How Hot is Ukraine Gonna Get?

[Haiduk]

General Staff claims as result of the strike on Sevastopol and it vicinity three days ago were seriously damaged four S-400 launchers and B-237 "Rostov-on-Don" submarine was sunk.

This submarine was badly damaged by Storm Shadow strike on 13th Sep 2023, but Russians managed to repair it during the year and the submarine has even passed first tests. Now if true, Russia will be forced either to begin repair form zero, spending new funds or just to utilize this junk.

[Haiduk]

Ukraine launched serial production of small laser guided ammunition for drones. Russians issued a photo of shot down UKR "Baba Yaga" class heavy bomber, armed with BK-3OF - HE ammo.

 

[ArmouredTopHat]

Interesting modification of existing assets to better reflect their use in the drone war. 

[Beleg85]

14 hours ago, Probus said:

I think of a Democracy as the people vote directly on issues, you have no representative. Whereas a Republic has representatives that are elected that vote on different kinds of issues.

This is classic Athenian vision of democracy- very idealistic and almost non-existent nowadays due to practical considerations governing multi-milion states. Another issue is that Montesquieu (who basically created modern taxonomy) in turn did a lot of bad work categorizing different forms of government, like opposing republics with kingdoms  and shrinking Res Publica to basically technical term; while in reality it is much more complicated. I personally think in XXI cent. West we fetishize democracy and its iterations way too much and are not paying enough attention to Republican form in public discourse (except maybe France)*; current governments can be more or less democratic, it's rather fleeting state. But republics and autocraties persist as systems sometimes for centuries in given cultures. Idiots, populists and even tyrants can capture power for some time, but republic as political ideal survives them.

Cicero provided best description what Republic is: a living political entity of shared values, where citizens gather to deal with politics and trust each other. This issue of eroding trust is valid for both Western world but especially for Russia-  citizenship and trust are core byproducts of matured republican states.

Now look at political history of Muscovy: it had some very brief moments of more-or-less democracy, but never had actual, "antropological" practice of Republic; this form of polity is basically empty slogan there, introduced as novelty by western-oriented zapadniks barely at the start of XX century and later applied to purely administrative units (USSR).  So no societal trust, no functional citizenship at levels deeper than purely formal. Effects we see on our own eyes.

*That's one of reasons that shrinking of classical, Mediterranean heritage in Western public spaces and at universities that we witness nowadays is concerning. We risk loosing our reference points.

Edited August 3 by Beleg85

[Kraft]

Newly "freed" russian 'opposition' leaders doing their job, saying into microphones its only putin and all sanctions should be stopped because russians are innocent and should not befall hardship, lol. 

Paid state actors, doing their job to sow poor-russians attitute and be traded for FSB murderers. 

Meanwhile, an actual opposition figure was attempted to be killed by putin just 2 days ago

But he'll not get a 1.5 hour press conference for the media im afraid.

Edited August 3 by Kraft

[poesel]

45 minutes ago, Kraft said:

Newly "freed" russian 'opposition' leaders doing their job, saying into microphones its only putin and all sanctions should be stopped because russians are innocent and should not befall hardship, lol.

What I got from the press conference is, that they said that not all Russians are pro-Putin and that there is some opposition.

Of course, I don't speak Russian, so I have to rely on the translation. But that is what the media reported, and so that is the message that was conveyed.

[Vet 0369]

On 7/29/2024 at 2:36 AM, chuckdyke said:

Which ports are suitable for berthing vessels like the Gerald Ford? Its dimensions are a little less than a modern bulk carrier. 

I don’t believe that the Ford actually “needs” large port facilities. When on its “world tours,” it will anchor outside a port and use shuttles for everything. It will be completely resupplied at sea since it’s nuclear powered. It never needs to enter a port except for dry dock.

[ArmouredTopHat]

Kinda nuts to picture a Humvee with a 20mm

[danfrodo]

Some more interesting videos here.  RU motorcycle graveyard.  Armored vehicles face denial. Turns out unarmored vehicles face denial.  Also shows two RU soldiers moving down a road.  Soldier 1 shoots soldier two then runs back the other way.  I wonder what that story is?  

