Military Issues

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Endovelico
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Military Issues

Post by Endovelico »

What frightened the USS Donald Cook so much in the Black Sea?

The State Department acknowledged that the crew of the destroyer USS Donald Cook has been gravely demoralized ever since their vessel was flown over in the Black Sea by a Russian Sukhoi-24 (Su-24) fighter jet which carried neither bombs nor missiles but only an electronic warfare device.

On 10 April 2014, the USS Donald Cook entered the waters of the Black Sea and on 12 April a Russian Su-24 tactical bomber flew over the vessel triggering an incident that, according to several media reports, completely demoralized its crew, so much so that the Pentagon issued a protest.

The USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) is a 4th generation guided missile destroyer whose key weapons are Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of up to 2,500 kilometers, and capable of carrying nuclear explosives. This ship carries 56 Tomahawk missiles in standard mode, and 96 missiles in attack mode.

The US destroyer is equipped with the most recent Aegis Combat System. It is an integrated naval weapons systems which can link together the missile defense systems of all vessels embedded within the same network, so as to ensure the detection, tracking and destruction of hundreds of targets at the same time. In addition, the USS Donald Cook is equipped with 4 large radars, whose power is comparable to that of several stations. For protection, it carries more than fifty anti-aircraft missiles of various types.

Meanwhile, the Russian Su-24 that buzzed the USS Donald Cook carried neither bombs nor missiles but only a basket mounted under the fuselage, which, according to the Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, contained a Russian electronic warfare device called Khibiny.

As the Russian jet approached the US vessel, the electronic device disabled all radars, control circuits, systems, information transmission, etc. on board the US destroyer. In other words, the all-powerful Aegis system, now hooked up - or about to be - with the defense systems installed on NATO’s most modern ships was shut down, as turning off the TV set with the remote control.

The Russian Su-24 then simulated a missile attack against the USS Donald Cook, which was left literally deaf and blind. As if carrying out a training exercise, the Russian aircraft - unarmed - repeated the same maneuver 12 times before flying away.

After that, the 4th generation destroyer immediately set sail towards a port in Romania.

Since that incident, which the Atlanticist media have carefully covered up despite the widespread reactions sparked among defense industry experts, no US ship has ever approached Russian territorial waters again.

According to some specialized media, 27 sailors from the USS Donald Cook requested to be relieved from active service.

http://www.voltairenet.org/article185860.html
This incident has not been widely reported and is ignored by most people. It may give some indications of what might happen to US forces if it insists in antagonizing Russia and threaten it with violence.

Khibiny
Description: The Russian Air Force Khibiny is an advanced aircraft-mounted electronic warfare (EW) system capable of jamming state-of-the-art air defense radar systems. The Khibiny jamming was tested successfully for some time on the ground in Buryatia, Russian Federation. On April 17, 2014, two Russian Air Force Su-24 bombers with no weapons loaded were sent to intercept the US Navy's AEGIS-equipped destroyer USS Donald Cook in the Black Sea. One of them flied around the destroyer up to 12 times while the other one remained away as done usually by both sides during the Cold War period. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the Su-24s were equipped with the Khibiny EW system and were able to neutralize the AEGIS phased array radar target tracking capabilities while the ship's crew was unable to re-boot the system. It is not clear whether the jammer affected the radar system itself or only the computer-based component or either both at the same time. The Russian Air Force plans call for the installation of the Khibiny jammer on all its advanced jets.

http://www.deagel.com/Aircraft-Protecti ... 81001.aspx
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Endovelico
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Endovelico »

More on Khibiny
AEGIS Fail in Black SEA, Ruskies Burn Down USS Donald “Duck”
Posted by Veterans Today on November 13, 2014

Russian Sukhoi Su -24 with the newest jamming complex paralyzed in the Black Sea the most modern American combat management system “Aegis” installed on the destroyer “USS Donald Cook”. Pavel Zolotarev, Deputy Director, Institute of USA and Canada, shares details about this version which is being actively discussed in the Russian media and by bloggers.

US destroyer “Donald Cook” with cruise missiles “Tomahawk” entered the neutral waters of the Black Sea on April 10. The purpose was a demonstration of force and intimidation in connection with the position of Russia in Ukraine and Crimea. The appearance of American warships in these waters is in contradiction of the Montreux Convention about the nature and duration of stay in the Black Sea by the military ships of countries not washed by this sea.

In response, Russia sent an unarmed bomber Su- 24 to fly around the U.S. destroyer. However, experts say that this plane was equipped with the latest Russian electronic warfare complex. According to this version, “Aegis” spotted from afar the approaching aircraft, and sounded alarm. Everything went normally, American radars calculated the speed of the approaching target. And suddenly all the screens went blank. “Aegis” was not working any more, and the rockets could not get target information. Meanwhile, Su-24 flew over the deck of the destroyer, did battle turn and simulated missile attack on the target. Then it turned and repeated the maneuver. And did so 12 times.

Apparently, all efforts to revive the “Aegis” and provide target information for the defence failed. Russia’s reaction to military pressure from the United States was profoundly calm, feels the Russian political scientist Pavel Zolotarev:

The demonstration was original enough. A bomber without any weapons, but having onboard equipment for jamming enemy radar, worked against a destroyer equipped with “Aegis”, the most modern system of air and missile defence. But this system of mobile location, in this case the ship, has a significant drawback. That is, the target tracking capabilities. They work well when there is a number of these ships which can coordinate with each other somehow. In this case there was just one destroyer. And, apparently, the algorithm of the radar in the “Aegis” system on the destroyer did not load under the influence of jamming by the Su-24. It was therefore not only a nervous reaction to the fact of flying around by the Russin bomber which was common practice during the Cold War. The reaction of the Americans was due to the fact that most modern system, especially its informative or radar part, did not work adequately. Therefore, there was such a nervous reaction to the whole episode.

After the incident, the foreign media reported that “Donald Cook” was rushed into a port in Romania. There all the 27 members of the crew filed a letter of resignation. It seems that all 27 people have written that they are not going to risk their lives. This is indirectly confirmed by the Pentagon statement according to which the action demoralized the crew of the American ship.

What are the possible consequences of the incident provoked by the U.S. in the Black Sea? Pavel Zolotarev forecasts:

I think that Americans are somehow going to reflect on improving the system “Aegis”. This is a purely military aspect. In political terms, there is hardly any likelihood of demonstrative steps by either side. That is enough. Meanwhile, for Americans it is a very unpleasant moment. In general, the missile defence system which they deploy involves huge expenditures. They have to prove each time that it is necessary to allocate funds from the budget. At the same time, the ground component of the ABM was tested in ideal conditions and showed a low efficiency. This fact is concealed by the Pentagon. The most modern component, the sea-based system “Aegis” also showed its shortcomings in the present case.

The system with which the Russian Su-24 shocked the American destroyer “Donald Cook” has the code name “Khibiny”. This is the name of the mountain range on the Kola Peninsula in the Arctic Circle. “Khibiny” is the newest complex for radioelectronic jamming of the enemy. They will be installed on all the advanced Russian planes .

Recently the complex has undergone regular testing exercises on the ground in Buryatia. Apparently, the tests which were conducted under conditions as close to real as possible, were successful.

