Posted on 04/11/2022 10:25:11 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
A fair amount of the old USSR’s armament factories were located within the Ukraine and were taken over by them, rather than Russian successor states. And, at least since the prior round of Russian invading Ukraine they’ve kept them working maintaining, upgrading and manufactoring new munitions. Maybe corruption has them not working well by US standards, but they appear to be working at least as well, if not better, than those on the Russian side of the border.
Still the spring mud season there. Any maneuvering off road gets you hull deep in mud. So, maneuver off road and get stuck for sure, stay in the vehicle and hope yours doesn’t get hit or unass the vehicle and run to live another day?
Afaik the Waffen SS was the only military organization that stipulated when a crew member could abandon a tank. In their case your tank had to be burning before you could abandon it.
Maybe Ivan is using the same rules?
The problem with this approach is Russia is not producing enough babies to have lots to throw away indiscriminately.
In addition, the Russians rely on armor more than infantry, and they do not have an infinite supply of tanks.
It appears the number of tanks they have available and operational is significantly less than was thought.
They may prevail. It is unclear what will ultimately happen in this conflict.
What is clear, is Russia's capabilities seem far less than what was thought.
Was wondering about the surrounding terrain. Most of our kills during the Battle of Khafji were “mobility” kills. Take out the lead and trail vehicles and when the tanks left the pavement they sank into the sabkha, which would support all but the heaviset trucks and smaller track laying vehicles.
Being sold as slaves to Russian oligarchs.
Then, would you say that the American-made Switchblade drones Biden plans to send to Ukraine are a waste of time and funding?
Any penetration, whether by kinetic (sabot) round, or HEAT (High Explosive Anti Tank) would be violent enough to kill all crew and cause fire and explosion of fuel, ammo, etc.
The weak point of all Soviet made armor is the shoddy manufacturing. During Desert Storm I saw, time after time, bulkheads that were designed to survive blasts collapse one on top of the other. In the case of SP Arty, the driver was liquefied and forced out of his position past the hatch seals.
That makes sense. Better to luze one loader than the whole tankful of soldiers, I suppose.
Not kinetic energy rounds, almost certainly chemical energy weapons, probably NLAWs. Tanks are made for killing other tanks and have horrible outward fields of vision because tanks, on the whole, tend to be large and easy to spot. Their best defensive tool is thermal imaging (which makes troops in the open easy to spot) but a there are a number of ways a clever enemy can defeat that. This probably is a bunch of grunts dug in and camouflaged and remaining completely concealed until the target tank is vulnerable and not in a position to shoot back.
The explosions look like direct hits, not overhead airbursts. In direct attack mode the NLAW’s warhead can penetrate almost 20 inches of rolled homogeneous armor.
The only place the T-72 has that much armor is the glacis (the sloping bit running from the turret forward to the bow). The turret is only about 8”. Shoot it in the flank and even if you don’t kill it you’ll probably damage the road wheels and get a mobility kill. Which converts the tank into a 50-ton radio. (tanks are far less robust and more easily damaged than you might imagine)
Notice that the tanks (sometimes) are alternating whether their gun tubes are pointed to the right of the road or the left. That shows that the tank commanders are scanning for the local threat, so they’re not rushing in blindly, they’re just being outsmarted.
What conclusion would you draw from the fact that, the Russians have not been able to capture any major cities, and those that they have ‘taken’ had to be blown to pieces before they could claim them. Secondly, what conclusion would you draw from reports that the Russians had to pull back from the big cities and are now concentrating on taking territory closer to Russia? Thirdly, what conclusion would you draw from the fact that, with Russia being a ‘major military power’, that they haven’t been able to take Ukraine by now?
***Those are good 40,000 foot questions. Some of them could have 40,000 foot answers, such as the Russians might realize that their opponent is harder to fight than they realized, so they’re focusing on the real prize, those oil/gas rich regions to the east. But based upon my interaction with Putinistas, I predict your questions will be met with crickets.
They aren’t the drones in classic form but more like cruise missiles of loiter munitions. The Russians have plenty of such as well.
They are not a waste - but Biden is slow walking aid using the bureaucracy
the UK on the other hand is rushing aid as quick as possible with the front line troops like the UA 93rd getting the latest 2021 designed anti armor equipment.
The UA has many drones - most are the quad-copter variety which is usually used for Intel, but can be equipped with tank busting bomb. More of the larger Byrockatr variety are coming in from Turkey.
Interesting. Didn’t this guy used to post here at one time?
The UA also has a remote anti-armor system - set it up, leave, then watch on a screen for the enemy to come within range, fire.
I disagree.
Japan’s “Asian strategy” did not succeed on Guadalcanal or at Midway.
Persia’s “Asian strategy” did not succeed at Issus.
The Turks’ “Asian strategy” did not succeed at Lepanto.
And the Zulu’s similar strategy of swarming and overrunning a smaller opponent did not succeed at Rorke’s Drift or Bloody River.
So I do not despair...
QUANTITY can often be defeated by QUALITY.
>I would expect tanks under attack to start maneuvering, not just standing still waiting to get hit.
Maybe US Armor doctrine would try to recover some initiative, but a lot of countries are not so hip. Besides, there’s a lot of holes in the ground out there...perhaps the crews bailed out because they were sitting ducks. Or perhaps the commander was taken out first, they’re blocked front and back, they’re afraid of getting stuck if they go off road, and now they’re just buttoned because they don’t know what to do...
The vid may be trying to tell a story, but it’s not necessarily the whole or correct version....
Missiles and artillery will not gain ground unless troops move forward to secure it. The tanks are supposed to spearhead the seizing of strategic positions. So the troops and tanks still need to move forward.
Obviously offense has not been outlawed, so if Russia fails to advance in the end then it was their flaw.
Honestly, it’s hard to imagine that a large force with air and artillery, and armor support, can’t press through to victory.
Then again Ukraine isn’t small and they are fighting well. But they may still lose.
We’ll see.
“Tanks are soo… last century. They are sitting ducks in modern warfare.”
Lets hope we don’t discover our aircraft carriers are sitting ducks in a similar way .
Russian - Helicopter Attack Ukraine Convoy
Apr 10, 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMXYyfJSfAY
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