By Batko Milacic for the Saker Blog
In early July, right after Lisichansk was won by the Russian forces, the Russian military and its allies from DNR and LNR, put on display there a large number of captured Ukrainian military equipment. Rows of tanks, rocket launchers and armored vehicles stretched for hundreds of meters. All this was seized by the Russians in just one sector of the front alone. Let’s be honest, most of the Western military assistance to Ukraine is quickly destroyed or falls into the hands of the Russian military, without having any significant impact on the course of the war, and successful exceptions like the US-supplied M142 HIMARS only confirm the rule. Why is this happening?
The whole thing might be pretty simple: while receiving Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Javelin anti-tank systems and French Ceasar self-propelled guns, the Ukrainian army must quickly switch to a single NATO standard, strengthen its combat capability in the wish to stop Russian army. On closer examination, however, it turns out that everything is way more complicated. The unified NATO standard is mainly associated with the calibers of ammunition, and not with the unification of equipment. It is impossible to switch from the German “Leopard” to the French “Leclerc” without a long and serious preparation. A good MRLS operator, used to the Soviet-designed Grad, will not be able to handle America’s famous HIMARS. Each weapon system handed over to Kyiv also requires special retraining of Ukrainian military specialists. And this is just the tip of the iceberg though.
The delivery of one or two self-propelled guns with perfectly trained crews may look good in propaganda videos, but it turns into a logistical nightmare for the Ukrainian military suppliers. Full-fledged confrontation with the enemy requires units trained and equipped with unified weapons, not a battery recruited from different European and Soviet models using five different types of shells. All of them need different parts and accessories. Moreover, gun and tank crews will most likely be unable to replace each other. They are trained to fight with different models of high-tech weapons systems.
This is actually why the Eastern European countries are delivering to Ukraine what is left of their old Warsaw Pact-era stockpiles, not the latest European models. After all, mass-scale training of specialists takes months and calls for multiple instructors. The Kyiv authorities are having problems even with specialists trained in the use of Soviet-era technology. For example, on July 20, numerous telegram channels posted a video with an elderly Ukrainian tank captain, a reservist, who, after being taken prisoner by the Russians, said that all the junior officers of his brigade were over 45 years old, most of whom had received military training in Soviet universities (in the USSR, reserve officers were trained in civilian universities).
Thus, during the five months of the war in Ukraine, units fully equipped with unified weapons and trained personnel never appeared. All technologically advanced weapons are being spread across the frontline complicating the work of the Ukrainian military headquarters and turning the units receiving them into prime targets for Russian troops. The M142 HIMARS has been no exception. Due to their high efficiency and range, they have been able to inflict losses to the Russian army, damaging a strategically important bridge and destroying several military depots. However, these units immediately became hunted ones, and before very long the Russian military command provided evidence of the destruction of some such systems. In fact, the Western-trained crews of these multiple rocket launchers are now like kamikazes, whose mission is to inflict as much damage as possible before they die. But is the Ukrainian military really willing to play this role?
Right now, the correct use of Western assistance should be the topmost priority for the Ukrainian command. That is the formation of units equipped with single-standard weapons and thorough training of their personnel. Only then will the latest Western weaponry be able to stop the unhurried but consistent Russian advance.
This, however, is hardly possible amid continuous Russian missile strikes. Besides, training hundreds of military specialists fast is almost mission impossible. Guided by political considerations, President Zelensky is forcing his military to move the advanced Western-supplied weapons to the frontlines as quickly as possible with no regard for the supply of ammunition and components for these systems. As a result, instead of bringing victory to Kyiv, these weapons either burn down in Donetsk woodlands or end up as exhibits at Russian displays of captured Ukrainian weapons. Meanwhile, middle-aged Ukrainian soldiers – the last Soviet generation – are fighting on old Polish T-72, which they learned to drive 35 years ago. We see the results of such a policy in Ukraine, Kiev has less and less army and more and more losses on the front every day.