One interesting comment by a reader:

CANUGUESS WHOO - November 17, 2014 at 2:24 pm

Scalar technology is very real. i personally know people who worked with Bearden. There is one problem, and it is why i do not believe scalar weapons were used. The system the russians used not only jammed all the communications, but basically blacked out the electronics control systems too. “As the Russian jet approached the US vessel, the electronic device disabled all radars, control circuits, systems, information transmission, etc. on board the US destroyer. In other words, the all-powerful Aegis system, now hooked up – or about to be – with the defense systems installed on NATO’s most modern ships was shut down, as turning off the TV set with the remote control.”

The Keshe technology is capable of doing this and much more if so desired. The MagGrav tech could literally not only blackout the ship but cause all the electronics to have to be rewired from A to Z for the entire ship. It depends on the applications one wants and how the system is setup. I know these systems fairly well. Conventional phased array cannot to my knowledge blackout the systems on the ship. Even if the systems are shielded from any EM waves of any sort the maggrav fields go right through the shielding and have the desired affect one wants. Unless the ship can block gravitational fields its a sitting duck from now on.


http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/11/13 ... nald-duck/
But still some people laugh at the backward Russians and their "outdated" technology...
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Typhoon
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Typhoon »

First with regards to the comment by a reader re "scalar technology"

Scalar wave tech is relatively well-known crackpot stuff.

Second, with regards to the jamming claim: Russia Claims Its Bomber Jammed U.S. Destroyer - Don’t believe it

Looks like all the regular conspiracy theory sites have picked it up and are now running with it while referencing each other in a circular manner.
May the gods preserve and defend me from self-righteous altruists; I can defend myself from my enemies and my friends.
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Alexis
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Alexis »

I do not laugh of Russians nor of their technology.

That being said, a little criticism and healthy skepticism is in order.

- The information that "27 ship members" resigned because they were "demoralized" has not been confirmed by any reputable source. Specifically, no US military source has ever reported that

- A single device on a lone fighter-bomber being able to totally electronically disable the combat system of a cruiser would be a huge military innovation, a true Wunderwaffen. To believe such a thing, it would be reasonable to first expect really convincing proofs. Not "his word against my word" kind of "proof"

As things stand, US sources speak only of close overflight of that cruiser by a Russian fighter-bomber, not of any disabling of its electronic defenses. And some - unofficial - Russian sources claim those defenses were disabled by a Wunderwaffen. So it's "word against word", in the middle of a crisis where huge doses of propaganda are produced by each side.

Given the lack of reputable unbiased source, in such circumstances it's much more probable that this is a Russian propaganda trick rather than a US cover-up.
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Endovelico
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Endovelico »

As usual it is impossible to know for sure whether such reports are reliable or not. The following seemed to me to be instructive enough:
Khibiny: Terror of the destroyers

(...)

This relatively small container in the shape of a torpedo is mounted on the wingtips of the aircraft and makes the sky machines invulnerable to all modern means of defence and enemy fighters. After the crew receives missile attack alert, Khibiny comes into action and covers the fighter with radio-electronic protective hood, which prevents the missile from reaching the target and makes it deviate from the course. Khibiny increases the survivability of the aircraft by 25-30 times. According to deputy general director of concern KRET (developer and manufacturer of this EW system) Vladimir Mikheev, all the fighters that Russia lost in Georgia were naked, ie. without the installed EW means, and this fact has caused the loss of the Russian military equipment.

By the way, nowadays Khibiny is being installed on Su-30, Su-34 and Su-35, so the famous April attack in the Black sea on USS Donald Cook by Su-24 bomber jet allegedly using Khibiny complex is nothing but a newspaper hoax. The destroyer’s buzzing did take place. This EW system can completely neutralise the enemy radar, but Khibiny are not installed on Su-24.

(...)

https://militarytechcooperations.wordpr ... g/khibiny/
In other words, the device can do what it is claimed it did, but not being installed on the planes which flew over the US destroyer, it couldn't have worked on that particular situation. But the important thing is whether it is effective or not, whether it can neutralize American attack and defense equipment or not. It seems it can, which means that any future confrontation between Russia and the US might prove very dangerous for the US.
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Endovelico
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Endovelico »

The Fighting for Debalcevo

For those of you who have some interest for military matters, here is a very good and professional assessment of how Debalcevo was conquered by the Novorussian forces. Very accurate, very objective, no romantic descriptions, a true report on what a real war is like.
The battle for Debalcevo. Results.
by "Colonel Cassad"

The campaign began after systematic shelling of the Donbass cities by the artillery of the fascist junta, following which the "2nd truce" was torn apart and the high-intensity military action with the use of all available means of destruction resumed.

The first stage of the campaign was associated with the fighting for the Donetsk airport, which was captured by the NAF forces. The junta's counter-offensive on the airport failed miserably and led to major personnel and materiel losses. After repelling the junta's counter-offensive, the NAF transitioned to offensive again and tried to penetrate the junta defensive line at Peski – Opytnoye – the air defense unit – Avdeyevka.

This offensive was generally unsuccessful for the NAF: despite suffering serious losses, they failed to even solve the problem of capturing Peski. They couldn't fortify in Avdeyevka either. So, after capturing the installations to the north of the airstrip in the airport, the NAF gradually transitioned to defensive actions and repelled the junta counter-attacks directed at capturing the settlement of Spartak.

Simultaneously with the fighting for Peski and Avdeyevka, the NAF started active offensive measures on the Debalcevo direction, which led to the battle for Debalcevo. This battle continued for about a month, between the third decade of January and the third decade of February.

The main goals of the attacking forces were:

1. Intercepting the M-103 road in the area of Svetlodarsk and surrounding the Debalcevo group.
2. The capture of Debalcevo and restoring control over the key transport hub of Novorossia.

The offensive was carried out from several directions by the DPR and the LPR forces. This was in essence the first large-scale operation where a serious coordination between the armies of the people's republics was established on the operational level, even though the attempts to set up such a coordinations were made earlier. For instance, we may recall the attempts to coordinate the actions of the DPR and the LPR forces during the process of finishing off the South Cauldron 1.0 and the unsuccessful "Bolotov's counter-offensive", which was supposed to mitigate the difficult situation after abandoning the Lisichansk wedge.

The Debalcevo wedge was formed during the NAF counter-offensive in late summer-early autumn, when an attempt to use Debalcevo as a bridgehead for strikes with the goal of encircling Donetsk failed after the failed attempts to capture Shakhtyorsk, Miusinsk, and Krasnyi Luch. During the NAF counter-offensive the junta forces were forced to engage in defense, holding the bridgehead for the better times. Effectively after September 2014 the forces were concentrated here for resuming offensive operations from the Debalcevo bridgehead. The strongholds on the anticipated directions of the NAF strikes were also created. Nevertheless, the configuration of the group didn't have a clear defensive nature, the junta was preparing to attack and the defensive measures ended up being insufficient in the end.

The most interesting thing is that back in the autumn of 2014 Tymchuk described http://podrobnosti.ua/1003381-uglegorsk ... karta.html possible NAF strikes, suggesting that Troitskoye and Uglegorsk were the most threatening directions.

Image

The directions of the main strikes by the NAF that were expected by the junta in October 2014.

