Probably the most salient point.
Another point. If there was a real Zircon interception, US handlers in Ukraine would unlikely allow any information to be published as to keep Russia from learning how it might have been intercepted.
The War in the Ukraine
- Thread starter SampanViking
- Start date
Probably the most salient point.
Another point. If there was a real Zircon interception, US handlers in Ukraine would unlikely allow any information to be published as to keep Russia from learning how it might have been intercepted.
Footage from the first captured German-made Marder infantry fighting vehicle in Ukraine. The Marder infantry fighting vehicle was adopted by Germany in 1971 and is armed with a 20 mm gun; technical information about it is on the channel. Previously, the Ukrainian army received about 40 Marder infantry fighting vehicles from Germany. Visually, the combat vehicle is almost operational and has full ammunition. The combat vehicle was damaged in the Avdiivka direction and got stuck in the mud; later Ukrainian units tried to destroy it. The evacuation of the Ukrainian Marder infantry fighting vehicle was reportedly carefully planned by the Russian army. The military carried out reconnaissance, engineers paved a new road, and sappers cleared minefields. Only after access to the vehicle was secured was it evacuated from the battlefield at night with the help of a tank. The vehicle will not be used in combat; presumably, the Marder BMP will be sent for study to Russia or shelling at a training ground.
plawolf
Lieutenant General
The whole point of using Zircon is to send a message to NATO that the Russian bear still has teeth, due to how much deterrence power Russia has lost because of the way it’s military has performed in Ukraine.
The risks of speeding up US hypersonic deployment is minimal. The US is already fully committed to hypersonic research with no real issue for funding, if Congress can throw more money at the problem to magically solve their technical bottle-heads, the US would have hypersonics already.
In terms of technical risks, with the speed these things travel, even an intercepted example is unlikely to have enough left intact to give the US much meaningful insight. The biggest risk would be if one crashed before reaching full speed, which might be why the Russians are using them at extended range - if a Zircon is to suffer a failure at launch, the dud would fall well within Russian territory for them to recover.
But the odds of one being intercepted is extremely low. The photos the Ukrainians are parading around looks to just be a discarded booster.
I would be interested know what the target of the Zircon(s) was. If Macron start acting weird, the French foreign legion might be reporting a lot of ‘deaths in training’ in the coming months.
I mean, how much tech could they glean from a booster that uses flathead screws, anyway?.
Metallurgy could tell you how fast it is built to go (or not), construction could tell you how many Gs it is built to take and by extension maneuverability. It could possibly contain other components. The fact that a booster was found near Kiev is just weird, you wouldn't expect it to drag the booster with it that far, or am I missing something? There's definitely stuff the glean from wreckage.
Thing is, unless the booster is meant to go hypersonic with rest of the missile, I doubt the metallury will be required to be the same at all. Seems like a waste of resources.
If anything, you could get estimated firing time and maybe the weight of the missile it is boosting
Self propelled 155mm howitzer Archer gets taken out near Lypivka.
Ukrainian temporary deployment point in Artemovosk sector gets taken out, courtesy of Sever-V special forces unit.
BMD-4 of the VDV assaulting Ukrainian positions.
FH-70 howitzer gets nailed by Krasnopol in the outskirts of Seversk.
Air strikes on Ukrainian positions in Terne, Limanskoye direction.
Ukrainian tank taken out by Krasnopol.
British L119 105mm howitzer gets taken out in counterbattery exchange.
Aftermath of missile strike at Kharkhiv CHPP-5 electrical power plant.
Ukrainian BTR-70 gets taken out by Lancet near Gulyaypol.
Destroyed Ukrainian vehicles along the road. That towed howitzer looks retrievable.
We have seen a number of coincidences of NATO and US officers where deaths are announced with no cause or due to accidents shortly after deep strikes in Ukrainian territory. A brigadier general of the Polish Armed Forces announced dead after an Iskander strike at an AFU command post in Chasiv Yar.
Turns out this location hit by FAB-250 bombs had a concentration of foreign mercenaries.
Ukrainian T-64BV found destroyed along the road.
Lots of Krasnopol usage lately, but then again, there was already quite a bit of Krasnopol usage before but the Russian Telegram channels fail to credit them properly since all you see is the receiving end of it. There's a very good chance that any artillery footage that is a one shot no miss event to be a Krasnopol or it's siblings like Kitolov (for 120mm mortars and 122mm howitzers) and Smelchak (240mm Tyulpan). There's also another one for the 203mm Pion and Malka. Any event listed or credit as 'counterbattery' might also highly likely involve guided shell munitions.
Ukrainian temporary deployment point in Artemovosk sector gets taken out, courtesy of Sever-V special forces unit.
BMD-4 of the VDV assaulting Ukrainian positions.
FH-70 howitzer gets nailed by Krasnopol in the outskirts of Seversk.
Air strikes on Ukrainian positions in Terne, Limanskoye direction.
Ukrainian tank taken out by Krasnopol.
British L119 105mm howitzer gets taken out in counterbattery exchange.
Aftermath of missile strike at Kharkhiv CHPP-5 electrical power plant.
Ukrainian BTR-70 gets taken out by Lancet near Gulyaypol.
Destroyed Ukrainian vehicles along the road. That towed howitzer looks retrievable.
We have seen a number of coincidences of NATO and US officers where deaths are announced with no cause or due to accidents shortly after deep strikes in Ukrainian territory. A brigadier general of the Polish Armed Forces announced dead after an Iskander strike at an AFU command post in Chasiv Yar.
Turns out this location hit by FAB-250 bombs had a concentration of foreign mercenaries.
Ukrainian T-64BV found destroyed along the road.
Lots of Krasnopol usage lately, but then again, there was already quite a bit of Krasnopol usage before but the Russian Telegram channels fail to credit them properly since all you see is the receiving end of it. There's a very good chance that any artillery footage that is a one shot no miss event to be a Krasnopol or it's siblings like Kitolov (for 120mm mortars and 122mm howitzers) and Smelchak (240mm Tyulpan). There's also another one for the 203mm Pion and Malka. Any event listed or credit as 'counterbattery' might also highly likely involve guided shell munitions.
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Can we say with confidence that the Russian armed forces have finally succeeded in its SEAD/DEAD missions? They have finally started releasing videos of destroyed Patriots and NASAMs.
Where to go from here for the Ukraine armed forces? If you deploy your SAM assets near Kiev, the frontlines get bombed at will; if you start roaming your SAMs then Kiev gets hit with ballistic missiles.
The continued drone hit on Russian refineries reminds me of V1 and V2 strikes on London in 1944 and 1945 - inconsequential to the wider stages of the war.
Where to go from here for the Ukraine armed forces? If you deploy your SAM assets near Kiev, the frontlines get bombed at will; if you start roaming your SAMs then Kiev gets hit with ballistic missiles.
The continued drone hit on Russian refineries reminds me of V1 and V2 strikes on London in 1944 and 1945 - inconsequential to the wider stages of the war.
Once Russian fighters can fly over the frontlines and stay then we can probably say yeah? But even after supposedly destroying a Patriot battery, leaving only one battery at Kyiv, Russian air force are still relegated to lobbing glide bombs 40-50kms from the frontlines depending on 30-45 minute old intel instead of having a Russian JTAC calling in strikes at real time targets.
This tells me the second patriot battery is fine.