procedures) can help. As you've mentioned, recon is one of the main things you need to master. Try this blog:
 
http://battledrill.blogspot.com/
 
I, personally, love to read US doctrinal pubs and field manuals. The most helpful (to me) were FM 3-21.94 (SBCT IBT Recon Platoon) and MCDP 1-3 (Tactics). The first one covers Recon TTPs, and the second one is good for general understanding of tactics.

Following RL TTPs (Tactics, Techniques and Procedures) can help. As you've mentioned, recon is one of the main things you need to master. Try this blog:
 
http://battledrill.blogspot.com/
 
I, personally, love to read US doctrinal pubs and field manuals. The most helpful (to me) were FM 3-21.94 (SBCT IBT Recon Platoon) and MCDP 1-3 (Tactics). The first one covers Recon TTPs, and the second one is good for general understanding of tactics.

I hope this is in the right place - I don't see an appropriate subforum
 
Hey folks, Chris "tyrspawn" Krause here! some of you might remember me from my walkthrough/let's play of the original CMSF, CMSF: Nato and my beta video AARs of Normandy:
 
CMSF NATO videos
CMSF videos
Combat Mission Battle for Normandy Beta videos
 
I am now making a series of videos on Black Sea! My videos will focus on:
1. Discussion of doctrine, military tactics, systems and military history
2. Unedited gameplay footage in WEGO (turn based) - my other videos were real time, but I discovered how cool WEGO is during my Normandy AARs
3. An ongoing review and commentary on the game itself - i'm playing everything for the first time as you see me do it
4. Blackboard style discussions of what went wrong - essentially an after acton report
 
The new video series will be posted here:
YOUTUBE PLAYLIST
 
 
 
The first video is a campaign introduction and tutorial on how to properly perform a terrain analysis and operations order (in brief) for the TASKFORCE 3-69 campaign:

 
 
 
You can look forward to the mission playthrough being posted within the next couple days

Following RL TTPs (Tactics, Techniques and Procedures) can help. As you've mentioned, recon is one of the main things you need to master. Try this blog:
 
http://battledrill.blogspot.com/
 
I, personally, love to read US doctrinal pubs and field manuals. The most helpful (to me) were FM 3-21.94 (SBCT IBT Recon Platoon) and MCDP 1-3 (Tactics). The first one covers Recon TTPs, and the second one is good for general understanding of tactics.

The conflict did start in Ukraine?
 
In 1989 Russia accepted the German reuinification. For that to happen they had to withdraw their troops and NATO promised not to expand torwards Russia. Interestingly the Russians withdrew their troops but US and UK occupation troops stayed in Germany. Also no peace treaty with Germany has been signed. Fact is, the Russians also disbanded the Warshaw Pact. NATO was not disbanded.
 
Afterwards NATO broke all promises it had given to Russia and has been expanding since. Isn't it strange, that NATO was not disbanded, too, since the reason for it's foundation, the Communist empire, had disappeared?
 
NATO expansion (in western media it is even called enlargement, not expansion) since 1989 torwards Russia:  
Poland
Hungary
Czech Republic
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Slovakia
Bulgaria
Slovenia
Rumania
Albania
Croatia
 
Further expansion planned torwards
Cyprus
Makedonia
Bosnia Herzegowina
Montenegro
 
Victoria Nuland is the wife of radical Zionist Robert Kagan, who founded the zionist lobby organization PNAC (Project for the New American Century), a leading force behind the Iraq war. For a few years now, Kagan's Zionist warmonger friends have been lobbying for another US wars: their new "Foreign Policy Initiative" has been lobbying for attacking Syria and Iran. His wife Victoria Nuland admitted that the USA had spent 5 BILLION dollars for the coup in Ukraine! That's also clearly a hostile act against a souvereign country (Ukraine) and a breach of international law!
 
A leaked telephone call between Catherine Ashton and a Baltic minister showed, that the EU knew, that in Ukraine on Maidan very strange things happened, and that certain forces were shooting at both sides to make them clash. Israeli soldiers even openly bragged for leading militant groups on Maidan.  
This video is extremely elightening to understand how blatantly Western mainstream media and politicians turned things upside down when they reported about the protests in Ukraine:  
www.youtube.com/watch?v=E18jWXbZY8U
 
 
Recently the US foreign minister John Kerry admitted, that the USA had to force and blackmail the EU to support the economic warfare against Russia.  
American politicians are openly admitting they want a regime change in Russia. Is that friendly? That's also against international law.  
Even after Putin's first term, the Russians under Medvedev were still naive enough to fall victim to this trick:  

 
 
And they allowed the aggression against and destruction of Lybia to happen.
 
