So far, I have explained different ‘basics’ of modern-day air warfare: the ‘bare bottom’, the ‘very essence’ of how are integrated air defence systems and surface-to-air missiles operated nowadays – at strategic and at operational levels. Pending discussion of tactical level it is necessary to ‘do a step back’, sort of, and discuss the weaponry involved. This is explaining why is the VKS operating its fighter-bombers the way it operates them nowadays, and why is the PSU operating its ground based air defences along the frontlines the way it does.
Finland they are now secure, Poland nice revenge for history, USA biznis + historical biggest enemy is/will be defetead, many other countries has + and -, but only 1 country has only minus Russia.
yes, we are reading already more than 1 year that UA is without supply and you win next week. You need just take t34 from museum and you will definitly win, because all in west will die by laughing :)
Announced today the Georgia State Audit Service conducted an audit of the consolidated financial statements of the Ministry of Defense and its affiliated entities. The audit revealed irregularities and issues.
About the protests Petre Tsiskarishvili, UNM Secretary General
“ Is Georgia the only venue where these criminals can gather and celebrate?”
Positive News; The Georgian Parliamentary Delegation is participating in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA) Spring Session, which is taking place in Luxembourg on May 19-22.
I guess F-16 would be as ineffective as interceptors against glide bomb launchers as Iranian F-14s were? The terrain near Ukrainian borders is not mountainous, so the Russian aircraft should be harder to hide on approach but there's likely not going to be enough time to scramble them, right?
The frames to transfer are, as far as it was announced, Block 20's - the oldest ones still in working order; they were supposed to be scrapped just a year ago. Their radars are not the best, to say it mildly, and they cannot use AMRAAMs at full range even considering low-starting-atlitude range wich is much shorter of the technical max range (and no Ukrainian plane would fly over Ukraine in any mode except of hiding low in landscape, if it's pilot wants to retunn to base in one piece).
Well, at least they have Link 16 and there will be no headache with making these makeshift adapters for NATO-designed munitions.
Chinese - yes. After decades of using locally manufactured copies of the Soviet M54 designs, they've launched production of their own weapons calibre 250- and 500kg. These have the same, modular, design like the Mk.80-series.
Dear Colleagues. This war once again showed that tyrannies (Moscow, Iranian, Chinese, Korean, etc.) can mobilize their resources for war much faster. In democracies, this process is slow. Even their own security does not consolidate them. Until an agreement is reached within each democracy, and then all democracies among themselves, tyranny, even one, but aggressive, will terrify them all, and especially those who are closer. It's like an aggressive drug addict attacks a group of intellectuals and beats the one who gets under the arm, while the rest of the intellectuals decide what to do - call the police, run away, and if they defend themselves, then which one of them will do it ...
That's a many times debunked myth. Tyrannies may act faster, but their main drawback is that their fail to admit and correct mistakes often, which lead to poorer performance in a long term view. Democratic debate help to correct mistakes. See e.g. (not only) U.S.A in the WWII. Or just very recent Covid reaction of China, Russia vs. democratic countries.
Я не согласен. Ближайшие примеры "умиротвовения" Западом русского агрессора - война в Грузии в 2008 году, а так же захват Крыма и конфликт на Донбассе в 2014 году. Тогда Западные демократии оставили в руках тирании всё, что та захватила у дружественных Западу государств, из-за своей неготовности и нежелания наказать агрессора. Мало того, после этого они призвали русских вмешаться в конфликт в Сирии! Это так "демократические дебаты исправляют ошибки"? О том, как переменчива демократия, свидетельствуют отказы в 2021 году администрации Байдена от военной поддержки антихуситской коалиции в Йемене и проамериканского правительства в Афганистане, которых поддерживали её предшественники. Это тоже "исправили ошибки" прежних администраций? I disagree. The closest examples of the "appeasement" of the Russian aggressor by the West are the war in Georgia in 2008, as well as the seizure of Crimea and the conflict in the Donbass in 2014. Then the Western democracies left in the hands of tyranny everything that it seized from states friendly to the West, because of their unwillingness and unwillingness to punish the aggressor. Not only that, after that they called on the Russians to intervene in the conflict in Syria! Is this "democratic debate corrects mistakes"? How fickle democracy is is shown by the Biden administration's 2021 withdrawal of military support for the anti-Houthi coalition in Yemen and the pro-American government in Afghanistan, which were supported by its predecessors. Did they also "correct the mistakes" of the previous administrations?