Hard times are coming for HIMARS
In war, there are major battles and minor battles. Main and secondary, crucial and those that are not. There are also skirmishes that are sometimes as significant as some battles. One two-day “event“ will certainly affect the further course of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine. Ever since they received the American HIMARS multi-barrel rocket launchers, the Ukrainian generals have become emboldened. On July 20, their subordinates fired two platoons of six rockets at the Antonovsky bridge across the Dnieper in the Kherson region. There are 11 holes left on the bridge.
Some of the holes in the bridge
This happened amid announcements from Kiev that a Ukrainian “counter-offensive in the south” would follow. Exactly to the Kherson region. With the aim of regaining control over it and defeating and destroying the Russian army on the right bank of the Dnieper. However, what followed was what neither the military leadership in Kiev nor the numerous American, British, German and Polish officers who were fighting invisibly on the Ukrainian side had expected.
A battery of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems arrived from Crimea in the Kherson region – with the task of defending the Antonovsky Bridge. On July 21, the Ukrainians tried two new platoons. Again with long-range rockets that American satellites and Avax guide to the target. But the S-400 intercepted and shot down all 12 missiles launched.
The Antonovsky bridge is strategically important for both sides
Thus, the S-400 reduced to zero the American myth that the missiles of their multi-barrel rocket launchers are uncatchable (undefeatable). This is a hint that more and more new S-400 systems will arrive in Ukraine in the coming days. To close the sky over strategic objects under Russian control and over ongoing operations. At the same time, the Russian army began serious preparations for the complete destruction of HIMARS.
Dam right ! S400 system is the best in the world! anything throw at it get destroyed!
S500 is even better.
Just what the satanic western mic likes: destruction of Warsaw Pact weapons, as well as (older) western weapons, to be replaced by new hato weapons, and…well no real replacement of ukraine’s weapons like what happened in poland, because ukraine can’t afford them. Oh well. And not forgetting the devaluation of the grivna by 25% last Thurs am, with more to come, after being kept artificially high by the west.
So, as more and more territory is captured by the Allies, ukraine’s GDP will continue to shrink, as it loses income producing areas, so which will fail first, the economy, or its military?
Where to shrink – it’s allready been at the level of Somalia?
So wealthy country, on a wonderfull place, with the educated and diligent population – how did they manage to become an african failled state?
“– how did they manage to become an african failled state?”
American control is all it took.
It appears the Yanks are determined to demonstrate the superiority of Russian weapons…
Bringing the HIMARS to the battle is like bringing a knife to a gunfight.
The HIMARS are decent, but has Nato forgotten what is waiting for them in the Russian arsenal? Wow!
Addtionally saying that the main russian weapons are not massively (or never) used in Ukraine. The western militaries must keep this in mind.
Imagine what would happen to Lockheed Martin stock when F-35’s get hit with the S-400.
Jets with hundreds of improvements to be made. Not considering also that in this case the ultimate russian jets would take off.
We can not forget as well the S-500/550 to be implemented soon. Game Over!!!!!
Most Generals think tactics
Good Generals think strategy
Great Generals think logistics
I saw the photo of the damaged bridge. Is that the worst damage the Himars is capable of? It looks as though a normal road work crew would do more damage when preparing the bridge for routine maintenance repairs! The hole was smaller than the vehicle parked next to it.
Looks to me the Himar rockets failed to detonate and the missiles punched thru the bridge roadway.
About 50% of HIMARS munitions targetting Krasny Luch filed to explode on impact. That is about the same percentage of Tomahawk cruise missiles that hit their target. Maybe the US MIC has hit on a cheap way to double their profits. It works when targetting essentially defenseless oponents but is a big no-no when facing peer or better opponents.
https://t.me/intelslava/33863?single
I would be 100% surprised if any of the HIMARS have been located. During the Gulf War only 12 of 48 Iraqi mobile launchers were destroyed. This was after months of searching by 100s of aircraft with complete air superiority. SCUD launchers are bigger and less mobile than HIMARS and Ukraine makes hiding much easier.
The one video I saw on the new atlas was most likely a container transport.
Believe what you like.
Butt sore don’t count.
At least 1 of the 4 HIMARS was already sold to the RF. Ditto for all sorts of other NATOland weapons.
10% for the big guy
The Gulf War was 20 years ago!
