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The world might have moved on but there doesn’t seem to have been anything developed that can replace an A10.
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!
They are clumbersome and therefore vulnerable against modern anti aircraft shoulder mounted rockets etc. I'd assume a modern attack helicopter has pretty much replaced them, but I'm no expert.
It begs the question for me, the US, EU and seemingly every nation west of them are offering ‘Lethal Aid’ at what point does that become joining in?
It seems the current rules of engagement mean 'we' can supply equipment and weapons, which would include jet fighters, but no personell.
There’s been a few comments about control of the Air War. Similar phrases mean very different things. Air Superiority/Air Supremacy.
Air Superiority- you are winning the skies, but it’s still a battle.
Air Supremacy- you can operate with impunity.
Also under consideration is who controls the ground you are flying over?
Supporting your front line Ops from within territory you control is very different from going into the Russian controlled areas to hit their deep supply lines. Then you are in range of the mobile Anti A/c batteries.
The A10 replacement/retirement just keeps getting pushed back.
They have been designed for another era's battlefield but this seems to be how Russia are approaching it.
Cheap, Heavy, Strong. Pick Three. 😉
I also read that Putin is shipping in some of his Wagner mercenaries
I'm pretty sure I read some information over the weekend that said that Wagner mercenaries were amongst some of the troops that were hardest hit in the opening days of the conflict suffering quite extensive losses.
They are clumbersome and therefore vulnerable
It's well worth bearing in mind in these days of misinformation. The USAF would dearly love to get rid of the A10. It takes up great big bits of budget that they'd much rather spend on other - much more fun and exciting things. They consider the CAS role something that the army ought to spend money on, not them, so they're always telling everyone who'll listen just how rubbish it is...
Right, shall we put one bit of bollocks to bed; the A10 is not slow and lumbering. It may be in relation to other modern fixed wing aircraft that could be used for ground attack, but it is still faster than most modern rotary platforms.
Has a payload of more than the gun too. I know google is great, but there's a lot of bollocks out there. There's a reason the USAF extended its life.
Yes, it is a one trick pony; CAS, but it does it with pretty devastating effect.
Somewhere like Ukraine were the Russians seem to have a thing for closely grouped, linear direction of travel on marked roads, it would be savage.
Strange how everything coming out of social media shows Russian losses with the Ukrainians apparently not losing a single man or vehicle?!
Also Switzerland has just rolled and implemented sanctions. They didn’t even do that with Hitler.
Hitler and most of his top brass were ploughing money and gold into Switzerland during the war and the Swiss grew very rich because of it, they banked on the Nazis winning and the Nazis saw Switzerland as Germanic enough they didn't need to be invaded. It was perhaps a happy accident for them that when the Nazi's lost, the Swiss realised that the Nazi brass has been so clever at hiding the loot they stole, no one would come looking for it when they were all dead.
Apparently Dodgy Rich Russians prefer London and other UK Tax Havens to hide their money, but Oligarchs aren't as closely tied to Russian politics as the Hazis were?
It begs the question for me, the US, EU and seemingly every nation west of them are offering ‘Lethal Aid’ at what point does that become joining in?
It seems the current rules of engagement mean ‘we’ can supply equipment and weapons, which would include jet fighters, but no personell.
We aren't the ones pulling the trigger on the lethal equipment so we aren't involved, but there is a good chance Putin will use it as proof of aggression by us. I couldn't find any international law or treaty that forbids supplying arms to countries at war and i really doubt we would do it if it did as it would massively undermine our position.
killing russian armour in europe was what it (the A10) was built for.
@Klunk, exactly. Although it was good in certain situations in Afghanistan when you needed effect. A precision system was better though.
Maybe Ukraine is where the USAF could sell them when they finally shelve them?
Cheap, Heavy, Strong. Pick Three.
You forgot noisy and slow, you can hear them comming from ten miles away, they would need chopper or drone support really, or they'd just get shot out of the sky. A10 are pretty much redundant in modern warfare, depsite how cool they are.
Compare that to a more agile attack helicopter or the smaller, quiter, harder to hit drone.
Strange how everything coming out of social media shows Russian losses with the Ukrainians apparently not losing a single man or vehicle?!
maybe you need to have a look at your choice and range of social media feeds, cause honestly that’s not my view
There’s a reason the USAF extended its life.