Regarding Afganistan, Syria, Yemen, Lybia - these are all complicated civil wars with strong involvement of other countries - Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Quatar, Russia, China ... U.S.A. has not enough power and cannot be a peacemaker everywhere. Biden could not even persuade Saudis to increase oil production last year.
And that's the major lesson - democracy is not dominant worldwide. They (we) have to sacrifice some (naive) ideas to pragmatical decisions and make allies even with non-democratic countries. And admit, it they cannot solve every crisis. The only hope is that autocrats and dictators often fight among themself. If they would be able to make coalition, than it would be a disaster (WWIII probably).
Есть и положительные примеры, когда объединенные силы демократических государств обуздали агрессоров - Ирак и Югославия. Но ситуация, когда демократический Запад своими кредитами и инвестициями поднял экономическую мощь авторитарного Китая до мирового уровня, а теперь не знает, как унять его претензии на мировое лидерство говорит только противоречивости интересов Запада. There are also positive examples when the united forces of democratic states curbed the aggressors - Iraq and Yugoslavia. But the situation when the democratic West, with its loans and investments, raised the economic power of authoritarian China to the world level, and now does not know how to appease its claims to world leadership, speaks only of the conflicting interests of the West.
#5 read: Thanks Tom very interesting read on the Russian bomb assy and its rudimentary upgrades, I guess for them it works and the story about the navigation system explains why the Ukrainians have found handheld GPS units duck taped to the instrument panel of some of the downed planes
Tom, thanks so much for this. I have learned about the modularity of US dumb bombs and their advantages over Soviet designs. One thing that struck me is the figure of 40+ jets destroyed in the early months of the war. This makes sense considering Russia has a large airforce and is rumored to have put 3 airforce armies with ~500 combat jets at the disposal of the war. I find it odd that a year later they've only lost 78 combat jets according to Oryx and its taken as the undisputed truth about the number of Russian combat jets lost in the conflict. Surely there is a lot to the air war we dont know in terms of combat jet losses. The figure of 40 losses by march makes sense considering the early intensity of the conflict but the current Oryx figure of 78 Russian jets lost(a year later) only seems like a solid conservative estimate and not the ultimate truth for me. I wonder what your thoughts are about this. Otherwise thank you for the post and will be reading part 6
Nobody
Poland and USA.
Finland they are now secure, Poland nice revenge for history, USA biznis + historical biggest enemy is/will be defetead, many other countries has + and -, but only 1 country has only minus Russia.
yes, we are reading already more than 1 year that UA is without supply and you win next week. You need just take t34 from museum and you will definitly win, because all in west will die by laughing :)
I'd bet on Honduras and The Banana Republic.
Hungary? They are winning with the highest inflation rate in the entire EU maybe?
Georgia?
Announced today the Georgia State Audit Service conducted an audit of the consolidated financial statements of the Ministry of Defense and its affiliated entities. The audit revealed irregularities and issues.
About the protests Petre Tsiskarishvili, UNM Secretary General
“ Is Georgia the only venue where these criminals can gather and celebrate?”
Positive News; The Georgian Parliamentary Delegation is participating in the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA) Spring Session, which is taking place in Luxembourg on May 19-22.
Thanks a lot
Thank you again. Еverything is clear and understandable. Easily understood language. Looking forward to continuing.
Thanks Tom, good stuff.
I guess F-16 would be as ineffective as interceptors against glide bomb launchers as Iranian F-14s were? The terrain near Ukrainian borders is not mountainous, so the Russian aircraft should be harder to hide on approach but there's likely not going to be enough time to scramble them, right?
Hopefully, F-16 with AMRAAMs would be able to shot at least some of these VKS bombers to keep them out of range .
The frames to transfer are, as far as it was announced, Block 20's - the oldest ones still in working order; they were supposed to be scrapped just a year ago. Their radars are not the best, to say it mildly, and they cannot use AMRAAMs at full range even considering low-starting-atlitude range wich is much shorter of the technical max range (and no Ukrainian plane would fly over Ukraine in any mode except of hiding low in landscape, if it's pilot wants to retunn to base in one piece).
Well, at least they have Link 16 and there will be no headache with making these makeshift adapters for NATO-designed munitions.
I like how all the parts are falling together. Keep them coming. Thank you for all your work.
Thanks for the explanation Tom. Please consider editing this in your future book about this war!
I have worked on these bombs (Chinese version) ,and it's identical to us version , almost the same with the two section
Chinese - yes. After decades of using locally manufactured copies of the Soviet M54 designs, they've launched production of their own weapons calibre 250- and 500kg. These have the same, modular, design like the Mk.80-series.
Thank you, very interesting and meaningful!