All artillery/missile location technologies have improved a 100-fold since then, especially the Russians!
New Atlas video showed the “container” destroyed, just happened to have the exact same dimensions as a HIMARS unit!!! ( which unit is just a missile container on a truck anyway! Nothing magical or unique about the HIMARS shape!)
It’s a fair point. I would ask: what are the differences between now and then, and between Iraq and Ukraine? A couple of factors come to mind (am sure others can think of more): first is to what extent were drones being used and in what numbers and types? Second how have the technologies evolved (i.e., counter battery and teh to find artillery).? Third, does the RF have certain kinds of intelligence capabilities in Ukraine (including HUMINT) that they Americans did not have in Iraq that would provide an advantage.
My particular opinion is that the Russians have people infiltrated in Ukraine, sending info/photos/coordinates about the ukrainian steps. One person well placed inside the ukrainian army, can make an extrardinary damage to it.
You nailed it Luiz.. Russian intel is superb because Ukraine is infested with Russian sympathisers from top of command down to trench fighters and including civilian “spotters”. Himars is a very good system, but not substantially better than Russian/Ukrainian equivalents. However, the addition of precise US satellite(target) data is an elevated logistical threat. Ukraine can see and hit Russian assets further back from front line. Tactics were forced to change because of the danger to bridges, ammo dumps and command centres .. however that’s nothing new in a well organised military, and certainly not a outcome changer.
The underlying assumption here is that USA/NATO is the gold standard. A false assumption borne out of “we are exceptional” thinking.
This proves that the US and NATO don’t know what war they are fighting.
They also don’t know how Russia fights, what weapons Russia uses and what tactics are available to the Russian General Staff.
All the US knows is how it fights against guys in sandals with rifles and RPGs.
Russia has used 8-10% of its potential. The Ukies have expended everything they had, everything the US and NATO has shipped to them, and now, even US and NATO artillery crews are getting destroyed.
The only thing the Ukies are doing well is hiding behind civilians. If they stop doing that, all their cities will be overrun in a few days each.
The US and NATO don’t know how to fight the Russians.They also don’t have the right weapons to do it.
“All the US knows is how it fights against guys in sandals with rifles and RPGs.”
And we saw how that went in Afghanistan.
You know the defeats started with the Korean War.
Nobody mentions anything about the Korean War for a reason. Total blood and guts defeat and savage at that. Saved by the the American threat of nuke war if the 38th line did not hold.
Ask around, America, Canada,Britain,Australia and New Zealand armed forces clubs and associations. I’ve looked and hear nothing.
The above article is well written and factual.
There is a great military book on the Korean War, This Kind of War, by T.R. Fehrenbach. It documented all the tactical, logistical and strategic operational mistakes.
He warned against what was then ’63 forming into the bigger disaster Vietnam.
It was like no one but me read it in those days. It’s a great military history. Read it.
Try the “Coldest Winter” to go along with it, taken from the mouths of those that fought there fighting in summer uniforms at 40 below all the way back up from the Chinese border, and they never saw any winter uniforms until the following year.
Korea was not a defeat. The US, Australia etc committed to repulse the attack on the South by the North. They succeeded. Then the CCP came in to the war and they advanced, then were pushed back. Some to and fro until armistice.
End result the Norks failed in their attempt to take the South and 70 years later the Norks are living in poverty and the South is far better off.
You don’t have to destroy your attackers to win, you just have to stop them.
Today however the West is but a shadow of what it was then. Morally, financially and militarily.
Lol really the NATO group were driven clear back from the Chinese border to beyond the 38th, and we lost thousands on that retreat. It showed the same thing there that has always plagued our military leadership and that was the lack of any military leadership, we were getting our ass kicked big time until they put Ridgeway into command old Joe said there were no signs of any Chinese involvement when two Chinese armies totaling 250,000 each were all ready to spring upon them showing just what a lack of military intelligence there really was.
Most of what you read about Korea like the rest of our failing are little more that propaganda, but the people still suck it up.
Yeah, I visit only a few sites regularly. New low for thie commenters here -cheering the failure of “the west” to save the northern half of Korea. A 70 year nightmare for its people is the achievement to be proud of.
