Russian Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

gelgoog said:

British Airways found the aircraft profitable to operate for them. Virgin Airways wanted to buy the Concorde as well at one point but were not allowed to. The aircraft ceased to operate because Airbus stopped giving support to it. And that is despite it being a several decades old design by the time it was retired and the sonic boom issues which prevented it from operating over continental flights. Imagine if it had enough range to do Pacific flights and didn't have the sonic boom issues and could fly overland as well. Add express boarding to whoever used the flights and I suspect it would have been quite successful. Who cares if you have little space in the aircraft if the flight takes half as long.

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I have serious doubts about the claim that the Concorde was truly profitable for British Airways. British Airways wasn't paying a realistic price for the support of the type, Airbus clearly was and was fed up paying for it. I also doubt the profitability would cover the acquisition of the aircraft at realistic market prices in the first place. Keep in mind that British Airways only paid a symbolic pound for the fleet. Had the actual development costs been divided out on each delivered frame, you are looking at nearly a billion USD per aircraft that would have to be covered out of the "profit" BA made on it.

As for a hypothetical Russian SSJ, it sort of changes the market dynamics completely when it isn't a project run on free market dynamics. We are entering a new cold war, and the Russian government can justify such a project without considering the pure civilian market. SSJ technology can be shared with future bomber and fighter projects, sharing the cost and increasing the production volume of components. It can also be peddled off to various military branches and state owned airlines.

Russia may purchase Burevestnik drones from Belarus. At the “Russia” exhibition held at the Moscow VDNKh, the Russian military became seriously interested in the Belarusian heavy UAV “Burevestnik-MK”; it is possible that Russian troops will purchase it. The Burevestnik-MK UAV was developed by the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus and can perform reconnaissance and strike missions. The UAV is capable of hitting various targets with guided and unguided S-5 missiles, including lightly armored vehicles. The maximum flight altitude of the drone is 5000 m. The reconnaissance and strike version of the drone is designated "Burevestnik-MK". The UAV carries a payload weighing up to 80 kilograms and has a television, infrared camera, photo camera and laser range finder. Under direct radio communication conditions, the maximum radius of use of the drone is about 100 km, and when using two repeaters, the controlled flight range will be 500 kilometers. According to the developer, in autonomous flight mode according to a given program, the Burevestnik-MK UAV is capable of covering more than 1,000 km in ten hours of flight; it is planned to increase the flight range to 1,500 kilometers. Reportedly, the UAV consists of 80% Belarusian components. The Burevestnik-MK UAV is equipped with a 62 hp engine. and has a maximum take-off weight of 320 kg.

Alexander III SSBN (Project 955A) and Krasnoyarsk SSGN (Project 885M) entered service.

They can use more 885's.

They have been putting one SSGN and one SSBN in service a year now that the production pipeline is filled up. That is two nuclear submarines a year. This is faster than the rate the US is replacing their fleet. The difference is the US hasn't started building their SSBNs yet and the Virginia construction started much sooner.

As for the Project 885M, the Krasnoyark SSGN entered service with the Pacific Fleet, and the Arkhangelsk SSGN was launched just last month. Could enter service as early as next year, but it is more likely it will happen in a year and a half or two years. There were reports that they might lay down more SSGNs this year but it hasn't happened yet.

Project 885M is highly capable. It has 32 VLS cells compared with 24 VLS cells in the much larger twin reactor Antey submarines. This is thanks to the increased miniaturization in the modern missiles. And the VLS cells in Project 885M can fire the Kalibr, Oniks, and soon enough the Zircon.

Stealthflanker said:

They can use more 885's.

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Would rather see some more moderate torpedo boats.

Russian military personnel have begun using the Bulat mini-drone detector. The Bulat passive drone detector was developed by the Russian company 3mx. The detector is based on a Chinese model, which was completely “redesigned and modernized”; the developers assembled their own radio part, made their own boards and changed the firmware. The device is capable of detecting and identifying the most popular brands of drones, such as DJI, Autel and various models of FPV drones at a range of up to 1 kilometer. Developers are constantly improving the detector by adding new data on drone models provided to them by Russian military personnel. The detector is easy to use and scans frequencies from 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz to 5.2 GHz and 5.8 GHz. The Bulat UAV detector weighs 285 grams and can operate for up to 5 hours. The device has a 5V power supply and a 4000 mAh lithium battery. The price of the Bulat drone detector is about 90 to 130 thousand rubles or 1,400 dollars.

Testing of the MGTD-22 "Hummingbird" mini-jet engine designed for jet UAVs has begun in Russia. The compact gas turbine engine was developed by the Engineering Center of Samara University. Such engines are now in great demand among developers of jet drones, we talked about one of them, the link is in the description of the video. All technical information about the engine is on the screen, press pause to get to know it better. The MGTD-22 engine running on kerosene is currently being tested. The project, as shown in the table, has more powerful engines MGTD-40 "Chaika" and MGTD-100 "Eagle", which will surpass the MGTD-22 in size, thrust, power and other characteristics. The developers promise an engine control system that allows fuel to be used 2% more efficiently than competitors, and increases flight range by 10%. The Hummingbird engine weighs a little more than 2.1 kilograms, the body length is 38 cm, the diameter is 15 cm. The maximum thrust should be 220 Newtons. According to calculations, a small UAV equipped with such an engine with a take-off weight of 45 kg will be able to reach a maximum speed of 800 kilometers per hour, with a maximum flight altitude of 9000 meters.

Footage of Russian FAB-500SHN bombs being dropped at ultra-low altitude by a Russian Su-34M fighter-bomber in Ukraine. The Russian Bomb FAB-500SHN was developed in 1976 by the State Research and Production Enterprise "Basalt" and is equipped with a built-in braking device in the form of a parachute, for use at extremely low altitudes. Thanks to the parachute, the plane manages to leave the danger zone. Bomb weight 513 kg, warhead weight 221 kg. The video was filmed in the Kherson region.

The Russian army began using RP-377UVM1L Lesochek jamming stations, one of which was spotted on a BMD-4M armored personnel carrier. The RP-377 electronic warfare system is designed for radio jamming of mine-explosive device control channels. The complex is also used to suppress navigation channels and geopositioning of enemy UAVs; for this purpose, the complex’s antennas are usually installed horizontally, as shown in the figure. The range of the RP-377 “Lesochek” complex is about 100 meters in the horizontal plane and up to 200 meters in the vertical. The RP-377UVM1L jamming station can be installed on any equipment, from cars to tanks.