And of course lots of RU stuff blowing up.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/8/3/2260335/-Russian-stuff-blowing-up-Ukrainian-attacks-devastate-Russian-air-base-sink-Russian-sub?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

 

[OldSarge]

42 minutes ago, danfrodo said:

Soldier 1 shoots soldier two then runs back the other way.  I wonder what that story is? 

Looks like a classic fragging to me. Soldier 1: 'I'm not going to be fertilizer for sunflowers.'
Country Joe & Fish

Edited August 3 by OldSarge

[Vet 0369]

On 7/29/2024 at 7:54 PM, billbindc said:

I'm sorry to tell you that pretty much the only thing William Gibson missed was cell phones. 

Ah, “Mona Lisa Overdrive!” One of the many really, really strange novels I had to read for my Science Fiction Writing elective in college.

[Vet 0369]

On 7/29/2024 at 10:34 PM, ArmouredTopHat said:

Anyone else getting WW2 Luftwaffe ground forces vibes?

Luftwaffe Herr formations were considered to be very good units that had infantry, armor, etc. I got the impression that you are comparing Russian organizations that are slap shod to the Luftwaffe Herr formations.

[Artkin]

13 minutes ago, Vet 0369 said:

Luftwaffe Herr formations were considered to be very good units that had infantry, armor, etc. I got the impression that you are comparing Russian organizations that are slap shod to the Luftwaffe Herr formations.

Since when..? 

Are you referring to the 21 bare-bones Luftwaffe field divisions? 

[Vet 0369]

On 7/30/2024 at 9:48 AM, ArmouredTopHat said:

Yeesh

Why do I get the impression that this picture was taken using the rear-view mirror? Could it be that all of the letters on the VANS hat are mirror images? That makes it very difficult for me to accept the report.

[Battlefront.com]

16 hours ago, zinz said:

https://topcargo200.com/

 

That's some interesting stuff!  I don't remember the whack-o traitor "Texas" having been killed.  And not just that, but tortured and killed by Russians.  How fitting.

https://topcargo200.com/1232/

Steve

[Vet 0369]

On 7/30/2024 at 6:32 PM, Fenris said:

Case in point, posted today.  This is the most infantry I've seen moving at once for a while.

 

And you can probably see why there aren’t large infantry actions anymore

[Vet 0369]

53 minutes ago, Artkin said:

Since when..? 

Are you referring to the 21 bare-bones Luftwaffe field divisions? 

Umm, who took Crete from Britain? I don’t think it was the Waffen SS. I believe even the reinforcements flown were Luftwaffen Herr.

[Artkin]

26 minutes ago, Vet 0369 said:

Umm, who took Crete from Britain? I don’t think it was the Waffen SS. I believe even the reinforcements flown were Luftwaffen Herr.

Ah okay I see what you mean now. I wasn't sure if you meant actual Soviet units when you said "Russian organizations".

[LongLeftFlank]

2 hours ago, Vet 0369 said:

Luftwaffe Herr formations were considered to be very good units that had infantry, armor, etc. I got the impression that you are comparing Russian organizations that are slap shod to the Luftwaffe Herr formations.

 

49 minutes ago, Vet 0369 said:

 

49 minutes ago, Vet 0369 said:

Umm, who took Crete from Britain? I don’t think it was the Waffen SS. I believe even the reinforcements flown were Luftwaffen Herr.

The entire purpose of Operation Mercury was to secure airfields on Crete that allowed German airpower to contest the Eastern Med with the Royal Navy, which they did rather well -- ask the unquiet ghost of Earl Mountbatten (also, in 1941 Hitler still had delusions of luring Turkey into the Axis). So of course they'd fly in Lufwaffe crews quite early, but not for ground combat duty (unless you have data to show to the contrary).

AIUI, the Luftwaffe Felddivisions were strictly a 1943+ phenomenon. Their independent existence/chain of command was an artifact of Nazi feudal politics (i.e., a fig leaf to the dwindling influence at court of Hermann Goering following the abject failure of his ballyhooed Stalingrad airlift, viz. Morosovskaya, plus his daily and undeniable incapacity to blunt Allied bombing of the Reich: you can call me Meyer, etc.).