Because congress made them do it, not because they wanted to. The senior leadership want to scrap them and replace them with F35, not keep maintaining the far cheaper (in dolars per hour of flight time) airframe.
But yes, there's a reason they are loved, because they can car lots, stay in the air for a long time and can fly slow and close to support ground troops. In Afghanistan they were _the_ thing to be supported by if you got into trouble. Well, that and the Apaches.
So they don't have DAS? 300 knots is still faster than rotary. Jesus, stop googling crap man.
You forgot noisy and slow, you can hear them comming from ten miles away, they would need chopper or drone support really, or they’d just get shot out of the sky. A10 are pretty much redundant in modern warfare, depsite how cool they are.
Compare that to a more agile attack helicopter or the smaller, quiter, harder to hit drone :
Length: 6.5 m (21 ft)
Wing span: 12 m (39 ft):
Strange how everything coming out of social media shows Russian losses with the Ukrainians apparently not losing a single man or vehicle?!
That's obviously not the case but I think anything pro-Ukraine is going to celebrate destroyed Russian Tanks etc, and downplay Ukrainian losses.
I also read that some Russian soldiers had mobile phones taken from them by superiors, so perhaps the ability to film what is going on is limited to one side.
Ukraine seem to have access to Drones, there was a video on Sky News of them destroying a Russian Missile battery with one.
They've had drones for a while as I understand it... Mostly bought off Turkey, who in turn bought them off Russia! 😂
It begs the question for me, the US, EU and seemingly every nation west of them are offering ‘Lethal Aid’ at what point does that become joining in? If the US offers them attack drones, are they handed over to Ukraine, or are they still piloted from Las Vegas?
It's a fine line, and a worthwhile question for sure... Fortunately for Ukraine, the only person in the world right now for whom the answer to that question matters is Vladimir Putin, and Putin may have made some gross miscalculations about this war so far, but he's not stupid. If NATO enters this war, it will be bad for all the nations involved, but it will be MUCH worse for Russia!
The thing that worries me is that frustration may see the RF army deploy a low-yield nuke to erase large swathes of the Ukrainian resistance. Even if it is 0.5 kt, the fact that fissile materials caused an explosion could be enough to trigger a nuclear response. Or would NATO ignore a tidgy nuke?
If we're talking about cluster bombs and Thermobaric weapons contravening the Geneva Convention, then I'm pretty sure an unprovoked Nuclear attack on a UN/NATO/EU ally (even if not a member state) would warrant a retaliation... Would the US send a Nuke into Moscow immediately afterwards? No, probably not, not immediately. Would the combined forces of the rest of the world immediately bomb the shit out of the entire Russian military, regardless of which soil they were on, whilst special forces were sent in to storm the Kremlin... You better believe it!
Though it also depends where it was sent... If they dropped a tiny one on Pripyat, to kind of prove a point that they're ready to do it but on a "carefully selected target that caused minimal extra casualties", or if it was downtown Kyiv...
The A10 replacement/retirement just keeps getting pushed back.
Because it would be about as much use as a chocolate teapot in modern wargames... A drone is so much more effective, and so are personal anti-tank weapons now.
It’s well worth bearing in mind in these days of misinformation. The USAF would dearly love to get rid of the A10. It takes up great big bits of budget that they’d much rather spend on other – much more fun and exciting things. They consider the CAS role something that the army ought to spend money on, not them, so they’re always telling everyone who’ll listen just how rubbish it is…
For this reason... The A10 wasn't rubbish, it was of its time. That time isn't now. Remember how amazed you were when the first Pentium processors came out in the mid 90's, how they revolutionised personal computers. Well the Warthogs had already been out of production for 10yrs by this point!
They are from a bygone era, when anti aircraft missiles were few and far between, and the most effective way of taking out tanks was mounting a gatling gun in a plane and shooting them full of depleted uranium rounds from the sky.
Well, I've spend 15 mins reading about A10 Warhogs and 'near-peer' warfare so obviously I'm an expert now.
Supposedly when it comes to close combat against ground forces, they're still near unbeatable. Obviously the faster flying, near-stealth current gen fighters are much harder to attack most of the time, but when it comes down to the actual business of attacking tanks they have to slow down to the point when they can be fired at by IR guided shoulder fired weapons which aren't effected by stealth technology, the A10 has an IR signature about half that of an F22 for example.
