Russian invasion of Ukraine

[TxRover]

9 hours ago, welshbairn said:

Messy business blowing holes in oil tankers.

Note that, judging by the video, they ran the drone by the vessel first to ID it, and then attacked via striking toward the rear of the vessel, behind the tanks, and instead by the machinery spaces.

[TxRover]

6 hours ago, LongTimeLurker said:

This throws that cat amongst the pigeons where Russian grain exports are concerned:

 

Note that Putin just had a summit of African nations, where attendance was down 2/3 compared to last year. They aren’t happy about the grain issue. Also, Putin just snubbed an African Peace Delegation that Zelenskyy had met with. Given those are countries that Russia has worked for years to court, pissing away that effort in a couple of days is remarkably short sighted. China must be very happy, as they are the likely winners from Putin’s mistake.

[budmiester1]

56 minutes ago, TxRover said:

Note that, judging by the video, they ran the drone by the vessel first to ID it, and then attacked via striking toward the rear of the vessel, behind the tanks, and instead by the machinery spaces.

If you want to sink a ship you don’t go for the cargo space you go for the engineering space, disable the engines and you lose power, more importantly you lose your emergency pumps to counteract the flooding. Plenty of ships have sunk with relatively minor damage but it was where the damage was. Another reason is that the cargo areas tend to be subdivided whereas engineering spaces by and large are very much more open and more susceptible to “ Free Surface Effect “ which is what sank the Herald of Free Enterprise back in the 80’s.

Edited August 5, 2023 by budmiester1

[TxRover]

9 hours ago, budmiester1 said:

If you want to sink a ship you don’t go for the cargo space you go for the engineering space, disable the engines and you lose power, more importantly you lose your emergency pumps to counteract the flooding. Plenty of ships have sunk with relatively minor damage but it was where the damage was. Another reason is that the cargo areas tend to be subdivided whereas engineering spaces by and large are very much more open and more susceptible to “ Free Surface Effect “ which is what sank the Herald of Free Enterprise back in the 80’s.

I was addressing the comment about risk of pollution, by pointing out they tried to avoid damaging the oil tanks. A sunken oil tanker is still an environmental timebomb, but if the tanks are intact, you can drain them.

[budmiester1]

4 hours ago, TxRover said:

I was addressing the comment about risk of pollution, by pointing out they tried to avoid damaging the oil tanks. A sunken oil tanker is still an environmental timebomb, but if the tanks are intact, you can drain them.

That’s a very good point TxRover, something I hadn’t considered

[TxRover]

3 hours ago, budmiester1 said:

That’s a very good point TxRover, something I hadn’t considered

Those drones aren’t really optimised to sink ships due to exploding above the waterline…although the USS Cole proved with enough explosives, that’s still effective. What they do well is create a mission capability loss…that tanker is down for a good time.

[welshbairn]

6 minutes ago, TxRover said:

mission capability loss

Erectile disfunction?

[Cosmic Joe]

Is there a Ukrainian equivalent of Methil? 

Where the Russians, like the Romans, will go "f**k this for a game of soldiers" and turn around.. 

[LongTimeLurker]

Irpin and Brovary (closest they got to surrounding Kyiv) or Voznesensk (closest they got to Odesa) can maybe already claim to have been the turning point back when Vlad was still going after all of Ukraine before he scaled his war goals back to the Donbas and Crimean land bridge.

[ICTChris]

Russia launched significant missile attack overnight, aimed at critical infrastructure and the air bases where Ukrainian fighter jets load up storm shadows. Seems like they were unsuccessful as the Henichesk bridge in Crimea was just hit with SSs.

[Boo Khaki]

1 hour ago, Cosmic Joe said:

Is there a Ukrainian equivalent of Methil? 

Where the Russians, like the Romans, will go "f**k this for a game of soldiers" and turn around.. 

Made a similar point months ago. Every Ukranian village looks like a slightly tarted-up version of Bellshill. Surely there must come a point where even Ukranians are like 'aye, f**k this, I'm no dying for this tip"

[Cosmic Joe]

4 minutes ago, Boo Khaki said:

Made a similar point months ago. Every Ukranian village looks like a slightly tarted-up version of Bellshill. Surely there must come a point where even Ukranians are like 'aye, f**k this, I'm no dying for this tip"

Oh, I would be on the front line defending Methil. I bloody love the place. But I can' t understand why anyone would want to invade it. 

[Boo Khaki]

19 minutes ago, Cosmic Joe said:

Oh, I would be on the front line defending Methil. I bloody love the place. But I can' t understand why anyone would want to invade it. 

You know how you get folk travelling from Norway to watch Stenhousemuir and stuff?

Maybe Russia just has an extraordinarily high preponderance of Morton supporters. It would explain a lot.

[TxRover]

4 hours ago, welshbairn said:

Erectile disfunction?

In this particular case, lack of lube(rication).

[LongTimeLurker]

5 hours ago, Boo Khaki said:

Made a similar point months ago. Every Ukranian village looks like a slightly tarted-up version of Bellshill...

Guess what's happening right now is about stopping the fighting ever reaching the south coast of Crimea. The Russians need to defend various Viewpark lookalikes on Vlad's Crimean land bridge to be able to keep Yalta:

[Boo Khaki]

Meh, Bellshill-on-sea. 

Is that Greenock?

[Zen Archer (Raconteur)]

23 hours ago, Cosmic Joe said:

Oh, I would be on the front line defending Methil. I bloody love the place. But I can' t understand why anyone would want to invade it. 

That would be folk from Leven wanting to impose their culture, such as the Shell House, amusement arcades and sit in chip shops.

[LongTimeLurker]

If the Germans send these missiles the Ukrainians will probably be able to take out the Kerch railway bridge:

Tweet is from a pro-Russian poster hence the dodgy set of borders shown in the graphic but at the same time it shows why this would be significant if it happens. The range would provide what the Americans have been unwilling to send where ATACMS is concerned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurus_KEPD_350

 

[ICTChris]

 

Reports of Ukraine attacking across the Dnipro in numbers higher than previously.

[Musketeer Gripweed]