Sanctions against Russia

[willedoo]

They've been using these little amphibious rescue vehicles in Kherson to retrieve stranded people. As far as I know, the propulsion in water is solely by the big ribbed balloon tyres. They are very slow in the water but they work.

 

[willedoo]

This is a screen grab of some of the armour the Ukrainians lost a couple of days into the offensive. This was an armoured company sized unit that ran into a minefield. Reports are that most of the men inside the vehicles survived. This group lost a Leopard main battle tank, a Leopard mine clearance tank, eight Bradley IFV's and one other IFV type. Initially there was only three Bradleys hit, then the others came out to rescue them and were destroyed as well. From what I can gather, they hit mines and were disabled, then Russian artillery drones directed artillery fire on them. Some reports have said the Ukrainians were able to retrieve the repairable units.

 

It's a tough job to advance across heavily mined open black soil plains. The challenge with the mines is that it forces the vehicles into one narrow column on a cleared path and creates an easy target for artillery. They bunch up and this happens. In this one incident, Ukraine lost almost 10% of the Bradleys supplied by the U.S.. One positive thing is that the Bradleys have proven their troop survivability with anti tank mines.

 

Edited June 11, 2023 by willedoo

[willedoo]

There's not much news coming through due to Ukraine's strict operational security; journalists have been barred from the areas of fighting. So far, it looks like the Ukrainians are attacking along most of the front rather than a concentrated push in one area. They still have many brigades in the rear reserve. Attacking on a broad front is forcing the Russians to move troops around and bring up their reserves to plug gaps. My guess is the Ukrainians will keep doing this until they find a weak point where they can breach the lines, then concentrate forces there.

 

The hard part is still to come. The Russian first line of defence is basically entrenched troops; the main defensive line is further back with entrenched artillery and armour.

[Jerry_Atrick]

This video was posted by the Sun, which, IMHO may casty into doubt its authenticity, but is very interesting:

 

[pmccarthy]

It’s good to see them aiming. Most bullets seem to get fired in the general direction of the enemy without aiming.

[facthunter]

Same as in a good toilet. The management says WE aim to please.... YOU Aim Too, Please.  Nev

[willedoo]

On 12/06/2023 at 7:58 AM, Jerry_Atrick said:

This video was posted by the Sun, which, IMHO may casty into doubt its authenticity, but is very interesting:

I'd say it's genuine. That video has been up on Twitter for a few days and hasn't been debunked as fake as far as I know. The Twitterati are a tough audience as far as scrutinising photo & video for evidence of faking, so if survives a few days there it's most likely on the level. A lot of the MSM reporting on the war is based on social media posts, mainly Twitter & Telegram, but they seem to wait until it's done the rounds there before reporting so they have a higher chance of accuracy. I think that's the reason behind the 2 or 3 day delay between news breaking on social media and the reporting on the MSM. Social media is the test bed for the MSM news. 

[willedoo]

The chief executive of Raytheon Technologies, main contractor for building the patriot missile defence system, has said the Ukrainians are shooting down hypersonic missiles flying twice the speed the system was designed for. He went on to say that the Ukrainians tweaked the system's software to enable it to perform well above specs.

[willedoo]

The Russians have reported the death of Major General Sergei Goryachev, the Chief of Staff of the 35th Combined Arms Army of Russia in an air strike. Several other officers in the command group are thought to have been liquidated as well. It's the first loss of an orc general in quite a while. There seemed to be a spate of them last year, then none hit for a long time before this character. He started the war as a VDV Colonel rank commanding officer, had some success and got promoted.

[spenaroo]

52 minutes ago, willedoo said:

The chief executive of Raytheon Technologies, main contractor for building the patriot missile defence system, has said the Ukrainians are shooting down hypersonic missiles flying twice the speed the system was designed for. He went on to say that the Ukrainians tweaked the system's software to enable it to perform well above specs.

guess that's the difference between designing to the specification's asked,
and building to maximize the resources available 

[rgmwa]

2 hours ago, willedoo said:

The chief executive of Raytheon Technologies, main contractor for building the patriot missile defence system, has said the Ukrainians are shooting down hypersonic missiles flying twice the speed the system was designed for. He went on to say that the Ukrainians tweaked the system's software to enable it to perform well above specs.