Dear Colleagues. This war once again showed that tyrannies (Moscow, Iranian, Chinese, Korean, etc.) can mobilize their resources for war much faster. In democracies, this process is slow. Even their own security does not consolidate them. Until an agreement is reached within each democracy, and then all democracies among themselves, tyranny, even one, but aggressive, will terrify them all, and especially those who are closer. It's like an aggressive drug addict attacks a group of intellectuals and beats the one who gets under the arm, while the rest of the intellectuals decide what to do - call the police, run away, and if they defend themselves, then which one of them will do it ...
That's a many times debunked myth. Tyrannies may act faster, but their main drawback is that their fail to admit and correct mistakes often, which lead to poorer performance in a long term view. Democratic debate help to correct mistakes. See e.g. (not only) U.S.A in the WWII. Or just very recent Covid reaction of China, Russia vs. democratic countries.
Я не согласен. Ближайшие примеры "умиротвовения" Западом русского агрессора - война в Грузии в 2008 году, а так же захват Крыма и конфликт на Донбассе в 2014 году. Тогда Западные демократии оставили в руках тирании всё, что та захватила у дружественных Западу государств, из-за своей неготовности и нежелания наказать агрессора. Мало того, после этого они призвали русских вмешаться в конфликт в Сирии! Это так "демократические дебаты исправляют ошибки"? О том, как переменчива демократия, свидетельствуют отказы в 2021 году администрации Байдена от военной поддержки антихуситской коалиции в Йемене и проамериканского правительства в Афганистане, которых поддерживали её предшественники. Это тоже "исправили ошибки" прежних администраций? I disagree. The closest examples of the "appeasement" of the Russian aggressor by the West are the war in Georgia in 2008, as well as the seizure of Crimea and the conflict in the Donbass in 2014. Then the Western democracies left in the hands of tyranny everything that it seized from states friendly to the West, because of their unwillingness and unwillingness to punish the aggressor. Not only that, after that they called on the Russians to intervene in the conflict in Syria! Is this "democratic debate corrects mistakes"? How fickle democracy is is shown by the Biden administration's 2021 withdrawal of military support for the anti-Houthi coalition in Yemen and the pro-American government in Afghanistan, which were supported by its predecessors. Did they also "correct the mistakes" of the previous administrations?
Regarding Afganistan, Syria, Yemen, Lybia - these are all complicated civil wars with strong involvement of other countries - Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Quatar, Russia, China ... U.S.A. has not enough power and cannot be a peacemaker everywhere. Biden could not even persuade Saudis to increase oil production last year.
And that's the major lesson - democracy is not dominant worldwide. They (we) have to sacrifice some (naive) ideas to pragmatical decisions and make allies even with non-democratic countries. And admit, it they cannot solve every crisis. The only hope is that autocrats and dictators often fight among themself. If they would be able to make coalition, than it would be a disaster (WWIII probably).
Есть и положительные примеры, когда объединенные силы демократических государств обуздали агрессоров - Ирак и Югославия. Но ситуация, когда демократический Запад своими кредитами и инвестициями поднял экономическую мощь авторитарного Китая до мирового уровня, а теперь не знает, как унять его претензии на мировое лидерство говорит только противоречивости интересов Запада. There are also positive examples when the united forces of democratic states curbed the aggressors - Iraq and Yugoslavia. But the situation when the democratic West, with its loans and investments, raised the economic power of authoritarian China to the world level, and now does not know how to appease its claims to world leadership, speaks only of the conflicting interests of the West.
#5 read: Thanks Tom very interesting read on the Russian bomb assy and its rudimentary upgrades, I guess for them it works and the story about the navigation system explains why the Ukrainians have found handheld GPS units duck taped to the instrument panel of some of the downed planes
Thanks for writing this, very enlightening!
Tom, thanks so much for this. I have learned about the modularity of US dumb bombs and their advantages over Soviet designs. One thing that struck me is the figure of 40+ jets destroyed in the early months of the war. This makes sense considering Russia has a large airforce and is rumored to have put 3 airforce armies with ~500 combat jets at the disposal of the war. I find it odd that a year later they've only lost 78 combat jets according to Oryx and its taken as the undisputed truth about the number of Russian combat jets lost in the conflict. Surely there is a lot to the air war we dont know in terms of combat jet losses. The figure of 40 losses by march makes sense considering the early intensity of the conflict but the current Oryx figure of 78 Russian jets lost(a year later) only seems like a solid conservative estimate and not the ultimate truth for me. I wonder what your thoughts are about this. Otherwise thank you for the post and will be reading part 6