I found the recent announcement that the US would be sending 50 Bradley Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine to be underwhelming. I just couldn’t see Bradleys as suited for the type of industrial scale warfare that’s going on in Ukraine. Bradleys are an older design that is outgunned by the Russian equipment that has been in use in Ukraine from the beginning of this conflict—although not as out of date as the Vietnam era APCs we’ve been sending. Will Schryver has been quite acerbic on the topic:
Totally off-topic, so feel free to delete this, Mark. Switzerland is going to destroy millions of Covid vaccines that no-one here wants because the take-up is so low. When you've lost the Swiss, it's game over. Now, back to 404!
I think our rotten western ruling class fomented this idiotic and unnecessary war, but I have no sympathy for the Russian Empire and it’s long history of imperial conquest and oppression.
Ukraine is a poor cause and a poor excuse for a country , and about as big a cupcake as a military opponent as any respectable hegemon could hope for. Western money and weapons are nothing without fighting men.
I keep reading here how absolutely, utterly invincible the Russians are with their superior numbers, world domineering technology, and unassailable power.
Pray tell then why does this piddly-ass war drag on day after week after month?
Scott Ritter said Ukraine was taking losses around 800-1000 per day. I'm not sure if it's quite that high, but even half that number is a terribly large daily loss.
You multiply that over many weeks and months, and you have a demographic catastrophe for Ukraine.
Baron of the Taiga
@baronitaigas
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When you've got the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK admitting they've been hiding the real losses, that, and I quote, "the numbers are HUGE, indigestible", you know something is happening.
I was wary of the Russians' official numbers until folks from "our" side like Von der Leyen and the Ukrainians themselves started confirming them. They seem to be losing a battalion or so a day.
1.) Fifty Brads would fit out a battalion, more or less, or two battalions if you use the mixed two tank two mech company arrangement the US has gone to. Ukraine is a fairly big war. I can't see this moving the needle very much. It's sort of like the single battery of Patriots. It's a good weapon, but one battery!?
2.) Brads mostly got a bum rap from back when the liberals, with a lot of media help were trying to kill the program. They were a huge improvement over the M113s the Army was tooling around in at the time. Which is not to say they're perfect, but a long analysis would take more time than I have. They don't carry enough dismounts, and I'm curious if we're sending them with the TOW missiles that they're supposed to have, and how many.
3.) If we are sending them with TOWs, it wouldn't surprise me if the Ukrainians mostly use them as tank destroyers.
Reports say that the TOW missile has successfully hit Russian T-90s in Syria, which are equipped with active defences designed to defeat such missiles.[53] However, a Russian report claims the tank shows "very little damage" and was still operable.
In February 2016, Syrian rebels filmed a video of a TOW missile streaking towards a T-90 tank in northeast Aleppo. In a blinding flash, the missile detonates. However, as the smoke cleared it became evident that the tank’s Kontakt-5 explosive-reactive armor had discharged the TOW missile’s shaped-charge warhead prior to impact, minimizing the damage. (This fact was perhaps not appreciated by the tank’s gunner, who in the full version of the video clambered out of an already open hatch and fled on foot.) Nonetheless, the video went viral.
"Reports say that the TOW missile has successfully hit Russian T-90s in Syria, which are equipped with active defences designed to defeat such missiles.[53] However, a Russian report claims the tank shows "very little damage" and was still operable."
The old T-64s the Russians are taking out of storage because they don't have that carousel arrangement for the ammo that has doomed so many Russian tank crews don't have active defenses. It's not a game of absolutes. A weapon is not useless because it is unable to prevail against any form of defense. And some TOWs have been equipped with tandem warheads to defeat reactive armor panels. As for the range...only relevant if you have that thousand meter sight line.
But however good or bad these Bradleys are, (Or the Patriots, for that matter) the numbers we're talking about don't sound like even close to enough. The Tiger tank totally outclassed our Sherman, but we could pump out Shermans like there was no tomorrow.
There's always a clock. In World war I the Central Powers were on the food clock. In World War II, the Axis were on the oil clock. Ukraine is likely on the munitions clock. Even if the TOWs we send can turn any Russian tank into a blazing wreck, and we don't need to get the sharpened screwdrivers out over that one, how many can we send?
“The greatest geopolitical blunder in history” indeed, assuming it is not an intentional effort at destroying the West. Yet I am still reading a number of analysts stating that Russia is losing badly and/or cannot win, so I am now doubting their other analyses.
As with the vaccines, I go from "conspiracy" to "mere stupidity" and back again. I think that, being neocons, they just didn't think it through. Especially, the fools like Nudelman and Blinken, who are so blinded by hatred for Russia that it affects their judgment.
Probably a good idea to send those old Bradley's to Ukraine for recycling than deploying them against American parents protesting at school board meetings.
Totally off-topic, so feel free to delete this, Mark. Switzerland is going to destroy millions of Covid vaccines that no-one here wants because the take-up is so low. When you've lost the Swiss, it's game over. Now, back to 404!
And this has also occurred in other places--including, if memory serves me, states and provinces in the US and Canada.
Maybe we can give them to Ukraine? Packed inside those Bradleys!