The junta group in the area of Svetlodarsk and Debalcevo consisted of about 9-10 thousand people. Among them there were up to 6-7 thousands in fighting units. The constitution of the group was not uniform: there were full brigades and separate units of the AFU, territorial battalions, punitive units like "Donbass", the units of the MIA and of the SBU. The NAF deployed about 5-6 thousand people in first-line units. The NAF also had an assorted collection of various units: the regular army units combined into a corps, semi-autonomous Cossack units, special units of the security structures of the DPR and the LPR. Later both sides actively engaged their reserves in this area. During the first stage the operational reserve of the junta that consisted of three battalion-tactical groups was located near Artyomovsk. One of these groups was used in the fighting at Popasnaya, another one was used at Troitskoye and Krasnyi Pakhar.

The situation at the front by January 27.

Initially, the NAF offensive on Debalcevo had the goal of encircling the whole Svetlodarsk-Debalcevo group of the enemy, so the main efforts were focused on a thrust through Troitskoye and Krasnyi Pakhar towards Mironovka and the M-103 road. The key goal wasn't even Svetlodarsk, which was located to the south of the road, but rather the adjacent settlements (Mironovka, Mironovskyi, Luganskoye), by capturing which it was possible to densely intercept the communications of the forces that were located to the south of Svetlodarsk.
The offensive on the bottleneck of the Debalcevo protrusion was carried out from two sides. From the south-west and the South the offensive off Gorlovka got stuck in the fighting in the area of Dolomitnoye, Travnevoye, and Novoluganskoye; the enemy mostly held the front here. Over the whole battle, the NAF failed to achieve significant successes in this area. The offensive of the LPR forces was developing more successfully. The strike was carried out on Troitskoye and Krasnyi Pakhar and also on Popasnaya to the north of the Debalcevo wedge. Besides creating a threat of a break through Popasnaya to Artyomovsk, this strike was also supposed to disorient the enemy, which couldn't determine for a long time from where the main threat is coming: from the side of Popasnaya or of Troitskoye. The enemy had to deploy reserves both to Popasnaya and to Svetlodarsk. After capturing Krasnyi Pakhar and the NAF approaching Mironovka, the enemy finally understood that the main strike is delivered in exactly this area and started to hastily deploy its reserves, pushing 1 battalion-tactical group towards Svetlodarsk. After stopping the NAF offensive the enemy here engaged in a counter-offensive and recaptured Troitskoye and a part of Krasnyi Pakhar by a strike of mechanized units. Fierce fighting unfolded in the area of Krasnyi Pakhar, which slowed down the development of the offensive to the west of Mironovsky reservoir and later altogether led to the disruption of the offensive. In heavy fighting the NAF managed to hold on to Krasnyi Pakhar, but the threat of the NAF breakthrough towards the M-103 road was mitigated by the enemy, which was more or less successfully containing the NAF offensive actions by the end of January.

The actions on the perimeter of the Debalcevo wedge developed together with the offensive on Mironovka. Through fierce fighting, the army of the LPR managed to capture the area of Sanzharovka and approach the numerically labeled high points from which the M-103 road could be shelled. Fierce fighting in the area of Novogrigorovka, the eastern outskirts of Debalcevo and Chernukhino didn't deliver any decisive results in January. The enemy defense had sufficiently robust organization here and the NAF suffered serious losses during the attempts to push it back. Preliminary offensive engagements in the area of Nikishino, Uglegorsk, and "Orlovkas" also didn't deliver.

By the end of January it became clear that the initial plan for encircling the Svetlodarsk-Debalcevo group is failing. The NAF advance was accompanied by serious losses and the operational goals remained unachieved. The whole operation was threatened. The suffered losses both in the area of the Debalcevo wedge and on other locations led to the need to pull reinforcements from rear commandant's offices and even to pulling some of the forces off the border. Meanwhile in the LPR some of the rear units refused to deploy to the front. This was a continuation of the internal conflicts between the LPR authorities and the Almighty Don Host, which continues since autumn. Major losses of the "August" battalion, major losses in "Ratibor's" squad, the arrest of "Biker", the story of the wounding of "Almaz" — all of these were manifestations of a crisis encountered by the NAF during the offensive. On the one side these issues are typical growing pains, when disparate militia learned to become a regular army during the fighting, on the other side it reflects various internal conflicts in the DPR and the LPR, which reflect negatively on the effectiveness of conducting military action. All of these issues had to be paid for in blood. Furthermore, the enemy stopped forgiving some of the mistakes, which remained unpunished during the summer and even in autumn.

To the credit of the leadership of the operation, they figured out that the original plan is not working quite quickly and transitioned to plan B.

Under the cover of the continued fighting near Krasnyi Pakhar and of the offensive from the north-east, the preparation for the strike on Uglegorsk began. There was already fighting in the area of Uglegorsk after the start of the winter campaign by that time, but they weren't very successful for the NAF and apparently the sector command decided that there's no direct threat in this area. Otherwise, the subsequent events are hard to explain. By and large, there were no reserves left for a strike on Uglegorsk. so a joint assault group made of various units was formed — starting from the GRU DPR Spetsnaz and ending with small volunteer squads from various units that stood on calm locations. The arriving fighters were fully equipped and prepared for the offensive. It began on January 30. A tank attack on the checkpoint that covered the entry into Uglegorsk was successful — after losing 3 vehicles to mines, the DPR tank crews penetrated the enemy defense and entered Uglegorsk proper. To develop this success, the joint assault group on APC, IFV, and trucks deployed through the captured checkpoint into the city, where it engaged the local garrison. The city itself was badly prepared for the defense (there was obvious negligence of the officer who organized the defense of Uglegorsk and of the sector command, which wasn't bothered by this situation). As a result, in less than a day of fighting the enemy was repelled to the south-eastern outskirts of Uglegorsk. Meanwhile, one of the territorial battalions that defended the city ended up in an encirclement. The appearance of a large amount of the NAF forces in the city created a serious operational threat for the whole Debalcevo group. Also, Zakharchenko's visit to Uglegorsk had a serious demoralizing effect on the Ukrainian society, because the war propaganda of the enemy continued to state that the city is still holding for several days after the loss of Uglegorsk. Yet, the footage from Uglegorsk, where Zakharchenko was giving interviews and the NAF assault infantry were regrouping, spoke for itself.

The situation at the front by February 5.

Image

On the next day after the effective fall of Uglegorsk, the sector command finally became concerned with the situation in the city and organized a counter-offensive on Uglegorsk by the AFU units and the punitive battalion "Donbass" that were located to the west of Debalcevo. The junta strike allowed them to reach the positions on the outskirts of Uglegorsk and enter the city from the south-east, which saved the encircled territorial battalion, which quit the encirclement. During this counter-offensive (which some people in Ukraine even rushed to call "the Semenchenko counter-offensive") the famous story occurred where, after getting some of his men killed, the "Donbass" commander Semenchenko panicked and ran into an APC and killed two more of his fellow servicemen during an attempt to desert into the rear. After this he fled to a hospital in Artyomovsk, pretended to be WIA. While being at the hospital, he was writing communiques from the front that had nothing to do with the reality. In this way Semenchenko effectively ruined the remains of his reputation among the junta supporters in just a few days.

