Ukraine War Thread Part 2
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Italy also apparently supplied Storm Shadows to Ukraine.
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A bit late with this one, but the U.K. is doubling the production of Martlet, NLAW and Starstreak.
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It always worries me when they are sending in reserves, it must be bad.
Abrams Failing the Ukraine Test - Tanksavers ....
An article in Newsweek today.
America's Abrams Tanks Are Failing the Ukraine Test
Raytheon Quick Kill - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_Kill
Rafael Trophy - https://www.rafael.co.il/worlds/land/trophy-aps/
GD/Elbit Iron Fist - https://www.gd-ots.com/protection-systems/active-protection-systems/#
Rheinmetall Strikesheld https://www.rheinmetall.com/en/produ...n-systems-land
LFH
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Film purported to be from the Attack on the airfield in Crimea
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Second better clip looks like glidebomb kits?
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Link only for this one, two Russians try to defuse a mine…. On the Highway to Heaven.
Beware a bit graphic.
Beware a bit graphic.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Video.Russian sources: The AFU has begun to use light Yak-52 fighters to intercept Russian Orlan-10 reconnaissance aircraft flying in the Odessa region.
The Yak-52 is a Soviet (1974) primary trainer aircraft in use by Russia, Ukraine and several other countries. I am not aware of an armed variant of the aircraft but is is not unfeasible.
🇺🇦Ukrainian Yak-52 pilots who shot down a 🇷🇺Russian reconnaissance UAV Orlan-10 today
The Yak-52 is a Soviet (1974) primary trainer aircraft in use by Russia, Ukraine and several other countries. I am not aware of an armed variant of the aircraft but is is not unfeasible.
🇺🇦Ukrainian Yak-52 pilots who shot down a 🇷🇺Russian reconnaissance UAV Orlan-10 today
Last edited by ORAC; 27th Apr 2024 at 22:06.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Britain's estimate indicates that approximately 450,000 russian military personnel have been killed or wounded.
When questioned about russian losses, Minister of State for the Armed Forces Leo Docherty stated, "Our estimation suggests that around 450,000 russian military personnel have been killed or wounded, and tens of thousands have already deserted since the conflict began."
Not all lessons from Ukraine will apply to NATO militaries, but this is one that will.
Russian Orlan ISR UAVs are not very sophisticated but they are cheap and easy to produce. That means Russia produces them in large numbers and they are expendable.
But many of the current countermeasures are more expensive and scarcer. So Ukraine generally can't launch SHORAD or MANPADS to shoot them down, giving Russia persistent ISR coverage behind Ukrainian lines.
MANPADS also are not optimized for defeating them. Developing cost-effective countermeasures should be a priority.
When questioned about russian losses, Minister of State for the Armed Forces Leo Docherty stated, "Our estimation suggests that around 450,000 russian military personnel have been killed or wounded, and tens of thousands have already deserted since the conflict began."
Not all lessons from Ukraine will apply to NATO militaries, but this is one that will.
Russian Orlan ISR UAVs are not very sophisticated but they are cheap and easy to produce. That means Russia produces them in large numbers and they are expendable.
But many of the current countermeasures are more expensive and scarcer. So Ukraine generally can't launch SHORAD or MANPADS to shoot them down, giving Russia persistent ISR coverage behind Ukrainian lines.
MANPADS also are not optimized for defeating them. Developing cost-effective countermeasures should be a priority.
Last edited by ORAC; 27th Apr 2024 at 22:25.
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Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
https://www.twz.com/air/ukrainian-fi...estern-weapons
Ukrainian Fighter Jets “Using iPads” To Control Western Weapons
The Ukrainian Air Force is using iPads, or similar tablets in the cockpits of its Soviet-era jets to enable rapid integration of modern Western air-to-ground weapons — something that TWZpredicted back in 2022. This has been confirmed by Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Dr. William LaPlante. While many questions remain about the tablet and how it exactly works, there’s now footage showing it fitted in cockpits during combat (or at least live-fire training) missions.
LaPlante was speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank's annual Global Security Forum yesterday, April 24, 2024. When asked to provide examples of successful programs that rapidly developed capabilities and got them into the hands of the military, one example he chose was the tablets in Ukrainian fighter cockpits:
“There’s also a series of … we call it ‘air-to-ground,’ it’s what we call it euphemistically … think about the aircraft that the Ukrainians have, and not even the F-16s, but they have a lot of the Russian and Soviet-era aircraft. Working with the Ukrainians, we’ve been able to take many Western weapons and get them to work on their aircraft where it’s basically controlled by an iPad by the pilot. And they’re flying it in conflict like a week after we get it to him.”
