Machor

This Orlan-10 recently crashed within Turkey, in the province of Urfa bordering Syria (possibly the work of Turkish EW deployed on the border). The Russian command in Syria obviously have worries:

First time I am seeing one of these since the start of the war: A destroyed Ukrainian SA-13. From the raised missiles, I am guessing it went down fighting:

When this is all over, someone will need to make this into a scenario - would be interesting to try to 'win' as the Russians. I will quote only the parts relevant for wargaming, but highly recommend reading the whole article (the looting is especially damning): https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-russia-voznesensk-town-battle-11647444734?st=z24ubrmo2xi9bq1&reflink=share_mobilewebshare "A Ukrainian Town Deals Russia One of the War's Most Decisive Routs" "the two-day battle of Voznesensk, details of which are only now emerging, turned decisively against the Russians. Judging from the destroyed and abandoned armor, Ukrainian forces, which comprised local volunteers and the professional military, eliminated most of a Russian battalion tactical group on March 2 and 3." "“We didn’t have a single tank against them, just rocket-propelled grenades, Javelin missiles and the help of artillery,” said Vadym Dombrovsky, commander of the Ukrainian special-forces reconnaissance group in the area and a Voznesensk resident." "Helicopters dropped Russian air-assault troops in a forested ridge southwest of Voznesensk, as an armored column drove from the southeast. Mr. Velichko said a local collaborator with the Russians, a woman driving a Hyundai SUV, showed the Russian column a way through back roads. Ukrainian officers estimate that some 400 Russian troops took part in the attack. The number would have been bigger if these forces—mostly from the 126th naval infantry brigade based in Perevalnoye, Crimea, according to seized documents—hadn’t come under heavy shelling along the way." "Downhill from Rakove, Russian forces set up base at a gas station at Voznesensk’s entrance. A Russian BTR infantry fighting vehicle drove up to the blown-up bridge over the Mertvovod, opening fire on the Territorial Defense base to the left. Five tanks, supported by a BTR, drove to a wheat field overlooking Voznesensk. A group of Territorial Defense volunteers armed with Kalashnikovs was hiding in a building at that field’s edge. They didn’t have much of a chance against the BTR’s large-caliber machine gun, said Mykola Rudenko, one of the city’s Territorial Defense officers; some were killed, others escaped. Russian troops in two Ural trucks were preparing to assemble and set up 120mm mortars on the wheat field, but they got only as far as unloading the ammunition before Ukrainian shelling began." "Ukrainian shelling blew craters in the field, and some Russian vehicles sustained direct hits. Other Ukrainian regular troops and Territorial Defense forces moved toward Russian positions on foot, hitting vehicles with U.S.-supplied Javelin missiles. As Russian armor caught fire—including three of the five tanks in the wheat field—soldiers abandoned functioning vehicles and escaped on foot or sped off in the BTRs that still had fuel. They left crates of ammunition."

Russian 'success' videos, as requested. Large quantity of destroyed Ukrainian armour in Kherson: Russian troops show off NATO aid trophies:

So, about those French TI on Russian tanks... I had thought Russia would have switched to self-sufficient production after 2015, but it turns out they kept receiving shipments from France:

Article on Russian comms in Ukraine. Summary: "it seems that the modernisation of Russia's radios may not have gone to plan. Deliveries of things like the R-168 and R-187 digital radios were supposed to have started in 2000 and 2017 respectively. However, there may have been issues with quality and corruption." "This means some Russian troops have been using civil walkie-talkies, their phones, and unencrypted HF radios, which can be listened into by almost anyone with the right kit and skills." "This raises three possibilities. The first is that Russian military HF users may not care if eavesdropping takes place. The second possibility is that HF may be used to deliberately transmit false information...and third that the RuAF cannot encrypt HF traffic." "These issues may present vulnerabilities that the Ukrainians could exploit fairly easily to gain electromagnetic dominance."