Who is the betrayer and aggressor?  

 
 
And last but not least the shooting down of MH17 which was blamed on Russia by Western media and politicians without offering the slightest evidences. By looking closer to the downing of MH17 many strange facts are coming to light. I find it strange, that you, as interested and well informed about modern weaponry, did not notice, that a BUG system consists of three vehicles and needs months of training of specialists.  

 
This story was not only spread in Ukraine but hugely in the EU, too:
 
https://magazin.spiegel.de/EpubDelivery/image/title/SP/2014/31/300
 
 
 
 
I can not understand, how anyone who takes a closer look at the developments in Ukraine can believe in the mainstream media narrative.
 

 
That things in the area could become dangerous was not that hard to recognize with some basic knowledge about NATO aggression and the status of Sevastopol in the Black Sea.
 
ps: I am sorry, somehow I cannot make certain links to appear as the others

There's a guy called Grau in the US that reviews Russian military stuff? Now that's funny.

Poorly!

In Single Player, I mostly ragequit and try again later. In PBEM, I discuss how fun the mission was, with my partner. Somehow, taking casualties from a real opponent feels more "fair".
 
What I've found myself doing every time - analyzing, learning from my own mistakes. The enemy is your greatest teacher, cuz he can show you your weaknesses.  Knowing that every loss makes me better obviously helps.

While most of the **** is contained inside "Strategic and tactical realities in CMBS" thread (sorry OP), allow me to make a first thread of my own.   
 
This is a case-study about what is T-90MS with a bit of speculation of what T-90AM could be if it enters service. 
 
So, what what we know about T-90MS? General: -Mass 48+ tons.   T-90MS: Armament -2A45M-5  -Main gun linked PKT -22 rounds in the autoloader with increased protection  -10 round stowage bin with blowout panels -8 round internal storage   -PKT in T05BV-1 unmanned turret -Ability to use longer rounds in the autoloader   -Most recent rounds available:  3BM-48 “Svinets-1” APFSDS round (guaranteed 650mm KE at 0 at 2km); 3VOF-36 HE round (3.1kg of explosive); 3USh-3 “Ainet” AB round (500-400m radius at 9°pellet incidence) 3VBK-25 HEAT round (600mm HE at any range)  3UBK-20M “Invar-M” TGM round (850mm HE after ERA, 900mm HE without ERA at any range)   Breakdown of ammo storage, green is the relative positioning of the engine.    FCS Kalina.  No current information on sights is available, therefore I used available information on current export sights with comparable characteristics. I have Sosna-U, but I am currently searching for PK PAN commander sight, as soon as I find it, I will update the charts.   
-Integrated tank information system
-Integrated, automatic battalion-level CnC control system (with or without a plug-in to Constellation-2M)
-Friend or Foe target spotting;
-Hunter-Killer capability;
-Automatic target tracking capability;
-Digital image enhancing for both commander and gunner sights.
-Improved stabilizer that can handle 40°/sec.
-(tentative) 4 perimeter cameras that feed visuals to both driver and commander
-Agat-MDT Independent two-channel (TV + Thermal) commander’s panoramic sight with integrated laser rangefinder. Stabilisation accuracy of 1° min. Day channel sight view angles 1x magnification at 7°15’ x 27°40’ and 8x magnification at 6°10’x7°15’. Effective day “tank” target type acquisition in clear weather is up to 4km. Thermal channel with 320x256 matrix with digital image enhancing with 1x magnification at 2°10’x2°40. Effective night “tank” target type acquisition in any weather is up to 2.5km with. Laser rangefinder capable of calculating from 0.2 to 4km in automatic mode.  
  Approximate ranges and angles for commander:  
-Irbis-K two channel, twin-axis independently stabilized (Optical + Thermal) gunner’s sight with integrated laser rangefinder with a laser beam for TGM control. Stabilization inaccuracies no more than 50’’. Thermal channel at 4x288 with wide view angle of 6.8°x9.0° and centered view angle of 2.3°x3.0°. Capable of automatic range-finding, adjusting for weather and compensating for gun stabilization inaccuracies including gun canting and thermal bending. Soft-adjusting from 2.7x to 12x. Commander can also fire the gun in manual mode. Effective day and night all-weather range at 3.2km. Effective day range of target acquisition not less than current Sosna-U sights on T-72B3.
 
