Russia and Ukraine

[Thumpalumpacus]

It's essentially a dressed-up T-34 engine.

The engine they chose for the T-14 was so good and so efficient that the company making it couldn't even sell it to pump water.  The whole X-shaped design has been known to be a bad one for decades.  Hence why nobody's brought it beyond concept stage despite the design being around since before WW2.

X-engines have both cooling and precision issues, true.

My understanding is that the Armata's engine is essentially an upgraded T-34 engine -- as used in the T-55 -- mirror-imaged by welding another of the same engine opposite. Getting four camshafts to cooperate (as opposed to two) is more than doubly hard, which is why engines like the Rolls-Royce Vulture, as an example, were failures in ops.

That difficulty increases as well with engine displacement and per-piston power-output -- combine the two problems, yeah, it's a mess.

[The Grand Nudger]

Just cut holes in the floor and hang a picture of a washing machine off the front of every operators helmet.

[LinuxGal]

So it begins...

[Leonardo17]

Russian General Admits Ukraine Just a 'Stepping Stone' to Invade Europe

A key Russian general who Russian President Vladimir Putin promoted this week views the invasion of Ukraine as a mere "stepping stone" to further conflict with Europe.

"I think there's still plenty of time to spend. It is pointless to talk about a specified period. If we are talking about Eastern Europe, which we will have to, of course then it will be longer," the general said.

"Ukraine is only a stepping stone?" the interviewer then asked.

"Yes, absolutely. It is only the beginning," Mordvichev responded, who went on to say that the war "will not stop here."

Ahead of the invasion of Ukraine, Putin laid out a vision to reconstitute the long-defunct Russian Empire's territories into a unified block.

https://www.newsweek.com/russian-general...pe-1825776

   I thinks it’s both bigger and simpler than that. There is a block of authoritarian states who are uniting against the very ideal of democracy simply because they have no other choice than doing that in order to be able to survive.
 

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   One very shocking idea expressed during yesterday’s pro-democracy in Iran demonstration in Washington DC is this:
 
   “There is no going forward with today’s Iranian regime. The only realistic way forward for the West is to start working with the people of Iran instead who want to end this regime and switch to a secular democracy”. (Sorry I lost the web link)
 
   Also look at Western Africa:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/16...y-alliance
 
Putin is organizing series of Anti-French coup d’état in the region now look how clever they are and are forming a new alliance to counter any military intervention that aims to remove them from power and reestablish free elections. (Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso).
 
Countries like Hungary, Serbia, even Poland, the new Eat-Roman Empire, India, Saudi Arabia + South-Africa are also countries that can quickly move from one camp to another.
 
Finally China is not hiding its plans for World domination either. So the only issue in Ukraine is that it can turn into some sort of quagmire that further weakens the West as a whole (with enormous financial consequences for the West in the Years to come) and give a free hand to China to further develop things like AI technologies and transform itself into a new Soviet Union or Eastern Block.
 
I don’t think my fear has no basis because in WWI while Europe was spending all the resources it had on a War of stagnation, The US and Japan had used this opportunity to become industrial giants and becoming more powerful than the older super-powers (mainly France and England).
 

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[Leonardo17]

Odd assortments of mines are harder to defend than a concentrated minefield, and an undefended minefield is not a defense, it's simply a delaying tactic. Minefields only matter if the defense is zeroed in on them.

I think our groundpounder is right, the Russians have it all in the shop-window.

There was no reason not to do it that way, and every reason to do it that way, if you knew that you were depending on freezing the conflict through other means in the near future.  Put it all out front and hope it gets you to that calendar date.  Wouldn't you know it, russia has started babbling about negotiations again.  The kind where their demands are met and ukraine is treated as a non entity.  Exactly as the russian state views ukraine and ukrainians, as it so happens.

Ukraine, for it's part, expects and is experiencing token defense beyond the lines which stymied them so much they reverted to soviet tactics at the outset.  Turns out Elon fucking Musk has been a more potent defensive obstacle than the surovkin lines.  They don't feel comfortable enough to take advantage of this - proven by how they systematically leveled every standing building in robotyne, for example, before they poured light infantry into the russian trenches and overwhelmed them - but that's the current situation as independant observers, ukranian partisans and russian telegraph describe it.

Russia is, presently, hoping that they don't run out of meat before ukraine runs out of grind.  There will be another wave of mobilization to that end.  AKA, all is going well in day 500 and whatever of putins three day war, and he remains a master strategist.

This is still a David vs Goliath situation. The Ukrainian’s have already accomplished something very difficult. What I expected in February last year was a Syrian Democratic Forces type of resistance. Instead they are recapturing lost territories.
 

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Still, Western Tanks and fighter Jets are not wonder weapons. The Ukrainian’s are still outnumbered and outgunned. Still, there is simply no negotiation with Putin. So I don’t know what’s happening, but I hope the people in charge are conscious of what they are actually doing.
 
Also: Almost all East-European countries have this culture of corruption and dishonesty at every level of government. So the U.S. + Allies also have to monitor where their cash is going.
 
So please, no more presidents abandoning his capital city to rogue invaders with a US military plane full of US dollars + a classic sport car
 

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[Leonardo17]

It's essentially a dressed-up T-34 engine.

The engine they chose for the T-14 was so good and so efficient that the company making it couldn't even sell it to pump water.  The whole X-shaped design has been known to be a bad one for decades.  Hence why nobody's brought it beyond concept stage despite the design being around since before WW2.

+ Before the war Putin had a set of futuristic wonder weapons:
 

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The İgarek Combat Mecha:
[img=230x153]file:///C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image002.jpg[/img]
The Uran-9 Robotic Combat Vehicle
[img=232x138]file:///C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image004.jpg[/img]
The Su-57 “Felon” Fighter Jet
[img=239x159]file:///C:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\clip_image006.jpg[/img]
 
And the Kinzhal Air-Launched Hypersonic Weapon
 
https://www.popularmechanics.com/militar...r-weapons/
 
No one saw any of these in the Ukrainian Battlefield. All of these are either prototypes of some potentially useful weapons or (like the Armata Tank) they have defects or cannot be produced without western components, or, they are afraid of losing them because still, the Russian military industry is not a Zero. I think they are still very advanced in terms of military technology. And actually, all these technologies are also moving toward China and Iran.
 

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[Leonardo17]

So it begins...

[LinuxGal]

How accurate are western cruise missiles? Well, here are two (stationary) Russian ships with holes neatly punched in the middle of their decks.

[Thumpalumpacus]

How accurate are western cruise missiles? Well, here are two (stationary) Russian ships with holes neatly punched in the middle of their decks.

Look at all the charring of the drydocks. Did they not defuel the ships before draining the locks?

It doesn't look related to ammo, as the hulls are still pretty solid in appearance, no magazine blowouts. But a lot of flammable stuff clearly burnt. Maybe the wooden spars holding the hulls upright? You're former Navy, do you know much about this?

[LinuxGal]

It doesn't look related to ammo, as the hulls are still pretty solid in appearance, no magazine blowouts. But a lot of flammable stuff clearly burnt. Maybe the wooden spars holding the hulls upright? You're former Navy, do you know much about this?

Former Navy.  Crypto.  A lot more shore duty than haze gray and underway. Then a civilian at the undersea warfare depot.  Next May I'll have 40 years total. I don't know anything about the secondary combustion here, but the precision of the strike is impressive.  Apparently the missiles didn't use StarLink.