danfrodo

Behind paywall, but great story if you can access. A woman from a picture we saw in the first days of the war when everyone including women & old people, were lining up for rifles to defend Kyiv. NYTimes followed her story. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/18/world/europe/ukraine-teacher-combat.html

If we gave awards for best post every day, this one would win for a whole week. thx much

Story of my CM life..... . "shoot him, someone just point your gun and shoot him... nooooooooo.... arrrgggghhhhhh"

You mean like what happened to me last night as I sought 'brush aside' some pesky soviet soldiers in some trees along the road? I had multiple MG42s blasting away from halftracks and dismounted to finish the job. I lost two MG gunners & 4 infantry and I am not sure if the couple of guys w ppsh are still laying in wait for my guys to push forward. I know I've killed most, but just one guy w ppsh is a nightmare if stumbled into, even w superior numbers. Oh, and it's pre-dawn, so pretty dark. So I think it's realistic to have one or two hard to hit determined soldiers to cause a lot of damage to fleshy humans.

Sorry to have misinterpreted your point, no offense intended whatsoever.

I think with all the talk of drones & ISR & such we sometimes forget just how up close and personal this war is. This is second video shared today showing terrifyingly close combat.

War economy? Why do we need a war economy to defeat Putin in UKR? A fraction of the US military spending is being supplied, this is mostly money that was already being spent. The only war economy I've seen is the energy issues in europe and the higher gas prices in US (back down now). US spending ~$800B just this year on military. One year. And we've only sent ~$50B to UKR over year one. So in two years, with ~$1500B military spending, just in US, we might send $100B of support -- and that can be done within exising spending by slowing down schedules for some of the projects in already in the budget that aren't needed for UKR. That doesn't require any sacrifice on the US economy whatsoever, except for when Putin messes w energy markets.

Sharing this for the two videos. One showing rather impressive mud/water capability of a TOS-1A. The other of someone that will grow up in a free democracy because of the sacrifice of a lot of her countrymen. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/17/2153405/-Ukraine-update-New-Western-armor-is-just-days-away-from-arriving-in-Ukraine

Somewhere, sometime soon there's some fellers in trenches, under attack, thinking the only support they will get will be from 50 cal HUMMVs, then one of these rolls up & lets lose. VIVA LA FRANCE!

Putin: "Exactly! UKR will never see this coming because it makes no sense!" "HA HA! Brilliant!" exclaims Putin's staff, all shaking in their shoes.

Maybe RU will try to overwhelm UKR AD. Say they launch huge number of missiles & drones all timed to hit at same time, w aircraft coming in right on heels of this, while AD is already busy / reloading. It's the kind of thing desperate team would do. And this all gets to whether Putler is making decisions based on a feeling of desperation or out of clear sighted views to ongoing implications of his choices. Plus there's the political part of Putler probably pounding on his air force commander to 'do something!'.

Holy Moly, much ado about nothing overnight it seems. Yes, we are all testy about holdup on tanks. But it's only tanks and they won't be ready for a while. Allies are giving mountains of good gear to UKR that is making a difference every day for nearly a year. Do we want MBTs & bradleys ASAP? - yes. Do we want ATACAMS?- yes. Do we want NATO jets?- yes. But only the ATACAMS would make a diff today, everything else has a long lead time. And we also know that UKR crews are getting trained on Leo2s right now in Germany. I wish we had started the tank & IFV stuff 6 months ago so we could be past all this noise. But by the end of the year UKR will probably have a significant number of battalions equipped w NATO vehicles, some older, some newer. This is all just news-cycle noise that won't last more than a few weeks. Then we'll be surprised to see leopards (1s? 2s?) in UKR at some unknown training site and we'll say "how did that happen?"

