Tungsten’s density makes it ideal for maximizing penetration power per a given volume of projectile. Depleted uranium is also used for the same purpose and for the same reason. Both materials are over double the density of steel or iron.
I don’t believe Denys has any particularly notable inside sources. He’s just an unemployed airline pilot who’s amassed a considerable Youtube following by being informative, relentlessly upbeat, and impossible to dislike.
Russian Telegram channels have been talking about Ukrainian forces massing along that sector of the front for an attack in the direction of Melitipol or Mariupol for several weeks now, and while official Ukrainian sources have said nothing about it I would presume that if there are large troop concentrations there the locals have noticed and most any well-informed Ukrainians will be generally aware of it. Couple that with it being an area seemingly obviously ripe for attack and pretty much everyone is expecting a Ukrainian offensive somewhere in the sector. Rybar (popular Russian milblogger) has noted some Ukrainian activity in the region in the past couple days and clearly expects more to come as well.
So pretty much every commentator expects a major Ukrainian offensive on that front in the near future. Given the track record of Ukrainian army command, that probably means they’ll start there and then a week later take all of Donetsk instead, or maybe take Sevastapol in a surprise amphibious assault.
I saw somewhere the number 182,000 as the number of tungsten balls and thought “That can’t possibly be right”. That round is a gigantic Claymore. I saw a video of tests and the number of balls hitting nearby targets was amazing and, obviously, deadly.
Like everyone else in the western hemisphere, I too can’t dislike Denys, but it really sounded like he had some sort of insider info on what’s going on.
Here’s yesterday’s report. If you go to around 8:12 you can hear what he said. It would be out character for him to say something like that if he didn’t have news to back it up.
Yeah I had seen that too. My guess is that he knows somebody (or knows somebody who knows somebody) stationed there who said, “something big is going down but can’t talk about it cuz op sec.”
I believe tungsten is cheaper than depleted uranium. Also, while neither metal is something you want to ingest, my limited information indicates that tungsten is less chemically toxic to the body and does not give off radiation. Depleted uranium is “depleted” because the more radiologically active isotopes have been removed, but not only does it continue to give off some radiation but while doing so its atoms turn into different atoms for new and different forms of hazard. So, particularly if you plan to live in an area after a war is over, tungsten might be the preferred choice.
I came thisclose to writing the same thing. Not exactly a metropolis back in the day, and Jews were often segregated anyways. Makes for small, tight knit communities.
Yes, they were awful. Even the ones the US still had in storage became a problem after a certain amount of time, kind of a “sell by” date. Last I heard they were being (carefully) dismantled by hand.
The Ukrainian high command has had some serious Sun Tzu mojo going on (‘a great general is victorious first, and only then does he enter battle’) since this conflict began. Concerning the whole everyone knows Ukraine is planning an offensive into Zaphorizhia, I could swear there’s some Sun Tzu aphorism like ‘if the enemy knows where the next strike will fall, let the rumor of the attack run for three days before beginning the attack.’ [paraphrasing]. I wonder if that’s what they’re doing now.
Sounds like Rear Admiral Gallery’s statement ascribed to the British (WWII era). About Americans overreacting. To paraphrase: “If we were to attack the Yanks we would make a statement to that effect a week before the actual attack. Then your sailors would be so worn out from being on continual alert that we would readily win.” (RA Gallery noted that was BEFORE the Prince of Wales was sunk.)
don’t forget about the whole warehousing of (weakly) radioactive material … workplace H&S policies (especially in peace times) … keep lots of that stuff together (b/c I am sure they are highly controlled items) and suddenly you might have radiation levels that are no longer weak …
so it might be as trivial as “depleted uranium ordenance comes with a huge practical PITA factor associated”
Analogy: tritium was phased out as illumination medium for wristwatches in the 1990ies in favor of non-radioactive material, not b/c of consumer concern, but b/c of production concerns (bearded swiss workers that handle 100s of watch-faces and -hands 8hrs a day, mandatory health check-ups and -breaks/pauses, radioactive waste, radioactive AC-filters, radioactive floor cleaning equipment, the whole long tail of “radioactive” )
in short: everything radioactive comes with a huge lateral-cost premium
former watch-workshops in switzerland are radioactively contaminated
IIRC, it’s the GMLRS-AW rocket, which has 182,000 tungsten fragments (not necessarily balls) per rocket. Essentially, a giant anti-personnel shotgun blast.
under-appreciated tweet:
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just to contextualize: that airfield is way closer to Moscow than to Kiew!!!
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(am I the only one who reads a stern warning into this action??)
these are by no means small planes … and IIRC those were kept out of the war (except bombing azovstal) b/c they are russias nuke-delivery-bombers (fwiw its the middle plane)
straight out of google-maps.
Russia is using images of an Azerbaijani drone shot down in 2020 to “prove” its claim that they shot down the Ukrainian “suicide drone”* before it struck. That pretty much confirms that it did some real damage.
*Another stupid military oxymoron
I haven’t seen confirmation of that yet. Hopefully it turns out to be true. It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, there is as a response. The previous major airfield attack was in Crimea. And while Russia claims it as their own I still don’t think they view it the same as an attack on Russia proper.
Seems a bit foolish, to disable the chargers and include “death to the enemy” on the display, when “the enemy” is Russians, whom they want to topple Putin.
The white aircraft seems to be a Tu-160 ‘Blackjack’. Is the smaller, grey one an Su-24 ‘Fencer’? The Tu-22 ‘Blinder’ has engines mounted in nacelles.
Taking out Tu-22M3 Backfire is almost like knocking out a B-1 Lancer, well done Ukes!
Has it been confirmed that the drone used was captured Russia ordinance on a return-to-sender mission? Because that would be icing on the cake.
Also - supposedly not a Western/NATO drone at all, but an Iranian supplied one?
In some ways, it feels like an escalation.
At least in the U. S. Air Force, some bombers are designated primarily for the strategic bombing mission. An attack on those would be considered an attempt to degrade the US’s ability to launch a major nuclear attack, similar to sinking a ballistic missile submarine, and risks a “use-it-or-lose-it” launch response.
So, how many Blackjack or Backfire bombers can the Russians lose before they feel like they have no choice but to use them in their nuclear attack mission?
The head of the Kaluga region confirmed that a drone hit the airfield and that there was an explosion. According to him, the airfield infrastructure and equipment were not damaged, and there were no casualties (although a statement by a Russian official obviously has no factual value).