Sanctions against Russia

[pmccarthy]

That would be fun if the drone could not hit back.

[onetrack]

I'd want something a bit more potent than 7.62mm rounds to bring down a drone. A 7.62mm round has a human knock-down range of 300M firing along the ground.

Firing up into the air, the knock-down range of a 7.62mm round must be lucky to be 200M, giving that gravity seriously affects bullets fired upwards.

Those Shahed drones must be travelling higher than 200M, surely.

I read specs where they reckon they do 180kmh, but can travel at up to 4000M altitude.

 

The Nazis used the 88mm AA gun against bombers initially, but then converted it to an anti-tank gun. As an AA gun, it could lob it's 9.6kgs rounds up to over 10,000 metres altitude - where it was still extremely dangerous. Maybe the Ukrainians need to dig out a few old WW2 Nazi 88mm AA guns again. Then the Orcs could truly call them a pack of nasty Nazis.

 

https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/why-german-88mm-gun-was-best-in-the-war/#:~:text=The German Kriegsmarine had adopted,maximum range of 10%2C800 meters.

 

Edited February 12 by onetrack

[willedoo]

I'd imagine they only use the maxims against small FPV drones attacking the front lines. They probably work on the principle of trying to put as much metal in the air as possible and hope some of it hits.

[willedoo]

Another one bites the dust. The large landing ship Caesar Kunikov is no more. Happy Valentine's Day Vladimir.

 

[nomadpete]

They seem to be whittling away at the edges of the Rusky support and logistics.

Sounds like a practical approach when you are outnumered on the battlefield.

[nomadpete]

1 hour ago, willedoo said:

Another one bites the dust. The large landing ship Caesar Kunikov is no more. Happy Valentine's Day Vladimir.

 

These landing ships don't look anything like the landing barges of old. How do they 'land' troops and tanks from it?

[willedoo]

3 hours ago, nomadpete said:

These landing ships don't look anything like the landing barges of old. How do they 'land' troops and tanks from it?

The landing ships are a big step up from landing barges. The bow and stern opens up so they can roll on/roll off. They can also crane load via forward deck hatches. The vehicle deck runs full length of the hull and can carry 25 APC's. They're a modern equivalent of the WW2 LST (Landing Ship,Tank). First photo is of what was the Caesar Kunikov with bow doors open. For a comparison the other two photos are of LST 471 that my father went on from Morotai to the beach landings at Balikpapan in 1945. LST 471 is a popular dive wreck off North Carolina these days.

 

Edited February 14 by willedoo

[willedoo]

Just a bit of trivia on the subject of LSTs: Most of my dad's battalion (2/9th.AIF) went from Morotai to Balikpapan on the troop ship HMAS Kanimbla and transferred over the side to landing barges for the beach landings. My dad and a small detachment were detailed to loading the battalion's gear on USS LST-471, so they made the trip across in it and landed direct on the beach. Before the war, the Kanimbla was a civilian passenger ship operating between Cairns and Freemantle. The Kanimbla was still operating up until 1973 for a Japanese company running between Guam and Yokohama. LST 471 only made it to 1948. She was on her way up to New York destined for a scrap yard when she ran aground in a storm off North Carolina.

[willedoo]

The tally for the last two weeks is one missile carrying corvette and now another large landing ship. It's said that the crew on the landing ship can be up to 87 sailors. There's no word yet on any survivors. It would depend on the time lapse from the drone strikes to the point where the ship rolled over and sank as to whether they had time to evacuate.

 

If you wind the clock back to when the Ukrainian marine surface drones were in their infancy, the attacks on ships had varying results. They didn't have large numbers of drones to use, so some ships were damaged but not destroyed. Now that they have improved drones in serial production, the new tactics of multiple drone swarm attacks are paying off with total losses of the targets. They seem to be hitting them in the stern and both sides in quick succession.

 

In these drone footage screen grabs the ship is seen listing to port at frame time 2.39. Ten seconds later at 2.49, it's rolled completely on it's side, so it looks like it sank quickly once it started to go.

 

[willedoo]

They've come a long way with their drones. Top photo is Ukraine's first surface drone, the Sea Baby. Bottom photo is the current Magura V5 drone showcased at the unmanned systems expo in the UAE last month.

 

Edited February 15 by willedoo

[spenaroo]

WW2 started with bi-planes and ended with jets,

war certainly speeds up innovation and progress

[onetrack]

I love it when a huge aggressive war-mongering nations war assets are being demolished by low-cost weaponry from the nation they're trying to subdue.

[nomadpete]

27 minutes ago, onetrack said:

I love it when a huge aggressive war-mongering nations war assets are being demolished by low-cost weaponry from the nation they're trying to subdue.

Dou you mean like USofA and Viet Nam?

 

😉

[willedoo]

Surely this would be a big concern for major navies like the US, UK and France. I'm not very clued in on marine radar. Would the small size of the surface drones make them hard to detect?

[willedoo]

1 hour ago, onetrack said:

I love it when a huge aggressive war-mongering nations war assets are being demolished by low-cost weaponry from the nation they're trying to subdue.

There's a real imbalance there. Not much point in the Russians developing similar drones for this conflict as Ukraine doesn't have much navy at all. The targets are all there for Ukraine.

 

You could almost equate it to the aviation imbalance in Vietnam. There were only two American pilot aces (+ 2 WSO and 1 RIO aces) compared to sixteen North Vietnam pilot aces. It's not that the North Vietnamese pilots were any better, but just that they had a target rich environment. The Americans, on the other hand, had very few North Vietnamese fighter planes to engage.

[onetrack]

Those drone boats would be a nightmare for radar operators to pick up, I'd have to opine. They'd have to be100% alert every second of every hour, and respond instantly.

I'll wager plenty of Russian sailors are switched off, maybe even drunk. We all know what the Rooskies are like, when it comes to booze.

But the fact the Ukrainians use several drone boats approaching from both sides and rear, is an even more clever modus operandi. They're the next best thing to torpedos, which are any sailors terror.

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/russias-weak-defenses-letting-ukrainian-drone-boats-blow-holes-warships-2023-8

 

[willedoo]

I wonder if it was a coincidence that the landing ship Caesar Kunikov was sunk on Valentine's Day, February 14th.. It's named after a Soviet navy officer who died on February 14th., 1943.

[Marty_d]

"To Russia,  with love" ?

[willedoo]

Alexei Navalny died in prison.

[onetrack]

I'm sure his death will be found to be the result of an unfortunate fall out of an open jail window.

[willedoo]

They're saying he collapsed after a walk and couldn't be revived.

[willedoo]

It looks like their official version is death caused by a detached thrombus. I think that's a blood clot that comes loose and causes a blockage. Bit of a change from the window excuse.

[onetrack]

The reason for his death is quite likely linked to his previous poisoning by Poo-Tin, that he survived.

[Jerry_Atrick]

1 hour ago, willedoo said:

They're saying he collapsed after a walk and couldn't be revived.

A well aimed bullet will usually do that to someone.

[willedoo]

Military security chief Budanov says he knows who poisoned his wife. Quote: "I know who poisoned my wife. In the near future you will see the answer on the territory of Russia, and everyone will understand it"

 

There was speculation at the time as to whether the Russians were to blame, or whether it was an internal job. There were a few other GUR officers officers poisoned as well when it happened last November. Supposedly heavy metals placed in food.