Maybe Elon got slapped wrists for being a huge defence contractor with the US and having talks with Putin. allegedly
I would hope that he got a lot more than his wrists slapped. I read that Ukraine forces had been left high and dry during an offensive by terminals being turned off. That gets close to treason in my book 🙁
Yep Elon's behaviour recently has indicated that he's thrown his lot in with the Russians
That gets close to treason in my book 🙁
It's a dick move for sure and he's a weapons grade bellend but it's hardly 'treason'. He's not Ukrainian. He's been playing both sides in this war. Whilst Starlink has undoubtedly been a huge help to Ukraine, his naive 'peace plan' for Putin's war has made him a poster boy for Russian nationalists and given them a propaganda gift. Elon being Elon, self publicising and trying to be edgy and relevant.
Maybe someone has told him very firmly that it's not just Russia that has tall buildings with dodgy windows.
gobuchul
Free MemberIt took them 30 years to finish that build. I would suspect that it is an absolute heap of junk.
Not enough brackets
Not enough brackets
ok, that's worthy of a s****
The military was being funded from the Patreon on the YouTube build channel.
gobuchul
Free MemberIt took them 30 years to finish that build. I would suspect that it is an absolute heap of junk.
Not enough brackets
Posted 3 hours ago
REPLY | REPORT
leffeboy
Full Member
Not enough brackets
ok, that’s worthy of a s****
Someone needs to explain this one to me! 🙂
I don’t get it either 🤪🤣
It took me a minute, but it is good.
It's a reference to a certain youtube series, that is popular in these parts, which has been going on for an inordinately long time, and involves some fabrication.
I've been watching TraumaZone on BBC iPlayer, a 7 hour documentary by Adam Curtis about the fall of the Soviet Union and subsequently of Russia. Some random observations:
1. I hadn't really understood the mind-numbing extent of corruptoion and looting that went on, and the breakdown it led to. It's astonishing that they managed to get 2 tanks together, never mind an army.
2. Chechnya was supposed to be a way to save Yeltsin and was also used by ultra-nationalists and various gangsters to increase their power.
3. As Russia was invading Chechnya, the Queen was visiting Moscow.
4. Ukraine was as corrupt as anywhere else.
So it seems that maybe Putin thought that the MO from Chechnya (show up with a load of tanks and blow everything to bits) would work in Ukraine, and that nobody in the west would much care, just as they hadn't cared about Chechnya. Hasn't quite worked out like that.
It’s a reference to a certain youtube series, that is popular in these parts, which has been going on for an inordinately long time, and involves some fabrication.
To be fair to Binky, it isn't a heap of junk but it might just take 30 years and there are a LOT of brackets
. I hadn’t really understood the mind-numbing extent of corruptoion
I worked for a private aviation company- all the jets we managed were owned by Russians. I mentioned how odd this seemed to go from a communist regime to multi millionaires/ billionaires buying luxury jets to our maintenance director. He had spent several years working in one of the former soviet republics and gave me a lesson in the corruption, bribery, intimidation that went on.
and that nobody in the west would much care, just as they hadn’t cared about Chechnya. Hasn’t quite worked out like that.
See also Georgia.
To be fair, we hadn't cared about those places, but I guess the difference is that Ukraine had gone through a lot of pain and turmoil to align itself with Europe
To be fair to Binky, it isn’t a heap of junk but it might just take 30 years and there are a LOT of brackets
Due to be finished (or the build at least) early next year as they only have the instruments and a small bit of trimming to do (as long as Nick doesn't get any more ideas) then it's back to Escargo!
as they only have the instruments...
Which they are redesigning from scratch as far as I understand rather than using existing units. Breath not being held
There is a thread for Binky, this one is Ukraine and it's a bit more serious.
Russian Iranian drones hitting Kiev this morning. Differing reports on numbers making it through aa defence systems.