@Abelard, @Neal
Depends on your view. You’re two typical US American/western guys who believe that your ways of life should be imposed on everyone else. It is not.
The fact remains that the combined might of the West was beaten by a peasant Chinese army in Korea.
If your assumptions about the ‘Best military in the history of the Galaxy’ are true, the US should’ve wiped the floor with the Chinese, but they couldn’t.
And you guys are spitting narratives here to hide one of the most embarrassing defeats of the US military.
The yankees only avoided defeat in Korea by using biological weapons. Already. A war crime. The yankees saving the Koreans? Give me a break. They massively destroyed the cities commiting massive war crimes.
I think you completely misread what Abelard stated. He is entirely correct to state that the Korean War was a nightmare for the North. North Korea was totally destroyed. For What?
All things considered, North Korea has done a good job in reconstructing.
South Korea may ‘look’ more prosperous but it has been at a major cost to the mental and physical health of the South Koreans.
The USA has benefited the most, from the cheap labour of the South Koreans = a slave state of the Empire.
Korea would prosper even more, if it could reunite on North Korean terms. Once the American presence is gone, the North can relax from its current siege mentality….
Yeah, and Florida is far better off than Cuba!!!!??? Ever considered the murderous and totally illegal economic sanctions, blockades and embargos against countries like North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, and so on, that are the cause of their being not so ‘far better off”?
Morally the west has never been worth much. Just do some reading here to get my drift:
https://mtwsfh.blogspot.com/ and don’t forget to read the other chapters of MTWSFH.
Had the Americans halted their advance at the Isthmus roughly 100 miles north of Pyongyang, China would likely have been content with the much smaller buffer state between it and a US-allied South Korea. The smaller NK today would have maybe a quarter of its current population and SK would be more populated and even more prosperous.
I disagree, Larchmonter445.
Doubtless some of nato’s finest are standing around, waiting for ms captain america to come to save the day. Doubtless others are expecting Russia to run out of bullets or bodies.
There are probably even some having wet dreams of Russian undergrads with greasy long hair and beards, and undergradettes with tight t-shirts, carrying signs saying, “Hell, no! We won’t go!” (americans can’t read Russian, you know).
The war is going just fine.
Europe is over-run with confused refugees. Not penniless peasants, but clean bourgeois women with cars and some money. The men have been called back.
Unfortunately, the Russians don’t seem to be running out of bullets, nor soldiers.
And they are not bombing bridges and roads, power and water plants, nor schools and hospitals, not even cellphones and internet. Worse, the american HIMARS don’t seem to do much damage to bridges either. Well, you can put nazi hooligans and weapons in the schools and hospitals; and maybe the Russians will bomb them. Certainly the hooligans will trash them.
On the plus side, the Euros are running out of obsolete american equipment . And they will dutifully (or else!) place orders for brand-new almost obsolete replacements. It does not seem likely that the Euros will be able to pay. But that is what IMF is for. And the survivors of the coming Winter will not murmur very loudly; nor be in any condition to revolt.
Best of all! Those nedo-ukrainki are dying like flies, including the mothers and children. All that lovely black steppe soil becomes available. To stripmine and ship west. To plant gmo crops, to feed the world. Those who obey and work diligently. Maybe some low grade cocaine.
Winnie is grinning wide enough to split his face. Despite the lake of fire, and the quality of cigars in Hell being definitely infernal. He is probably plotting to round up a 100,000 German peasants … maybe ukies will serve as well.
If the ukies fail to do their duty and fulfill their appointed destiny, there are still Balts, Polaks, Suomi, Swedes, Roumani.
The HIMARs may be shit against tarmac, but they make a real mess of logistical and ammo storage locations, regardless of who is pushing the button. Let’s not kid ourselves, there is an SMO going on.
Russia needs to create parallel Brigades of the Free Ukrainian Army. A Kherson Brigade, a Karakov Brigade and a Kiev Brigade. Let the international community know there are also Ukrainians opposed to western neo Nazism. Willing to fight to take their country back.
