Russia-Ukraine War 2022

In this war, unknowns far outweight what is known. The fuss about Sea King is it is not easy, even dangerous, for Soviet helicopter pilots to migrate onto Western helicopters. What is the purpose for such a trouble? To support special ops, like those riverine boats? Airborne early warning radar? Some crazy jerry-rigged missile platform? One can only speculate at this point.

AEW radar would be good candidate as those would be great for giving much improved early warning and tracking capability against cruise missiles and those Iranian drones. It could also be used for targeting support. Some interesting info about the ASaC Mk7 variant: https://www.seaforces.org/marint/Royal-Navy/AIRCRAFT/Sea-King-RN.htm

The upgrade programme resulted in the Sea King AEW fleet being upgraded with a new mission system, Comms, NavAids, JTIDS, Active Noise Reduction and Videographic recording. The Mission System Upgrade (MSU) component (Radar and partial JTIDS integration) was based around the improved Searchwater 2000AEW radar, with an all-new Man-Machine Interface. This MSU component was later termed "Project Cerberus" by Thales, after successful integration was conducted by Westland and GEC-Marconi. This variant was initially referred to as the Sea King AEW7, but renamed ASaC7 just before In Service Date. (Airborne Surveillance and Control Mk.7). The main role of the Sea King ASaC7 is detection of low-flying attack aircraft; it also provides interception/attack control and over-the-horizon targeting for surface-launched weapon systems. In comparison to older versions, the new radar enables the ASaC7 to simultaneously track up to 400 targets, instead of an earlier limit of 250 targets. The effectiveness of the AEW7 was greatly increased via the addition of a Link 16 data link, allowing gathered radar information to be analysed and rapidly put to use by multiple allied platforms in range.

Missile platform could be another very interesting possibility. I'm sure it would be relatively trivial for the British to modify Sea Kings to carry and launch Brimstone missiles for example.

Out of five missiles targeted Lviv on Nov 23, three were intercepted. So far only 30% of the power load has been restored.

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Three tanks (T-72B3?), one engineer vehicle (IMR-2M?), one BMP, one truck destroyed in one video.

convoy

Found a longer video. The first one looks like a T-90M.

T-90M

Based on the features on the front and the back of the hull. Very likely it was a T-90M.

T-90M

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Putin meets the mothers of soldiers participating the SMO. Don't know what he said, but, a nice table!

Putin and mothers

Kherson after shelling.

Kherson

Based on the features on the front and the back of the hull. Very likely it was a T-90M.

t90m.jpg

Oh boy, it seems that the T-90M turret can fly as well

There goes the "theory" that the super-duper T-90M turret which doesn't explode/fly off like in the older Soviet/Russian tanks

Dedicated to the T-90M turret:

Two more S-300 launchers found in Kherson region.

S-300

Destroyed R-441-OV satellite communication station found in Kherson airport.

R-441-OV

https://militaryarms.ru/voennaya-texnik ... -r-441-ov/

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RUS source about drones and HIMARS:

There is a thesis that the lion's share of drones used by soldiers are supplied by humanitarian orgs. Is that true? Many experts say that our military-industrial complex has "missed" small drones. Yes - the bulk of small UAVs are supplied by volunteers, including our org. The problem with the (quadcopter) drone is the fact that these are consumable products, and the life of a drone on the front line is very short - literally a few weeks from the first flight to its destruction. This is true even if the drone is piloted by a trained operator. And if the operator has not had the appropriate training, does not have relevant combat experience, then this is 1-2 sorties - and the drone will be lost. But at the same time, it is necessary to clearly understand the whole story with drones, and its not exactly true that our Armed Forces were not ready for the very appearance of this type of weapon.

We are witnessing a unique situation - the first mass use of small drones in history. I agree that up to this point, small drones have been used in various military conflicts, for example, in Syria, Yemen, and during the military conflict of 2014-2022 in the Donbass. Our military-industrial complex periodically paid attention to this, but it either did not have resources, or did not have direct orders from the government (to mass produce small drones). As a result, our military-industrial complex was engaged in the production of heavier drones with a narrower specialization, such as Orlans, Zala Aero products and the like. They (Russian military drones) just have a different purpose, are more narrowly specialized, are more expensive and require a different attitude to their use. Do small drones exist in the US Army? No, they don't exist there in larger numbers either. Their (American) military-industrial complex missed this (drone) moment in the same way, and by and large, none of the modern armies of the world was ready for the Mavic phenomenon. To say that only we missed that is fundamentally wrong. The bottom line is that there was no such massive drone as the Mavic in any army, and not a single military even imagined that it would be needed in such volumes.