Naturally, the junta failed to recapture the city (the counter-offensive was horribly organized), which triggered subsequent consequences. While repelling the junta attacks from the south-east and holding on to Uglegorsk, the NAF started to push their forces to the north-east of the city, trying to get closer to the M-103 road from the South. Because from this direction the road was supposed to be covered by the Uglegorsk garrison, which was redeployed to the south-east, the NAF here had effectively free access to the road, which was only protected by weak screens of the enemy. Naturally, after fortifying in Uglegorsk, the NAF started to move into this empty space. After the capture of Kalinovka and the adjacent high points, no more significant obstacles remained between the NAF and the road. Meanwhile, the road itself was already subjected to artillery shelling from the numerically labeled high points near Sanzharovka and from the positions in the area of Lozovoya, although it was still possible to drive on the road. Together with developing the success at Uglegorsk, the NAF forces finally managed to squeeze the enemy out of Nikishino and Redkodub and also started the fighting inside Debalcevo and Chernukhino, where the main hubs of the resistance of the Debalcevo group were located. Despite the threatening situation, the enemy didn't perform timely measures on redeploying reserves towards Svetlodarsk and on fortifying Logvinovo, which played its fatal role. Despite the numerous announcements of closing the cauldron, there was certainly no cauldron until February 9. There was an operational pocket with a shelled bottleneck through which the supplying of the Debalcevo and the Svetlodarsk groups was nevertheless conducted. They were supplied both by the army supply units and by the volunteer organizations.

The overall configuration of the front on the eve of the fall of Logvinovo.

Image

On February 9 the group of "Olkhon" emerges right in Logvinovo, where there's effectively no enemy and intercepts the M-103 road. Enemy vehicles and armor start to get massacred on the road during the attempts to slip through Logvinovo. High-ranking officers from the leadership of the Debalcevo group perish.
The command of the encircled group had effectively a whole week to take measures for the case of an obvious strike on Logvinovo, but they did nothing. Only the high points adjacent to Logvinovo were occupied from which they thought it was possible to establish fire control over Logvinovo itself and over the slice of the road that passed next to the village. The NAF quickly redeployed the GRU Spetsnaz into Logvinovo, which met the strike of the unblocking group that tried to recapture Logvinovo and unblock the road. In the process of heavy combat, the enemy forces (including a part of the "Donbass" battalion) managed to reach the outskirts of Logvinovo, where it even got down to CQC, but our Spetsnaz stood its ground (despite solving the tasks of repelling the strikes by mechanized enemy units, which are in general not common for Spetsnaz). The enemy, after losing 18 armored vehicles, rolled back from Logvinovo, which was pretty much completely ruined by massive artillery fire during the first couple of days after its capture by the NAF forces. Upon repelling the counter-strikes on Logvinovo, the NAF forces started to occupy the adjacent high points, establishing redundant control over the M-103 road. This formed a full-fledged lid of the Debalcevo cauldron, which stretched between Uglegorsk and Logvinovo. Meanwhile, the fighting at Novogrigoryevka and the eastern outskirts of Debalcevo led to the capture of the key high points to the north-west of Debalcevo. As a result, the Svetlodarsk-Debalcevo group was split in two parts and the agony began. Already by February 11 the NAF concentrated sufficient artillery in order to cover the majority of the road between Svetlodarsk and Logvinovo, due to which the AFU had problems even with deploying towards the line of attack. The attempts of unblocking were extinguished already on the approaches to Logvinovo and even the hasty arrival of the AFU General Staff chief Muzhenko, who personally led the operation for saving the encircled troops, couldn't change the catastrophic situation that unfolded through the fault of the General Staff and the sector command.

February 9, 2014. By the evening the Debalcevo cauldron became real.

The fact that the NAF managed to close the ring before the Minsk talks served a very important role, because the stubbornness of Poroshenko and the AFU General Staff, who didn't recognize the existence of the cauldron and sought to keep Debalcevo for themselves, led to the creation of a negotiation collision of sorts, where the Debalcevo area ended up effectively outside the scope of the Minsk agreements. The NAF continued to rout the Debalcevo group, covering themselves with the fact that the status of Debalcevo remained indeterminate. If they couldn't create the lid of the cauldron on time, then this would be much harder to do and the Debalcevo wedge might be still existing. Bypassing the political problem in this way, the NAF started liquidating the encircled group. The plan was fairly straightforward: impede unblocking of the encircled group by holding on to the area of Logvinovo and the adjacent high points, meanwhile attack Debalcevo and Chernukhino directly, at the same time squeezing the enemy from the South and the south-west of the cauldron towards the stronghold that the AFU built near Olkhovatka. Everything was working out fairly well with respect to holding the lid of the cauldron, but the situation in Chernukhino and Debalcevo ended up being much more difficult: the enemy defense had to be broken with great difficulty by gradually recapturing these settlements. Because the Debalcevo group couldn't continue resisting for a long time on the same level without supplies, the officers who remained in the cauldron (a part of the command fled into Artyomovsk and Svetlodarsk back on February 9-11, some perished on the road) started to work on the ways of saving the encircled troops.

Image
There were 2 possibilities for escaping the encirclement:

1. A negotiated retreat, following which the forces were allowed to exit the encirclement without their weapons and materiel, which had to be surrendered to the NAF.
2. A breakthrough through the fields and the country roads between Logvinovo and Novogrigorovka.

There was no way to count on a centralized retreat and the help from Svetlodarsk: Debalcevo was declared to be the heart of the "Ukrainian Stalingrad" and the "core of the Debalcevo foothold", which was meant to end up just like the Donetsk airport. The senior officers of the junta had no intent of turning into "cyborgs", especially dead "cyborgs", and so they started to plan a breakthrough on their own. The commander of the 128th brigade, who took the responsibility upon himself, made the final decision to break. In the end, some of the encircled troops managed to exit through the fields and the country roads to the north of Logvinovo, abandoning up to 300 various vehicles in the cauldron (tanks, IFVs, APCs, SpH, MTLB, BRDM, artillery systems, MLRS, various trucks, etc.) About 500 people couldn't get out of the cauldron after abandoning their positions, some are still being caught. About 500 more of them were captured as POW.

The lid of the Debalcevo cauldron. The road from Debalcevo to Nizhneye Lozovoye, along which the remains of the Debalcevo group were breaking through, can be clearly seen on this map. They were subjected to shelling from the numerically labeled high points and from Logvinovo.

The overall number of the junta's KIA in the fighting for Debalcevo and the adjacent areas were up to 1500, 900-1100 more KIA the junta lost in the fighting near Logvinovo, Nizhnyaya Lozovaya, Sanzharkovka, Dolomitnoye, Mironovka, Krasnyi Pakhar, and Troitskoye. Overall, according to the preliminary data, the junta lost up to 2400-2600 KIA and MIA in the battle for the Debalcevo wedge (perhaps the number of KIA is somewhat lower, because some of them may still roam somewhere in the area of the former Debalcevo cauldron), about 4500 WIA, up to 650 POW. The NAF losses were about 700-800 KIA, up to 2-2.5 thousand WIA. The majority of irrevocable losses of the sides was due to the artillery fire. If in the area of the airport the junta was confidently ahead with respect to the losses, then in the area of Debalcevo the losses of the sides were quite comparable up until the first week of February. Only when the encircled group started to get routed, the junta became a clear leader with respect to the personnel and materiel losses. If not for the initiative of the Ukrainian commanders who led some of the people out of the encirclement (in spite of the criminal passivity by the AFU General Staff and the sector command), the personnel losses could be much higher. The breaking soldiers were helped by the fact that some of the locations between Logvinovo and Novogrigorovka were only under fire control and a significant part of retreating units manage to make it, although many remained lying in the fields. Overall, the lid of the Debalcevo cauldron was more thin and flexible than the lid of the Ilovaysk cauldron, where an attempt of breakthrough ended up being much more tragic for the encircled troops.