Cheers M
This is already happening. There is a video with an ukraine official ask to people to form brigades to fight with the allies and release Ukraine of this nazis. Another one with a recent brigade created to do exactly this.
Don’t overlook a rabid wild animals instinct to survive, this is all we are seeing right now, the mad dash to the end.
Brezhnev must be turning in his grave witnessing the carnage in Ukraine.
I think I stumbled upon one of the main reasons why Russia has ‘kept it real’ through ‘thick and thin’. If you look at the line of Presidents, the most successful, influential through longevity or otherwise, then their backgrounds are poor, very humble and therefore one presumes an understanding of the man/woman on the street, in the factory, on the farm, in service. Putin himself needed a 2nd job to make ends meet, driving a mini-cab from memory. By and large Meritocracy is deeply rooted along every path on/to the leadership ladders. Yes, you still have your Elite, but not one of them have made it to the Presidency, Lenin, one exception being upper middle-class (parents schoolteachers ), who’s elder brother was incidently executed for a plot to assassinate Alexander III.
Now compare this to the Ivy League mediocre trash running the Asylums in North America & Europe, many unelected, serving private interests, in the main treasonous leaches, divvying up land & resources in a Public Pay-to-Play Ponzi Scheme, later assured of a Revolving Door, Eat As Much As You Like Golden Lottery Ticket with an 8 figure signing on bonus, $5k a Head After Dinner Speeches to Bankers & TBTF and a slurry of Directorships from same, all served to the Public with a straight face in One Giant Circle Hump.
Andrei Martyanov expounds on US Army attempts to change itself so it can fight a war and win.
http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2022/07/toe-as-military-bible.html#disqus_thread
The US army is full of a bunch of fatasses and can’t even meet their recruiting goals because Americans themselves have become a bunch of fatasses.
Even the “veteran” soldiers have never experienced war at the level being conducted now in Ukraine and have developed tactics, training and bad habits that will get them killed in a real war against a peer enemy.
The biggest hurdle I think is leadership actually waking up to the fact that they are fighting a peer and that leadership will make a huge difference in the outcome. US military leadership is not up to that task. The fact that Mattis got to the position he did is proof of that.
All other things being equal, leadership will determine the outcome, both civilian and military. US is lacking in both. That takes years and hard losses to correct. History shows it won’t be corrected without enduring unacceptable heavy losses before change is forced.
Just watching BBC while at a coffee shop. Talking about Ukrainian advance on Kherson…
Contributing to the fall of the West has been this denial of reality, this belief in belief itself, that if one closes one’s eyes and taps one’s heels three time and repeats, “There’s no place like home”, one will find oneself magically in Kansas.
And if one is not magically transported, it is because one did not believe enough. The solution: close your eyes tighter and try harder.
The only thing advancing on Kherson is a few S-400s and plenty of troops coming up from Crimea to block anything the Ukies try.
The Brits, as usual, are hips deep in bullshit.
Yes, the Ukies have plenty of men and vehicles to try something in that zone.
The Russians are locked and loaded for them.
Three or four attempts so far by the Ukies have ended in massive losses.
Things will be worse this next time. They may set a new daily loss tally of a few thousand.
It is criminal how the Ukie command is just throwing away their men.
What I think impressive is the cold blood of the Russian commanders. The really don’t take any steps without thinking and strategically respond.
Syria showed us the dispassionate reaction of Russian military doctrine. The political angle is always in play. Look at the two planes shot down in Syria, one by the Zionist settlers air force and the other by Turkmen militia.
The US would have lashed out blindly bombing anything they could, with no regard for civilians.
The Russians step back, coldly survey the military and political field and act when they know is best – and that can be years later.
This conflict has been a jackpot to western weapons manufacturers. A)”Replace” own and vassal stockpiles…. And B) more billions to weapons technology research as the Russians have clearly showed that their weapons are superior.
“A good MRLS operator, used to the Soviet-designed Grad, will not be able to handle America’s famous HIMARS. Each weapon system handed over to Kyiv also requires special retraining of Ukrainian military specialists. “..
What im hearing is that the HIMARS are used by American operators. Forget the training, the US doesn’t actually trust the Ukrainian army
As a result, any HIMARS destroyed means that a lot of american operators are killed.