To what extent has this war changed the idea of small drones - should we expect them to appear in all armies now? Speaking philosophically, this war has changed many views on the Armed Forces, not only in terms of drones, but also in terms of command and control. Flaws in the organization of communications, high-precision weapons became visible. I'll give you an example. For example, the American HIMARS themselves are rather mediocre multiple launch rocket systems, they don’t shoot well, they don’t hit so far, but when satellite-guided precision munitions are used in this system, it turns from mediocrity into a first-class tool for suppressing and destroying enemy rear lines. All this works when it can hit the given targets with high accuracy. We also have similar systems, like Uragan and Smerch, which have precision-guided munitions, satellite guidance, and so on. The problem is that the Americans, in addition to high-precision guidance, have a satellite reconnaissance complex. It allows real-time tracking of targets on the surface of the earth. We have the components of multi-domain integration, communications and control, but, unfortunately, the components of multi-spectral spatial reconnaissance have not been given due attention. We thought that the Americans were spending crazy money, sawing the budgets into some kind of meaningless toys. But we proudly open the 1980s ground force combat manual and everything is "fine" with us. But it turned out that these gadgets actually work.

It suddenly became obvious that our army also needed them. This is also a matter of worldview. It is necessary that generations of officers, generals, those who promote military science, change their worldview in terms of applying new modern technologies. We need gadgets that allow us to increase the effectiveness of conventional weapons, the speed of information processing, and combat control. Old weapons that could no longer be upgraded and effectively used, once equipped with "gadgets", can be very effective. In this sense, the war made it possible to look at these approaches with different eyes, to show that those approaches that dominated military science and the military-industrial complex for decades turned out to be outdated and inappropriate. Now it is necessary to develop new solutions that will allow Russian Armed Forces, our military-industrial complex to come together, and to rethink the national security...

Mythologizing the 'real-time' satellite IRS again. They are really good at finding excuses.

In this war, unknowns far outweight what is known. The fuss about Sea King is it is not easy, even dangerous, for Soviet helicopter pilots to migrate onto Western helicopters. What is the purpose for such a trouble? To support special ops, like those riverine boats? Airborne early warning radar? Some crazy jerry-rigged missile platform? One can only speculate at this point.

Ten Ukrainian crews have completed training on the Sea King in England and will be operating the helicopters.

Proposal to send Patriot SAM systems to directly to Ukraine;

Germany is in discussion with allies over Poland’s request to send German Patriot air missile systems directly to Ukraine, federal government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said Friday.

“We are talking with our allies about how to handle Poland’s … suggestion,” Hoffmann said in reference to Poland’s Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak saying Germany should send Patriot missile air defense systems directly to Ukraine instead of Poland.
“We are following very closely how discussions in Poland continue,” she said.

Hoffman said Germany does not want to “speculate” if Poland would change its mind on accepting its support, adding, “I don’t want to interpret what has been said.”

Blaszcak’s comments came after Germany offered Poland assistance in providing anti-missile systems, including the Patriot system, to Poland to help Warsaw strengthen its air defense capacity following a missile that landed on Polish territory near the Ukrainian border on Nov. 15.

The leaders of Poland and NATO have said the missile, which killed two people, was likely fired by Ukrainian forces defending their country against a barrage of Russian strikes, and that the incident appeared to be an accident.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will be meeting twice in Berlin in the coming week, Hoffmann said. She added that Germany’s proposal to Poland on Patriot systems will be “an issue for the chancellor.”

Mobile Starlink terminal. And what is the type of this UAV?

unknown

Six trucks destroyed. The same convoy posted on Oct 11.

convoy

Missile attacks on Dnipro.

Dnipro

The trench on the Bakhmut front.

Bakhmut

This place was first mentioned on May 23. Six months ago.

"But it turned out that these gadgets actually work."

Say it again louder for the people in the back

Zelenskyy:

We have to endure this winter – a winter that everyone will remember. We have to do everything so that we remember it not because of what it threatened us with, but because of what we managed to do to protect ourselves from this threat,

winter

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A third of the roughly 350 Western-made howitzers donated to Kyiv are out of action at any given time, according to U.S. defense officials and others familiar with Ukraine’s defense needs.