Those saying it's a role for Apaches, of course it is, but they have some of the same downsides as the A10s, they're slow and noisy, but even as impressively armoured as they are, they're not as survivable as the A10s. They can of course (because I'm an expert now) sit behind a hill and fire Hellfires all day, but then it's not a close combat attack.
It's all a moot point of course, only the US has A10s and if this ever becomes a War between the US / NATO and Russia, it won't be fought by bombing or shooting up columns of Russian trucks and tanks.
killing russian armour in europe was what it (the A10) was built for.
In the 1970's... 🤦🏻
The SR-71 Blackbird was built for reconnaissance of Soviet targets only a handful of years earlier... Are you suggesting we bring them out of retirement at great cost so they can go and take a few photos at Mach 3 above Russia? 🤷🏻♂️
The IOC has banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from international competitions. Considering their form with toadying to the Russians (including during the latest Winter Olympics) quite refreshing to see
Not sure FIFA will (ever) do the same...
BBC - IOC bans Russia & Belarus
the A10 has an IR signature about half that of an F22 for example.
As long as you are warmer than the background the IR system is seeing you. Heat signatures don’t just mean exhaust plumes
@P-Jay some sense finally. That's high quality armchair QB-ing there, a high standard to follow.
Flying an A10 or AH of any description about in contested airspace would not be at the top of my list of fun times. Especially when all the the other airframes looking to kill you are bloody quick.
And that's the thing, even for the AH fanboys, most CAS in the last 20 years has been conducted in completely uncontested airspace.
UN special session live now
So they don’t have DAS? 300 knots is still faster than rotary. Jesus, stop googling crap man.
Whatever, they are less agile than a modern helicopter, and a much louder target than a drone. Why would you deploy an A10 if you had the latter two options?
Yes there are circumstances when A10s may be fine, mostly if you are fighting against a 3rd world country.
In the 1970’s…
same as the Apache.
Well done guys, having a fight over who's correct about the continuing relevance of the A10 is definitely an appropriate and mature response to current events. 🤦
At some point you have to wonder if the Russian public don’t wonder if there is something fishy about the narrative they’ve been sold?
I played this when I was about 10, AMA 😉
They are from a bygone era, when anti aircraft missiles were few and far between, and the most effective way of taking out tanks was mounting a gatling gun in a plane and shooting them full of depleted uranium rounds from the sky.
That's not the weapon the A10 use against tanks, they use two variants of the Maverick (E/O and IR). The A10 is designed to be used under an air supremacy model, i.e. when you have complete control of the airspace so they can stooge around under FAC looking for targets. They're an effective weapon, it's just that the USAF would like that role to be done by the army from their budget, not from the USAF budget. Hence the reason they're constantly trying to rid themselves of them, and the propaganda about how ineffectual they are.
Well done guys, having a fight over who’s correct about the continuing relevance of the A10 is definitely an appropriate and mature response to current events.
Hey no one is fighting here, just debating, which is pretty natural considering the circumstances. It's only natural to consider, is it not?
Well done guys, having a fight over who’s correct about the continuing relevance of the A10 is definitely an appropriate and mature response to current events.
These threads always end up descending into weapons porn. We now appear to have added some Top Trumps element into that. Well done to everyone involved 🙄
You'd deploy airframes depending on what effect you wanted to have and what was best suited to the environment. Payload volume, payload type, endurance, sensors are all other factors to consider.
From a ground perspective, you take whatever turns up and checks-in.
Well done guys, having a fight over who’s correct about the continuing relevance of the A10 is definitely an appropriate and mature response to current events
Given that this is having zero impact on anything outside of the blather of a cycling forum, people may as well crap on about airplanes.
I find it quite sad that a thread to discuss the political and military plight of the people of Ukraine is descending into an argument about the best machinery to kill people.
For gods sake have some thought and sensitivity.
If we’re talking about cluster bombs and Thermobaric weapons contravening the Geneva Convention, then I’m pretty sure an unprovoked Nuclear attack on a UN/NATO/EU ally (even if not a member state) would warrant a retaliation…
Neither Cluster Bombs not Thermobaric Weapons are specifically against the Geneva Conventions. The Geneva Conventions essentially cover attacks on / behaviour towards types of people and buildings not methods of warfare; the protected people are all non-combatants (e.g. civilians, prisoners of war, injured parties, medical staff, journalists). Rules of War are defined in the Hague Conventions along with specific other international treaties.
