The War in Ukraine

[GK .Dundas]

Abrams have been getting killed in small numbers for decades. Not the propaganda score they think it is. No tank is invulnerable.

My point , exactly.
As a propaganda piece it's not bad it doesn't noticeably go over the top. It's calm and almost circumspect.
It also leaves out a hell of lot , it quietly guides you to make the assumptions it wants you to make.
I suspect this guy's crew consists of a lot more then just a camera guy and soundman.

 

[Skysix]

Not sure if an M1A1 has Chobham armour though....

 

[McG]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1787580770460016885

 

[The Bread Guy]

And the Ukrainian drones continue to make nuisances of themselves.

Ukraine ‘Army of Drones’ Destroys 229 Russian Military Vehicles in One Week

A Ukrainian “army of drones” destroyed 116 armored vehicles and dozens of other Russian military assets in just one week.

www.thedefensepost.com

(...)

The other side of that coin ....

Israel Is Shooting Down A Lot Of Its Own Drones

Israeli difficulties in separating friendly drones from hostile ones underscore critical issues that U.S. forces also need to address.

www.twz.com

Also, not likely, but still disturbing ....

Putin orders tactical nuclear drills on eve of his new term

President Vladimir Putin ordered Russia's military to carry out combat drills involving tactical nuclear weapons, ramping up his confrontation with the West just a day before his inauguration for a fifth term. The army will carry out exercises in southern Russia to "practice the preparation and u

www.rep-am.com

Russia to hold drills on tactical nuclear weapons in new tensions with West

<p>BERLIN — Russia said Monday that it would hold military exercises with troops based near Ukraine to practice for the possible use of battlefield nuclear weapons, a provocative warning aimed at discouraging the West from deepening its support for Ukraine.</p>

www.hawaiitribune-herald.com

Belarus conducts checks on tactical nuclear weapons with Russia

Announcement follows Russia’s statement that it would practice the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in a military exercise

www.voanews.com

 

[Kirkhill]

The other side of that coin ....

Israel Is Shooting Down A Lot Of Its Own Drones

Israeli difficulties in separating friendly drones from hostile ones underscore critical issues that U.S. forces also need to address.

www.twz.com

Another reason to keep the unit costs down and price them like munitions and not platforms.

 

[KevinB]

Another reason to keep the unit costs down and price them like munitions and not platforms.

But also run a decent IFF system with them so friendly forces are aware of good drones v bad drones.

 

[GR66]

Russia apparently having some issues with their North Korean-supplied munitions.

Ukraine: Russian-launched North Korean missiles explode mid-air

The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine has disclosed that approximately half of the North Korean missiles fired by Russia toward Ukraine from December to February 2024 detonated in the atmosphere. The investigation, conducted by Ukraine, analyzed debris from 21 out of the 50 North...

defence-blog.com

 

[GR66]

More rapid adaptation by the Ukrainian military. Russians use aircraft to target Ukrainian USV's so Ukraine mounts heat seeking missiles on their USV's. That will certainly make Russian pilots think twice when engaging these targets.

Ukraine equips maritime drones with air-to-air missiles

Ukraine has recently deployed its maritime suicide drones armed with additional R-73 air-to-air missiles to attack Russian targets. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported Ukraine's inaugural use of maritime drones equipped with R-73 (NATO reporting name AA-11 Archer)...

defence-blog.com

 

[Kirkhill]

But also run a decent IFF system with them so friendly forces are aware of good drones v bad drones.

Iff you can do it cheaply.

 

[KevinB]

Iff you can do it cheaply.

The loss of an ISR asset is often more costly than the price tag.

 

[dapaterson]

Denial of enemy ability to Sense and Command.

 

[Kirkhill]

The loss of an ISR asset is often more costly than the price tag.

But what if you can maintain a swarm of sensors so that the loss of a few here and there doesn't impact your overall sense of the situation?

One sniper in the tall grass or a battalion of Mk1 eyeballs manning OPs.