Adding images to JK's commentary: First, Su-25 that survived Stinger hit in Afghanistan; next, the Su-25 that was hit in Georgia:

This reminds me of the discussion on this forum several years (centuries?) ago about Soviet tanks being really poor at reversing. Since they were advancing as a column, it should have been feasible to reverse their way out starting with the last tank in the column. (Merkavas are supposedly the best in the world for reversing.)

Since folks asked for posts on Russia's successes... they seem to have taken over what remains of Ukraine's navy. The Ukrainians scuttled their flagship (a frigate) about a week ago; don't know why these gunboats were left intact:

There will be an aid to Ukraine concert, "Russians against War," in... Istanbul; because it would be illegal in Russia, because Russians can enter Turkey without visas, and can still fly there. While I don't expect a significant number to fly in from Russia, it will be interesting to see attendance given the large Russian population resident in Turkey, where the public is overwhelmingly pro-Ukrainian:

Well, the catch is you winch your truck out of mud in Spintires / Mudrunner (which is obviously way more comfortable on your PC than irl), or get another truck to tow you out. As discussed by a US veteran in the thread below, the Russian military is simply abandoning vehicles in running condition once they get stuck, which is something they deal with all the time even in peacetime: This thread also made me appreciate the importance of recovery AFVs, which get overlooked when playing with the 'glory boys' in CM.

How difficult would it be to import CMSF equipment and OOBs into CMBS?

As requested by Ukraine, Turkey has recognized the current situation as a 'war' (even though Russia never declared one) and closed the straits to all naval vessels as per the Montreux Convention. The purpose is to stop Russia from reinforcing its assets in the Black Sea. I don't know what the legal details are, but scheduled flights are continuing into and out of Kaliningrad; here's a flight coming in now from St. Petersburg: https://www.flightradar24.com/PBD529/2b141082

FWIW There's a good chance the TB2s are still operating from within Ukraine. Ukraine bought these with mobile ground control stations, pictured below: The mobile GCS can control TB2s at a range of up to 300 km. While I couldn't find hard data on the TB2's take-off and landing distances, the video below shows take-off is very short, thus presumably landing as well: All of which goes to say that Ukraine can easily operate these from the country's road network.

Without taking the thread OT - wow! Medvedev has always been portrayed in the West as the 'good cop' vis-a-vis Putin; even the latest BBC long read on Russia mentions "The ambitious project was launched during a brief liberal “spring” when Dmitry Medvedev took over the presidency. The constitution barred Vladimir Putin from running for a third consecutive term so Medvedev kept his seat warm." (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/russia_election ) Anyways, dropping the political discussion with some food for thought on Western foreign policy 'expertise' brought to my attention by Burak Kadercan's twitter feed: "Guilty Men:" https://www.the-american-interest.com/2017/04/24/guilty-men/

Are you referring to Sergei Ivanov? I believe you. Can you give the name?

Very interesting, thanks. It would be interesting to compare how South Korea, Sweden, and post-war Italy and Japan developed their defense industries - those being cases I could think of where exports were marginal or non-existent. I do recall reading that Japanese tanks are the most expensive in the world. Shhh, you just gave away the secret of Stryker.

"When whole communities go to war - whole peoples, and especially civilized peoples - the reason always lies in some political situation, and the occasion is always due to some political object. War, therefore, is an act of policy. Were it a game of CM complete, untrammeled, absolute manifestation of violence (as the pure concept would require), war would of its own independent will usurp the place of policy the moment policy had brought it into being" - Clausewitz That credit goes to @Oleksandr. If you read the part of the thread that starts several posts before Steve's post that I linked to, you'll find a most informative discussion of tank thermal sights, including what is probably the most that a US armor officer can disclose without violating OPSEC.

Beyond semiconductors and electronic engineering, there are challenges of materials and industrial engineering, which, for Russia, may be difficult to overcome as they require industrial reorganization and long-term investment:

@Sgt.Squarehead I am describing the perspective of the Turkish public that supports the Afrin operation, not making a normative statement.

