Posted on 08/22/2022 8:40:33 AM PDT by dennisw
The original MLRS and HIMARS rockets had submunition warheads (as do the Russian Grad MLRS). No doubt we still have lots of the older sub-munition type rockets in inventory.
As they approach the ground, they disperse a cloud of hundreds of little grenades, so they can cover a wider area than a single high explosive warhead. That is more effective for striking supply convoys, because you get more trucks with each rocket, and it is effective at setting off secondary detonations of ammo and fuel on the trucks.
Reportedly, this was an ammo supply convoy (likely artillery rounds, since the Russians are using mountains of them). So the net explosive weight of the trucks cargoes was likely much more than warheads of the rockets - a big force multiplier for effect on the bridge (likely tons of explosives per truck, and reportedly nine trucks).
Nope. Maybe China but not Russia. This whole proxy war is a warning to China that short of total war, no matter who they attack, the good old USA will proxy fight them into the ground.
If the Ukrainians suffered the kind of losses you state they would have lost more territory and would have had to sue for peace. In fact, any Russian advances in Donetsk have been limited to 100 meters per day and they have lost ground in Kherson. Therefore what you said is simply not true.
You write that ad if Russia is some sort of benevolent actor in the world.
That’s amusing.
You win a Red Star sticker for your support of the motherland.
Just like the Soviets (Putin's old gang), with Chinese help killed 58k Americans in Vietnam war. And a lot more Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians. And had done similarly a decade before in Korea. We didn't escalate then. Whey should the Russians now? If the Russians were as good as they claim then (A) the Ukrainians would be eager to rejoin Mother Russia, and (B) the shock and awe of the mighty Russian arms would have overrun Ukraine in the war's first week.
What are Russian bandits doing there? Didn’t they get the memo about “liberating” Donbas? Someone give those stupid apes a map, please.
Sometimes a desire to believe in our high tech military blinds us to the obvious.
Which would be more likely:
1) Some satellite surveillance system detects a convoy of Russian trucks in Crimea heading for Kherson and somehow figures out what is in the trucks. All that data gets processed in the USA and then sent across the world to some Ukrainian artillery team in minutes.
< 2) A Ukrainian in their house which overlooks the road to the bridge, or is next to where the trucks were loaded relays that data by simply posting on telegram or twitter. Or they post a picture, or they message somebody they know.
You can read and see an endless stream of data about Russian troop movements from Ukrainians in occupied areas. People report when they hear artillery, and what kind it sounds like, and post pictures of armor or trucks passing by.
Why do you think there is video of the bridge being hit taken from a short distance away? Because somebody was watching...
Let’s hope that photo is real, what a hit this was if it pans out.
Nope. They would have had to track the trucks from origin and their progress, and then estimate when they would be crossing the bridge, launching at the appropriate time, and if they hit the trucks on the bridge (I don’t know if they did or not) it’s a further tell.
Do you not believe that we are providing targeting information from our assets? I think we’ve admitted as much.
You are minimizing the disaster. The Russians are probably going to have to retreat all the way to Odessa and Transnistria.
“Sometimes a desire to believe in our high tech military blinds us to the obvious.”
I am rooting for neither Ukraine nor Russia in this conflict. I wish we were not so involved.
A Ukrainian in their house could not provide real-time terminal target guidance to an inflight HIMARS missile, neither could a stock Turkish Drone.
Your 2nd scenario is quite unlikely to work. Your first, is much closer to being likely.
Doesn’t look like same bridge to me.
Bingo!
Seems that the photo is fake.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/some-bridges-need-burning-brittinay-lenhart
This from last months damage to this bridge. Around July 29th. Here is the best video I have seen.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/ukraine/video-2738973/Video-Ukraine-army-strategically-damages-bridge-occupied-Kherson.html
Nope. They would have had to track the trucks from origin ...
—
UA does track targets like convoys of trucks, especially valuable ones carrying ammo and other mobile high value assets
The only have to track from the time they entered Crimea, not some origin in the Far East. There would be no problem for a Bayraktar TB2 to pick them up when they crossed the Kersh bridge. And then shadow them to the bridge.
Of course the US is also providing targeting info. But its delayed 15 minuets last I heard. Those convoys are not exactly speedy.
I do not doubt Ukraines ability to track targets.
To get exact time of arrival, you need to actively update the missile. If that’s what happened (realistically, it could be disinformation) it wasn’t as a result of Ukrainian assets.
OK! So the Ukrainians are too stupid, too backward, to track assets and time their arrival at a specific point. Only Americans are that smart. I get it now.
The 15,000 on the wrong side of the bridge have to go somewhere, but my money is on back to Russia for a prisoner swap.
There are 4 more bridges between there and Odessa, and odds are nearing zero they will cross even one of them.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.