After the battle for Debalcevo the group of the enemy that was stationed at Debalcevo was liquidated. It was partially destroyed and the units that broke out of the cauldron will not be combat-capable in the short run, plus the majority of materiel was lost. Significant stocks of ammunition and gear were also lost. The so-called Svetlodarsk wedge was formed as a result of this fighting, which is currently under the same threat of encirclement through the strikes from the side of Troitskoye, Krasnyi Pakhar, and Dolomitnoye. This configuration of the front creates a serious opening for the NAF if the military action resumes because it is possible to repeat the attempt of encirclement north of Svetlodarsk (up to 3-4 thousands of the AFU service members may end up in a cauldron) in a more advantageous configuration of the front line.

Naturally, we cannot refrain from touching the questions of "voentorg" and of the "north wind". The "voentorg" was fully engaged during the campaign, providing the flow of ammunition and fuel that was necessary for the military action, even though with respect to logistics and distribution the increased scale of military action and the consumption of ammunition and fuel triggered certain issues with timely supply of the front line units, there's still work left to be done in this area. Despite the junta's announcements that it fights the Russian army instead of the NAF, the "north wind" effectively wasn't blowing, even though in January it was expected that the NAF actions will receive more substantial direct support like it was in August of 2014. So, if speaking about the winter campaign, we can confidently state that this was primarily a clash between the NAF and the AFU. The second tier of the war, associated with covert confrontation of the RF and the USA in Ukraine remained in shadows in this campaign to a significant degree, which doesn't fully satisfy the USA as shown by the remarks of the American officials. The USA would rather like to make this confrontation more direct, which Russia avoids in every way. The information campaign in military respect was won by the RF, because over 1.5 months of fighting the junta failed to clearly demonstrate that it fights against the Army of the RF, the Americans didn't have much in terms of arguments either. It was precisely the defeat in this information component of the battle for Debalcevo that triggered a whole series of censorship limitations against the Russian media in Ukraine and led to the creation of the "information forces". The junta is trying to hastily mitigate the consequences of its informational defeat, which — just like on the front lines — led to the collapse of two modern myths of "cyborgs" and of "the Ukrainian Stalingrad".

By mid-February the answer to the question "Is this a foothold or a cauldron?" became obvious.

After capturing Debalcevo the NAF obtained control over the principal transport hub, which will allow them to maneuver with forces and will free up significant forces for the operations in the area of Svetlodarsk, Popasnaya, and Gorlovka. The captured trophies will allow to substantially compensate for the NAF materiel losses that were suffered over a month-and-a-half of fighting.

The defeat at Debalcevo became the culmination of the winter campaign, which concluded successfully for NAF. The junta attempts to engage in an offensive were parried. Meanwhile, the NAF solved two important operational tasks over a month-and-a-half of fighting: the Donetsk airport was fully captured and the Debalcevo protrusion was eliminated. So we can safely say that the operation was a success, even though we must not forget about the unsuccessful offensive on Krymskoye, Avdeyevka, and Peski. The enemy resisted very fiercely and no decisive success was achieved in those places where the enemy command didn't commit obvious mistakes. The mistakes of the AFU command in the area of the airport, Uglegorsk, and Debalcevo were skillfully used, which led to the positive results that overrode the tactical issues of late January.

Following the results of the campaign, it is possible to say without a doubt that despite the continuing growing pains and structural military and political problems, the militia is now effectively an army and it is quite capable of engaging in a large-scale offensive against a regular army that had several months of combat experience. Of course, not everything went smoothly and some losses could be avoided, but we must pay tribute to the command and the fighters of the NAF, who managed to carry out a very difficult campaign under harsh conditions — and win it.

http://cassad-eng.livejournal.com/
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Alexis »

Endovelico wrote:According to deputy general director of concern KRET (developer and manufacturer of this EW system) Vladimir Mikheev, all the fighters that Russia lost in Georgia were naked, ie. without the installed EW means, and this fact has caused the loss of the Russian military equipment.
OK, using that name "KRET", it is possible to check that:

- There is indeed a company by that name, making electronic defense products which are indeed provided to the Russian military

- That company indeed manufactures a product line of EW devices called "Khibiny" for Russian fighter-bombers. Existing designs are being improved continuously, the latest "Khibiny-U" being in development since 2013 while older designs are already flown on operational Russian aircraft
Khibiny System is being continuously improved - also through miniaturization. The dimensions, mass and energy consumption parameters of the system remain the same, but it has much more functions to offer," said Deputy CEO of the Consortium on EW R&D and Innovation Yuri Maevski.
- That company claims its Khibiny device to have such performances as:
The multifunctional Khibiny missile system, developed by KRET, provides individual protection of aircraft against attacks by enemy fighters and ground-based air defense systems. This system creates a protective electronic shield around the aircraft, causing a guided missile to lose its target. Thus, Russian fighter jets can become invisible to the enemy
which, incidentally, doesn't bear much liking to what is claimed to have happened to the USS Donald Cook radar systems

- That company also lists among its most able products one named Rychag-AV which it claims:
can suppress the operations of all types of radar stations. Rychag can protect Russian airplanes from the most modern air defense systems, including the American Patriot system
which, if true, would look more like what is claimed was seen on the US cruiser Aegis radar and fire control system


Remains of course the question of whether these claims of superior, or more precisely extraordinary performance, are a reflection of fact, a much exaggerated account, or a total invention.

I cannot exclude that they would be entirely factual, because a lot of things about electronic warfare are clouded in secrecy. I have however to reiterate my doubts. Claims about Wunderwaffen, which is what was described in Russian reports about the USS Donald Cook vs Su-24 incident, are usually hype.
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Endovelico »

United European army
"Colonel Cassad" - March 8th, 21:03

The foundation of these motions consists primarily of the desire of the Europeans to get out of the dense American embrace. The USA secure its military control through the NATO structures. The USA, besides their open participations in the alliance structures, which was viewed as the instrument of pursuing the American national interests back in Brzezinski's books, have a number of the levers of influence over the "collective decisions" through their European satellites, especially through Eastern European satellites, which they consciously counterpose against the "old Europe", which tries to shape the amorphous union into some sort of united European empire or whatever is it that they want to get in the ned. Despite various projects, in the political respect the EU remains a quite fragmented formation, where discord and vacillation start during the moments of crisis.

Without having the status of a complete military and political subject within the confines of the existing dependence on the USA, various projects of centralizing military and political structures roam among the European establishment. However, years pass but instead of a united army in Europe there is still a whole bunch of armies of varying degrees of combat readiness and a NATO superstructure, which formally combines all of this in a single system. But even there the questions of creating a joint rapid reaction force unfold extremely slowly.

It is absolutely obvious that the European masters would like to have their own army, which would be controlled exclusively by Brussels and would be outside of the NATO muzzle. However, a whole number of questions arise, which are hardly solvable for the EU at this stage. Furthermore, for the EU this is a very expensive question under the conditions of the looming economic crisis (we may recall how the EU armies that participated in the aggression against Libya had to beg the Americans due to exhausting the stockpiles of missiles and precision munitions), but also primarily due to the dependency of the European structures from the alliance controlled by the USA, which in essence performs military goal setting for the EU, due to which some or their members of the alliance end up in a bandwagon of next American aggressions.

