The remote controlled machine guns is quite interesting. Great update. Is it possible to write something about demining. What can Ukraine do to overcome the mines set up by the Russians. My idea of High Energy Lasers systems mounted on vehicles is too expensive. Only the US could field such systems. Zaluzhnyi mentioned using jet engines to blow path ways. This also makes sense to me at least. But it seems like a very difficult task to be honest. I think using sensors mounted on drones could be useful to detect and map areas which have been mined. This information can be sent to a battlefield information system and show soldiers which paths are safe. I'm curious what your thoughts on this is. There is a lot of literature on breaching operations, and although interesting I wonder how up to date it is considering the proliferation of cheap off the shelf drones.
The demining equipment Ukraine got works perfectly fine, no new technology is needed there. What Ukraine needs is all the capabilities to let them go to work and not getting picked off 1 by 1 by KA-52 in 10 km safe distance.
The U.S. finally providing ATACMS, which immideatly took out a lot of those KA-52 in the Berdyansk airfield, in late autumn is almost cynical.
As was western media asking "why offensive so slow" when Ukraine sappers switched to demining by hand, which was the only feasible way to do it with the means at hand.
In warm weather, they found that thermal sights can see the warm mines in the cool evening. They still needed to be removed by hand at night and sappers were a high priority.
Mines were a big reason why the offensive didn't cause a breakthrough last summer. After a couple of months, Ukraine was able to achieve local fire superiority, but only marginally. They need a lot more firepower and it doesn't necessarily have to come from air power, but Russian air power needs to be neutralized and there needs to be a lot more artillery, more ammo, and the ability to conduct large scale combined arms operations.
Thanks Don and Tim. Given that artillery still causes the majority of casualties, can you make any comment on the validity of Russia's claim of high Ukrainian casualties? I know that their numbers are inflated. Are the US intelligence estimates the best to go by (being a percentage of the estimated Russian losses)
The remote controlled machine guns is quite interesting. Great update. Is it possible to write something about demining. What can Ukraine do to overcome the mines set up by the Russians. My idea of High Energy Lasers systems mounted on vehicles is too expensive. Only the US could field such systems. Zaluzhnyi mentioned using jet engines to blow path ways. This also makes sense to me at least. But it seems like a very difficult task to be honest. I think using sensors mounted on drones could be useful to detect and map areas which have been mined. This information can be sent to a battlefield information system and show soldiers which paths are safe. I'm curious what your thoughts on this is. There is a lot of literature on breaching operations, and although interesting I wonder how up to date it is considering the proliferation of cheap off the shelf drones.
The demining equipment Ukraine got works perfectly fine, no new technology is needed there. What Ukraine needs is all the capabilities to let them go to work and not getting picked off 1 by 1 by KA-52 in 10 km safe distance.
The U.S. finally providing ATACMS, which immideatly took out a lot of those KA-52 in the Berdyansk airfield, in late autumn is almost cynical.
As was western media asking "why offensive so slow" when Ukraine sappers switched to demining by hand, which was the only feasible way to do it with the means at hand.
In warm weather, they found that thermal sights can see the warm mines in the cool evening. They still needed to be removed by hand at night and sappers were a high priority.
Mines were a big reason why the offensive didn't cause a breakthrough last summer. After a couple of months, Ukraine was able to achieve local fire superiority, but only marginally. They need a lot more firepower and it doesn't necessarily have to come from air power, but Russian air power needs to be neutralized and there needs to be a lot more artillery, more ammo, and the ability to conduct large scale combined arms operations.
I see, so they need much more firepower to prevent the Russians from hitting their countermine operations!! Regardless its such a tough task
They need enough ammo to be able to fire on any target that is discovered instead of deciding if a target is worth a precious shell.
Okay gotcha, thanks so much for the clarification
Спасибо
No words on the at least 2 confirmed aircraft losses of the ZSU over the past few weeks ?
They have confirmed the death of Major Stanislav Romanenko of the 39th tactical aviation brigade in late December. Probably flying a SU-27
Then a second one, a 23 years old MIG-29 pilot of the 114th tactical aviation brigade : Vladislav Zalistovsky. His instagram was _Blue_Helmet.
Thanks Don and Tim. Given that artillery still causes the majority of casualties, can you make any comment on the validity of Russia's claim of high Ukrainian casualties? I know that their numbers are inflated. Are the US intelligence estimates the best to go by (being a percentage of the estimated Russian losses)
"The war that Ukraine started is killing Russian youth"
I hope it's a quote or an erratum, not a personal opinion of the authors.
Also, I'd like to share a story about 2 brave girls from Crimea. I think this story fits Don's weekly format.
https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1744987357781352906