Indeed, which is why I would love to try it in CMFG - Combat Mission: Fulda Gap.

Here's what Steven Zaloga has to say in BMP Infantry Fighting Vehicle 1967-94 (Osprey, 1994): "In the eyes of many Soviet tacticians, the BMP-1 was not entirely suited to conventional warfare. On a nuclear battlefield, NATO anti-tank guided missile and rocket teams would be severely inhibited by the contaminated environment; under such conditions it was argued that the BMP-1 could reign freely at the head of combined tank-motor rifle groups. But in a conventional war, there would be a profusion of anti-tank teams. The lightly armoured BMP-1 was especially vulnerable to the wide range of infantry anti-tank weapons available to NATO. The Red Army questioned how the BMP could be employed in these different scenarios, and concluded that new tactics were required. It was accepted that BMPs could be employed in actions where there was little resistance, such as during the break-out phase of offensive operations, or in pursuit of a disorganised enemy force. When resistance was strong, the BMP-1 would be used as part of a tank-infantry team with the infantry dismounted. A platoon of tanks would be placed in a wave in the vanguard, since they were better able to absorb the blow of anti-armour defences. Infantry would follow 200 m behind the tanks to help root out enemy anti-armour teams. The BMPs would follow no more than 300-400 m behind the infantry, providing fire support for the tanks, and preparing to move forward to pick up the infantry once the opposition was overcome." (pp. 10-11) "Bronegruppa (armoured group) tactics are an evolution of BMP tactics, but using the vehicles for missions without their infantry dismounts. When a company or battalion of motor rifle troops dismount and dig in for defensive fighting, the unit commander can take some of his BMPs away to form a central bronegruppa reserve instead of leaving them dug in with their rifle squads; this gives the company or battalion commander a mobile reserve, and counterattack force that can be held back until the enemy's objective is clear." (pp. 37-8)

I have no intention to take the thread OT; just a footnote to "the only truly progressive group:" For a scholarly take on the YPG, see the second half of "Twilight of the Kurds:" http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/01/16/twilight-of-the-kurds-iraq-syria-kurdistan/

I quickly looked up info only about the BMP-2, and found this: "The commander can exit the vehicle by two means - the hatch above him, or by spinning the turret to face the rear, and then going out through the passenger compartment. In the latter case, he must swing open the turret basket perimeter shield (shown below) to exit the turret." https://thesovietarmourblog.blogspot.ca/2016/05/bmp-2.html#comstat Given those restrictions for movement between the commander's position and the passenger compartment, I'd say the way this is modeled in the game for the BMP-2 is spot-on.

And where's 2016?... Ah, here we go! Seriously, Western non-interference in the fall of Aleppo [in which the YPG played a crucial part - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Aleppo_offensive_(February_2016) - which may not be known or was forgotten by folks in the West, but certainly not by the FSA fighters in Afrin] and the humanitarian tragedy around it profoundly impacted the Turkish public in two ways: - It relativized the ethics of war, so that any criticism today can be brushed off with "What about Aleppo?" - It did the equivalent of tens of billions of Qatari / Saudi petrodollars in pushing the Islamist / Jihadist message that democracy and human rights are only a smokescreen for a war against (Sunni) Islam [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_against_Islam ]. I have seen a realistic proposition for getting out of this mess only today: "What Washington must do about Turkey and Afrin" https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/02/05/what-washington-must-do-about-turkey-and-afrin/?utm_term=.b2d435ee9135 In short, pressure the PKK to declare a cease-fire inside Turkey, quid pro quo for limiting the operation in Afrin. It would still give Erdogan his victory for reelection, but lifting the state of emergency would at least restore constitutional order, no matter how flawed the constitution. The part that the proposition does not account for is whether the PKK would be willing to go along with this. After all, they have everything to gain from a state of affairs where the only outlet for Kurdish dissent is through their armed ranks.