John Kettler Posted December 29, 2021 Share Posted December 29, 2021 While I seriously doubt Putin is planning an invasion, the massive buildup near the Ukrainian border certainly justifies concern and monitoring. The JSTARS is perfect for this, since it was specifically designed to monitor, display, record and transmit the positions and movements of ground forces under its surveillance and can look deep into territory of interest. Believe Putin's first priority is to protect his proxy force Separatists from any UA move to drive them back into Russia, or worse, seriously damage or destroy them outright. Believe I read somewhere that a major Ukrainian move against the Separatists would trigger a full-blown Russian military intervention. Seems to me that the UA's use of drone attacks has already made the Kremlin nervous, judging by what I've seen in terms of reporting.https://defence-blog.com/us-air-force-battle-management-plane-spotted-over-ukraine/?fbclid=IwAR2sAgWmwBNittZZ73fR0HzvzRf46G8PdxCPJzYOIgS45H9W_cGMBk1EoV8 Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Haiduk Posted December 29, 2021 Share Posted December 29, 2021 2 hours ago, John Kettler said: While I seriously doubt Putin is planning an invasion, the massive buildup near the Ukrainian border certainly justifies concern and monitoring. The JSTARS is perfect for this, since it was specifically designed to monitor, display, record and transmit the positions and movements of ground forces under its surveillance and can look deep into territory of interest. Believe Putin's first priority is to protect his proxy force Separatists from any UA move to drive them back into Russia, or worse, seriously damage or destroy them outright. Believe I read somewhere that a major Ukrainian move against the Separatists would trigger a full-blown Russian military intervention. Seems to me that the UA's use of drone attacks has already made the Kremlin nervous, judging by what I've seen in terms of reporting.https://defence-blog.com/us-air-force-battle-management-plane-spotted-over-ukraine/?fbclid=IwAR2sAgWmwBNittZZ73fR0HzvzRf46G8PdxCPJzYOIgS45H9W_cGMBk1EoV8 Regards, John Kettler RC-135V also already at least twice had missions in our airspace since Russian invasion threat appeared. PS. I propose to write such news in the "September is coming" topic, which was opened for the news around probable Russian invasion. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted December 30, 2021 Author Share Posted December 30, 2021 Haiduk, Much appreciate your info and look forward to your upcoming thread. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fireship4 Posted December 31, 2021 Share Posted December 31, 2021 Haiduk means this thread: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted January 1, 2022 Author Share Posted January 1, 2022 fireship4, Much appreciate your clarifying a point on which I was clearly mistaken. On the plus side, we now have the luxury of talking about September as a dire might have been. Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted January 1, 2022 Author Share Posted January 1, 2022 JSTARS isn't the only US or other NATO surveillance bird operating over the Ukraine, either, for the British have the flying electronic signal mega vacuum known as the RC-135W RIVET JOINT COMINT, ELINT, SIGINT aircraft hard at work when passing through, too. https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/british-surveillance-aircraft-monitoring-russian-forces-near-crimea/ Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fireship4 Posted January 1, 2022 Share Posted January 1, 2022 (edited) 3 hours ago, John Kettler said: September as a dire might have been. Hopefully indeed, it is interesting nonetheless to re-read the thread and the one before that it referenced (https://community.battlefront.com/topic/137296-will-russia-attack-ukraine-in-september/), written I think back in April or thereabouts(!). Talking about JSTARS, the UK is/was/has sold off their retired Sentinel fleet (SAR capable according to the linked article) to the US as a stopgap replacement until JSTARS sucessor comes along: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43184/unwanted-british-sentinel-radar-planes-to-be-picked-up-by-us-army-report Edited January 1, 2022 by fireship4 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 (edited) On 1/1/2022 at 5:22 AM, fireship4 said: Talking about JSTARS, the UK is/was/has sold off their retired Sentinel fleet (SAR capable according to the linked article) to the US as a stopgap replacement until JSTARS sucessor comes along: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43184/unwanted-british-sentinel-radar-planes-to-be-picked-up-by-us-army-report TBH the main thing that I got from that aricle was that defence companies appear to be systematically giving their creations unneccessarily complex and obscure names, purely in order to get a cool Acronym! Edited January 2, 2022 by Sgt.Squarehead 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Kettler Posted January 3, 2022 Author Share Posted January 3, 2022 Sgt.Squarehead, Typically, the customer (i.e, in US the Pentagon or a given military service) comes up with the acronym, which is used as a kind of shorthand to save having to constantly speak and/or write a long title. It's also away of differentiating one system from another. A great acronym is a huge help to selling a program: in the Pentagon, to Congress, to the public and, sometimes to the world, whether for international security, FMS, or both. Offhand, I don't know of a JSTARS handle like RIVET JOINT is for the RC-135W. It's oh so much easier to say or write SIOP (Single Integrated Operational Plan), and those involved in or who who study nuclear warfare instantly recognize it. TOW is a true blessing of an acronym, because otherwise it takes six words, three hyphens and two commas to convey what those three letters do. JSTARS is a functional acronym, in that it simply compresses a long description into a more manageable one, but J as the start of an acronym is itself is a big deal, because it stands for Joint. Jointness, aka purple suit, is the Pentagon Holy Grail, because it means inter-service use, an easier sell, smaller budget hit on any one service's budget, etc. Thus, JDAM (Joint Direct Attack Munition), JSOW (Joint StandOff Weapon). USAF had a whole series of guided weapons and targeting devices under PAVE. PAVE WAY was a series of LGBs, PAVE SPIKE a target detection and designation system for PAVE WAY and other laser guided munitions. PAVE PENNY on the A-10 detects laser illuminated targets to allow accurate strafing, bombing, etc. Dad ran the engineering side of the aptly named PAVE FIRE III at what's now called E-Systems. PAVE FIRE (mounted in the shell of a former SUU-16 20 mm gun pod on a F-4D Phantom II) was used to detect and laser designate optical antiaircraft gun directors, so that they could be engaged by accompanying F-4Ds with CBUs or LGBs. The III was because this was the third (ultimately highly successful attempt) to build, test, and send into combat an extremely complex system, following the failures of two other major defense contractors. And where lots of acronyms, such as AWACS, fairly roll of the tongue, things like MLRS don't, requiring individually pronouncing each letter, though mercifully not in the military phonetic alphabet! When I was at Rockwell, we had a guy in Operations Analysis who was ex-Air Force logistics. He used to keep a single sheet of single spaced official USAF writing pinned to his cibicle wall, a page of text which consisted heavily of acronyms. Mind, these are not weapon program names, but bureaucratic and organizational terms; the core concept is the same, simplifying a lot of gobbledygook. The bonus? Utterly confounding outsiders! Nearly broke my brain trying to make sense of it when I read it cold. "In order to justify the SON, the MENS must first be written, completed, submitted and signed off by..." That was one of the easy sentences, and I left off the various commands, directorates, offices, etc. Thanks to my Magic Decoder Ring™, can tell you that the SON is Statement of Need and the MENS is Mission Element Needs Statement. Now, imagine this thing with three or more acronyms in every sentence, sometimes sentences with barely any words! Between them the SON and the MENS are the basis for how an defense acquistion program is started. fireship4, read the entire September thread you so kindly referenced. Man, did it get deep, and there were some great videos. As for the nasty mine, believe the origin was a US system ADAM (Area Denial Artillery Munition). It works just like the POM-2, in terms of a central pop-up mine and a web of trigger wires, which you can clearly see deploying in the below lamentably short in length, info and image quality clip.https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Area_Denial_Artillery_Munition Regards, John Kettler 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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