The DNR has released a new report on their casualties. From January 1st to July 21st they have had 2441 soldiers killed and 10441 wounded. And 754 civilians killed and 2451 civilians wounded. How many of the killed and wounded among the military were regular local forces. And how many were volunteers from other areas are not given:
Information provided by the Ombudsman of the Donetsk People’s Republic
https://t.me/Reality_Theories/7728
Well according to New Atlas the Russians have their own version of the HIMARS, the Tornado? Apparently they shoot 12 missiles rather than 6, have a longer range, are just as accurate and they have a lot more of them. Kind of makes the HIMARS look like a minor annoyance rather than a game changer.
Difference is the Russians will not be using them against civilians.
At a pilots reunion 2 nights ago in London, (East African Airways), at out table sat the daughter of one of my old flying mates, Jerry S, (DC3, F27, Comet4C, SuperVC10). with her partner. We had chat. What do you do, I asked? RAF he said. Fly? Nah, Intel, he said. I had to dig in.. he’s total knowledge of the Ukie war sounded like straight out of BBC, (well it IS UK Intel that feeds BBC, right)? He natch, didn’t believe a word I said! That I was so pro- Russia startled and confused him.. but I added that I was.. a Hungarian.
Their information sources are all the same. It’s an echo chamber.
Hardly anyone of these experts reads original source documents or the full speeches of foreign leaders. Maybe 1/1,000 have real fluency in a second language.
no surprise at all.
look at the quality of our government, total fuckwits.
If we ever wake up to this fact,it will be a miracle.
Our armed forces are no threat to anyone, hence the dinghy paddlers arriving daily.
The UK is lost,go East young man.
When playing music at a hard cider selling place I struck up a conversation with an american military type. He spoke Russian and said he worked with US intel. We obviously disagreed on the way the Ukraine-Russia SMO was going. Although he said he had input from satellite and other US intel he sounded not much different than the BBC or NYT on how war was going. Lisychansk had not yet fallen but he seemed to have no clue that it would soon. He had no clue how when the Russians broke the Donetsk line at Popasnaya it enabled them to take Severodonetsk. It seems clear that the US military believes its own propaganda.
How does an S400 catch a rocket going 1000+mph?
Easily
The stated s-400 missile speed is 1100 m/s
It is not a question of an S-400 missile “catching” a rocket going 1,000+ mph. It is a question of an integrated data processing system and missile capable of “intercepting” a projectile going that fast. Think of the lead time calculation and tracking issues associated with calculating that point in time in empty space when the supersonic rocket and the supersonic intercepting missile connect.
That’s why the new Russian hypersonic missiles are such a threat. They can “outrun” the processing power of Western air defense systems and missiles to intercept them; that is, when they can even see them.
The American Patriot and THAAD air defense systems can’t hold a candle to the Russian S-400/S-500 integrated air defense systems that effectively cover threats from low-flying drones and barrage rockets to threats from space.
Yes. Added calculations show the S-400 flies over 2200 mph, approaching Mach 3.0. Easily twice as fast if not faster.
Imagine speeding down the highway and reaching out the window to pick a single specific blade of grass, and actually getting the exact one with your finger tips? That’s what’s happening when missiles shoot down missiles. Millimeter Wave Length Radar dish about the size of your palm. Technology from the 1980’s. Martin Marietta.
You guys failed the test. No more money.
Hope our troops, the new world order troops, will destroy all those HIMARS bastards.
Idiots.
If they want to destroy a strategic bridge, just put a mercenary training camp in the middle of it.
Guaranteed a few Kaliber will obliterate the bridge immediately. No need to waste HiMars.
LOL
On some other sites they are saying that the HIMARS were brought in just to test and observe the behavior of the Russian anti-air systems, as if the US is ever going to go toe to toe with the Red Army one day. So all its about is conducting experiments to try and figure out the strengths and weaknesses of the Russian air defence systems, Ukraine and the Ukrainian lives lost is of no concern whatsoever.
“Ukraine and the Ukrainian lives lost is of no concern whatsoever.”
Same as it ever was.
