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

[glennasher]

^^^^^^^^^ Some of the newer artillery uses GPS guided ammunition. If you have the coordinates, type it in, and let fly. In addition, a 155 artillery piece will "take out" a huge area with airburst ammo. It doesn't leave much to the imagination what it will do to "troops in the open" or lightly skinned vehicles. Downrange is no place to be..............

 

[Admiral Beez]

Good to see my fellow Canadians helping.



Ukraine will be teaching us by the end of this war. No one else will have such experience of defeating the Russians. An ideal NATO partner.

 

[SaparotRob]

Great sauerkraut there. Best I've ever eaten.

As a kid, I made myself sauerkraut sandwiches. Honest.

 

[buffnut453]

Yet another shock...Moscow is moving to annex the 4 states they partially occupy within Ukraine.

Russia to formally annex four more areas of Ukraine

Russia is to press ahead with annexation days after conducting unrecognised referendums.

www.bbc.com

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I'm amazed that they can hit the target. How is this accomplished? The gun crew can't see the target, so is there a drone or forward spotting team in communication with the gun crew?

Yes, that's been a thing for a long time now, since the use of balloons in the American Civil War if not before then. Spotting the fall of shot is precisely how you attain hits with guns that range fifteen miles or more, or are used in indirect fire.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Yes, that's been a thing for a long time now, since the use of balloons in the American Civil War if not before then. Spotting the fall of shot is precisely how you attain hits with guns that range fifteen miles or more, or are used in indirect fire.

But with the land so flat and open, the observers must be right up close. Surely their radio or cell communications would be at risk? Well, if the enemy weren't buffoons that is.

 

[SaparotRob]

Beware the Eye In The Sky.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

But with the land so flat and open, the observers must be right up close. Surely their radio or cell communications would be at risk? Well, if the enemy weren't buffoons that is.

Aircraft (rotary-wing, fixed-wing, and UAV) can be used to paint targets as well. So can satellites.

But a ground observer does not have to be in the open either. Today's equipment is hand held and just needs a line of sight.

Modern artillery pieces have GPS guided projectiles (if the operator has them). A ground soldier, vehicle, aircraft, or satellite can "paint" the target with good accuracy.

Equipment and communications are encrypted (unless you are the Russians… )

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

But with the land so flat and open, the observers must be right up close. Surely their radio or cell communications would be at risk? Well, if the enemy weren't buffoons that is.

I'd think that open, flat terrain would see more drones and less ground observers in use. But even ground observers can use tools like binocular periscopes, laser designators, and so forth. Radar ranging can be done as well. Accurate land-based artillery fire is fairly easy compared to seaborne guns where both shooter and target are moving as well as rolling with the waves.

 

[buffnut453]

But with the land so flat and open, the observers must be right up close. Surely their radio or cell communications would be at risk? Well, if the enemy weren't buffoons that is.

Rather depends what radios they're using. Low-probability of intercept/low-probability of detection (LPI/LPD) systems do what they say - they're very hard to intercept or detect and hence can be used with little risk of being sensed by an adversary.

As others have noted, UAVs can also play a key role in targeting artillery, with geolocations pulled from aerial imagery in near-real time.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Russia Blows Up Gas Pipelines, Declaring an All-Out Energy War It May Already Have Lost

Russia's likely sabotage of natural gas pipelines spells an escalation of Putin's energy war—and increases chance of him losing it

www.yahoo.com

 

[GrauGeist]

And the drone, with quality optics, can hover at an altitude well beyond the enemy's ability to see it and feed real-time coordinates to batteries with detailed GPS data.

 

[RogerdeLluria]

Why Putin will soon have to choose between losing in Ukraine or using nuclear weapons - Washington Examiner

Ukraine has both the political and popular resolve to liberate its territory. Thanks to the United States, Britain, Poland, and the Baltic states, Kyiv also has the economic and military means to believe it can achieve its ambition. In contrast, it is increasingly clear that Russia lacks the...

www.washingtonexaminer.com

 

[RogerdeLluria]

 

[buffnut453]

Yep...only one exit route now for the Russians: to the east via Torske (oh, and the Ukrainians can easily range the north-south MSR from Makiivka):

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

To bad the Ukrainian's cannot just break through and keep going all the way to Moscow.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Yet another shock...Moscow is moving to annex the 4 states they partially occupy within Ukraine.

Russia to formally annex four more areas of Ukraine

Russia is to press ahead with annexation days after conducting unrecognised referendums.

www.bbc.com

Then perhaps it's time for the West to stop acting exclusively in the background as quartermaster to Ukraine and to demonstrate its military power and resolve. An US-led NATO armoured corps. rolling into Ukraine, remaining exclusively in the northern Onlasts that border Belarus, excluding the Chernihiv Oblast that borders Russia. This Western force is placed to ostensibly guarantee against Belarusian aggression. Both Ukraine and NATO invites both India and China to participate in some peaceful role.

 

[buffnut453]

Then perhaps it's time for the West to stop acting exclusively in the background as quartermaster to Ukraine and to demonstrate its military power and resolve. An US-led NATO armoured corps. rolling into Ukraine, remaining exclusively in the northern Onlasts that border Belarus, excluding the Chernihiv Oblast that borders Russia. This Western force is placed to ostensibly guarantee against Belarusian aggression. Both Ukraine and NATO invites both India and China to participate in some peaceful role.

Sheesh...how many times do we have to go over this? NATO cannot get involved because none of the member nations has been attacked. Actively defending Ukrainian territory with NATO forces is still participating in the conflict, even if the NATO troops don't engage Russian forces. And if NATO did get involved, then Putin almost certainly would start pushing big red buttons.

 

[buffnut453]

A Admiral Beez , you can disagree all you like. However, it doesn't change the facts of how and when NATO can be mobilized and take action. If NATO becomes an active belligerent, and providing defensive forces for northwestern Ukraine absolutely fits that criteria, then it will prove to the world that Putin was right.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]