Neither Russia or Ukraine are signatories to the Cluster Bomb convention.
These threads always end up descending into weapons porn
Yup, some people are enjoying all this wayyyyyy too much. Gross.
Maybe a separate war porn thread is needed.
At some point you have to wonder if the Russian public don’t wonder if there is something fishy about the narrative they’ve been sold?
They may ask why the EU, and the West in general, is sanctioning them but nobody sanctioned the US or UK for invading Iraq or bombing Libya.
@nickc, but you forget some people are in tears, so talking about weapon systems is likely to upset them further.
More appropriate response than getting turned on like some of you though eh.
I'm not turned on, it's work. But then some of you are turned on by being utter grief whores, so you know, you do you.
At some point you have to wonder if the Russian public don’t wonder if there is something fishy about the narrative they’ve been sold?
You would think so, especially if the Ukrainian estimate of Russian soldier deaths is even kind of close (4500 I think).
We might be overestimating the amount of contact soldiers are having with their families. Some suggestions on social media that captured Russians were allowed to ring their families, who didn't even know where they were, let alone that they were fighting and many had died. Surely it can't go on forever though.
Yup, some people are enjoying all this wayyyyyy too much. Gross.
Some people are interested in this stuff, there's no reason to be pejorative. Both the Swedish govt and the Swiss govt had ended their decades long neutrality, and the Germans have ripped up their pacification policy; will you be aiming a swift twitter in their direction telling them how distasteful you find their discussions of sending weaponry to a war zone?
The A-10 has a weird ability to derail any discussion it appears in, turning any such conversation into a debate about the merits and failings of the A-10. How about we for once break the cycle and keep this thread on topic?
@bikesandboats, I can't imagine the Russians are big on communication of accurate orders down to the lowest level so I find a lot of the claims about bods not having a scoobies pretty plausible.
Especially if the majority of that initial invading force are conscripts, people who are mostly there because they have to be, not because they want to be (by 'there' I mean in service, not Ukraine).
The removal/ban of PED's and compartmentalised orders to ensure operational security makes sense, we do it, but to a more reasonable degree.
More appropriate response than getting turned on like some of you though eh.
Speak for youself, I personally find it aweful. As per my previous post, it's only natural to discuss these things in times like this, why shouldn't different weapons and strategies be discussed in a thread about one country invading another?
Well done guys, having a fight over who’s correct about the continuing relevance of the A10 is definitely an appropriate and mature response to current events.
Okay, fair enough. Maybe it's in poor taste, these are real people being killed by nasty machines of war. I don't think there was a fight though, just a couple of us chatting shit amongst ourselves and the incoherent ramblings of a couple of middle-aged Mountain Bikers online doesn't change anything, certainly not each others opinions.
Equally fairly though, few, if any of us are experts in International Politics or the Politics of Eastern Europe, but we all gabber away the same, exchanging theories and protentional outcomes etc. It's just chat, idle chat for the sake of idle chat. If you want the news and expert opinion, there are better outlets.
You would think so, especially if the Ukrainian estimate of Russian soldier deaths is even kind of close (4500 I think).
Why would you believe a Twitter account claiming to be accurately keeping a tally?
same as the Apache.
Which is also heavy, slow and lumbering, and not something I would want to be sat in in a contested airspace, especially one as relatively featureless with few places to hide as the predominantly flat plains of the Ukrainian topography...
This is guerilla warfare, hence Putin calling on the Chechens and any other nasties he can get his hands on. Nasty men with very underhand tactics going door to door with assault rifles might not seem as scary as a handful of tanks in your back yard, but it would be a lot more effective!
You would think so, especially if the Ukrainian estimate of Russian soldier deaths is even kind of close (4500 I think).
They're saying 5300 now... The truth is, I am sure, somewhere between Ukraines claims and Russias near staunch denial to admit they have had any casualties, but even then, Russian troops are falling at somewhere between 5 and 10 to 1 compared to Ukrainians right now!
Putin may have a stranglehold on the media, and have captured Russian hearts for 2 decades now, but when people ask questions (and they inevitably will) they will start to see him for the tin pot dictator he really is. Hitler couldn't hold off indefinitely with Nazi propaganda, and that was in an era when information was much less readily available and took a lot longer to come by too.