American killed 800,000 people in Afghanistan just so the USSR could suffer its own “Vietnam War”. Afghanistan was no threat to to America, and in fact they were good friends right up until Washington pulled the plug on all aid projects – in 1974, not 1979. By March 1979, the US was having meetings to organize the Mujahideen, almost a year before the American public got any notification. That was the satanic work of Zbignew Brezenski, a Pole who hated Russia. And it was the work of an American that frankly didn’t give a damn about Afghani lives. Same as it ever was.
When the americans get the current russian level, Russia will present other “Tools” much more advanced. Words of Mr. Putin.
The russians are able to do this with much more readiness and low cost that the americans.
Agree. Some of the missle specs presented by Mr. A. Martynov here at The Saker are mind boggling. So much in fact, places the technology at a whole other level some may never understand. Like a joke in the comment section of RT recently:
” A western lady was walking through her house, when she heard crying and sobbing in the kitchen. When she went to look, her husband was holding a gun to his head. She burst out laughing. The husband asks, “What’s so funny? You’re next!”
Some people never figure things out until it’s too late….
How profitable is it to shoot down HIMARS with S-400 missiles?
Context is also important. Saving the bridge is more important.
As an expert who went at a wheelchair into the Great War, I believe it depends on the tactic or even strategic values of the said target/s. In terms of dough it might be rather costly. However, this solution probably is not forever.
The next few weeks will prove the following: Dead bodies can’t shoot guns.
Dead bodies can’t operate drones or fly all these helicopters and jet fighters. Dead bodies can’t man tanks. Dead bodies can’t shoot all these Stingers and Javelins. The West, the United States, the UK, the EU, Europe, and NATO, can send all the war material they want, but If the Ukrainian army ceases to exist — and at the current rate they seem to be dying this seems entirely inevitable — then there will be no Ukrainians left to fodder the cannons.
Dead bodies can’t prevent the Russian army from walking all over them and showing up at the Polish border just as the first snows begin falling. When the Ukrainian army ceases to exist is the West going to be sending live bodies? Will their soldiers (like batteries) be included with all this war material?
I am an Old Fart. Lived in Africa long enough. Moi, saw a lot of dead bodies there. Please, less dead bodies and crippled young guys and even lassies on both sides. Specifically, in this conflict, which often seems to me, moi being a Slav, as a very ugly civic war inflicted by Vous-Savez-Qui.
Sometimes there just aren’t enough dead bodies. Fear not. This time there will be plenty to go around. This time will be different. There will be dead bodies in places that need them, places and cities, towns and villages that haven’t seen them in over 200-years — right here in the United States. Bullies need a good punch in the face to back them off. We are long overdue. No more creating all this trouble around the world and escaping back home and getting nothing sent back at you. I am taking Putin at his word on this one.
My definition of patriotism is this. “My country right, kept right. My country wrong, made right.” My country (the United States) has A LOT of explaining to do.
For the longest time my country has had two oceans to hide behind. Those days are coming to an end. All this “saving the world for democracy” is crap. The United States used to be a Constitutional Republic with SOME democratic principles that can be easily revoked. Democracy used to be a dream in my country. Today it is a fiction. The way my government uses the term “democracy” is a lie — of the worst kind.
I am fed-up and have had a bellyful of my government’s open and wanton criminality in all areas of American life — in its economics, in its famously free press, this technology, this financialization of everything, against its own sovereignty, against its environment, this “scamdemic,” with this “climate change” propaganda, with this wokeness, with this whole LGBT-blah-blah-blah, in all of its institutions, in the geriatric ward that is the US Senate and the US House of Representatives, in its betrayal of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. In the endless wars and endless warmongering — especially the wars currently being waged against its own people.
Fortunately, there are consequences.
Oh yes, it’s a war against your blood. But what if that blood raised a knife on you? It is a much greater crime than if the Germans had raised it. Ukrainian soldiers are now being taught a lesson: you must not raise a hand against Russia!
Do you think Americans would react differently?
