War in Ukraine

Keep seeing rumors Moscow fears a Ukranian drone "swarm" attack. I wonder if thats a possibility.

Will "manned" fighters even exist in 10 years?

 

This is true. But the corollary is also true — Russia is learning from its military mistakes and equipment deficiencies. They’re not stupid. They’ll eventually get things fixed.

 

except they are running out of equipment and manpower with limited ability to produce more equipment and major problems getting more cannon fodder to sign up

 

I’m not sure I believe they’ve depleted their equipment in one year of war. That makes no sense to me, from a common sense perspective. They’re one of the largest militaries in the world. One year of warfare wouldn’t deplete the resources or equipment. And, they have almost unlimited manpower. The problem, though, is that their manpower has to also be fitted with a will-to-fight. It sounds to me that the average Russian doesn’t care about Russia’s sphere of influence over Ukraine, and that is what will cause them the big problems as time takes its toll.

 

Umm they’re sending 50’s and 60’s era tanks to the front with armor that can be pierced by high powered rifles. Probably have plenty of artillery and rifles and ammo but outside of Mariupol it’s not done much to win any single conflict

 

Showing lots of ineptness and stupidity over the past year. Don’t see any signs of learning to the average observer.

 

They’re also sending swaths of men to the hellholes of Bakmut. They don’t care about human lives (particularly the expendable human wave of convicts at the Wagner front lines). They may be dong something as simple as inventory management - out with the old.

 

Precisely. The advantage only matters if Russia loses in the end. Otherwise, it’s just a big laboratory for improvement before the next move.

 

Evan Gershkovich, Meet Mr. Julian Assange - A Son of the New American Revolution

 

Lots of stories about not being able to get equipment, this is just one referencing the tanks they are pulling out of storage. From a manpower perspective, they have a large population but not a lot of fighting age men willing to go to war and that was before checks started not showing up and horror stories of men being used as cannon fodder made their way back home. The men they have conscripted has drained many industries of labor so much they were having problems keeping their now limited industries running due to lack of labor. The conscriptions they did also seemed to be concentrated in outlying areas to try and avoid unrest among the core population in Moscow, St. Petersburg etc. There is a reason they went to prisons to get people and now have raised the age for enlistment. they have no chip making capacity to replacing all the missiles they have used up becomes much more difficult hence why they were resorting to using any sort of missile they could find regardless of its intended application.

The Russians Are Pulling 70-Year-Old T-55 Tanks Out Of Storage (forbes.com)

First the Russian army in Ukraine began running out of its best T-90M, T-80BVM and T-72B3 tanks. So it opened up old tank parks and began pulling out 50- and 60-year-old T-80Bs and T-62Ms.

Now those aging tanks apparently are running out, too. Thirteen months into Russia’s wider war on Ukraine, the first videos and photos have circulated depicting 1950s-vintage T-55 tanks on train cars in Russia, apparently bound for one of the country’s two tank plants, where technicians could recondition them before shipping them onward to the Ukraine front.

It’s testimony to the sheer violence of the Ukraine war—and to Russia’s tactical and operational failures—that it’s taken just a year for Russian and allied forces in Ukraine to write off nearly 2,000 tanks and regress at least two generations, in terms of tank technology.

The T-55 is an upgraded T-54, which was the Soviet Union’s main tank in the years immediately following World War II. The T-54 first appeared in 1946. The T-55 appeared in 1958.

 

Russia has likely lost the majority of their Zoopark radar systems, which are used to identify and locate long-range artillery. These systems are very expensive and hard to replace. Sanctions have severely limited Russia's access to advanced electronics components. Western analysts believe that seven Zoopark systems have been taken out of service, including one that was captured.

Russia has lost hard-to-replace systems that help its forces find and destroy Ukrainian artillery, and Western intel says there aren't many left

 

Ukraine's air force is now using JDAM kits to hit Russia with smart bombs. They are much more precise than the so-called smart bombs that Russia has.

Ukraine's Air Force now using JDAM "smart" bombs

 

F-35's were flying missions over the Poland-Ukraine border at the outset of the war to gather data on Russian missile defense systems. They even improved their ability to detect S-300 missile systems, which have their own cloaking ability.

US F-35 fighter jets sent to NATO's front line as Russia invaded Ukraine were out looking for missiles able to threaten planes

 

Putin signs an order to draft 147,000 more Russians into fighting in Ukraine. Apparently, 148,000 would be too many. Draft Dodgers International responded to the order by saying, "Gentlemen, start your engines!"

Fortunately, Russia has promised the conscripts that they will not be sent to Ukraine. They will be sent instead to Russian Disneyland, to stand guard at all the rides and make sure no one skips in line. The "Pirates of the Black Sea" and "Death Mountain" rides are down for maintenance, however, so keep that in mind. The "Ukraine Wars: Rise of the Resistance" ride has been bulldozed due to inappropriate references. And any soldiers caught riding Putin's favorite "Severed Dwarf's Mining Train" will emerge from the mine in the highly-regarded "Bakhmut Tower of Terror" ride.

Putin Orders to Draft 147,000 Russian Conscripts by July 15

 

Russia prepares to commit its biggest April Fool's Day joke ever, as it ascends to the presidency of the United Nations' Security Council tomorrow during its invasion of Ukraine.

White House Urges Russia To Act Professionally During UN Security Council Presidency

 

"Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova:

"WH stratcom coordinator John Kirby made a statement that US journalists allegedly do not feel safe in Russia as they might face jail time.

John, in the United States even US Presidents do not feel safe as they might face jail time.""

 

And of course, anyone with a functioning brain is capable of discerning between someone who actually committed a possible crime and still receives due process vs no crime and no due process. We'll let you decide if you are capable of making that distinction.

 

Dehabituation-Rehabituation Dilemma ...

 

Russia has lost 104 surface-to-air missile systems since the start of the war. Video captures a Tor-M2 missile system (one of Russia's best) being destroyed.

Video captures the moment a Ukrainian exploding drone destroyed one of Russia's prized Tor-M2 missile systems designed to shoot down drones

Wow, 7.5 miles! Amazing! I wonder if Ukraine has anything that can shoot that far?

 

Some of Russia's finest criminals are actually surviving their time in the war and earning their freedom. Unfortunately, some of them are going crazy and killing people in their home towns.

Wagner mercenary back from frontline goes on rampage in home village

Good plan, Putin!