I think our rotten western ruling class fomented this idiotic and unnecessary war, but I have no sympathy for the Russian Empire and it’s long history of imperial conquest and oppression.
Ukraine is a poor cause and a poor excuse for a country , and about as big a cupcake as a military opponent as any respectable hegemon could hope for. Western money and weapons are nothing without fighting men.
I keep reading here how absolutely, utterly invincible the Russians are with their superior numbers, world domineering technology, and unassailable power.
Pray tell then why does this piddly-ass war drag on day after week after month?
If you'd bothered to actually read with comprehension you'd know the answer.
Pretty comprehensive:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/rickards-time-get-real-about-ukraine
Following on from Rickards.
Sunk cost fallacy
a psychological barrier that ties people to unsuccessful endeavors simply because they've committed resources to it
Hmm.
Looks like this could play right into the hands of the warmongers - how many people will fall for this one.
Maharlika
·
Scott Ritter said Ukraine was taking losses around 800-1000 per day. I'm not sure if it's quite that high, but even half that number is a terribly large daily loss.
You multiply that over many weeks and months, and you have a demographic catastrophe for Ukraine.
Baron of the Taiga
@baronitaigas
·
When you've got the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK admitting they've been hiding the real losses, that, and I quote, "the numbers are HUGE, indigestible", you know something is happening.
I was wary of the Russians' official numbers until folks from "our" side like Von der Leyen and the Ukrainians themselves started confirming them. They seem to be losing a battalion or so a day.
A couple of notes on the Bradleys
1.) Fifty Brads would fit out a battalion, more or less, or two battalions if you use the mixed two tank two mech company arrangement the US has gone to. Ukraine is a fairly big war. I can't see this moving the needle very much. It's sort of like the single battery of Patriots. It's a good weapon, but one battery!?
2.) Brads mostly got a bum rap from back when the liberals, with a lot of media help were trying to kill the program. They were a huge improvement over the M113s the Army was tooling around in at the time. Which is not to say they're perfect, but a long analysis would take more time than I have. They don't carry enough dismounts, and I'm curious if we're sending them with the TOW missiles that they're supposed to have, and how many.
3.) If we are sending them with TOWs, it wouldn't surprise me if the Ukrainians mostly use them as tank destroyers.
Apparently we've run out of the M113s we've been sending them. Russians blew through those so fast!
Tank destroyer? Russian counterparts outrange TOW by over 1000 meters.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BGM-71_TOW#2022:_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BGM-71_TOW#2011:_Syrian_Civil_War
Reports say that the TOW missile has successfully hit Russian T-90s in Syria, which are equipped with active defences designed to defeat such missiles.[53] However, a Russian report claims the tank shows "very little damage" and was still operable.
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/meet-russias-t-90-tank-it-blew-all-over-syria-53907
In February 2016, Syrian rebels filmed a video of a TOW missile streaking towards a T-90 tank in northeast Aleppo. In a blinding flash, the missile detonates. However, as the smoke cleared it became evident that the tank’s Kontakt-5 explosive-reactive armor had discharged the TOW missile’s shaped-charge warhead prior to impact, minimizing the damage. (This fact was perhaps not appreciated by the tank’s gunner, who in the full version of the video clambered out of an already open hatch and fled on foot.) Nonetheless, the video went viral.
We are not only NOT defeating the Russians; we are turning them into the most successful scrap metal dealers in history.
"Reports say that the TOW missile has successfully hit Russian T-90s in Syria, which are equipped with active defences designed to defeat such missiles.[53] However, a Russian report claims the tank shows "very little damage" and was still operable."
The old T-64s the Russians are taking out of storage because they don't have that carousel arrangement for the ammo that has doomed so many Russian tank crews don't have active defenses. It's not a game of absolutes. A weapon is not useless because it is unable to prevail against any form of defense. And some TOWs have been equipped with tandem warheads to defeat reactive armor panels. As for the range...only relevant if you have that thousand meter sight line.
But however good or bad these Bradleys are, (Or the Patriots, for that matter) the numbers we're talking about don't sound like even close to enough. The Tiger tank totally outclassed our Sherman, but we could pump out Shermans like there was no tomorrow.
There's always a clock. In World war I the Central Powers were on the food clock. In World War II, the Axis were on the oil clock. Ukraine is likely on the munitions clock. Even if the TOWs we send can turn any Russian tank into a blazing wreck, and we don't need to get the sharpened screwdrivers out over that one, how many can we send?
Keep your eye on that clock.
“The greatest geopolitical blunder in history” indeed, assuming it is not an intentional effort at destroying the West. Yet I am still reading a number of analysts stating that Russia is losing badly and/or cannot win, so I am now doubting their other analyses.
As with the vaccines, I go from "conspiracy" to "mere stupidity" and back again. I think that, being neocons, they just didn't think it through. Especially, the fools like Nudelman and Blinken, who are so blinded by hatred for Russia that it affects their judgment.
Probably a good idea to send those old Bradley's to Ukraine for recycling than deploying them against American parents protesting at school board meetings.
LOL!
Unilateral dis armament. I guess that’s Biden’s plan