dorlomin Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 https://archive.ph/45QOF#selection-263.159-295.82 Quote One evening at dusk the men in this unit were making dinner when orders for their fifth mission of the day arrived: to target Russian barracks and a river barge ferrying munitions and tanks 40 miles away. Six men piled into their two Himars: a driver, targeter and commander in each, accompanied by the battery commander and a security detail in an armored personnel carrier. The commander plugged coordinate data into a tablet computer to determine the safest location for firing. ... Within minutes, the two Himars rumbled out from cover under an apricot grove toward the launch spot in a nearby sunflower field. Thirty seconds after arriving, they fired seven missiles in quick succession. Before the projectiles hit their targets, the trucks were returning to base camp. Ten minutes later came another pair of targets: Soviet-era rocket launchers some 44 miles away. Off rolled the Himars again and fired another barrage of missiles. Soon after, the soldiers were back at camp and finishing their dinner. Some pulled up videos on Telegram showing the fruit of their labor: burning Russian barracks. ... The supply chain for Himars units consists of factory-packaged rocket pods stashed at pickup points in the nearby countryside and usually hidden by foliage. A cargo truck deposits the camouflage-green pods—each a little bigger than a single bed—at a string of designated locations, not unlike a commercial delivery route. Himars teams drive to the ammo drop spots, where a waiting three-man loading team removes spent pods and swaps in full ones within five minutes, using a crane integrated into the vehicle. ... Ukrainian Himars teams stay lean by spending weeks in the field without returning to a larger base. Lt. Koval’s unit, which received the first Himars in June, has spent the past three months sleeping in tents beside the launchers or inside nearby support vehicles. Mission details arrive as geographic coordinates, with a target description and instructions on whether to use explosive missiles for armored targets or fragment charges for hitting personnel. Targeting tips come from sources including U.S. intelligence and partisans in occupied territories. ... The Himars commanders then pick a suitable launch location and guide the vehicles into place. Inside the cab, the vehicle commander sits between the driver and the targeter, who feeds the mission data into a computer. When the vehicle reaches the launch site, the targeter presses one button to angle the missiles skyward and another button to fire. The missiles roar into the night sky with a burst of flame, leaving a cloud of smoke over the field. The launcher is lowered and the vehicle speeds back to its tree cover. ... On one particularly busy day in late August, the two Himars under Lt. Koval’s command worked in tandem with two others. When his pair ran out of ammunition, they dropped back to reload while the other duo advanced to fire. Lt. Koval said they tag-teamed for 37 hours without stopping to sleep and hit roughly 120 targets, enabling Ukrainian infantry to break Russian lines around the southern city of Kherson. This is an artillery war. Its about counter battery fire directed by radars, the speed you can shoot and move and the accuracy you can fire with. With the GPS guided GMRLS rockets the Ukrainians can turn their HIMARS and M-270s into precision guided weapons, like mini aircraft. With the Excalibur GPS guided 155mm round they can do the same with their western artillery. This seems to have allowed them to first halt the Russian summer advance and now start rolling them back. The war started with Russia having a 10-1 advantage in heavy guns. Now it seems the effectiveness of the two artillery forces is at least even perhaps even with a Ukrainian advantage. The burning issue for both sides will be stocks of ammunition. Amidst the hype about mobilisation Russia seems to be trying to start war production levels for artillery ammunition. Winter is coming. Hypothermia and trenchfoot will start wrecking havoc among those without proper winter clothing. It does not need to be below freezing, just below something like 10C on cold wet nights. People without good water proof boots and proper winter coats will lose heat and circulation quickly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagfox Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TxRover Posted October 9, 2022 Share Posted October 9, 2022 An analysis of some recently released videos and the damage caused, suggests the HGV may have had nothing to do with the blast. There is a possible bow wave spotted just before the explosion, under the road surface. The HGV appears clear of the blast point, and the heaving damage to the road spans supports a possible sea level blast. Ukraine is known to have explosive packed marine drones… 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirty dingus Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 A wee bit of payback for the attack on the bridge? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICTChris Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 Seems like there have been missile strikes on Kyiv. Targets look civilian in nature, heavy casualties. This follows on from the attack on an apartment building in Zaporizohia over the weekend. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hedgecutter Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 Is this going to be a long drawn out tit-for-tat missile battle then? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICTChris Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 Here is the site of one of the missile strikes today, a park in Central Kyiv complete with childrens playground. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dorlomin Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 A cruise missile used to hit a pedestrian walkway between two parks. It just screams of impotent rage. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICTChris Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 8 minutes ago, dorlomin said: A cruise missile used to hit a pedestrian walkway between two parks. It just screams of impotent rage. The bridge stayed up as well. The arch you can see behind the bridge used to be the Ukrainian-Russian friendship monument. Grim irony. Putin is firing highly expensive targeted missiles at purely civilian targets. It won’t help Russia achieve any military success, it won’t intimidate the Ukrainians into stopping fighting, it won’t stop Western countries supplying more weapons to Ukraine - it will probably make supply of sophisticated anti missile systems more likely to be supplied. But Putin needs to do something so he has done this. 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 (edited) 13 minutes ago, ICTChris said: ...Putin is firing highly expensive targeted missiles at purely civilian targets... The reason for the crazy looking detour taken by the plane from St Petersburg to Stavropol in an earlier post is that these cruise missiles are normally fired from planes over the Caspian Sea near Astrakhan. The reason for the Iranian flying lawnmowers entering the fray was said to be that the Russians were running out of these missiles, so probably safe to assume that they are hitting random civilian targets because they aren't able to accurately target them at the key infrastructure they want to strike. That no doubt detracts considerably from the shock and awe effect they were going for. Edited October 10, 2022 by LongTimeLurker 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 9 hours ago, TxRover said: An analysis of some recently released videos and the damage caused, suggests the HGV may have had nothing to do with the blast. There is a possible bow wave spotted just before the explosion, under the road surface. The HGV appears clear of the blast point, and the heaving damage to the road spans supports a possible sea level blast. Ukraine is known to have explosive packed marine drones… If it was the HGV it raised very awkward questions about whether the driver was duped into driving that particular load. Have seen other people claim that the blackened road surface points strongly to a strike from above: 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICTChris Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 Margarita Simonyan, head of RT, has tweeted out that this is a response to the attack on the Crimean Bridge, calling it a red line. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagfox Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergeant Wilson Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 2 hours ago, ICTChris said: Here is the site of one of the missile strikes today, a park in Central Kyiv complete with childrens playground. Still better than the ones in Airdrie. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagfox Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 Also in Belarus. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergeant Wilson Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 3 minutes ago, jagfox said: Also in Belarus. Is Belarus joining in not like Laurel helping Hardy? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICTChris Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 German Consulate in Kyiv was hit by one of today’s Russian missile strikes. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ICTChris Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 Belarus has announced they have formed a regional group fo forces with Russia, due threats of attack from NATO. Could be that they are going to attack Ukraine from the North or that they want to threaten it to tie down Ukrainian forces in the area. Ukrainian troops in the north staged exercises recently simulating an attack from Belarus. Some points to bear in mind - Ukraine seem comfortable with their manning levels, they cancelled the latest round of drafting and all the indications from Ukrainian sources are that they feel they have enough troops to continue offensive operations. If they’ve taken potential escalation by Belarus into account that suggests they are comfortable with the threat level from North. Belarus has a very significant anti-government movements and their government sending forces into Ukraine would be met with protests. I think they are a conscript army and it’s likely that they might face difficulties with this engagement. Lukashenko is not a stupid man and he will have had reasons for avoiding direct involvement in the war so far. Overall, it’s not good news for Ukraine - it suggests another attempt to attack from the North and could result in resourcing issues. We will see how it develops. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbairn Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 52 minutes ago, Artemis said: USAF surveillance drone currently flying at 51,000 feet over the Black Sea south of Crimea. Seems to have taken off from Catania in Sicily. I was in Catania last week, could have been me.. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LongTimeLurker Posted October 10, 2022 Share Posted October 10, 2022 Odds on Belarus would have already joined in by now if they were going to. From time to time Lukashenko says these sorts of things to avoid making it onto Vlad's regime change list. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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