Russian invasion of Ukraine

[welshbairn]

2 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

I thought we were giving them all the old shite that was getting flung out anyway.

That was before the latest stuff on Party Gate and Zelinsky started bigging up Boris as being like Churchill.

[Newbornbairn]

6 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

I thought we were giving them all the old shite that was getting flung out anyway.

That was when we assumed they were going to lose.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

4 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

bigging up Boris as being like Churchill.

He’s always been a big fat racist tbf.

[dorlomin]

 

[LongTimeLurker]

47 minutes ago, jagfox said:

Not read too much into it  but a lot of these areas including Transnistria and the Russian parts of the Donbas were instigated by turning the police to back Russian interests

In both cases new language laws that sidelined Russian in a big way caused unrest in heavily Russophone areas.

Most people in Crimea never really wanted to be part of Ukraine. Khruschev moved it from Russia to Ukraine pretty much on a personal whim in the 1950s.

Putin often claims that Lenin did much the same where the Donbas was concerned when the Ukrainian SSR was formed but that's not quite as clear cut.

Transnistria wasn't historically part of Moldova and was added to it under dubious circumstances by Stalin.

There were always likely to be tensions when Soviet republics turned into sovereign independent states in other words because a lot of people thought the lines on the map were in the wrong place.

[ICTChris]

30 minutes ago, dorlomin said:

 

Also pictured during this raid was the following, strange thing for a neo-Nazi hit squad to have on them. Suggestion is that someone was asked to “get some SIM cards” and they misunderstood the order.

 

[coprolite]

32 minutes ago, LongTimeLurker said:

In both cases new language laws that sidelined Russian in a big way caused unrest in heavily Russophone areas.

Most people in Crimea never really wanted to be part of Ukraine. Khruschev moved it from Russia to Ukraine pretty much on a personal whim in the 1950s.

Putin often claims that Lenin did much the same where the Donbas was concerned when the Ukrainian SSR was formed but that's not quite as clear cut.

Transnistria wasn't historically part of Moldova and was added to it under dubious circumstances by Stalin.

There were always likely to be tensions when Soviet republics turned into sovereign independent states in other words because a lot of people thought the lines on the map were in the wrong place.

This is why colonialism was a better idea than their mediaeval style imperialism. 

We don't need to give a shit about the lines on the map because they're halfway around the world. 

[welshbairn]

1 hour ago, Newbornbairn said:

That was when we assumed they were going to lose.

Quite, and giving the Russians up to date technology like IS got in Mosul.

[ICTChris]

More explosions are being reported in Transnistria.

This Medusa is fascinating. The authors went out and asked people randomly in the streets what they thought about the war. obviously the translation makes it read a bit odd and it’s not a scientific survey at all but it captures a lot of the emotions and feelings underneath the surface about it all.

https://meduza.io/feature/2022/04/24/voyti-vo-mrak-i-naschupat-v-nem-lyudey

[Loonytoons]

It's about the size of a Cessna or a Spitfire.

Neither are SI units of volume. We need to know how big it is in relation to whales.

[ICTChris]

 

[SweeperDee]

 

Internal sabotage?

[SlipperyP]

3 hours ago, SweeperDee said:

Internal sabotage?

Sleeper White Army cells.  Been waiting for 100 years.

Edited April 26, 2022 by SlipperyP

[Melanius Mullarkey]

7 hours ago, Loonytoons said:

10 hours ago, Newbornbairn said:

It's about the size of a Cessna or a Spitfire.

Neither are SI units of volume. We need to know how big it is in relation to wales

FTFY 

[jagfox]

Lavrov voicng possibility of WW111 and subsequent use of nuclear weapons tempered by his thoughts that this conflict will end with a signed treaty based on the course of hostilities.

 

[Newbornbairn]

6 minutes ago, jagfox said:

Lavrov voicng possibility of WW111 and subsequent use of nuclear weapons tempered by his thoughts that this conflict will end with a signed treaty based on the course of hostilities.

 

And we all know how much Russian signed treaties are worth.

[dirty dingus]

22 minutes ago, jagfox said:

Lavrov voicng possibility of WW111 and subsequent use of nuclear weapons tempered by his thoughts that this conflict will end with a signed treaty based on the course of hostilities.

 

What can Russia do to NATO? Their armed forces sound pretty stretched in Ukraine. The nuclear threat is always there but I think the West are quite willing to call their bluff on this. The only way I could see the nuclear option is if it became a full scale war and NATO/ Ukraine forces were taking large swathes of Russia territory. It does always loom large here though with the subs being visible on the Clyde daily and being a first strike target.  Russia has been taking the piss for a few years now aided and abetted by politicians here I suppose a line in the sand had to be drawn at some point and that is now.

[renton]

12 hours ago, ICTChris said:

I was just about to post that. Small drones can get past air defence systems designed to look for planes. A lot of people thought that the Russians had equipment to jam and take out drones but it doesn’t seem to be the case. 

Makes you wonder what could happen if/when the UK or the US has to engage with an enemy who have drone capabilities.

Well, the last UK defence review made a big thing about "contesting the electromagnetic" space - and there is to be a doubling of Electronic Warfare troops in the British Army. So suspect there is a big push to try and counter drones via jamming.

In terms of "kinetic" effects there is a trend in Western thinking towards reintroducing small/medium auto cannons alongside a missile armament:

Tracking likely from electro-optical sensors, or something like a Lidar sensor as the RCS of most drones is pretty small and not even fully optimised.

What is likely is that Western forces will need to upscale the numbers of anti air kit into their battlegroups. The West is used to winning the air war and only then fighting the ground war. Drones allow a level of asymmetric air support that traditional Western air forces would struggle to deal with.

On the other hand it's not like the West struggles for drones in it's own right. The British army uses them extensively for reconnaissance and target acquisition (hand launched Desert Hawk 3 and the much larger Watchkeeper) and has acquired Switchblade from the US. The RAF operates the Reaper and shortly the Protector in the persistent, armed role, similar to the Turkish TB2 (except much higher specced)

In the future the RAF is also developing a loyal wingman fast armed drone to fly alongside it's fast jets to provide combat mass and go places manned jets don't want to. Interestingly there is also the Alvina concept which is a swarm of drones who's job it is to over match air defences through various Electronic jamming measures - so there is maybe already an application there for persistent deployment over a battlefield to ruin a recon drones day. UK also has the Zephyr HAPS programme - extremely high flying (>60k ft) ultra long persistence (weeks) and electrical powered with satellite like sensors for reconnaissance.

I guess as defences catch up, drones will need to get smaller, faster or have their own self defence capabilities.  That will increase their cost and some of the impact of drones in opening up that asymmetric space for resource poor forces will go.

If the future is in precision strike, you could see it as something like the future UK Spear missile or the current Brimstone mass launched from light armoured or unmanned vehicles.

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by renton

[alta-pete]

@renton  always interesting and well informed (if, for me, a little over-technical) stuff. Where are you/did you get to in the armed forces? Do we have a Rear Admiral or Field Marshal among our number? (And feel free to tell me to GTF if that’s a prying question!) 

[alta-pete]

Or my £1 says he washes @Trackdaybob’s car.