The_MonkeyKing

Can’t read it now that Twitter has gone all club house.  I suspect their significance is that the UA will not run out of ammunition for long range fires.  They already have a significant ISR advantage and DPICM are - on paper at least - anywhere from 3-5 times more effect per round shot when compared to dumb artillery rounds.  Or at least they were before modern fire control etc.  The UA has been doing very well with dumb arty and PGM is next level of course.  DPICM is very effective against mech and armor.  It is supposed to be effective against dug in troops but there I am less sure.  The stuff will definitely take out logistics and C2 nodes.
I suspect it will definitely keep things going.  Also no one ever planned to use a lot of DPICM, it was rarely more than about 15% of war stocks during the Cold War.  So if the UA starts using a lot of this in a saturation type approach we in new territory as to what the systems can do.  I personally do not think they are a game changer, they allow the game to continue to be played which is pretty important at this point.  The holy trinity of this war has been indirect fires, ISR and infantry.  So this keeps that first one going. 

And this FT article says there are a lot of such rounds.
https://www.ft.com/content/f4955a0b-52fd-4f1b-8d69-bb0d4367c1aa
 
 

The fact they are DPICM doesn't matter. The fact that are artillery ammo and there are a lot of them immediately available, that is what matters.
Kofman clearly stated this.on the resent podcasts.

aand it is official:
 

Forgive them Lord, for they know not what they are talking about.  
But seriously can we not jump on the “THIS WILL SWEEP THE RUSSIANS FROM THE EARTH!!!” band wagon again.  And then when they do not result in immediate Ukrainian victory over a weekend we don’t have to do the “OMG Ukraine is DOOOMED because my favourite weapon/system/vehicle of the week is not chasing the Russians back to Moscow!!”

aand it is official:
 

tbf these things were being decommissioned, so if they had a negative book value done for the accounting, it would be accurate, considering costs for decommissioning, storage, destruction. 

not surprising 

To add, later in the Q&A section:
Kofman states provision of cluster munitions is the single most decisive thing the US can do in the short term and will have a significant effect on the battlefield. 
It is not necessary to take the efficiency of the DPICM into account for their significance. The significance comes from the million(s) of new shells being available for the Ukrainians. This takes them off from the "shell hourglass" and enables Ukraine to approach these offensives with more freedom.
Of course, he included a snarky comment on how Europe was the main obstacle to this provision and also the main reason for the need to make this provision, given the Europeans made the needed artillery production decisions only 13 months into this war.

He basically says that the cluster munitions will help provide a bridge of additional artillery ammunition to Ukraine while America's artillery ammunition production capacity ramps up. And claims Russia's cluster munitions being used in Ukraine have a dud rate of between 30 and 40 percent. A more formal announcement will come later this afternoon when the Pentagon releases the details of the latest aid package.

aand it is official:
 

here is the latest:


Taking Stock of the Ukrainian Offensive 07072023.mp3    

To add, later in the Q&A section:
Kofman states provision of cluster munitions is the single most decisive thing the US can do in the short term and will have a significant effect on the battlefield. 
It is not necessary to take the efficiency of the DPICM into account for their significance. The significance comes from the million(s) of new shells being available for the Ukrainians. This takes them off from the "shell hourglass" and enables Ukraine to approach these offensives with more freedom.
Of course, he included a snarky comment on how Europe was the main obstacle to this provision and also the main reason for the need to make this provision, given the Europeans made the needed artillery production decisions only 13 months into this war.

And convincing the Russins they can't just outlast the NATO's will to fight is essentially the entire ballgame here.
The head of the IAEA should be the next guy to run the U.N., it is the only international body in this entire war that has done its job. The people who have volunteered to go to the occupied nuke plant and try to keep a lid on Russia's stupidity are as brave as anyone in this war.

To add, later in the Q&A section:
Kofman states provision of cluster munitions is the single most decisive thing the US can do in the short term and will have a significant effect on the battlefield. 
It is not necessary to take the efficiency of the DPICM into account for their significance. The significance comes from the million(s) of new shells being available for the Ukrainians. This takes them off from the "shell hourglass" and enables Ukraine to approach these offensives with more freedom.
Of course, he included a snarky comment on how Europe was the main obstacle to this provision and also the main reason for the need to make this provision, given the Europeans made the needed artillery production decisions only 13 months into this war.

To add, later in the Q&A section:
Kofman states provision of cluster munitions is the single most decisive thing the US can do in the short term and will have a significant effect on the battlefield. 
It is not necessary to take the efficiency of the DPICM into account for their significance. The significance comes from the million(s) of new shells being available for the Ukrainians. This takes them off from the "shell hourglass" and enables Ukraine to approach these offensives with more freedom.
Of course, he included a snarky comment on how Europe was the main obstacle to this provision and also the main reason for the need to make this provision, given the Europeans made the needed artillery production decisions only 13 months into this war.

comments from yesterday: 
The Offensive clearly progressing slower than expected. This is stated also by the Ukrainian president. the initial assaults failed to achieve their objectives. For example, creating conditions to commit reserves to breach the main lines and exploit now we are in an attritional phase and we are likely to see alternating phases of attrition and attempts to advance, enabled by the attrition. both sides use artillery decisively and then exploit artillery ammunition as "the sand it the hourglass". it is significant how much artillery ammo Ukrainian use to achieve any given goal artillery production rates are going to become more and more important seems like this is going to towards equality between the sides in the long run

here is the long article text atm: https://pastebin.com/Ugp0uuQ3

 

Actually, I haven't any confirmation about that.
In backgrounds are French Army vehicles so not really a proof....

I don't know how taking this green could be significant in any way.
This is something I would have expected to fall within the first days or hours of the counter-attack if I was asked a couple of months ago

When I was in the Army DPICM was *just* being fielded in any significant numbers. The original idea for usage was to fire it at a target of opportunity - a mass of armor forming up to attack in front of you, but more likely a mass of armor/vehicles in the second echelon that was forming up to exploit or continue the advance, in order to halt that advance through lack of support. We didn't have unlimited supplies so it was planned to be used when it could be most effective, usually in a Time on Target, Battalion FFE.
Since we expected in Europe to be completely on the defensive as the Soviet Army advanced into West Germany, unexploded munitions were not really seen as an issue, since they would be the Soviet's problem, behind their lines. (of course the pie-in-the-sky projection was that all civilians would have evacuated west in advance of the Soviet Army, and we know that wouldn't be the case - not everyone anyway.)
In Ukraine with a more static, back and forth front line, this is much more of a concern, for obvious reasons.
Just a little background from the olden days 🙂
Dave

here is the long article text atm: https://pastebin.com/Ugp0uuQ3