The above plays into my thinking of how this war is being run & by whom. It seems the terror campaign would've been ordered by Putin, along w all the subsequent terror attacks that have not targeted UKR military. But does this also extend to land operations? Is Putin ordering Wagner into the suicidal attacks at Bakhmut -- and if so was his plan to both (hopefully) gain the city while destroying wagner at the same time? I am of the opinion (hope?) that Putler is playing Hitler/early-war-Stalin and ordering all sorts of desperate, ill advised attacks that will cost heavily later. Denys Davydov today shows video of whining Progozhin looking rather deflated and defeated. It's hilarious. can

Thank you, this was definitely headed off a cliff. But really chiming to wonder about point made by TheCapt & you above. For a long time we were hearing about RU tubes wearing out and the declining arty superiority that RU could expect plus burn rate of shells well above replacement rate. We've seen that over time -- the RU artillery strikes last June were much greater than anything we see now, and over greater frontage. So let's assume a couple things for argument: RU is in a shrinking arty situation (both guns & shells); arty is the only thing that keeps RU troops in the fight against UKR, whether on offense or defense. This makes current RU offensive even more desperate than it already seems as they are burning up the things they actually can't replace and most need. They can make more mobiks overnight (literally). And if the rumored massive air strike happens in a week or so, then they'll probably lose a bunch of their air force which also can't be replaced. Which all makes me wonder if Putin really is throwing all the dice? Hello, Germany 1918? Hello Germany Wacht am Rhein (the attacks right now) & Nordwind (the rumored attacks toward Kupyansk)?

Professional humor, well played Gpig.

That's just hurtful and cruel. And TankGod is listening to your blasphemies, so laugh while you can because one day you'll pay when you arrive at the pearly gates to see St Peter pop out of the turret of a sherman (he's very old school).

For me it was just general frustration day. It flows from my deep, unabiding love for all things 'tank'. My frontal lobe knows that for next ~6 months that arty tubes & shells & rockets, IFVs, AFVs, AD, all matter much more than tanks. But reptile brain just wants pretty tank things whacking things, ASAP.

so looks like drone directed tank fire? At what looks like ~1500m? Nice shoot & scoot mission.

Absolute f--ing s--tshow. This stage of the process should've happened 6 months ago. Hopefully at least the IFVs & AFVs are still going to be arriving. Bristling w ATGMs I hope.

Interesting summary here today, including some tankie comments. Did y'all know there won't be any UKR spring offensive?-- because RU will have won the war by then! Meanwhile, Bakhmut sector holds. RU allegedly building up for big offensive, at least in rumor. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/15/2153100/-Ukraine-update-Bakhmut-holds-but-tankies-are-falling-ever-deeper-into-fantasy-land As per mentioned above, CV90s would be great. That 40mm gun is quite a beast.

ahhhhh, interesting takes from BillBinDC & you. So if RU thinks it's current offensive slaughterhouse strategy is forestalling UKR spring offensive, it will continue to burn up men & material in amounts that will come to haunt when the spring offensive comes. Kinda like The Emperor's old "fully operational death star" trick.

Great discussion, y'all. I ran out of likes whilst so many were deserving of one. US spends ~$700B a year on military. And as some astute person recently stated, we've spent $50B on UKR. Comparing that to the over $2T costs of Iraq & Afghanistan, how is the cost of UKR even an issue??

I am becoming a Gen Milley fan. "Russia has lost strategically, operationally, and tactically" His new remarks: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/14/2153048/-Joint-Chiefs-General-Mark-Milley-Calls-Putin-DEFEATED-Strategically-Operationally-And-Tactically

our friend Denys D thinks UKR making some local counterattacks N & S of Bakhmut. Gains measured in, literally, meters. But let us hope this is just the beginning of rolling back some spent RU forces.

For every case that can be made that end of Putler would not change Russia, there's a case to be made that it can. We just don't know. Will Russia continue to be a belligerent mess, constantly picking fights w the world? Will the new power brokers be too busy trying to hold the mess together and against internal competitors? Will Russian people (post-Putler) turn on the war once they start to understand the cost of this mess? Russia will be flippin' broke, and won't have a lot of folks lending a hand. India and China will like fleecing RU out of its fossil fuels, and China wants RU weak weak weak now that this is an option. Imagine if siberia splits off and China is its protector/benefactor, in exchange for cheap fossil fuels. So many ways this can go.