The War in the Ukraine

Atomicfrog said:

Vehicule don't look destroyed but have probably lost the soft parts functions like radar and optical sensor systems. All these fragile sensors are probably in huge demand in repair yards and I can see the utility to field rugged low tech systems that don't require them. Dropped mortar and grenades, zala drones, switchblade, artillery all of these are probably eating tons of subsystems.

I see the new generation of MBT with all the bling bling cameras and sensors and I see the fields of Ukraine with 1m of mud and the air filled with shrapnels.

Not sure that everything is going in the right direction in developments for that kind of conflicts.

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It is not related to the quality and quantity of the sensors, but rather the integration cost and time, including testing.

There is utility for every extra sensor, with bigger resolution and so on,but it is not just plug and play, it has to be evaluated and tested with in context of the full system, including maintanance, cooperation with other units and so on.

Of course it is long and expensive process, so every western military supplier feel the inciciative to sell a brand new sensor only, and left the cost of integration for someone else .

I had fancy story, when a purchasing guy realised that to buy the components of the manufacturing cell ( machines ,robots and gauges) vost 50-70% than the quote for the full , deployed kit.

So, he bought the pieces, pocketed the bonus for saving,and caused a huge drain on the engineering department resources.

And of course the deployment was 5* longer and cost more than the original quote, but part of the new cost was internal. And he already gone for a new position .

Anlsvrthng said:

It is not related to the quality and quantity of the sensors, but rather the integration cost and time, including testing.

There is utility for every extra sensor, with bigger resolution and so on,but it is not just plug and play, it has to be evaluated and tested with in context of the full system, including maintanance, cooperation with other units and so on.

Of course it is long and expensive process, so every western military supplier feel the inciciative to sell a brand new sensor only, and left the cost of integration for someone else .

I had fancy story, when a purchasing guy realised that to buy the components of the manufacturing cell ( machines ,robots and gauges) vost 50-70% than the quote for the full , deployed kit.

So, he bought the pieces, pocketed the bonus for saving,and caused a huge drain on the engineering department resources.

And of course the deployment was 5* longer and cost more than the original quote, but part of the new cost was internal. And he already gone for a new position .

Click to expand...

I can see the utility of these systems, and the time needed to field them in new armor vehicules. They are force multiplier, improve situation awareness and add comfort and protection when they works.

Looking at the frontlines in Ukraine, most of the vehicules are sandblasted with shrapnels and most of these cool, nice and relevant systems would have become costly junks in need of repairs. Whatever 360 camera coverage magic vision helmet a mbt could field, it would just turn into hatch open copecage vision after a week of mortar and artillery lobbing.. Impaired automatic target system, range finder and protection suits asking to be repaired.

On a nice seal clubbing day it will work marvels, in a field of mud and long positional attrition it will become logistic nightmares.

I see the utility of simpler design like T-55, leopard 1 and T-62 in the present conflict for most of the task. Top of the line MBT would be for special occasion armor bashing mayhem and pulled far from softening until needed. An army able to keep a two tier armored fleet would be quite advantaged on long conflict.

Atomicfrog said:

Vehicule don't look destroyed but have probably lost the soft parts functions like radar and optical sensor systems. All these fragile sensors are probably in huge demand in repair yards and I can see the utility to field rugged low tech systems that don't require them. Dropped mortar and grenades, zala drones, switchblade, artillery all of these are probably eating tons of subsystems.

I see the new generation of MBT with all the bling bling cameras and sensors and I see the fields of Ukraine with 1m of mud and the air filled with shrapnels.

Not sure that everything is going in the right direction in developments for that kind of conflicts.

Click to expand...

I'm going to add that Lancets are reported to be using shaped charges or HEAT, and there's even a mention of using thermobaric warhead which might be a variant. This explains why many of the targets go completely kaboom or suffer from internal flames before blowing up. I also think that for the shaped warhead to work, which requires an inertial fuse at the back or bottom of the warhead, there's a minimum impact speed that's needed that requires the drone to dive to attain that speed. Hence why these drones uses wings rather than rotary blades like those quadcopter FPV drones, which have mortar charges tied to them that have fuses on the front for point, delay and proximity detonation. I would take it that the Gepard would take serious damage assuming a HEAT impact, possibility of being totaled is high if the damage is unrepairable.

Rumor is that this opening may have occurred thanks to lancets taking out that S300 battery in the area.

Here's Rybar's geolocate on the battery:

hmm they didnt get the 5N63S radar eh. It shouldn't be far.

Oil terminal in Sevastopol may have been struck by UAV over night and was on fire:

Huge mushroom cloud in the morning:

Stealthflanker said:

hmm they didnt get the 5N63S radar eh. It shouldn't be far.

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There was a 36D6 radar knocked out but this was in the Donetsk and using a Kh-31P.

Rybar reporting that in addition to the four S-300s and a Gepard hit by lancets, there were additionally a Tor, an S-300 radar (36D6), and 2 additional S-300s destroyed. One of the S-300s was hit by a Kh-31P, an anti-radiation missile known to be carried by the Su-57.


- Yesterday Putin said that "Russia is going to invest 1 trillion rubles in drone research, development and production", Time frame is not specified. Unfortunately cant recall where i read it.

tankphobia said:

Oil terminal in Sevastopol may have been struck by UAV over night and was on fire:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1652133868403671041

Huge mushroom cloud in the morning:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1652145602594062336

Click to expand...

Likely the Attack of the Mugin-5 once again. China needs to do something about the export of those drones.

Lancet takes out another 2S1 Gvozdika "Carnation" SPG.


This time a Krasnopol attack on a Ukrainian ammo depot on Avdiivka. This by artillery brigade 'Kamius'.


Ukrainian FPV drones attack and finish off some Russian tanks that appear damaged and abandoned.


That looks like a pretty bad fire. Looks like the bunker fuel facilities of the Sevastopol Port.