This already played a cruel joke on the EU in the case of Ukraine, because a clear dependence of the EU on the decisions made in Washington was clearly revealed when the EU was forced to pull into the conflict with Russia over Ukraine. The actual role of the EU in this process ended up being subordinate, where the existing economic, political, and military instruments of the EU failed to secure the Europe's own scenario in the Ukrainian conflict. Sad attempts to bet on Klitschko (which was sarcastically commented by the cynical American diplomats) and threatening sanctions after the USA looked quite weakly on the background of the steadfast American line, into which the Europeans were forced to integrate.

Now, as a part of the attempt to exhibit their own political subject status, the EU leaders show the idea of a united army. However this idea should bother the USA more than the RF, because Russia doesn't really depend much on if the European armies are combined in NATO or if they are united in some joint European army controlled by Brussels. No matter what, any war between the EU and the RF will culminate in a nuclear exchange. Even the direct non-nuclear standoff (if the USA are not taken into account) doesn't promise any rapid success to the sides. And the USA should be more worried in this respect, because the loss of military instruments of control over the European armies will lead to the loss of influence over Europe and the end of the era of "democratic coalitions led by the USA".

It is quite natural that Russia will condemn any military motions in Europe and the USA will insist on the supremacy of the NATO structures in order to not let the Europeans get off the hook. So, it is unlikely that in the next few years Europe will be able to crawl from under the dictate of the Atlantic structures. Nevertheless, it must be noted that saber-rattling and flexing military muscles became a clear mark of recent times.

http://cassad-eng.livejournal.com/
Another good analysis by a Russian writer. It hits the nail right on the head and says things which, although quite obvious, seem to be beyond the grasp of many Westerners...
Simple Minded

Re: Military Issues

Post by Simple Minded »

Endovelico wrote:
United European army
"Colonel Cassad" - March 8th, 21:03

The foundation of these motions consists primarily of the desire of the Europeans to get out of the dense American embrace. The USA secure its military control through the NATO structures. The USA, besides their open participations in the alliance structures, which was viewed as the instrument of pursuing the American national interests back in Brzezinski's books, have a number of the levers of influence over the "collective decisions" through their European satellites, especially through Eastern European satellites, which they consciously counterpose against the "old Europe", which tries to shape the amorphous union into some sort of united European empire or whatever is it that they want to get in the ned. Despite various projects, in the political respect the EU remains a quite fragmented formation, where discord and vacillation start during the moments of crisis.

Without having the status of a complete military and political subject within the confines of the existing dependence on the USA, various projects of centralizing military and political structures roam among the European establishment. However, years pass but instead of a united army in Europe there is still a whole bunch of armies of varying degrees of combat readiness and a NATO superstructure, which formally combines all of this in a single system. But even there the questions of creating a joint rapid reaction force unfold extremely slowly.

It is absolutely obvious that the European masters would like to have their own army, which would be controlled exclusively by Brussels and would be outside of the NATO muzzle. However, a whole number of questions arise, which are hardly solvable for the EU at this stage. Furthermore, for the EU this is a very expensive question under the conditions of the looming economic crisis (we may recall how the EU armies that participated in the aggression against Libya had to beg the Americans due to exhausting the stockpiles of missiles and precision munitions), but also primarily due to the dependency of the European structures from the alliance controlled by the USA, which in essence performs military goal setting for the EU, due to which some or their members of the alliance end up in a bandwagon of next American aggressions.

This already played a cruel joke on the EU in the case of Ukraine, because a clear dependence of the EU on the decisions made in Washington was clearly revealed when the EU was forced to pull into the conflict with Russia over Ukraine. The actual role of the EU in this process ended up being subordinate, where the existing economic, political, and military instruments of the EU failed to secure the Europe's own scenario in the Ukrainian conflict. Sad attempts to bet on Klitschko (which was sarcastically commented by the cynical American diplomats) and threatening sanctions after the USA looked quite weakly on the background of the steadfast American line, into which the Europeans were forced to integrate.

Now, as a part of the attempt to exhibit their own political subject status, the EU leaders show the idea of a united army. However this idea should bother the USA more than the RF, because Russia doesn't really depend much on if the European armies are combined in NATO or if they are united in some joint European army controlled by Brussels. No matter what, any war between the EU and the RF will culminate in a nuclear exchange. Even the direct non-nuclear standoff (if the USA are not taken into account) doesn't promise any rapid success to the sides. And the USA should be more worried in this respect, because the loss of military instruments of control over the European armies will lead to the loss of influence over Europe and the end of the era of "democratic coalitions led by the USA".

It is quite natural that Russia will condemn any military motions in Europe and the USA will insist on the supremacy of the NATO structures in order to not let the Europeans get off the hook. So, it is unlikely that in the next few years Europe will be able to crawl from under the dictate of the Atlantic structures. Nevertheless, it must be noted that saber-rattling and flexing military muscles became a clear mark of recent times.

http://cassad-eng.livejournal.com/
Another good analysis by a Russian writer. It hits the nail right on the head and says things which, although quite obvious, seem to be beyond the grasp of many Westerners...
Amen! "We" would love it if the EU kicked us out of Europe..... More local power to each sovereign nation, less bureaucracy and distant management!
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Endovelico »

Norway buzzes Russian border with biggest military drill since Cold War
Published time: March 10, 2015 12:31

Unprecedented war games, involving 5,000 Norwegian troops and 400 vehicles, have started in Norway’s northernmost province, bordering Russia. The biggest exercises since Cold War days will last for a week, amid growing tensions between Russia and NATO.

Joint Viking, Norway's biggest military training exercise in nearly 50 years, is being held in the country’s far northeast Finnmark County, above the Arctic Circle. The region borders Russia’s Kola Peninsula.

The last time a similar military exercise was conducted in Finnmark was in 1967.

“Today the army will transport their vehicles and crews to Finnmark and begin exercise Joint Viking. This is an operative exercise with all weapons and branches involved,” Norwegian Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Aleksander Jankov said. “To illustrate the magnitude of this, I can mention that if we put the vehicles one after another on the road it will stretch 6km.”

Apart from the ground troops involved, the exercise (which will last until March 18) has put Norway’s Navy submarines and surface vessels off the coast of Finnmark and Air Force fighter jets on alert. All types of weapons are promised to be put to use, reports the Barentz Observer.

(...)

http://rt.com/news/239209-nato-norway-viking-drills/
Five thousand Norwegian soldiers!!!... Good grief! I imagine the Russians will be considerably worried about this display of Viking power! Will they go on to conquer Murmansk or march on St. Petersburg?... Couldn't the Norwegians find any other and better use for their money?...If ridicule killed, soon Norway would be without an army...
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Alexis »

Endovelico wrote:Five thousand Norwegian soldiers!!!... Good grief! I imagine the Russians will be considerably worried about this display of Viking power! Will they go on to conquer Murmansk or march on St. Petersburg?... Couldn't the Norwegians find any other and better use for their money?...If ridicule killed, soon Norway would be without an army...
5,000 personnel and 400 (presumably combat) vehicles is really a large force by Norwegian standards, since the total manpower of their Army is 11,600 soldiers and total of its combat vehicles bit more than 800.

I disagree that such exercises are in any way "ridiculous". This is obviously designed to warn that every square meter of territory will be defended. Whether such a manoeuver is presently really necessary is disputable to say the least, but demonstration of ability to move one's forces over one's territory is on the other hand never entirely useless.