I will bring the conversation back (AGAIN!) to my point about the Russian Revolution in 1917... It's amazing how quickly things can turn sour when the public find out the extent their leaders have been feeding them continual misinformation whilst perpetuating their poverty so that the elite can live in pure luxury and play their war games as and when they see fit too. 150m might seem a large number of people to "wake up" given that they have lived under Putin's reign for over 2 decades now, but they would turn against him far quicker than it has taken for their trust in him to be built.
The A-10 has a weird ability to derail any discussion it appears in, turning any such conversation into a debate about the merits and failings of the A-10. How about we for once break the cycle and keep this thread on topic?
It's like the MK1 VW Golf GTI... useless today, but if you slag it off, the fanbois will bing you some hurt.
It’s like the MK1 VW Golf GTI… useless today,
Take that back right now! They might be horribly unreliable, unsafe, inefficient, noisy, polluting and slow compared to modern cars, but that doesn't make them useless... okay, maybe you're right.
You could have your military hardware one-upmanship contest on a separate thread.
Same with the "who's mentally affected by this conflict" thread, but here we all are
https://twitter.com/asluhn/status/1498297874836336644?s=21
I think soldiers will be learning quickly that they are not there as liberators. Without a quick victory, how long can Putin keep deployed soldiers believing the lies they were told before they were sent in?
UN Security Council winding up that Russia's succession to USSR is possibly not correct, therefore not binding and that Russia should perhaps be removed.
Live:
Why would you believe a Twitter account claiming to be accurately keeping a tally?
The claim was made by Ukraine's Defence Ministry, which I imagine would try to keep a tally and also have their ear to the ground. As I said though, who knows how accurate that number really is.
Edit to say the claim is "approximately 5300"
Or maybe your posts about derailing the thread are derailing it further and you could go and start a thread about derailing threads.
Gold.
Same with the “who’s mentally affected by this conflict” thread, but here we all are
that Russia should perhaps be removed
Really?!? Wow.
Some of the comments on here about military equipment would be more appropriate on the Christmas Airfix thread.
For a bit of balance and perspective, if you find yourself watching too much combat footage, go and have a watch of the movie "Come and See", set in that region of the world in the 1940's
It's on YouTube.
ANY aircraft, no matter what speed is susceptible to shoulder launched IR missiles.
Military Jets pick up the launch of these missiles and fire off flares to try and mislead the IR seeker head.
The A10 is designed to take a direct hit and survive a missile. The pilot also sits in a Titanium tub to protect from small arms.
Just because it's hot doesn't mean the seeker head sees it as hot (ok so I left aircraft survivability and IR signatures 20years ago but.)
Seems that Russia declared victory a couple of days ago, then changed it's mind.
https://twitter.com/Tom_deWaal/status/1498310064117059585
https://twitter.com/Tom_deWaal/status/1498310104462020616
@kelvin, I guess those that might now be cottoning on to their deployment is not a good thing have pretty limited options, the Russians have a pretty old school attitude to 'cowardice'. I imagine if they were to surrender, going home isn't something they'd want to do unless there was a significant regime change either.
Oops.... Russian press prematurely uploaded a self congratulatory victory piece. Then swiftly deleted it, though not before some other outlets ran with it and the web archive was published. Includes the quote:
"Now this problem is gone - Ukraine has returned to Russia."
Another insight into the absolute tosh the Russian people are being fed.
https://twitter.com/alistaircoleman/status/1498205169514856448
Edit: How do you embed tweets?
Edit2: beaten too it by @thols. Bloke hangs his head in shame at his shite internet game....
have pretty limited options
They won't surrender, obviously, but Russia will need committed people in this situation.
A longer slower campaign, where the Ukrainian people are prepared to tell soldiers to their faces day by day that they are not welcome, could seriously weaken the motivation and application of deployed soldiers who have been told they are liberating their allies.
@bikeandboats - this is an info/propaganda war. The Ukrainian government has every incentive to vastly inflate its reported success in the war.
Most, if not all western military aircraft in service have a defensive aids suite, even the Russians have them. How effective they are is a different issue.
ANY aircraft, no matter what speed is susceptible to shoulder launched IR missiles.
Military Jets pick up the launch of these missiles and fire off flares to try and mislead the IR seeker head.
The A10 is designed to take a direct hit and survive a missile. The pilot also sits in a Titanium tub to protect from small arms.
