"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (16 Viewers)
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Zelenskyy Calls For NATO To Buy Ukrainian Drone Interceptors | Aviation Week Network
Days after Russian drone incursions into Poland and Romania, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appealed to NATO countries to invest in his country’s low-cost interceptors.
aviationweek.com
buffnut453
Captain
Don't know how many of you are on LinkedIn but I thought this was an interesting post...plus several of the comments it generated:
www.linkedin.com
It's nothing massively different than what's been discussed on this thread: lack of agility in western military procurement, arrogance about home-grown capabilities, and a lack of emphasis on operating in a contested, congested and constrained electromagnetic spectrum.
Thought-provoking, all the same.
Yesterday, I introduced an arrogant American small drone manufacturer to one of Ukraine's elite asymmetric warfare teams - one of the groups that vet new tech for the frontlines. It tanked. Hard. I⦠| Kate McKenna | 346 comments
Yesterday, I introduced an arrogant American small drone manufacturer to one of Ukraine's elite asymmetric warfare teams - one of the groups that vet new tech for the frontlines. It tanked. Hard. I lost my temper, that went how you'd imagine. Oops ð Why do I have a short fuse around US defence...
It's nothing massively different than what's been discussed on this thread: lack of agility in western military procurement, arrogance about home-grown capabilities, and a lack of emphasis on operating in a contested, congested and constrained electromagnetic spectrum.
Thought-provoking, all the same.
GrauGeist
Generalfeldmarschall zur Luftschiff Abteilung
Her rant is more of a baseless hit-piece than a factual overview.Don't know how many of you are on LinkedIn but I thought this was an interesting post...plus several of the comments it generated:
Yesterday, I introduced an arrogant American small drone manufacturer to one of Ukraine's elite asymmetric warfare teams - one of the groups that vet new tech for the frontlines. It tanked. Hard. I⦠| Kate McKenna | 346 comments
Yesterday, I introduced an arrogant American small drone manufacturer to one of Ukraine's elite asymmetric warfare teams - one of the groups that vet new tech for the frontlines. It tanked. Hard. I lost my temper, that went how you'd imagine. Oops ð Why do I have a short fuse around US defence...
It's nothing massively different than what's been discussed on this thread: lack of agility in western military procurement, arrogance about home-grown capabilities, and a lack of emphasis on operating in a contested, congested and constrained electromagnetic spectrum.
Thought-provoking, all the same.
The M1A1s sent to Ukraine were older units lacking upgrades amd countermeasures of the later SEPv2/3 models, including a lack of depleted Uranium armor. Of all the Abrams lost in Ukraine, all but one was lost to "top-down" or rear-strike attacks by AGTW or drone strikes. The single exception was lost to ambush by a T-72B3.
Not a single one was lost to being "bogged down in mud" and the "withdrawn" units were not for maintenance "nightmares", but for upgrades and enhancements like cope cages and reactive armor and of course, no mention of high numbers of Leopard losses because, well...they're not "American militech".
As for the F-16s in UAF service, only one of four lost, was due to surface to air interception, the other three were due to drone attack (as they were intercepting drone swarms - one accidently ingesting debris).
Meanwhile, Russia has lost seven of their Su-35s to Ukrainian anti-aircraft. The Su-35 is a much newer platform, but wait, it's not American, so being "brutally vulnerable" does not apply.
The swipe at the M777 "failing" after 2000+ rounds? Really? What piece of artillery (American or otherwise) can sustain top performance after extensive use without having to re-barrel?
Going by memory, typical life expectancy of arty barrels are up to 1,000 rounds max. (some are much less), so perhaps she shouldn't be using the M777 as an example of "failed" American Technology.
The rest of her points can also be shown to be flawed, but you see where I'm going with this, plus we also notice absolutely NO mention of the Bradley...
She would be better off using actual stats if she wanted to showcase "American miltech" shortcomings.
buffnut453
Captain
Great points, and I wasn't buying all of her comments. There's a world of difference between an "arrogant small UAV firm" and the types of equipment she was so glibly criticizing.
I think most modern artillery should be good for around 2,500 rounds before the barrel needs attention...so perhaps the M-777 is performing a little under-par. The bigger issue, I suspect, is that the US may not be making enough new barrels to keep up with replacement demands. That's less to do with the weapon itself and more about failing to ramp up production to wartime usage rates.
While probably overstated, I also think she makes some valid concerns about western manufacturers not fully leveraging the battle experience of the Ukrainians. It's starting to happen but it's taken far too long....the west has essentially lost 3 years where, I fear, a great deal more could have been learned if people had paid more attention. From an air perspective, I remain nervous that we're trying to use very expensive aircraft and missiles to defeat cheap, disposable drones. The maths of that exchange simply don't work for me.
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Ukraine’s drone strikes act as kinetic sanctions, driving a fuel crisis, intensifying social pressure, and undermining Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war chest.
www.forbes.com
Russia’s New Jet-Powered Shahed Revealed: What It Means For Ukraine
A detailed Ukrainian analysis shows the jet-powered Geran-3 is slower than previously thought, but fast enough to poses new challenges for defenders.
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Intelligence: Ukraine's capture of Geran-3 drone exposes Western tech components inside Russian weapon
Intelligence: Ukraine's capture of Geran-3 drone exposes Western tech components inside Russian weapon
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Russia gasoline sales hit 2-year low amid Ukrainian drone strikes and harvest-season demand
Ukraine has hit two Russian refineries during the last week.
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GrauGeist
Generalfeldmarschall zur Luftschiff Abteilung
Maybe it's just me, as I read her rant, I couldn't help but think that she has been hanging around Russians too much.
Aside from the obvious misinformation regarding equipment, her phrases such as "arrogant", "miltech" and such, sound a great deal like Russian media and/or milbloggers.
buffnut453
Captain
I don't know. I've met a number of arrogant US contractors trying to sell equipment made for the US military to NATO Allies. All too often, the BD team failed to comprehend that European partners do things differently than the American military (e.g. combining jobs/tasks in a single role that are spread across multiple individuals in the US).
We had one instance where a US contractor tried to sell a rather complicated software to manage assets. However, it carried a heavy training burden that wasn't cost-effective for Allies because, frankly, they had so few assets that an Excel file would have worked just fine for them.
If she was sowing Russian propaganda, she's playing a very interesting game. The challenges of the electromagnetic spectrum are entirely valid; I just don't know if her comments about specific vulnerabilities are accurate. I fear that NATO hasn't trained hard enough to operate in the kinds of jamming environments that we are seeing in Ukraine.
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