Sanctions against Russia

[willedoo]

A couple of photos of putler's entry into politics after leaving the KGB. His first job was working for the mayor of St. Petersburg, Anatoly Sobchak, the bloke he's following around in the photos.

 

[willedoo]

They're claiming another Su-34 shot down today. If true, the ten day tally is:

7 x Su-34

2 x Su-35

1 x Beriev A-50

1 x Il-22M

A fairly conservative estimate of value would be around 850 million USD.

[onetrack]

The Orcs are claiming they blew up a Ukrainian M1 Abrams tank, but the true story may be that the damage is repairable, as the ammunition storage compartment on the Abrams is designed to blow outwards, and save the crew, and not blow the turret off, as it does with Russian tanks.

 

https://essanews.com/ukrainian-abrams-tank-survives-dramatic-explosion-demonstrating-exceptional-design-safety,6999956675769985a

[nomadpete]

I hear that Ukraine is asking the Australian government for our old Abrams tanks. They are scheduled for replacement soon. I hope that doesn't trigger the defence department to immediately scrap and bury them.

[spenaroo]

I think there is more to that story then meets the eye,

the taipans were relatively modern and still used by NATO... it was to be THE NATO helicopter,
I assume all the avionics, and electronics are the latest NATO spec. and as such they don't want it in the hands of the Russians and by proxy, china. who already have copied the Blackhawk as opposed to using the Russian technology.
 

not to mention the fact they completely stripped the helicopters before burying the airframe's makes me think there was more agreements and contracts in play.

 

F16's and Abrams are 70's tech.

 

Edited February 29 by spenaroo

[pmccarthy]

If you have equipment that you can't use in case the enemy gets it then what's the point?

[onetrack]

The Taipans destruction is just the BS defence-use agreements by the military industrial complex, all designed to make more work for them, producing replacement equipment. The Taipans would have been just fine for the Ukrainians.

It seems that the complex technology in the Taipan night vision technology is where they fell down. I'll wager the cause of the last Taipan crash into the sea at night was related to the machines night vision equipment.

 

https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/air/13487-senate-probes-safety-of-mrh90-taipan-night-flying-equipment

 

The availability of the Taipans was low, but this was due to poor logistics on the part of the Defence Dept, and especially their parts procurement programme.

 

https://asiapacificdefencereporter.com/helicopters-there-is-nothing-wrong-with-tiger-and-taipan-the-problem-is-defence-logistics/

 

Edited February 29 by onetrack

[willedoo]

Israel’s ambassador in the UN delivered a speech sticking it up Russia for their support of Hamas. He called Ukraine an ally and announced the provision of early warning systems for air defence. He also likened Russia to Hamas.

 

Israel has been hesitant to pick sides in the Ukraine war, but putler's support of Hamas looks like the tipping point.With Israel committing to Ukraine, it will be interesting to see if it influences American hesitancy.

[Marty_d]

Soooo... Israel are acting like Russia but supporting Ukraine?  If nothing else, it's going to confuse the yanks.

[willedoo]

Ukrainian Air Force is claiming another three Su-34 aircraft shot down yesterday.

[willedoo]

Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ignat commented "Ukraine has a weapon that can reach Russian planes at a long distance" when asked about the destruction of 13 aircraft in less than two weeks. They haven't given details on what that weapon is. I recently read some speculation that they might have modified or adapted the 5V21 missile that is normally fired from the S-200 air defence system. It has solid fuel boosters and a main liquid fuel motor that gives a range up to 300klm.

[willedoo]

If all these Su-34 losses are from the same squadron, it would be very demoralising for the remaining crews and staff.

[willedoo]

I was reading some specs on S-200 missiles (if that's in fact what they are using). Maximum missile speed is 2500 m/s and maximum target speed is around Mach 6 for new model and Mach 4 for earlier model. The missile uses radio illumination mid-course correction to fly towards the target with a terminal semi-active radar homing phase. Each missile weighs just over 7000kg at takeoff weight. The warhead is 217 kg high-explosive fragmentation, which is almost the bang of a 500lb bomb.

 

All that doesn't give the crews a very good chance of survival by ejecting, and is a big step up from being hit with a much smaller heat seeking MANPADS which would likely take an engine or two out but still give a chance of the crew ejecting.

 

When they see that missile on their radar closing at Mach 6, I wonder what their last thoughts are about putler and his glory. A bunch of lemmings doing what they're told.

[willedoo]

Here's a photo of the missile type in question. It looks very similar to the Bristol Bloodhound at our local air museum (bottom photo).

 

[willedoo]

The Ukrainians are making caltrops out of sharpened rebar and dropping them from drones to stop Russian trucks.

[Marty_d]

Ukrainian innovation will change the face of warfare.  What's the point of massively expensive crewed ships when a speedboat sized suicide drone can take it out?

[facthunter]

Russian Arms sales will probably drop off.. We don't have to guess how good they might be. anymore.    Nev

[onetrack]

The North Vietnamese used those sharpened metal caltrop spikes, too - but they weren't the first - the idea goes right back into antiquity.

 

In todays world, you can mass-produce them easily. Just bend two pieces of sharpened rod into about a 120° bend, and then weld them together so 3 legs are always down, and one leg is always up. You can then sow them by the thousand, dropping them from a vehicle, or from an aircraft.

 

https://makedonia-alexandros.blogspot.com/2020/05/the-caltrop-weapon-to-be-reckoned-with.html

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caltrop

 

Edited March 2 by onetrack

[willedoo]

The crazy house is getting crazier. Dmitry Medvedev, former Russian president, former PM, and current deputy chair of the Russian government security council, has lately taken to wearing Dr.Evil/Hillary Clinton suits when presenting his rants of threatening nuclear war and dissolving the Ukrainian state. He misses the USSR.

 

[willedoo]

He's been into Hillary's wardrobe. Always suspected he was a cross dresser.

 

[willedoo]

This is the buffoon in front of his preferred plan for Ukraine, whittling it down to a small area around Kyiv.

 

 

[willedoo]

Just some trivia on the Bradley fighting vehicle which has been very popular with Ukrainian forces. I looked up the Wikipedia page on the Bradleys and found out it has a V8 Cummins 903 engine. I can remember driving an ACCO semi in the late 70's that had a 903. It was a nice little motor and had good torque. The 903 in the Bradley is about 600hp, so about twice the horsepower of the old standard motor. The original Bradley motor was a VTA-903-T500, and from 1991 they started converting to the VTA-903-T600.

 

A turretless version of the Bradley by BAE Systems is replacing the M113 in U.S. forces.

[Mr.Vegemite]

I worked on 6 cylinder Cummins diesels with Qantas. They ran 90KVA generators for external power to the aircraft.

Those things ran all day and night under load quite often. Very reliable. 

 

[facthunter]

 Were they Branded "HOBART" ?  Nev

[onetrack]

The Ukrainians have had more success with another destroyed Russian patrol boat - the Sergey Kotov. They've released video of their V5 marine drones attack on it.

The Sergey Kotov was only built in 2017, and was previously hit by a Ukrainian attack in Sept 2023. This time, the Ukrainians say they sank it.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_22160_patrol_ship

 

https://kyivindependent.com/media-russias-sergey-kotov-patrol-vessel-hit-near-crimea/