When I see the blown-up buildings in the Ukraine I see American cities — Detroit, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Rochester, Syracuse, Cleveland, Flint, Buffalo, etc. When I see dead bodies lying in the Ukrainian streets I see them in the streets of Los Angeles, Portland Oregon, Seattle, etc.. When I see the homeless in the Ukraine is see the homeless right here at “home.” I feel homeless. When I see the illegals and “migrants” who have fled the Ukraine for England, France, Germany, Poland and other places in Europe and the world, I see the future of the United States.
The same with everywhere the United States goes — Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, Vietnam. This has been going on for a whole lifetime and I am sick of it.
We are symbiotic beings. What happens to one happens to all. What are we going to do? Because right now it’s just one lame a** excuse after another. God’s will? Kill everybody? And let “God” sort them out?
Hmmm..my Ukrainian neighbours in Central London, stated to me that they are heavily involved in helping the Ukrainian Army. They were attending rallies and collecting funds and clothing and food which they said was being collected and brought to the Polish border. There is a positive and lively buzz amongst all the young Ukrainian men who come and go and they are undergoing training in the UK.
One Ukie neighbour stated she was Russian and from Sumy Oblast…and that “all that we Ukrainians want is to live in peace and choose our own life, which is a western lifestyle, Putin is evil for starting this war and destroying everything.”
I have in all these months, not been able to straighten out her complete cognitive dissonance…Simply put, why does she think that fleeing the Ukraine for the UK in 2014, has improved her life… what does she hope to win back?
She wants the return of something which never existed to begin with.
I would bet that the costs involved with supplying advanced weapons to Ukraine does more long term damage to the west than those weapons do to Russia in the hands of Ukrainian troops. As Russia acquires more advanced drones from Iran the HIMARS and other weapons will be harder and harder to conceal and Russia has precise guided missiles and artillery too. In fact I think Russia may even be happy to see the west spend so much on supplying such weapons to Ukraine because the real enemy is NATO, not Ukraine. And the real war will be won or lost over economic viability in the world market, not the wheat fields of Ukraine.
It is amazing to me that Russia will buy drones from Iran because the Iranian drones are “more advanced” than Russian drones.
It is in fact encouraging that technology spread is international and that there are great minds and manufacturing capability all around the world. Imagine if there were no wars, how that effort would be directed into profitable construction firms for road building, desalination, making the infernal deserts green again!
We citizens of the west are witness to profound spiritual awakening. I use the term spiritual more as the word reckoning. As profound reckoning doesnt quite sound right. And perhaps citizens could be replaced with the word idiots. That sounds better as the word citizen implies awareness of our civic responsibility. And so, with the 100 per cent shoot down of 12 rockets, Hemingway might best be quoted. Ask not for whom the bells toll….its tolls for Thee.
As I understand, the HIMARS are now the hope of the Ukranian army? No comments!
“At the same time, the Russian army began serious preparations for the complete destruction of HIMARS.”
Time to get a move on! Why wait a month to begin” serious preparations?
Kind of stupid counter-offensive when you first blow up the bridges to get to the other side.
Charlie, right. A few weeks ago the Ukrainian army blew up a bridge then realized it was needed by their soldiers on the other side of the river.
That was no accident. The bodies on the other side were expendable, as is apparently the entire AFU. The object was to deny that bridge to the Russians.
The US of Arrogance needs to worry about our own home land that can not be saved by destroying the world, no matter how many insane neoCon scum believe this garbage of win by terror….
You don’t understand. The American states are full of American citizens, who are the enemy of Washington DC and most especially the enemy of the State Department and the Neocons.
The Russjan Tornado-S “Smerch” is much more effective and powerful tham the HIMARS.
Yes. Added calculations show the S-400 flies over 2200 mph, approaching Mach 3.0. Easily twice as fast if not faster.
Excellent piece. These sorts of fundamentals are the things the western “intelligence” and politics are overlooking because they’re concerned primarily with the public relations aspect. At this point it looks like if NATO (minus Turkiye) threw everything it had (shy of nukes) at Russia in Ukraine it might be able to stop the current Russian advance. But probably not permanently and almost certainly not for long. I’m not entirely sure Russia would have to send significantly more men to the front to absorb that material influx. All this now is just a refusal on the US/UK’s part to admit defeat.