Now that’s a good euphemism!
8 min video on why Russia is having trouble shooting down HIMARS. Short version, the radar software sees the missile, but can’t reliably identify it. Ryan claims inferior Ukrainian Grad rockets look the same as HIMARS. Wasting expensive anti aircraft missiles on a cheap unguided Grad rocket isn’t a good choice for a air defense operator.
The air defense operators will learn and adapt. It may require a software upgrade before Russia fixes the problem.
This is probably over simplified but it gives people an idea how air defense works. It’s interesting that the decision making by the radar operators is a key part of air defense.
The M270 is less mobile than the HIMARS - the ‘HIM’ in HIMARS stands for ‘High Mobility’.
The M270 entered service in 1983, while the M142 HIMARS entered service in 2010. They both use the same ammunition, but the HIMARS carries/fires only half as much as the M270.
From what I can tell, the other main difference is that the M270 is a tracked vehicle, while the HIMARS is wheeled. The wheeled vehicle will be faster on the roads - 64 km/h (39.8 mph) for M270 vs 85 km/h (53 mph) for HIMARS - while the tracked vehicle will be more capable off-road. So the HIMARS is likely better for “shoot and scoot” operations.
Additionally, tracked vehicles are transported by train or mounted on a wheeled trailer for longer distances to avoid wear and tear. The wheeled HIMARS can probably drive itself to different parts of the country.
So you’d obviously want a mix of the two. Thanks for answering my question.
There was a huge hit on a Russian ammunition and rocket depot at Nova Kakhovka. The Iranian drones are being brought in to hunt down and target the HIMARS systems.
These are both nuts. These people are going to be totally useless.
I wonder if this is right. This is more than the base pay for a US recruit with a hell of a lot more training. Unless they are expecting them to be killed before they have to pay them.
Right up there with “kinetic disassembly” when a rocket explodes.
The average soldier in the battalion will be paid $500 at the end of the first month.
That seems more in line with what I expected it to be. Did I miss that in the article above or did you see it elsewhere?
It’s a dumb math joke about the number of soldiers who won’t be paid because they no longer exist.
How embarrassing! I’m just going to pretend I never asked that question.
It whooshed me, too.
It also depends on the ruble->U.S. dollar conversion factor they’re using. I believe the Russians are keeping their official exchange rate artificially high to allow them to keep more foreign exchange currency than if the rate floated. If they did the translation using the official currency conversion factor, that would make the salaries of Russian soldiers - all Russians, really - look higher than the actual demand for their currency would suggest.
The new uniforms are probably red.
What colour are the trousers?
I think they’ll try to use them as occupation forces and shift those currently behind the lines into combat.
Brown, of course.
Star Trek black
This is a bid odd. A Ukrainian cargo plane explodes in Greece? But supposedly it’s not connected to the war? The cargo would have been quite useful to Ukraine.
Blowing it up is something you’d expect from the Russians.
Another Source
Cite: Eight crew members killed in Ukraine cargo plane crash in northern Greece | Reuters
I and DesertDog were thinking of the same joke. 