In any video footage they dont appear that fast. I wonder if the ukr could shoot them down en route witj jet fighters. They are big delta winged things. Maybe having constant air cover over Kiev isnt viable, or they would rather have fast jets to aid frontline troops
Maybe time for some local actor to take out the Iranian drone factory at source.
given kyiv must be stacked with AA there must have been a lot of drones
I’ve been watching TraumaZone on BBC iPlayer,
It is very interesting and put together well. Also somewhere in iPlayer is a programme with Gorbachov... a long watch but also very interesting too.
Maybe time for some local actor to take out the Iranian drone factory at source.
The only player in the region who could do that is Israel and they won’t because they won’t upset the Russians
given kyiv must be stacked with AA there must have been a lot of drones
They are supposed to be quite difficult for modern air defence which has become optimised towards jets and helicopters.
They are very low flying and have relatively small radar profiles plus minimal heat signatures.
Best weapons are the WWII AA guns as opposed to modern missiles. Whilst they have some AA guns I dont think that many.
Is this all Pootin has left to launch long range attacks on Kiev with? (with the exception of nuclear).
Thise drones look pretty small to me. I've flown deltas at around 60" span and they'd be a bugger to hit.
Bit bigger than 60", 4mtr x 3mtr roughly. But plod along at 110mph.
From wiki appear to be pre programed dumb bombs.
One problem is Russia has allegedly ordered 2500.
Low radar X section and low thermal emissions make targetting acquisition hard.
Sound like the need for a high level ec3 awacs platform and a half dozen A10s. Plus WW2 listening stations, and a map room with a few plotters with snooker cues and a box of quality street green triangles, thats a joke btw
The Iranian Shahed 136 drones sound as if they are quite noisy, I wonder if an acoustic homing device would be feasible? Or, as above, listening stations and AA shrapel rounds. Fighter jets may be too valuable and not ideal; Ukraine apparently lost a MiG-29 that flew through the debris after destroying one.
If you want a glimpse into the modern corrupt Russain life watch the film Leviathan
I saw a headline from some Israeli news site this morning that suggested that Israel may be feeling less cautious about upsetting Russia now that Russia is using Iranian hardware against Ukraine. That might be more the opinion of the site than the Israeli government though, I didn't read the article.
Sound like the need for a high level ec3 awacs platform and a half dozen A10s
Supposed to be hard to pick them out against the ground clutter. I am sure the various planes hanging around in Poland etc (like this one) will be sending info across but the range might make it harder.
Dunno about A-10s but might be a good fit for attack helicopters.
Going to be lots of R&D going into counter options. Did see an article about some of the stuff the US army is trialling. Special rifle sights (think do the speed estimation and then provide an offset) and proximity fused rounds for the 40mm grenade launchers plus anti drone drones.
One of the accounts from the attack this morning could easily be mistaken for a V-1 attack on London. The sound of the droning motor before it cuts out and then a couple of seconds later the explosion.
With the same use profile as well: No real strategic value, just terror. The comparison with the V1 is maybe lost on the man that wanted to de-nazify Ukraine.
Wonder if we still have any barrage balloons knocking about.
At the risk of godwinning, the parallel between these drones and the V weapons is way stronger than the obvious (ie, being horrible unmanned single use terror weapons with no tactical and fairly little strategic value, that ultimately won't be very good at terrorising either). It's also grown out of the same strategic situation- the conventional army isn't succeeding, and so the leader is turning to novelties and vanity projects and strategic nothings just so he can at least blow some things up in kiev, while ukraine continues to destroy his ability to make useful war.
But it seems almost inevitable that this will have the exact same effect it did then- it'll distract critical effort and resources away from the failing conventional efforts that desperately need it. It's absolute madness to be spending (probably) hundreds of millions of dollars on single use flying bombs, when you can't feed and clothe your troops. In this case, that effect'll be reduced since it's going to be mostly a financial impact- they're not wasting their own factories and raw materials- but that'll still cut.
Irony of course is that they could still be quite effective simply because they're a bit shit- the anti air countermeasures are for sophisticated weapons, so it's a bit like having an anti-tank missile and being charged by cavalry. And the economics at least are better than the missile madness we saw recently of firing off expensive irreplacable kit just to cause some bangs. But it's no way to run a railroad.