Approximate ranges and angles for gunner:

  -Digital ballistic calculator with a 32 channel exchange-booth, I estimate it’s built on Elbrus-4C CPU architecture: 65nm tech level with 4 cores at 800mHZ and 64 gFLOPS.
-Additional power-unit integrated to support emergency FCS operations.
 
Protection
-Relikt ERA on glacis, turret and sides.
-Protection increase estimates:
2 times for CE (~800mm RHA at 0 per block)< K-5 offers 1.9~2 times for CE
1.5 times for KE (~350mm RHA at 0 per block)< K-5 offers 1.2 times for KE
-BTVT estimates T90A at 800-830 versus KE and 1150-1350 versus CE. with K-5 for thickest turret parts. Please note - btvt is likely to underestimate the T90A performance due to strong anti tagil bias
-With relikt, those numbers would be 1000-1038 KE and 1150-1350 for CE on the thickest part of the turret over what K-5 can offer.
-Relikt is Estimated to dissipate >0.6 (60%) of KE Rod energy
-RPG “nets” on engine and rear (turret and chassis)
roof has a good slope, which increases both LOS thickness and ERA effectiveness.
 
Below is the approximate armoring breakdown for frontal projection.
R: ~1000-900mm KE O: ~890-660mm KE G: ~650->400mm KE W: Inert
 



 
Countermeasures
-Shtora system is present on T-90MS, however optical jammers are not included in the demo version we all have seen
-Both Arena and Afganit are possible. Arena is however an export system with Afganit geared towards RA use. Since there is no idication of how Afganit looks and performs, going with Arena is the only option for CMBS.
-That said, Arena-E  is also functional as demonstrated on RAE-2013 and is more compact than regular Arena.
-Kalina FCS supports TShU-1-2M automatic smoke launcher integration (currently present in CMBS I believe)  
 
Powertrain
-V-92S2F2 engine with 1130hp (23 hp/t)
-Assisted gear-changing (not fully automatic) transmission
-(tentative) chassis management system as a function of ITIS (CLICK as it's found on T-72B3M)
  What we anticipate from T-90MA (speculation)
Appart from Agat and Irbis sights, one basic change that begs the question is armament change. Re-gunning T-90AM from 2A46M-5 to 2A82 seems like a logical step because:
It is available and has been in development for nearly 25 years.
It fits the caliber, and weight requirements of T-90 platform.
The autoloader capable of longer rounds is installed in T-90MS.
Ready rounds have been declared (Grifel-1(2) APFSDS rounds/ Grifel-3 HE round) while 9M119 TGM series can be installed to work as well
2A82 can be married into the FCS with software adjustments thanks to ITIS.

What do we know about the 2A82? Not too much really, but plausible numbers for estimation.
Muzzle energy is claimed to be 1.2 to that of Rh120 L/55.
It is longer than 2A46M. How much can be estimated, however glancing over what’s available on the internet I’d think some 40~50cm or so.

Why wasn’t it present on the T-90MS? As product placement for the MS has been geared towards export, the 2A82 could not be positioned since it is prohibited from export.
What could prevent 2A82 from being placed on the T-90AM if such a thing goes into service?
Cost. Not that 2A82 costs is any more prohibitive than 2A45M-5, but the cost of manufacturing new ammo set might be.
Armata preferences. The reason T-90AM isn’t being looked for as a procurement item, is because the budget is being geared towards Armata series. If it goes to production alongside the estimated T-90AM, then spending preferences would not be in it’s favour.

Another interesting point is the CPU unit used for FCS. Elbrus series is progressing forwards, releasing 8 core version for tests earlier this year with a 16 core version planned for production in 2017-18. So are the thermal matrices. Currently 768x576 and 1280x960 are available, but haven’t been utilized in any complexes  
Sourcing:

Does living in Crimea and making missions for CMBS qualify for military service?   How about playing in large autonomous Arma community while using RL based TTPs?  
Haven't served, but it's nice to see that there are other Russians here, and large amount of them have actually served. Pity haven't gotten to that fact earlier this year. Well, I hope we'd get some time to catch up on that later.

Does living in Crimea and making missions for CMBS qualify for military service?   How about playing in large autonomous Arma community while using RL based TTPs?  
Haven't served, but it's nice to see that there are other Russians here, and large amount of them have actually served. Pity haven't gotten to that fact earlier this year. Well, I hope we'd get some time to catch up on that later.