Very clever of the Ukrainians but a bit embarrassing for Raytheon, I would have thought.

 

Maybe we should send them our Hawkeis and let them fix the brakes for us.

 

The Australian Defence Force is blaming a faulty braking system in Hawkei armoured vehicles for it's reluctance to not send more to Ukraine. The anti-lock braking system fault affects the vehicles stopping power at high speeds but not its off-road performance.

 

[Marty_d]

I'm sure the Ukrainian's won't mind the ABS not kicking in at high speed.  We should give them more Bushmasters too, they love them.

[facthunter]

Most Countries don't know the meaning of "the BUSH". It's an OZ thing. .  Nev

[nomadpete]

43 minutes ago, facthunter said:

Most Countries don't know the meaning of "the BUSH". It's an OZ thing. .  Nev

Anywhere other than Australia would expect a Bush Master to be a personal grooming device designed to remove unsightly hair.

[red750]

In many countries, what we call "the bush" is referred to as "the woods".

 

"We went hunting deer in the woods".

[onetrack]

So we should be sending "Woodsmasters" to the Ukrainians?

[Jerry_Atrick]

11 hours ago, red750 said:

In many countries, what we call "the bush" is referred to as "the woods".

 

"We went hunting deer in the woods".

Or, "I can see a beaver through the woods"...

[red750]

1 minute ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Or, "I can see a beaver through the woods"...

I do believe there's a Squatch in these woods. - BFRO's Matt Moneymaker

[willedoo]

15 hours ago, facthunter said:

Most Countries don't know the meaning of "the BUSH". It's an OZ thing. .  Nev

and South Africa, it seems to be a common term there.

[Old Koreelah]

As the global success of Bluey has shown, even Americans can adapt to Australia’s accent, so let’s cast off our cultural cringe and use our own lingo.

 

[spenaroo]

that cricket episode is amazing, worth the 7 minutes to watch it

[Old Koreelah]

1 hour ago, spenaroo said:

that cricket episode is amazing, worth the 7 minutes to watch it

Haven’t seen that one yet; can you post a link?

[Old Koreelah]

While we talk trivia, people are fighting for life in Ukraine. This report shows how desperate they are for reliable equipment; wounded soldiers recovering in hospital keep in close contact with their mates and try to help:

 

Viking, 33, sitting in a wheelchair after being seriously wounded by mortar fire in the northern Luhansk sector of the front at the beginning of June, said he had just been “trying to get spare parts” for a car his unit was using near the frontline to extract the wounded, complaining it had been bought only two weeks earlier and already needed to be repaired. So cash-strapped is Ukraine’s military that the parts would be paid for by the soldiers and wounded soldiers themselves.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/17/21st-century-warfare-ukraine-counteroffensive-frontline

Meanwhile Australia resists sending Hawkeyes, claiming they’re not ready.
I wish our people showed the enterprise and motivation we see in Ukraine. 

[willedoo]

This is an Iranian supplied Mohajer-6 drone that the Russians shot down themselves in a friendly fire incident. Not so interesting, but I like what the Ukrainian dog in the foreground is doing to it.

 

 

[willedoo]

The Ukrainians are ratcheting up their missile attacks on Russian logistics in the south. They've punched a hole in the Chonhar road bridge linking Crimea to Kherson province over the Suvash. It  appears that the pylon is structurally damaged as well, so heavy transport will have to take a long detour to the west for a while. Judging by the distance involved, the missile was likely a British supplied Storm Shadow.

 

In the last few days, the Ukrainians have hit railways and major ammunition dumps in the south as well. They had two alternatives - overwhelm the Russian forces with an element of surprise like the Kharkiv offensive last year, or methodically destroy logistics and supply lines, then push forward slowly like they did in Kherson. The Russians are too numerous, well dug in and defended for the Kharkiv option to work. After the initial condiderable losses for small gain, it looks like they are going with the second option to degrade the Russian's ability to supply the front line.

 

I wonder when they will start hitting the main Kerch Straight bridge again. If they can stop Russian military road and rail transport further down the line, there might be more propaganda value in leaving the Kerch bridge intact for Russian civilians to flee Crimea for the Russian mainland. Mass evacuation of civilians from Crimea wouldn't be the look putler would want for his three days to Kiev special thing.