danfrodo

I wouldn't call it a sham election either...because I wouldn't call it an election. It was a propaganda exercise. As to fair, well...

Loyalty over competence is usually the criterion for dictators, so hopefully he'll get some real idiots.  Folks who's main skill is ladder climbing and brown nosing, but will be put in charge of things that actually require competence.  Then will choose subordinate managers also chosen for loyalty over competence, all the way down the chain of decision makers.  Hopefully.

About 1-1,5 month ago video, how Russian "tankodesant" tried to burst in UKR trench on Kreminna direction. Three soldiers of 1st National Guard Presidental "Bureviy" brigade destroyed the tank and enemy infantry in the trench fight, one Russian surrendered
 

Not entirely fair to other countries, but still... 
 

Napoleon spirit inside Macron? )
Reportedly Macron ordered to deploy French troops on the border with so-called Transnistria and in Odesa. This can release some UKR troops from rear areas

"We have been negotiating as we could, but nothing to discuss with them. Ukraine must win. French troops will be in Ukraine. No more red lines. I'm president of France and I decide!"
Viva la France!
PS. I can't find these speech in original, but it shares by many UKR socal media. Maybe PsyOps, but somesing really happened 
 

    

Our side keeps tough OPSEC, but relying on Russian TG posts, looks like UKR forces are providing large-scale offensive operation (yes, including helicopter landing) and this is not only free-Russia units. Russians report about heavy clashes and combined arms operation of Ukrainian side. Some their TG writes about complete fail of UKR afforts, but other not so optimistic, so it's hard to say about real situation
On this video claimed Russian soldiers surrender to free-Russia troops on southern outskirt of Spodaryushino village.
Allegedle place of helicopter landing in Kozinka, Belgorod oblast - 2 km from village center.

Belgorod is under continous MLRS and drone strikes. At least two citizens were killed. Free-Russia forces repeated today own call to civilans about immediate evacuation
Sounds of MLRS impacts in the city
Russians in own turn heavy attacked Sumy oblast with KABs and hit many cell-towers and TV transmitetrs. Also one bridge was destroyed through Vorskla river in Velyka Pysarivka village
Free-Russia troops annonced humanitarian corridor this night for border areas in Kursk and Belgorod oblasts, after this since 15th of March large-scale strikes will be started on military objects in vicinity of settlements in this area - Tyotkino - Grauvoron - Shebekino - Urazovo. There were several videos how  

 
Russian settlers flee on foot or by cars from Graivoron to Belgorod from combat zone. Feel taste of war, you, who joyfully exclaimed, when missiles and MLRS from Belgorod oblast hit Kharkiv.
 

This actually made me chuckle.
I expect it had no problem making contact with the ground.
 

So, the Germans have in fact given more % to Ukraine than US and have been hurt the most economically with Nord stream shut down etc. 
Let's keep this in mind in the next round of German bashing. 
 

Teplinsky is apparently alive, and the Thirteen guy was killed by Kadyrovites after starting beef with them.
No idea what was on that ship.
 
I don't see a reason to kill Teplinsky. Isn't he the idiot who only ordered meat assaults and wasted Russian material by sending them into narrow approaches at Krynky?
Ukraine should aim to keep as many of the old guard in Russia alive during the war. Their corruption and incompetence is 30% of Ukrainian war power (the rest is half Western tech, half massive titanium balls and grit).
Why risk a motivated up-and-coming nationalist to take his spot? Someone who has the kind of brains Putin would normally keep out of the higher ranks?
 

Nice, if true. Feels a little inflated, but there's definitely money to be made in shell production these days, so why not. 
 

First Oscar in Ukrainian history. 
 

This month's target list has been provided by the Russian Defense Ministry - thank you very much!
Ukraine's military intelligence claims cyberattack on Russian Defense Ministry (yahoo.com)
Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) launched a cyberattack attack against the servers of the Russian Defense Ministry, gaining access to "a bulk of classified service documents," the agency said on March 4.
The operation by military intelligence cyber specialists reportedly helped to obtain orders, reports, instructions, and reports "that circulated among about 2,000 structural units of the Russian security service," as well as information security and encryption software.
The analysis of captured data also helped to identify generals and other high-level commanders of the Russian Defense Ministry's structural units and "all those who used the software for electronic document management," the agency's statement read.
The agency claims to have obtained official documents of Timur Ivanov, a Russian deputy defense minister.

Just came across this and thought maybe everyone could use a chuckle.
 

https://twitter.com/Archer83Able/status/1766256716214100061?t=3Q7rTwMgjJ4ITNUn1qIT9g&s=19

I've noticed that they never just roll off the the vehicle.  In this instance, not much chance to do anything.  but so many times I see them cringe & shoot & curl into ball.  RU should have training so that the instinctual move is to just jump/roll off.  The drone is after the vehicle, at least the infantry could survive.  But it happens fast and they only way one could react is to have practiced so it becomes an automatic response.