The Sniper is more effective but the rifles are more plentiful.

Ukraine started with looking for a cheap Reaper and bought Bayraktars but it seems to me that currently a lot of the situational awareness comes from multiple low cost, often low res, assets. I am sure that there is a lot of additional high tech and higher altitude assets as well operating out of harms way. But a bunch of eyes all netted together have their uses.

 

[rmc_wannabe]

The loss of an ISR asset is often more costly than the price tag.

Thus why having multiple, cheap, COTS, ISR assets are advantageous in a theatre that has contested Air and EW domains

 

[KevinB]

Thus why having multiple, cheap, COTS, ISR assets are advantageous in a theatre that has contested Air and EW domains

Less is more sometimes. I don’t want the enemy reading my mail, and the COTS systems won’t have secure feeds. Which can lead to other issues.

I want availability, but secure and somewhat hardened. It shouldn’t be that hard.

 

[rmc_wannabe]

Less is more sometimes. I don’t want the enemy reading my mail, and the COTS systems won’t have secure feeds. Which can lead to other issues.

I want availability, but secure and somewhat hardened. It shouldn’t be that hard.

Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability. Pick 2.

In a theatre like Ukraine, I'm leaning more toward availability above confidentiality. Integrity is a distant second.

The EW posture is very much that of denial and DF, vice probing or Sigint. Having multiple vectors makes it harder to trace, track, and terminate the operator.

The problem we have in the West is we have been playing COIN games for 20 years and forgot the enemy can play monkeyshines as well. I would rather lose 3000 x $1000 drones than 1 x $3M drone in this particular battlespace. Syria or Afghanistan, different story.

 

[KevinB]

Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability. Pick 2.

In a theatre like Ukraine, I'm leaning more toward availability above confidentiality. Integrity is a distant second.

The EW posture is very much that of denial and DF, vice probing or Sigint. Having multiple vectors makes it harder to trace, track, and terminate the operator.

The problem we have in the West is we have been playing COIN games for 20 years and forgot the enemy can play monkeyshines as well. I would rather lose 3000 x $1000 drones than 1 x $3M drone in this particular battlespace. Syria or Afghanistan, different story.

I’d rather have 1000 $3k drones that give me most of what I want

We can spam $100 drones at assholes all day long with a small something that goes boom.

The key is understanding that there needs to be ‘grades’ of UAS.

Attack systems that are relatively cheap and plentiful that give some basic data in a closed system. Generally OWUAS suicide drones.
Those need to be looked at like a grenade, it’s a combat consumable.

ISR drones of several different flavors from Pl/Coy operations to vastly larger - that will have different capabilities and thus costs.

Strike systems - from rockets to bomber drones that can go out hit something and return.

EW UAS and C-UAS and CC-UAS systems that have their own unique capabilities as well.

 

[FJAG]

The other side of that coin ....

Israel Is Shooting Down A Lot Of Its Own Drones

Israeli difficulties in separating friendly drones from hostile ones underscore critical issues that U.S. forces also need to address.

www.twz.com

Also, not likely, but still disturbing ....

Air space coordination measures will only take you so far in a fast moving large scale low level environment.

This whole thing makes me firmly believe that all the folks who sat around the army's smoke-filled back room during the 2011-13 nights of the long knives where the decision was made to can what was left of Canada's GBAD as unnecessary should have all their promotions and pensions since then revoked.

 

[daftandbarmy]

Air space coordination measures will only take you so far in a fast moving large scale low level environment.

This whole thing makes me firmly believe that all the folks who sat around the army's smoke-filled back room during the 2011-13 nights of the long knives where the decision was made to can what was left of Canada's GBAD as unnecessary should have all their promotions and pensions since then revoked.

Do you think it was these culprits?

 

[FJAG]

Do you think it was these culprits?

That depends. Are they infantry illuminati cats?

 

[daftandbarmy]

That depends. Are they infantry illuminati cats?

Maybe they're Navy