We’ve sent Harpoons.

I wonder how they are going to operate them?

I don’t know, there are land based launchers, but did the U.K. ever invest in them? Or are we providing the missiles and someone else the launcher, or have they cobbled up a system to mount it somehow on a truck?

Where there's a will there's a way. the Falklands taught as that: What SHOULD have taken months took days. And that was for both sides. Exocet land-launched for example.
Going right back to Mafeking, necessity is the mother of invention, and defenders get very good at it.

Correct to a degree. I know an fj pilot who completed Valley aged 23 1/2. Had he then gone straight to fj frontline as planned he would have been 24 1/2 doing the stuff fj pilots do. A short instructor tour post-valley slowed that path but he still was frontline fj on Q and shader aged 26 and a bit.

For what it's worth, he loves it.

Seeing that nobody currently operates Harpoon as a Land based system (the Danes binned theirs nearly 20 years ago and Taiwan have only just ordered such a system in the last month). It is got to be a Lash up system if the British are giving it. Argies managed to do it with Exocet in 1982.

Afaik, the Harpoon can update its waypoints while en route, so the launch modality should be non critical. Satellite surveillance should allow targeting anywhere within the effective range of the missile.

Switchblade?

Batco

I've been informed that Babcock maintained a land-based 'reference system' to support the RN's capability and that it may be this that has been made available to the Ukrainians. But no official confirmation as far as I'm aware.

Mentioned here:

https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news...he-royal-navy/

Re: Kramatorsk station attack.
I'm puzzled as to what type of warhead this missile was carrying. Widely reported to be cluster munitions yet no obvious evidence even in footage taken just after the incident of unexploded sub-munitions or flechettes.

Kramatorsk station attack
 

I'm also puzzled by the video of what is said to be the actual missile (with the message written on the side). It seems strange to me that the device is still relatively intact, one would have thought that with the combination of the HE warhead and supersonic flight it would have been completely obliterated?

Just watched a Japanese TV crew interviewing a spokesman who said the deaths and injuries were cause by ‘flying fragments’ whatever that means.

I suspect that they mean Shrapnel

IG

Makes sense and such systems do exist just north of Portsmouth (Type 42 and Type 45 systems on a Hill!!!). No requirement for jury rigging if a containerised system already exists,

I thought they said there was more than one missile, possibly three? So the one on the grass was possibly a dud. Or the delivery section.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....035b3bccc5.jpg
Here is one they prepared earlier! Wheelbarrow mounted Exocet in the Falklands 1982.
Mog

This missile has a Cluster Munition warhead which deploys said warheads around 2500 Metres from the target. As soon as it deploys those warheads, the rest of the airframe tumbles and decelerates rapidly (most likely breaking up in flight as it does so). Remains that don't go bang hit the ground at quite low velocities. The bomblets are Blast Frag.

https://armamentresearch.com/9n123k-...ions-in-syria/

If this was the weapon used it was clearly was a deliberate attempt to kill as civilians as possible. Given the numbers said to be present at the station when it hit its a miracle more were not killed or injured.

Hope anyone tanking from RAFAIR 9916 have got their sun visors down!!

So having a Harpoon set up delivered, I take it the Russian fleet will need to pull right back where they will be pretty none effective? And the suspected possible combined land and sea invasion of the ports is now out of the question?

Kalibr has a reported range something in the area of 1500km , compared to harpoon (if they are there) in the region of 150km. I doubt that any harpoon has been delivered , but it could be true rumor and perhaps makes sure that the russian navy keeps a good distance (negating their intelligence and anti-air role).

If by ports you mean Odesa that is simply not gonna happen , it is pretty much surrounded by marshland with land and sea access very limited. Rus forces cannot really launch any serious amphibious attack since two of their 'landing' ships are sunk\damaged. For the land the only real appoach is over the Bug river , hence the big push on Mikoliev that failed , leaving really no easy access.

Indeed there is a lot of chatter on UKR telegram channels that UAF will attempt to liberate Kherson in the next days, I think that is optimistic, and not sure even that it is sensible, Kahkova ( next Dnipr bridge) is more strategic, and much smaller , plus Kherson is tying down a ton of rus occupation troops for no real effect right now.

**edited to add** Kakova is much more important as the bridge there is part of the Dnipr dam, the russians cannot really blow the bridge without a lot of trouble, and catastrophe, and essentially destroying the 'crimea water channel' which they want so much and orginates there. Attack kherson and the 2 or 3 BTGs there will withdraw over the river, blow the bridge, and be available to reinforce eastwards. What would you do ...

Let's agree Harpoon is obsolete and useless, and other missiles are not available. When (hopefully) the RF loses another ship there can be no doubt it was hit by one of their own missiles, just as the Ukrainians are shelling their own cities ...

Slovakia has delivered a complete S3100 battery to Ukraine, it’s got to be getting dodgy flying over Ukraine for the Russians.

According to Forbes:

" Ukraine had around 100 active batteries of S-300 long-range air-defense systems with as many as 300 launchers when Russia widened its war in the country starting the night of Feb. 23.Seven weeks later, the Russians have knocked out at least 21 of the S-300 launchers that outside analysts have confirmed with photos or videos. Even if the actual total of destroyed launchers is higher—and it almost certainly is—it’s not hard to understand why the Russian air force still is losing a startling number of aircraft."

so although useful, it's probably more of a symbol than anything.

Multinationalism at its best!

Reports of NATO jets possibly shadowing Air Serbian jets possibly into Russian airspace but cannot verify.

https://www.exyuaviation.com/2022/04...y-fighter.html

What do you mean by this ?

Possibly a reference to it being ZZ336, pure guess on my behalf though.

Good guess macmp419, but no idea of the relevance.

Beside S-300 we are sending 16 howitzers "Zuzana" they will be needed for the oncoming counteroffensive. The war enters the key phase. Stopping the Russian advance and making the guerrilla type of ambushes on armour columns is one thing but retaking the territory will be a different type of game.

Not just Starstreak that has entered the game, The missile being fired in this video is the new Martlet Light Multi-mode Missile. (uses Starstreak launcher control unit but has a different missile tube).

Given the amount of tanker hours revealed on FR24, Does anyone know if the extra airframes in the surge capacity of the AirTanker contract have been activated, or are they still doing bucket and spade runs?

Russians take looting to a whole new level……. Shame :ugh:



https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...obyl-souvenirs

Let's hope they send some of their war trophies directly to Vlad..........

Possible location of the Russian air assets that are operating over the Ukraine.

Has the destruction of this convoy been confirmed?

He also says

Having just read the 'full conversation' it sounds as if the poor Russian grunts are getting hammered, left right and centre. They have never been able to see any viable targets, right from the beginning of this war, except for village and city buildings. They themselves are the targets, sitting ducks, and there is no friend in the air.

With unsustainable losses of men, morale and equipment, what can Putin salvage from all of this, even sending in his new general, the alleged Butcher of Aleppo?

Was reading about the Battle of Kursk last night.
A lot of the action took place near Kharkiv... and in July.
It's looking like this spring and summer may also be a meat-grinder of dreadful proportions.

Wrong post.