....Ergo, the Lufwaffe divisions had nothing to do with the Fallschirmjaeger (yes, also Luftwaffe controlled, together with the amoured division named for the lord and master) until after mid-1944 (Cassino/Normandy), when the former (pathetically underperforming) formations became replacement cadre for the (capable and integrated, but now bled white) latter. A 'rebranding effort', and Fat Hermann was all about his brand (any resemblance to overconfident blustering politicians living or dead is purely coincidental )

Placing superannuated Luftwaffe colonels in command of green infantry regiments in Ukraine during the crises of 1943-1944 was never going to end well, to start with. And while 88mm FlaK (the backbone of these units) did indeed have its moments on the steppe (as it did in the desert), it seems you need much more than that to hold a division frontage for an extended period.

....In hindsight, the German war effort overall would have been far better off retraining those surplus Luftwaffe personnel to fill comparable skilled trades within the late war Wehrmacht, or else as experienced NCO cadre within existing formations, but Hermann wouldn't have things that way cuz of course he wouldn't.

Anyhoo, no doubt someone groggier than we will be along to fill the gaps we have left. Cheers.

Edited August 4 by LongLeftFlank

[ArmouredTopHat]

https://www.reddit.com/r/CombatFootage/comments/1ejpz3k/ukrainian_t64_from_28th_separate_mechanized/

Some context from comments:

1. The footage is from 2023 (most likely summer 2023, if I recall correctly)

2. During this mission the tank took 2 hits (apparently from ATGMs) and was also hit by a kamikaze drone

3. After being hit with kamikaze drone, the commander and gunner had to dismount and retreat on foot. The driver made an attempt to RTB. Despite taking an ATGM hit, he eventually managed to do that. The tank has been repaired afterwards and it is still being used by the same crew now.

4. The commander of this tank (I won't share his name for security purpose) has been promoted to the rank of captain. Currently he is a tank company commander. Some time ago the higher command wanted to make him an instructor. He refused because he didn't want to leave his crew, unit and brothers-in-arms.

5. Back in 2023, he received an award directly from hands of President Zelenskyy.

I'm sharing this because I know him

Glory to Heroes!

Once again highlighting that tanks can be extremely survivable performing their missions, even ones not properly designed for this sort of fighting.  

Been quite the plethora of tank footage recently, though its pretty much all T series related. I imagine there are filming restrictions for the Western MBTs as I dont think have have any pov footage of them in action to my memory. 

Edited August 4 by ArmouredTopHat

[fireship4]

5 hours ago, ArmouredTopHat said:

Been quite the plethora of tank footage recently

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8ROhP_3-Qk

 

[ArmouredTopHat]

Think its say to say the F-16s are now flying.

[Maciej Zwolinski]

12 hours ago, LongLeftFlank said:

Placing superannuated Luftwaffe colonels in command of green infantry regiments in Ukraine during the crises of 1943-1944 was never going to end well, to start with. And while 88mm FlaK (the backbone of these units) did indeed have its moments on the steppe (as it did in the desert), it seems you need much more than that to hold a division frontage for an extended period.

That’s correct except for „Hermann Göring”.  They fought very well. When Trevor Dupuy tried to quantify the performance of German divisions and compare them to each other, HG came up on the top of the table.

[Maciej Zwolinski]

13 hours ago, Vet 0369 said:

Umm, who took Crete from Britain? I don’t think it was the Waffen SS. I believe even the reinforcements flown were Luftwaffen Herr.

Funnily enough, the paratrooper unit was called 7th Flieger Division, exactly like the Luftwaffe air divisions made up of actual fighter or bomber planes. The soldiers flown in to the captured airfields on transport planes were Gebirgsjäger, mountain rifles.

[Probus]

On 8/3/2024 at 5:33 AM, The_Capt said:

The average person is an expert only in themselves.

I resemble that remark!

 

On 8/3/2024 at 5:33 AM, The_Capt said:

I think it is the beginning of a new paradigm and we are being tested by it. I do not sense we are making the future right now, we are simply bracing for impacts that were put in motion decades ago.

I agree with the first statement completely.  But I kinda feel like we are working out the solution to the new paradigm, not just bracing from it.  We are probably saying the same thing in different ways.

@hcrof I bet the drone problem resolves temporarily with the use of powerful jammers forcing drones to be autonomous. So we may go back before we go 'forward'. And by forward I mean another, terrifying, paradigm shift.