LaPlante didn’t provide further details, but it’s noteworthy that a video recently released by the Ukrainian Air Force shows a Su-27 Flanker fitted with exactly this type of system — possibly an iPad, but perhaps also another kind of commercially available tablet.
The video in question shows the Su-27 employing U.S.-supplied AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARMs), which have provided these fighters, as well as Ukrainian MiG-29 Fulcrums with a suppression and destruction of enemy air defense (SEAD/DEAD) capability.
In one portion of the video, screen-capped below, the tablet can be seen to display a navigational map, as well as other, undiscernible data.
The fact that the size of the tablet, attached horizontally, blocks out key instruments in the cockpit suggests that it displays a variety of flight-critical data, as well as being used for navigation.
Based on LaPlante’s remarks, it seems that the same tablet is also vital for the employment of several Western-supplied air-to-ground weapons. After HARM was integrated, Soviet-era Ukrainian fighters also began using Joint Direct Attack Munition-Extended Range (JDAM-ER) precision-guided bombs. They have since added French-supplied Hammer rocket-assisted bombs to their inventory lists. The United Kingdom has now also pledged to send dual-mode Paveway IV precision-guided bombs, though it is unknown at present what aircraft will carry them.
In the case of HARM, JDAM-ER, and Hammer, it has been assumed that they are likely being employed against targets of known coordinates, with these being pre-programmed on the flight line before the jet takes off. The pilot then has to navigate to the area, perhaps also aided by a tablet with GPS navigation, and then release the weapon, which is guided to the target using its GPS-aided inertial navigation system.
Using HARM is a little more involved, however, due to the fact that the target might present itself only fleetingly and may well be highly mobile (especially in the case of battlefield air defense systems). At the same time, the nature of the SEAD/DEAD means that the pilot may need to respond to ‘pop-up’ targets as and when they appear, for example when a particular air defense radar is switched on.
Most critically, however, in the case of Ukraine, is the fact that its Soviet-era fighters lack the kinds of data bus interfaces that would ensure seamless compatibility with any of these three weapons.
This is something we have discussed in the past and we also concluded that a tablet was a likely part of the solution.
Furthermore, an Su-27 or MiG-29 using JDAM-ER relies not only on a tablet in the cockpit, but also on specialized pylons on which the weapons are carried. As we have noted in the past, these unusual pylons may not only provide critical GPS information to the weapon prior to release, but they could also incorporate some kind of electronic support measures (ESM) — passive detection gear that can identify and even geolocate threat emitters.
While one ESM receiver in the pylon (or elsewhere on the jet, for that matter) would be able to provide general awareness of a radar threat's presence, it wouldn’t be able to determine its range. However, two or more such receivers could allow that same emitter to be triangulated. This would allow the location to be determined, which could, in turn, be presented on the map shown on the cockpit tablet.…..
It is even possible that such a setup, with a pylon adapted for the weapons being employed and paired with a tablet, would not need any data bus wiring at all. The pylon could contain a hardware module that handles this with some sort of a short-range wireless device, like a Bluetooth system, that connects with the pad in the cockpit wireless.
While this may be far from a traditional military-grade solution, it would make integration seamless without having to wire the aircraft specifically for these new munitions.….
Ukrainian Fighter Jets “Using iPads” To Control Western Weapons
The Ukrainian Air Force is using iPads, or similar tablets in the cockpits of its Soviet-era jets to enable rapid integration of modern Western air-to-ground weapons — something that TWZpredicted back in 2022. This has been confirmed by Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Dr. William LaPlante. While many questions remain about the tablet and how it exactly works, there’s now footage showing it fitted in cockpits during combat (or at least live-fire training) missions.
LaPlante was speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank's annual Global Security Forum yesterday, April 24, 2024. When asked to provide examples of successful programs that rapidly developed capabilities and got them into the hands of the military, one example he chose was the tablets in Ukrainian fighter cockpits:
“There’s also a series of … we call it ‘air-to-ground,’ it’s what we call it euphemistically … think about the aircraft that the Ukrainians have, and not even the F-16s, but they have a lot of the Russian and Soviet-era aircraft. Working with the Ukrainians, we’ve been able to take many Western weapons and get them to work on their aircraft where it’s basically controlled by an iPad by the pilot. And they’re flying it in conflict like a week after we get it to him.”
