OT: Putin's War in Ukraine

[Raellus]

"God favours the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon Bonaparte

The artillery ammunition situation appears to be rather dire for the UAF.

https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-r...f74c53861734da

Every few days, there's a headline about how one European partner or another has "found" more artillery shells for Ukraine, but they never seem to materialize. There are also regular headlines about how a handful of US Congresspeople are standing in the way of more US military aid for Ukraine.

It's sooooo hard not to bring US politics into this, but I'm going to abide by the forum rules.

To circle back to T2k, I think the correlation of artillery forces between the Soviets and NATO would favor the former. Advantage: Warsaw Pact.

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[kato13]

Russian TU-22M Bomber Downed Over Russia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAwIVMfs3GM



Well this is something I never expected to actually see real life video of, even though I have read about, thought about, and even gamed many scenarios where such a thing would happen.

Probably friendly fire, but maybe spec ops working near an airfield?

[Vespers War]

Originally Posted by kato13

Russian TU-22M Bomber Downed Over Russia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAwIVMfs3GM



Well this is something I never expected to actually see real life video of, even though I have read about, thought about, and even gamed many scenarios where such a thing would happen.

Probably friendly fire, but maybe spec ops working near an airfield?

Allegedly our old friend the Ukrainian S-200. According to Ukrainian Intelligence, they were waiting for a week for the bombers to get close enough to an emplaced launcher, and they got a hit at 308 kilometers. An anonymous Ukrainian defense official told The War Zone that they've received "help from partners" upgrading the S-200's guidance system.

Personal speculation is they may have gotten assistance from Poland, who upgraded their monkey model S-200 missiles between 1999-2002, replacing tubes with transistors. I also suspect they may have slipped in an active radar seeker with the saved space/mass to help improve long-range accuracy over the semi-active radar seeker originally fitted - there was speculation right before the war that they had developed an active seeker for the S-125 and were trying to fit it to the S-200. If that improved accuracy sufficiently, they could also shrink the warhead and program the updated electronics to modify the flight profile to eke out some extra range with a slightly lighter missile. It would also let them shut off the ground radar much earlier if it wasn't having to illuminate the target for SARH, reducing the ground units' vulnerability to SEAD.

[kato13]

US Ukraine bill passed - \o/ yay!

I found it interesting an ATACMS transfer was coded into the text

Sec. 505. (a) Transfer of Long-Range ATACMS Required.—As soon as practicable after the date of enactment of this Act, the President shall transfer long range Army Tactical Missile Systems to the Government of Ukraine to assist the Government of Ukraine in defending itself and achieving victory against the Russian Federation.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-...5/text?s=2&r=4

While I am pretty sure we have already delivered some, I have been waiting for the time when there would be substantial delivery. Hopefully it will be soon.

While ATACMS may not be the final straw, along with F-16s (and Nato specific ordinance) arriving I am feeling more confident the Kerch bridge will not see new years day.

[kcdusk]

I'm a long time reader of The War Zone. But in the last two or three days i have not been able to read the articles when i click on them. I get a message that reads

"Application error: a client-side exception has occurred (see the browser console for more information)."

Any ideas if this is a problem my end? Or their end? Anyone else having a problem?

[Raellus]

I haven't had any issues. I'm not a tech-savvy guy, but try clearing your cache and see if that doesn't clear up the issue.

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[kato13]

Ukrainian USV armed with a twin rail launcher for R-73 all-aspect IR homing air-to-air missiles.



I have been waiting for something like this to show up. The missile capability probably limits it to low flying and slow speed targets (helicopters) but still a nice addition to the Black sea.