This is actually pretty good considering the problems they are facing.

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RUS source on the backwardness of their artillery:

Before Syria war forward observers had to sit in front trench and transmit targeting via wired field telephone TA-57 to HQ. In Syria, forward observers operated drone in HQ and generals observed battlefield from TV panels.

Syria war showed poor training of the artillery crews: unguided ammunition had +/- 300 m accuracy and this was considered as normal.

Syria war changed the usage of the guided ammo like Krasnopol and Kitolov: before they were guided from the ground with old bulky laser designators and because of this results were not very good, the army was ready to reject this kind of ammunition and only the appearance of Orlan-30 UAVs in 2017 with laser designators turned artillery guns into "sniper rifles".

Syrian and Karabakh experience wasn't analized. Orlan-10 and Orlan-30 ran out too fast and forward observers again moved back to the trenches. The lack of Orlans caused the lack of guided shells usage.

Russia now is suffering from the shortage of guided ammo like Krasnopol and Kitolov themselves as well.

Russia didn't design anything equal to M777 or Caesar.

Russia had nothing similar to UKR "Kropyva" battlefield information system. Only occasionally Russians used "Offlinemaps" service.

In Russian arty training centers personnel is continuing to train by old Soviet methods with classical equipments: arty compass and binoculars. Observers had Mavic, but nobody knew how to use it and they took it only because commander oredered "to take all equipment".

Lacking of proper fire ajustment caused firing of echelones of shells, aka the wall of fire, with bad effectiveness and caused the shortage of ammunition now.

Personnel has poor training with ajusting fire and targeting for arty with PSNR ground radars and new-developed 1L271 "Aistyonok" (close analog AN/TPQ-48) light counter-battery radar. The result was poor.

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That UAV was a Russian ZALA 421-16E2 shot down near Bakhmut.

ZALA 421-16E2

https://www.aeroexpo.online/prod/zala-a ... 63343.html

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Exhausted UKR soldiers back from the frontline.

Bakhmut

This is bad, but on the RUS side it is much worse.

The pictures from the trenches at Bakhmut could have been from the western front in ww 1. It's just tragic.

Today electicity was turned on from 4:00 to 9:00 and from 13:30 and still present now (20:30) Hot water and heating also turned on. Even more - before the last strike, even if we have electricity by shedule, the streets mostly weren't illuminated. Now I see all so too bright. But let's see next week, time of Kh-101

This one had some accident. Late model T-72?

accident

Lightly damaged PzH2000

PzH2000

Three Uragan launcers, two transloaders and two trucks destroyed.

Uragan

RUS T-80BV disabled and captured.

T-80BV

Another convoy hit. Four trucks, one BTR.

convoy

Javelin in action. Probably targeting something across the Dnipro river.

Javelin

The video is uninteresting. Just UKR troops firing a recoilless gun. But the location is just on the other side of Antonivsky bridge. The first evidence of direct fighting on the left bank of Dnipro river.

left bank

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RUS storming Kharkiv from three directions on Feb 27, then was beaten back by the 92nd and 93rd brigade. One of the decisive battles of the war. Failed to take Kharkiv, RUS was deprived of an essential railhead, which led to the infamous forty-mile-long convoy, and the eventual failure of the battle of Kyiv. Also this sowed the seeds of the collapse of Izium axis.

Kharkiv

Crayfish from Kakhovka in the market of Odesa. How did these guys end up on the UKR side?

Kakhovka Odesa

"Game over, man! Game over!"

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UK MoD released a video about delivering a C-17 load of Brimstone 2 missiles.

Brimstone 2

Is this really necessary?

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M777 firing in snow and mud.

M777

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M101 105mm howitzer supplied by Lithuania.

M101

The only child left in the village after de-occupation. The family was not evacuated.

child

Female soldiers operating 23mm meat grinders on a truck.

ZU-23-2

What is the type of this UAV?

unknown

The girl in the bunker of Bakhmut was evacuated with her family.

Bakhmut

What is the type of this UAV?

uav.jpeg

It took me a while, but I bet it's Raybird-3 from Skyeton company:

https://skyeton.com/en/uas-uav-raybird-3