LaPlante didn’t provide further details, but it’s noteworthy that a video recently released by the Ukrainian Air Force shows a Su-27 Flanker fitted with exactly this type of system — possibly an iPad, but perhaps also another kind of commercially available tablet.
The video in question shows the Su-27 employing U.S.-supplied AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARMs), which have provided these fighters, as well as Ukrainian MiG-29 Fulcrums with a suppression and destruction of enemy air defense (SEAD/DEAD) capability.
In one portion of the video, screen-capped below, the tablet can be seen to display a navigational map, as well as other, undiscernible data.
The fact that the size of the tablet, attached horizontally, blocks out key instruments in the cockpit suggests that it displays a variety of flight-critical data, as well as being used for navigation.
Based on LaPlante’s remarks, it seems that the same tablet is also vital for the employment of several Western-supplied air-to-ground weapons. After HARM was integrated, Soviet-era Ukrainian fighters also began using Joint Direct Attack Munition-Extended Range (JDAM-ER) precision-guided bombs. They have since added French-supplied Hammer rocket-assisted bombs to their inventory lists. The United Kingdom has now also pledged to send dual-mode Paveway IV precision-guided bombs, though it is unknown at present what aircraft will carry them.
In the case of HARM, JDAM-ER, and Hammer, it has been assumed that they are likely being employed against targets of known coordinates, with these being pre-programmed on the flight line before the jet takes off. The pilot then has to navigate to the area, perhaps also aided by a tablet with GPS navigation, and then release the weapon, which is guided to the target using its GPS-aided inertial navigation system.
Using HARM is a little more involved, however, due to the fact that the target might present itself only fleetingly and may well be highly mobile (especially in the case of battlefield air defense systems). At the same time, the nature of the SEAD/DEAD means that the pilot may need to respond to ‘pop-up’ targets as and when they appear, for example when a particular air defense radar is switched on.
Most critically, however, in the case of Ukraine, is the fact that its Soviet-era fighters lack the kinds of data bus interfaces that would ensure seamless compatibility with any of these three weapons.
This is something we have discussed in the past and we also concluded that a tablet was a likely part of the solution.
Furthermore, an Su-27 or MiG-29 using JDAM-ER relies not only on a tablet in the cockpit, but also on specialized pylons on which the weapons are carried. As we have noted in the past, these unusual pylons may not only provide critical GPS information to the weapon prior to release, but they could also incorporate some kind of electronic support measures (ESM) — passive detection gear that can identify and even geolocate threat emitters.
While one ESM receiver in the pylon (or elsewhere on the jet, for that matter) would be able to provide general awareness of a radar threat's presence, it wouldn’t be able to determine its range. However, two or more such receivers could allow that same emitter to be triangulated. This would allow the location to be determined, which could, in turn, be presented on the map shown on the cockpit tablet.…..
It is even possible that such a setup, with a pylon adapted for the weapons being employed and paired with a tablet, would not need any data bus wiring at all. The pylon could contain a hardware module that handles this with some sort of a short-range wireless device, like a Bluetooth system, that connects with the pad in the cockpit wireless.
While this may be far from a traditional military-grade solution, it would make integration seamless without having to wire the aircraft specifically for these new munitions.….
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Already covered that ORAC a while back.
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The Kamaz auto assembly plant in Russia is on fire 
Kamaz Trucks - essential for war effort. Due to sanctions (Wikipedia) they produce 100% domestic series K3 while modern K4 and K5 series are out. One needs to know that Kamaz is the only decent truck manufacturer in Russa. Profits have shrunk drastically despite Army-sales.
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Another Russian substation hit overnight.
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Satellite views of one hit fuel facility post strike.
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Britain's estimate indicates that approximately 450,000 russian military personnel have been killed or wounded.
When questioned about russian losses, Minister of State for the Armed Forces Leo Docherty stated, "Our estimation suggests that around 450,000 russian military personnel have been killed or wounded, and tens of thousands have already deserted since the conflict began."
When questioned about russian losses, Minister of State for the Armed Forces Leo Docherty stated, "Our estimation suggests that around 450,000 russian military personnel have been killed or wounded, and tens of thousands have already deserted since the conflict began."
So far I have not seen any imagery of Russians trying to escape over the border (I'm sure it is happening), while there is plenty of evidence of Ukrainian men doing the same.
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