Vladimir Putin could testify about that. Comparable manoeuvers include 2013 large-scale Russian exercise in the Far East, involving some 150,000 troops and their vehicles rapidly transported from Western Russia until... well, not so far from the border with Chi... err one of Russia's neighbours which shall not be named ;)
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European Military

Post by Endovelico »

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Re: Military Issues

Post by Alexis »

Endo, your last image is from a 2011 article by the Economist reporting then US defense secretary Robert Gates' pronouncement that Europeans "spend too little on defense" and his claim - disproved - that Europeans needed US weapon refurbishments for the Libya campaign.

So Americans want Europeans to spend more on defense. What else is news? :)
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Typhoon »

Alexis wrote:
Endovelico wrote:Five thousand Norwegian soldiers!!!... Good grief! I imagine the Russians will be considerably worried about this display of Viking power! Will they go on to conquer Murmansk or march on St. Petersburg?... Couldn't the Norwegians find any other and better use for their money?...If ridicule killed, soon Norway would be without an army...
5,000 personnel and 400 (presumably combat) vehicles is really a large force by Norwegian standards, since the total manpower of their Army is 11,600 soldiers and total of its combat vehicles bit more than 800.

I disagree that such exercises are in any way "ridiculous". This is obviously designed to warn that every square meter of territory will be defended. Whether such a manoeuver is presently really necessary is disputable to say the least, but demonstration of ability to move one's forces over one's territory is on the other hand never entirely useless.

Vladimir Putin could testify about that. Comparable manoeuvers include 2013 large-scale Russian exercise in the Far East, involving some 150,000 troops and their vehicles rapidly transported from Western Russia until... well, not so far from the border with Chi... err one of Russia's neighbours which shall not be named ;)
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Doc »

Alexis wrote:Endo, your last image is from a 2011 article by the Economist reporting then US defense secretary Robert Gates' pronouncement that Europeans "spend too little on defense" and his claim - disproved - that Europeans needed US weapon refurbishments for the Libya campaign.

So Americans want Europeans to spend more on defense. What else is news? :)
The US did almost almost all of the heavy lifting in Libya.
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Endovelico »

We all admire the Finns fighting spirit but in the end they lost the war and some territory with it. Let's not delude ourselves in respect of the Norwegians capacity to resist present day Russian troops, if ever Russia would decide to attack Norway - a preposterous idea. If anything, it would be more likely for NATO to try its luck by attacking Russia. And I guess we have a pretty good idea of what the chances of NATO winning a ground war against Russia's territory would be... All in all, the Norwegians exercise in the vicinity of Russia is a total idiocy and a waste of money...
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Alexis »

Endovelico wrote:Let's not delude ourselves in respect of the Norwegians capacity to resist present day Russian troops, if ever Russia would decide to attack Norway - a preposterous idea
That Russia would attack Norway is indeed a preposterous proposition. That China would attack Russia is also a preposterous proposition by the way - albeit not for exactly the same reasons.

That did not prevent Russia to organize that huge military exercise in the Far East I was writing about - "to whom it may concern". Norway's exercise has the same logic.

Ability of Norway to resist all on her own to an hypothetical Russian attack is very dubious as you say. However, that doesn't mean that organizing a defense is a waste of money when one is a small country.

It's not only a contribution to a common defense, but more importantly:
- It forces an hypothetical aggressor to use a certain level of force so as to overcome the defense, making the aggression undeniable, henceforth reaction from other members of the alliance inevitable
- It has a delaying character, giving more time for other countries to send their forces before the invasion can control the harbours and make transport far more difficult

All of the above would become real only in case of Russian aggression, which won't happen. However, being confident a particular scenario is very improbable does not prevent one to plan for it, especially if it would be a very dangerous one.

Doc wrote:The US did almost almost all of the heavy lifting in Libya.
Sorry Doc, that is mistaken. Please research the matter if you have doubts.
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Re: Military Issues

Post by noddy »

we all know that noone cares about the south eastern europeans, they are neither here nor there to anyone and only fit for use as pawns, endo has explained that logic well

im not so sure that the same applies to scandinavia, nor even the northern baltics.
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Doc »

Five years. That will change everything. Let us wait and see... Popcorn anyone?
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Alexis »

Alexis wrote:Endo, your last image is from a 2011 article by the Economist
By the way, Endo, you may have retrieved that image from this latest article by The Saker claiming that European militaries are "impotent" and "a total mess".

Shallow and uninformed article, if there is one :lol: The author can't tell the difference between "much less powerful than US military" - which is by far the largest in the world - and "impotent". He conveniently "forgets" that Russian military also is much less powerful than US military... which is very different from "impotent".

A small incident may help appreciate that. Beginning of February, during international exercises in Western Atlantics, French SSN Saphir "sunk" US aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt and most of its escort. This is a somewhat old type of SSN - put in service 1984 - albeit not without qualities it would seem.
During a second phase, Saphir was integrated to enemy forces and had mission to locate Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier and other ships in friendly naval force and to stand ready to attack. Saphir stealthily slipped within the screen formed by American frigates protecting the aircraft carrier, while avoiding counter-detection by omnipresent aircraft. In the morning of the last day, the order to fire was finally received, enabling Saphir to fictitiously sink Theodore Roosevelt and most of its escort.
As the Marine Nationale recalled, such exercises can also result in the opposite result: sometimes it's the Americans who "win". The point is not that French nor European forces have better quality than US forces, the point is that the mere fact that such results as a lone submarine defeating an entire aircraft carrier group are possible in realistic exercises demonstrate that they equal the best in quality. It's only in numbers that Americans have a large advantage.

And Russians are in a similar position than Europeans: powerful forces, albeit much less than America's. Still, maybe it's me but I have trouble imagining "the Saker" calling Russian military "impotent" ;)
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Endovelico »

Russian Military Unveils Revolutionary Electronic Warfare System
15:31 04.03.2015(updated 15:37 04.03.2015)

Russia's new Richag-AV radar and sonar jamming system can be mounted on helicopters, ships and other military equipment to jam potential adversaries' weapons systems from distances of several hundred kilometers away; it has been hailed by developers as having no analogue anywhere in the world.

At a presentation for journalists in Kazan on Wednesday, Russian radio-electronics firm Radio-Electronic Technologies Concern (KRET) announced that it is handing over the first batch of a new helicopter-mounted electronic warfare system known as the 'Richag-AV' to the armed forces.

The Richag-AV system, mounted on the Mi-8MTPR1 (a variant of the Mi-8MTB5-1 helicopter) is said to have no global equivalent. Its electronic countermeasures system is designed to jam radar, sonar and other detection systems in the aims of defending aircraft, helicopters, drones, ground and naval forces against air-to-air and surface-to-air defense systems within a radius of several hundred kilometers. It can be mounted on units from any branch of the armed forces, including helicopters and airplanes, as well as ground and ship-based forces.

The Mi8-MTPR1-based Richag-AV platform, using multi-beam antenna arrays with DRFM technology, is designed to actively jam and thus 'blind' radar systems in order to defend against radio-electronic guided weapons systems. In a combat situation, the system would operate as part of an aviation shock attack group aimed at breaking through virtually any defense system, blinding everything up to and including the US MIM-104 'Patriot' anti-aircraft missile system.

Rossiyskaya Gazeta explained that in addition to working as a signal jamming system, Richag-AV is capable of carrying out radar-based intelligence gathering, which involves the finding of foreign sources of electromagnetic radiation. With an onboard database on different types of military installations, the system is capable of quickly determining the type of target, thus allowing it to jam it effectively.

