"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (4 Viewers)

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Helmet? yes. Rest of the uniform and gear? Not even close.

 
I've seen some Soviet maintenance programs on older equipment, seem comparable to western standards in most respects, BUT hard to say what is being done under combat conditions.
 
If Putin is actually insane (as well as everyone else around him) and suicidal then nukes would make sense. Otherwise no.

As soon as Russia uses a nuke (outside of their own country) all bets are off as to what various concerned countries will do. The best Russia could hope for would be if they opened their borders to outside forces and accepted nuclear disarmament. But there would be no good end in sight for those directly responsible, or for those who stood by and let it happen.

Incidentally, Britain has maintained at least 1x Vanguard class boomer at sea 24/365 since they became operational. Each Vanguard carries upto 16x Trident II missiles with upto 8x 100 kt independently targeted warheads per missile. That is enough to ruin the day for every major city in Russia.
 
re "(They) are attempting to negotiate conditions of laying down arms, under the norms of international humanitarian law," said Natalia Humeniuk.
Hemeniuk is a spokesperson for Ukrainian Media. (This is in reference to the troops north of the Dnipro near Kherson.)

Interesting. Perhaps now is the time for one or more well meaning NATO countries to arrange for internment in a neutral country for any Russian troops who surrender. Make an arrangement where the Russians surrender to the Ukrainian troops and then are immediately handed off to the interning country's representatives. I wonder how many would surrender and how fast?

Also interesting:

A unit of up to 1300 fighters from the so-called "Kadyrovtsy" formation, the personal troops of Chechen warlord Ramzam Kadyrov, has arrived in the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson Oblast to strengthen the Russian forces there, Ukraine's General Staff said in a Facebook post on 10 September.

I wonder what will happen to the Chechens?
 
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Re: The Su-25 pilots may not have the aviating skill level for combat. The MiG-25 pilot who defected to Japan said in his book they were lucky to get 10 hours per month in harvest season as the pilots were used to drive the tractors. He was astounded as he was nearly out of fuel, near Japan, to hear a woman's voice in his headset telling him he had 15 minutes of fuel left. None of his fellow pilots knew of this recorded warning. How much has changed?
 
Re: The Su-25 pilots may not have the aviating skill level for combat.
But they will have the basic skills for basic tactical maneuvers like flying in formation and doing multi-ship take offs. If this was a simple IFE, he "should have" had the training to address the situation.
From Victor Belenko back in 1976. I think depending what you're doing in Russian military aviation, this may or may not have changed. I've met (and flown) with a few Russian pilots who made their way to the US and their skill level varied. One guy claimed he had several hundred hours in MiG-21s, he could fly good but his formation skills were poor compared to US pilots I've been around. Another guy who flew "various" combat aircraft was sh!t hot.
 
I'm thinking that with the growing collapse of the Russian misadventures in Ukraine, could Putler get tempted to break out the nukes? Especially considering that a certain funeral would make a very major target for a decapitation strike...

I'm pretty sure they've run the math on that and figured out that it would end Russia's existence as an organized nation.
 
KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian troops expanded their territorial gains Monday, pushing all the way to the country's northeastern border in places, and claimed to have captured a record number of Russian soldiers as part of the lightning advance that forced Moscow to make a hasty retreat.

A spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence said Russian troops were surrendering en masse as "they understand the hopelessness of their situation." A Ukrainian presidential adviser said there were so many POWs that the country was running out of space to accommodate them.

[...]

In his evening address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his forces have liberated more than 6,000 square kilometers (2,300 square miles) in the east and the south since the beginning of September.

Now Ukrainian teams are disarming land mines and other unexploded weapons in the recaptured areas and searching for any remaining Russian troops, officials said.

It was not yet clear if the Ukrainian blitz could signal a turning point in the war. Momentum has switched back and forth before, but rarely with such a big and sudden swing.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich did not specify the number of Russian prisoners but said the POWs would be exchanged for Ukrainian service members held by Moscow. Military intelligence spokesman Andrey Yusov said the captured troops included "significant" numbers of Russian officers.


 

Part of the news story....

".....Meanwhile, in Russia, there were some signs of disarray as Russian military bloggers and patriotic commentators chastised the Kremlin for failing to mobilize more forces and take stronger action against Ukraine. Russia has continuously stopped short of calling its invasion a war, instead describing it as a "special military operation" and relying on a limited contingent of volunteers instead of a mass mobilization that could spur civil discontent and protest. The Kremlin on Monday said Russia would achieve all of its aims in the military operation in Ukraine, its first public response to dramatic Ukrainian gains on the battlefield in the Kharkiv region. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to answer directly, when asked by a reporter if President Vladimir Putin had confidence in his military leadership, replying that the "special operation" would continue until it had achieved its goals."The military operation continues," Peskov said. "And it will continue until the goals that were originally set are achieved."...."
 
So what was the Kremlin's goals for this "special military operation"?

To get get it's ass kicked, lose most of it's military gear to farm tractors, suffer horrific casualties, piss off most of the free world and turn their economy into a third world nation?

If the answer is yes, then they are most certainly reaching their goals.
 
Not sure on the first question as more modern gear isn't my thing.

As to question two, if you are inside a tank you don't have a massively good ride once the ground gets lumpy so you can be off balance
pretty easily. A full steel infantry type helmet isn't good as you need to be able to move around - the bulk on your head wouldn't help
plus you already have a bit of armour around you anyway. The soft type stops the smacks and whacks from all the stuff sticking out
inside. A lot of AFV helmets in Western style use have a soft liner with a hard outer, a lot like a motor cycle helmet. These allow easy
movement with cushioning as well.
 

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