Even this UN translator is struggling with translating this BS
I shall not mention Golfs, or A10's any more, you have my word. 🙂
@kelvin I meant on an individual level, they're in pretty deep now. But yeah, would be interesting to be inside the orders group of the commanders on the ground, I imagine there's some knowing looks going around, people saying something out loud is a different matter.
If the numbers of casualties and logistics issues are all accurate it would be natural that the commanders would be asking some seeking questions of Moscow on options. Could very well be being told 'suck it up and get it done' but in a more statesman like manner.
Even this UN translator is struggling with translating this BS
At what point does the house chair or next few speakers call it all out as lies?
@bikeandboats – this is an info/propaganda war. The Ukrainian government has every incentive to vastly inflate its reported success in the war.
Agreed - but if the number is even close to the truth then it's pretty devastating to Putin.
I guess those that might now be cottoning on to their deployment is not a good thing have pretty limited options, the Russians have a pretty old school attitude to ‘cowardice’.
Must be a lot feeling that way, imagine rolling towards Kyiv and passing the burnt out Russian tanks and troop carriers. Must be devastating for their morale.
I wonder what the exit strategy for Putin could be?
I'm genuienely not sure there is a particularly good one. I get the impression he thought they'd roll into the Ukraine and we welcomed as the liberators. Thats certainly not whats happened.
Germany has suddenly chucked 100m euros at its defence budget too. I'm guessing they'll almost be certainly at an exit plan for dependency on gas as well.
Hes going to bankrupt Russia very very quickly, if the peasants panic and start a run on the banks theres going to questions asked.
He can't back down as that'd make him look weak. The body bags going back to Russia are not going to be a good look if this is protracted. Maybe he can claim anything East of the Dnieper River as Russia controlled separate state but I can't see that lasting too long.
Worryingly it feels like its all in, or he's deposed - and I think he's got such a ring of yes men around him the levels of protection from the neh-sayers will be too big a buffer.
The Ukrainian government has every incentive to vastly inflate its reported success in the war.
Then pay them as much attention as you think they deserve. Mostly this thread is just people sharing (or oversharing, take you pick) information that they're collecting from sources and reposting and blathering about it here. It's up to all of us to sift the claims and counter claims accordingly, and make your own mind up
I'm not here to score points or win on the internet, or virtue signal about how distasteful one aspect of war is over another.
@bikesandboats absolutely, which is a good thing for the Ukrainians. anything that weakens morale is a good thing for them. But then thats leads to the question of what the Russian command element will do to try and maintain/improve theirs. And as they aren't fully on board with the various rules of war, your guess is as good as mine.
The rumoured use of thermobaric/cluster munitions to flip it back around and score some 'wins' could one one such move.
I get the impression he thought they’d roll into the Ukraine and we welcomed as the liberators.
A commentator on radio this morning made the point he has basically chosen 'bets' before this that were totally winnable. Small countries, lightly armed countries, massive and overwhelming bombing etc etc. All 'hidden' from the press and from European and USA eyes.
He has applied the same formula to the biggest country by area in Europe, with 46m residents, and a well trained and half decently equipped army and reservists (with combat experience since 2014), with a border to half of Europe. A big bet to have made - and one he may not win.
Hes going to bankrupt Russia very very quickly, if the peasants panic and start a run on the banks theres going to questions asked.
The Ruble tanking is more or less a meme in Russia. In 2014 when it lost 50% of it's value because of the Crimea invasion there was one that said "Yes, thanks for reminding us that we still live in Russia" I don't think a run on it is going to start the mass panic that many in the west seem to think
It would be fascinating to know who in that chain of command knew this was his plan. As in where/what level/rank did the information stop?
But I also don't think that it is a country where if you're a service chief, you get to tell the commander-in-chief his idea is bloody terrible and still be employed/alive.
A commentator on radio this morning made the point he has basically chosen ‘bets’ before this that were totally winnable. Small countries, lightly armed countries, massive and overwhelming bombing etc etc. All ‘hidden’ from the press and from European and USA eyes.
He has applied the same formula to the biggest country by area in Europe, with 46m residents, and a well trained and half decently equipped army and reservists (with combat experience since 2014), with a border to half of Europe. A big bet to have made – and one he may not win.
I agree that few below would be allowed or dare to speak out.
I agree that many in the Russian Military higher echelon's must know what is happening - but are under threat of life to enact the orders given.
There (it seems) a good few in the ranks had no idea this was happening. And are now increasingly facing an irate people in Ukraine.