Reporters in Kazan were informed that the Russian armed forces received three Mi-8MTPR-1 helicopters equipped with the Richag-Av on Wednesday, and will receive a total of 18 such systems by October 2016, at a total cost of 11.5 billion rubles ($186 million).

The system's predecessor, the 'Smalta' jamming system, was developed back in the 1970s, and featured a 100 km radius; in its own time the system was considered among the most effective in the world. Alongside the Richag-AV, the Russian military is presently being equipped with other electronic warfare systems, including the L-175B Hibini air and 1L269 Krasuha-2 and 1L267 Moskva-1 ground-based electronic warfare systems.

KRET is Russia's largest radio-electronic industrial holding; it was created in 2009. The company is involved in the development and production of radio-electronic equipment in the civil and military aviation sphere, as well as air-based radar systems, electronic warfare systems, and a variety of precision instrumentation.

http://sputniknews.com/military/2015030 ... 42643.html
It would be interesting if Russia sold such jamming equipment to Iran and, why not, North Korea...
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Endovelico »

Heart warming...
Crianças e armas.JPG
Crianças e armas.JPG (23.69 KiB) Viewed 2778 times
Crianças e armas (2).JPG
Crianças e armas (2).JPG (24.4 KiB) Viewed 2778 times
How many European children will die as a result of NATO's warmongering?...
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Endovelico »

NATO Is Marching Towards Russia, and They Have No Idea What Awaits Them
America is fully aware that the way to draw Russia into a conflict is to push forward towards Russia's borders. In time, Russia will be forced to defend its right to exist, and when this happens, western powers will not know what hit them

This article originally appeared at Mat Rodina

American politicians in particular and European politicians in general are some of the most ignorant fools when the issue comes to anything outside their own borders. When it comes to Russia, it is an engima wrapped in a mystery... but only because, dear readers, no one has every bothered to try to understand Russians and the Russian world view.

One important historical fact about Russia is that Russia is a unique civilizational empire built upon defense not offense. What this means is that historically, Russia does not start the wars, or series of wars (though it may strike first in a confrontation that is punctuated by a series of wars). In Russian history, Russian leaders, since Russia's baptism to Orthodoxy, have tried hard to avoid war with our neighbors, though just about every time this has failed. In parallel, as much as we do not like war, and in Orthodoxy killing in combat is still a sin as we do not have the heresy of Just War, we are very very good at killing and destroying. A paradox, but it is the reality.

This was so profound that in the summer of 1914, the Tsar Nicholas II, when war was eminent, even haulted mobilization to try and defuse the situation one more time and talk the Austrians and Germans out of what would become the great tragedy of early 20th century.

The problems with modern, and in truth historical, Western politicos is that these guys are absolute fools with no understanding of the Russian psyche and are sure to be the cause of WW3, be it intentional or accidental. They are projecting their psyche onto Russians.

What this means is that they are projecting a typical negative reinforcement mentality. Europe and the US are societies built on constant aggression towards neighbors. Aggression like that is staved by building up a credible large counter force of allies and blocks, which causes fear of defeat and deescalation...your typical European balance of forces approach.

Russia is a defensive empire, that is, most wars or series of wars were not started by Russians but by enemies attacking or massing on Russia's borders. After 800 years of almost non-stop aggression by Europeans, Russia does not tolerate any enemy massing on her borders in what appears as a preparation for invasion or the creation of large scales basing areas as would be a US neo-con dominated Ukraine.This is also coupled with the Russian approach of not abandoning Russians (ethnic or cultural) and allies, as opposed to Anglo society where back stabbing allies when the opportunity to earn exists, is a prized skill.

As such, this is a spiral approach. Any escalation by the foreigners will lead to a direct escalation by Russia and not deescalation. Balance of power does not work when Russia feels her survival threatened. Enough of an enemy escalation in the hope of forcing Russia to back off will generate an exact opposite effect in generating a first strike and total war, as Russia feels her life and existence is threatened by the enemy.

Nothing like putting Russian society in a threatened siege mentality to force the individual chaotic Russian nature to crystallize into one direction: total destruction of the threat and the states that generate it.

Russia's army may be only 1 million but the ready reserve is over 20 million with a follow capability of total mobilization of over 40 more million, and maybe more if one starts counting female combatants and one should.

Last time the factories were run by children, old people and women. Now with massive automation, even more of society is freed up to fight. Since Russian civilization is not just land but a cultural idea/philosophy it generates an absolute fanatical loyalty. This is a loyalty to a culture that allows the temporary surrender of land for time in the understanding that this will then be used, combined with non-stop partisan warfare, to grind down the invader and decimate him deep in the Russian interior, before marching on his cities and burning them to the ground in revenge.

Europe needs to find some German or Romanian veterans and ask them how much fun they had. Mamal Kurgan, the highest hill in Volgograd (Stalingrad) a 1,5 km sq area had 35,000 identifiable bodies on it, half of them German, after 4 months of fighting. That is more than both sides lost on the beaches of Normandy. In WW2 the Germans were on average having 1 soldier killed every 30 seconds. Figure 3-4 times as many wounded.

The present serving armies of NATO would be used up in 3-4 months. That would amount to almost a million and a half dead and wounded.

NATO would collapse. Greeks would refuse to fight. Serbs would be a war in the middle of all this. Cypriots would refuse to fight. Turkey would likely also refuse to die in a war they could only lose from. Bulgaria would probably have a revolution. Romania and Italy and Spain and Portugal would not long suffer heavy casualties before their unpopular governments were overthrown. France more than likely also. US couldn't fully concentrate their army as they would have to release their grip on all other sectors which in turn would be blowing up.

As for a second front, that is, if America was to invade the Russian far east, well, outside of grabbing Sakhalin and Vladivastok and Khabarovsk, all of which will cost hundreds of thousands of corpses, a US invasion force would be faced with a march of 3,000 km, or about 1,800 miles to the nearest major oil fields and forced to cover a land area larger than the continental United States, in wilderness terrain, with Russian partisans and the very cold Siberian winter (8 months long) filling the corpse lists on a daily basis. In other words, outside of a temporary land grab, nothing to fear.

Also if things got bad China would step in knowing they are next on the hit list, and thus Siberia would be fairly safe from US forces.

The reality, Americans, Germans, and foolish Poles, is, Russians will fight and 152 million people will fight to the end, not because Putin sits in power, or because we fear the enemy, but because love of Russia, the very idea of Russia, will drive fanatical, well trained and armed with advanced weaponry resistance. Russians will fight regardless of who sits the throne, because we are not fighting for the leader but for Christ and for Russia, the land He gave us as the Third Rome. What exactly will you be fighting for?

http://russia-insider.com/en/2015/03/22/4790
Hubris? Maybe... Shall we go and find out?...
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Parodite
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Parodite »

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Deep down I'm very superficial
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Re: Military Issues

Post by Typhoon »

CSM | Grounded? Russia's answer to US next-gen fighter hits the skids.
The Kremlin is cutting its initial production of the Sukhoi T-50 fighter by 75 percent amid cost overruns and rumored technical concerns – the same kind of issues that have plagued US development of the F-35.
Looks like the Russians stole a few secrets too many :wink:
May the gods preserve and defend me from self-righteous altruists; I can defend myself from my enemies and my friends.
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