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

Ad: This forum contains affiliate links to products on Amazon and eBay. More information in Terms and rules

I'm disappointed that that was your sole takeaway from my post.

Then I wholly retract those earlier statements, if you're interested to know where I stand on MBTs, see above.

No, it's not all I take away from it. Overall you are a great contributor. You have sparked great conversations, especially in this thread. I thank you for that.

I think we all just have to realize that there are some things beyond anyone's control and there are forces that just mean some things are not possible (at least at this point in the game).
 
Last edited:
This reference to Finland's "Winter War" with the Soviet Union brought back memories of 1956-1957 when my family lived in an American housing area on Platenstrasse in Frankfurt. Our next door neighbors were from Finland, the Paasonen family, and I went to high school with the son, Henry. I encourage everyone to look up "Operation Stella Polaris". At the time, my dad told me that Mr Paasonen had been someone important and that he worked in the I G Farben building where he also worked. I did not know of Stella Polaris at that time, only finding out about it a few years ago but we knew there was something strange- their windows were always covered and they did not go out much. Now I know why.
 
No, it's not all I take away from it. Overall you are a great contributor. You have sparked great conversations, especially in this thread. I thank you for that.

I think we all just have to realize that there are some things beyond anyone's control and there are forces that just mean some things are not possible (at least at this point in the game).

And there are lots of moves happening beyond the reach of the internet blogs that, rightly, are being kept sensitive. AFAIK, Ukraine hasn't explicitly asked for more MBTs. They have asked for AT weapons (which are probably better suited to the tactics that have proven so successful for the Ukrainian Army) and for air defence systems.

Perhaps I'm naiive in presuming that the Western nations are actually giving Ukraine the types of weapons they're requesting, even if the quantities will never be sufficient (I've yet to see any military leader anywhere who says "I have all the forces I need to accomplish my mission"; they ALWAYS want more).
 

This video does not do justice to the Hawk. The Hawk missile system is impressive in many ways, even if it's old. The launcher's & radar antenna's slew rate is REALLY fast as you might expect from its being designed to knock down high-speed low-flying planes. When I arrived at the Ordnance Guided Missile School in the spring of 1961, I was initially assigned to a new Hawk battalion. Just before I got there a repairman had needed to do something in the base of a launcher and opened a cover in it. Unfortunately, he had just switched on the system when he put his head in to look. When the tubes in the servo motor driver warmed up, the launcher slewed around at a terrific rate of speed. It was fatal.
 
This video does not do justice to the Hawk. The Hawk missile system is impressive in many ways, even if it's old. The launcher's & radar antenna's slew rate is REALLY fast as you might expect from its being designed to knock down high-speed low-flying planes. When I arrived at the Ordnance Guided Missile School in the spring of 1961, I was initially assigned to a new Hawk battalion. Just before I got there a repairman had needed to do something in the base of a launcher and opened a cover in it. Unfortunately, he had just switched on the system when he put his head in to look. When the tubes in the servo motor driver warmed up, the launcher slewed around at a terrific rate of speed. It was fatal.

My dad was an ADA missileer at Ft Bliss doing shoots at White Sands, specializing in the Hawk II by the end of his thirteen years in uniform -- and then we went to Iran where he worked on Hawks for the IIAF.

With the upgrades done since then, it is still a credible threat.
 
From what I understand the whole Iran-Contra scandal got uncovered because when we agreed to sell the Iranians weapons (Hawk Missiles) they thought they were getting Hawk IIIs, instead they got Hawk Is. Of course the press found out immediately.
 
Rotax engines (manufactured in Austria, owned by a Canadian/US firm) are turning up in the Iranian drones being used by the Russians against Ukraine.
The very popular 912 and 914 have been used for various Iranian drones (not to mention US and Turkish drones as well).


It's not like Iran is trying to hide it either - they didn't even bother to remove branding or other identifying marks.

What's a little odd is that there was a rash of thefts of these engines - starting in about 2003 and peaking about 2018. Rotax lists 130 as stolen in the last 20 years, most of them being stripped out of light aircraft in Europe.

However, given how many of these have been fired - at least 500 of the 1000+ acquired by Russia - that's not enough to power them all. I wonder if they've built a local knock-off version, or are souring engines from secondary buyers and through shell companies and other sanction busting methods.
 
"LONDON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - A senior Russian foreign ministry official said that commercial satellites from the United States and its allies could become legitimate targets for Russia if they were involved in the war in Ukraine."

Iranian drones to Star Wars.
 
"LONDON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - A senior Russian foreign ministry official said that commercial satellites from the United States and its allies could become legitimate targets for Russia if they were involved in the war in Ukraine."

Iranian drones to Star Wars.

 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back