OTOH it does strike me that ukraine could be in a position to make better use of similar weapons- in much the same way as the sophisticated missiles have threatened Russia's shitty logistics. And for much the same reasons- they shouldn't be effective in a modern war, but the russian logistical element isn't what we'd call modern.
Yes and no.
According to wiki they are really cheap, £20k a pop. So launching a few hundred isn't really that much and they might be contra'd for other goods.
As for the effects, the west will probably supply something that can knock them out the sky, if such a thing exists.
Or ukr will be forced to redeploy some AA back to Kiev that is protecting frontline troops currently.
The ukr af seems to be able to conjure up solutions really quickly and in house so they may well be working on this already.
I'd have thought a large number of 20mm equipped technicals would be a low cost option for countering Shaheds
@stm, they're cheap individually but they're flying huge numbers- and have to,to have even a bump of effectiveness. And the logistics impact won't be trivial either- easy enough for, frinstance, us but not for a military that's basically run out of trucks. Unless tehy can deal with that through nonmilitary logistics...
"It was an accident"
I saw a headline from some Israeli news site this morning that suggested that Israel may be feeling less cautious about upsetting Russia now that Russia is using Iranian hardware against Ukraine. That might be more the opinion of the site than the Israeli government though, I didn’t read the article
Yep I saw this on Twitter, I wasn't able to find it backed up by any news sites tho
I’d have thought a large number of 20mm equipped technicals would be a low cost option for countering Shaheds
They're difficult things to deal with. You can see Ukrainians trying to shoot them down with automatic rifles in their cities; those rounds will travel through a light polystyrene/plastic structure causing minimal damage and back to earth with a helping of gravity within city limits. Less devastating than a warhead though.
During WW2 fighter pilots could catch V1 flying bombs and tip their wings to steer them away. Drones will have guidance systems so this wouldn't work and there's the possibility of a remote detonation taking an aircraft out.
Electronics seem to be the answer to disrupt drone systems, possibly deployed from a helicopter or light aircraft for mobility and speed, but I don't know that decent systems exist
Is that ammo going off in that tower block plane crash?
Electronics seem to be the answer to disrupt drone systems, possibly deployed from a helicopter or light aircraft for mobility and speed, but I don’t know that decent systems exist
Modernised AA would probably be fairly safe with airburst proximity shells eg Centurion C-RAM seems to have been used with minimal issues and thats with just shells which burn out vs proximity.
It runs into the problem of how many you need though. They can only protect a relatively small area so fine for a military base but not when the attackers are just trying to terrorise civilians with random strikes on an entire city.
Interesting article from a former Russia diplomat.
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/russian-federation/sources-russia-misconduct-boris-bondarev
Over the course of the war, Western leaders have become acutely aware of Russia’s military’s failings. But they do not seem to grasp that Russian foreign policy is equally broken. Multiple European officials have spoken about the need for a negotiated settlement to the war in Ukraine, and if their countries grow tired of bearing the energy and economic costs associated with supporting Kyiv, they could press Ukraine to make a deal. The West may be especially tempted to push Kyiv to sue for peace if Putin aggressively threatens to use nuclear weapons.
But as long as Putin is in power, Ukraine will have no one in Moscow with whom to genuinely negotiate. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will not be a reliable interlocutor, nor will any other Russian government apparatus. They are all extensions of Putin and his imperial agenda. Any cease-fire will just give Russia a chance to rearm before attacking again.
It runs into the problem of how many you need though. They can only protect a relatively small area so fine for a military base...snip
Agreed. AA systems are relatively thin on the ground and are difficult to deploy in the face of a random terror attack with a war raging as well. I'd like to think that the fighting will be over very soon.
I don't know about the capability of modern radar against small UAVs, but I can see a case for a return to a rural observer corps, telephones and a QRF in light aircraft/helicopters that can deploy electronics to an area.
This war has turned the need for ridiculously expensive and complex aircraft and ships on its head, but that won't always be the case
