Bearstronaut

The United States is supporting Lithuania's decision.

Iran-Iraq War?

This dude, Ken Rhee, is a former ROK Navy SEAL officer and is a minor celebrity in Korea. He’s starred in a TV show taking other celebrities and putting them through tough military training (this is a popular genre in Korea). He returned to Korea recently after injuring his knee in Ukraine and is facing criminal charges. After the war kicked off in February the South Korean government put a travel ban on going to Ukraine for ROK citizens.

There it is.  I knew there was one out there but outside the western sphere.  Although if you take into account burn rate over time (that war took 8 years) this one is higher intensity right now.

😚
 

Man, I don’t think there is any amount of money that would get me to sign up for this meat grinder. I say this as someone who volunteered for the US Army in 2009 when we were still in pretty serious combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fortunately for me Uncle Sam decided he needed me more on the Korean Peninsula than in the deserts of Iraq or the mountains of Afghanistan.

Yeah, that's not really something you want in a nuclear state. The same for a civil war.

They have a very high center of gravity and tip over relatively easily. I nearly died several times at NTC going over terrain that was no problem for a HMMWV or a Stryker. They are large and you can’t hide them well and despite that the space for the crew is very small. They also broke all the damn time. I would have much preferred rolling around in a HMMWV. 

They have a very high center of gravity and tip over relatively easily. I nearly died several times at NTC going over terrain that was no problem for a HMMWV or a Stryker. They are large and you can’t hide them well and despite that the space for the crew is very small. They also broke all the damn time. I would have much preferred rolling around in a HMMWV. 

They have a very high center of gravity and tip over relatively easily. I nearly died several times at NTC going over terrain that was no problem for a HMMWV or a Stryker. They are large and you can’t hide them well and despite that the space for the crew is very small. They also broke all the damn time. I would have much preferred rolling around in a HMMWV. 

They have a very high center of gravity and tip over relatively easily. I nearly died several times at NTC going over terrain that was no problem for a HMMWV or a Stryker. They are large and you can’t hide them well and despite that the space for the crew is very small. They also broke all the damn time. I would have much preferred rolling around in a HMMWV. 

While I can’t speak for Bear I can tell you my problems with the MATV: too small for everyone will full kit; no real covered storage on the outside of the vehicle which meant all your personnel gear got wet and snowy, or you looked like a hobo wagon with tarps and plywood strapped everywhere; impossible to conduct any sort of command or control functions inside of it (a must for survivability, as you need to avoid setting up tents); radios stored OUTSIDE the crew compartment, meaning you have to go outside to troubleshoot or change nets; small windows that are impossible to see out of; too high of a center of gravity which made it hard to maneuver on tough terrain; complex and hard to acquire repair parts; and an over reliance on civilians specialist to provide support for the various systems. 

It was universally hated by everyone in our battalion. It stayed in our motorpool and we used HMMWVs unless there was no other choice due to maintenance. 
 
 

FWIW at my last active duty unit my intel platoon operated out of MATVs (basically upgraded MRAPs) and every single one of us hated the damn things.

Almost everybody in the US Army buys their own boots after basic training anyways. Issue boots are not very comfortable at all. I once had a commander who wore issue boots and I thought he was a weirdo for doing so.

Almost everybody in the US Army buys their own boots after basic training anyways. Issue boots are not very comfortable at all. I once had a commander who wore issue boots and I thought he was a weirdo for doing so.

Almost everybody in the US Army buys their own boots after basic training anyways. Issue boots are not very comfortable at all. I once had a commander who wore issue boots and I thought he was a weirdo for doing so.

I gotta say, fully autonomous machines designed to kill people scares the crap outta me. It just seems like such an obviously bad idea.

I gotta say, fully autonomous machines designed to kill people scares the crap outta me. It just seems like such an obviously bad idea.

Here is a counter-point consideration, what if the Russian force in this invasion met the UA of 2014?  I don’t disagree that this was a tall order and a bad plan but 200k troops well equipped and with obvious mass superiority would have likely had a very different outcome against the UA of 2014 (something they were likely counting to be honest).  
So something changed in 8 years, better training and organization, western ISR, next gen ATGMs…all those add up to what we are seeing today in this war.  So I am not convinced that this is all on the Russians and their bad plan.  I am convinced that something has happened, we saw glimpses of it in 2014, ironically from the Russians.  We saw it in the Azer-Armenian conflict, and I am more convinced we are seeing it in this conflict.
 Remember Ukraine had to defend an entire frontier spanning two countries, that was something like over 2000kms long, with a regular standing force of what, 100k, that is a tall order…but they pulled it off.  So despite the Russia failures, I do not agree this could only go one way.  The Russians could concentrate force wherever they wanted while Ukraine had to try to defend everywhere.  I am not sure how they stayed out in front of the Russians operationally, let alone beat them back along that kind of frontage -while having to plan for the Belarusians (who never showed up).
Well it will give us something to study for the next 20 years, so there is that.

My god if those casualty figures are accurate then Russia will reach US Korean War casualties before the summer. That took more than three years to get that high even with the meatgrinders at Taejon, the Naktong River, and Chosin. 

My god if those casualty figures are accurate then Russia will reach US Korean War casualties before the summer. That took more than three years to get that high even with the meatgrinders at Taejon, the Naktong River, and Chosin. 

If you don’t have someone on the mission who speaks the language then you are SOL. There’s other things you can do but I can’t really say what.

It's getting to be the part of Crimson Tide where the president dies and a new more unstable hard liner takes over....

Farmers are still finding UXO in northern France from WW1.