I'm reminded of the old film 'Poltergeist'. The dad is trying to watch the football game but his neighbor's TV remote is on the same frequency so his TV channel keeps switching to 'Mr Rogers'. I would imagine frequency saturation would be a limiting factor in drone warfare, especially for long range drones. A dozen drone in the air all trying to broadcast pictures back to their operators and the operators all trying to broadcast steering commands to their drones. How are these frequencies being coordinated?

What follows will be my own befuddled musings on the Claymores Through Kleve campaign as I go along. Other forumites are welcome to share their own experiences.
First up you'll find that it is as much a mudbath, as bloodbath. And, of course that is an accurate reflection of how it was back in 1945. So if you want sunny days, with bone dry ground and long sight lines this wont be for you.
Just as a way of illustrating the murk ... 

If you listen carefully these Jocks are saying, "If that Sassenach Bastard wants us tae pose fer pictures, we want more drams, now!""  
 

Hi,
As a Swede I thought today would be a good day to stop lurking for a bit and drop a comment. Been playing cm for 20 years and following this forum for a long time.
Thank you all for contributing to this thread, checking it daily. Always a good source for news and discussion, so much knowledge and experience gathered is hard to get elsewhere. 
I always was all for our countrys neutral stance combined with a strong Defense but last decade has of course swayed us all in Sweden a bit. I have my background in the army, cv90. Seeing us finally start to retake our capabilities regarding defense is good.
Anyways thanks for having us in the club I guess (why am I thinking about brothers Marx)?
Carl 

I've been thinking about this post most of the day, and keep coming back to "Neat. Now what?"
Which got me thinking about how other step changes in military capability were handled. The two obvious ones that come to mind are tanks in WWII, and airpower during the Cold War. Now, clearly, in both cases they existed early, but they only really became effective/worrisome/"game-changing" some decades after their entree to the battlefield.
For the infantry, in both cases, the response became basically the same: very small infantry units became fully capable of anti-ing the other thing, either anti-tank or anti-air.
During WWII anti-tank rifles, bazookas, fausts, shrecks, Piats and hearty grenades gave platoons and sections an ability to defend against or attack against tanks, pretty explicitly at the detriment to the nominal role of the infantry, which was to oppose and defeat enemy infantry. That trend was significantly enhanced during second half of last century with things like RPGs and M-72s. This is at the point now where with weapons like Javelin tanks perhaps have more to fear from infantry than the vice versa, even though lugging Javelin around is a royal PITA especially for light infantry.
The introduction of air power, and especially effective CAS, started us on the road to the fully illuminated battlefield, where nowhere is safe and to be seen is to die. During WWII the only real counter that the infantry had was to dig on, or hide, or both. But during the Cold War a lot of effort went into MANPADS, resulting in the Stinger in the 1980s and with other systems following soon after. Just like their anti tank weapons, lugging around anti-aircraft missiles is a PITA which detracts from the nominal role of engaging enemy infantry, not to mention the drain on budgets and training schedules. But on the other hand now every platoon and section is capable of destroying any tank or aircraft that wanders into it's little tactical AO. And once the air and armour battle is won - either locally or globally - then the rest is just mopping up. The degradation of the infantry platoon and section's ability in the infantry-battle doesn't really matter, since while that bit remains hard and unpleasant, it is incredibly harder and more unpleasant in the absence of either air or armoured support.
So you can probably see where this is going.
Assuming UAS remains in play (and why wouldn't it?), then the role of infantry platoons and sections will change again. Instead of being little nodes of anti-tank and anti-air goodness,with some residual anti-infantry capability, they will become little anti-UAS nodes, with the weapons, training, mindset and purpose to defeat enemy UAS in their local area, and also protect or project friendly UAS capability around themselves. If an enemy tank or aircraft turns up then the section or platoon mightn't be able to deal with it themselves, but they will be networked to someone who can - guns, missiles, friendly armour or air, or friendly UAS. And they'll still, you know, carry rifles. Mainly out of habit and tradition, as well as giving the NCOs something to inspect every day. But most of their weaponry, and sensors, and just the general claggage they're carting about will be geared towards winning the UAS fight, because winning that will mean that the rest is just mopping up.
In other words, the infantry will be able to concentrate physically and cognitively on the UAS battle because it won't be their role any more to win the tank, infantry, or local airspace battle.

Or UKRAINIAN floating objects!

Lol
 

Havent seen the news here yet but russia officially ended Armata development, citing its high cost as  mine clearing vehicle

do you recall at all what happened in Bucha?  I mean FFS what exactly do you think is gonna happen with negotiations with Russia?  JFC people have such poor memories or just don't give a rat's a55 for reality when they have an agenda.