How does this happen? Are the ground crews improperly installing the bombs? Seems unlikely anyone pushed a button by accident.
2 whoopsies in a few days
Guardian live feed
Improperly mounting these wouldn’t be hard.
AFAIK, the mounting technology used by the Russians is pretty much identical to NATO except in implementation details (like spacing between shackles).
But it probably takes a competent ground crew to upload grav bombs without fucking it up and ending up with insecurely mounted munitions .
- The bombs need to not have rusting falling apart hooks.
- The bomb racks need to not be full of gunk so they lock closed properly when the ground crew attaches the bombs.
- The ground crews need to be diligent and thorough.
- The shotgun-shell like device that releases the bomb needs to be fresh enough and properly stored enough so it doesn’t fire for the hell of it.
- It also needs to be properly manufactured in the first place.
- The airplane wiring needs to have no glitches in it.
- The pilot needs to be skilled enough to only arm the drop system when near the target, not right after takeoff so they won’t forget later.
- The pilot needs to keep their finger away from the drop button while using all the other nearby buttons.
Long laundry list of things have to go right to not have oopsies.
I’ve never heard of this. I’ve always assumed that the bomb was suspended by lugs (on top of the bomb)…
… and release by the hooks that held the lugs.
But I see in this image that there is a pneumatic ejector (not an explosive charge).
I assume my original assumption is an older system (I’m thinking '40s-'70s). When did positive ejectors come about?
The details vary of course by era and by country. Big picture you’re about 99% there.
The bomb is suspended by the lugs on top engaging with the two big latches in the bomb rack in your upper diagram. As you say. Which is powered by a big electrical solenoid in some, not all installations. As you say.
In your lower diagram we see the threaded adjustable “sway braces”, feet kind of like furniture levelers that are screwed down onto the bomb so it won’t wobble while hanging on its lugs from the rack.
The “pneumatic” system is actually powered by two shotgun shell-like cartridges. That double-cylinder thing on top in translucent gray is the two breeches where the two firing cartridges live. The US/NATO ones are about an inch in diameter and 1.75" long. They drive two pistons that violently shove the bomb away from the rack at the same time the rack latches are opening.
The bomb pushers are needed to get the bomb out of the immediate airflow around the wing or fuselage. If the carts fail to fire, the bomb may well be captured by the slipstream, flip up and over the wing, bump into other bombs or the tail, and generally cause noisy expensive mischief.
Some racks have the carts firing pressure release the hooks, rather than having a solenoid do it. That ensures the bomb won’t release unassisted.
I knew that, but I appreciate your mentioning them for those who didn’t.
That makes sense.
These nice folks make many of the US’s bomb racks. Bunch of nice pictures there. About amidships on the racks you’ll see two bronze/brass colored hex bolts with large caps right behind them. Those are the cartridge breeches. Unscrew the bolt head/cap, remove the spent cart, insert a fresh one, and run the bolt down to close the breech.
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Moderating
Probably forgot to arm it.
At least in US/NATO practice, if it falls off unexpectedly it won’t be armed unless some other malfunction is present. It’ll dud on impact. Still hurt if it hit you, but less than 1m square area is affected.
At the same time, a 250kg bomb has a roughly 50 meter anti-structure and 100m anti-personnel blast radius. The Earth is a very big place and depending on the definition of “on the town of Rubizhne” that bomg may well have landed in a farm field.
Well, to summarize the entire episode: the Russian Air Force’s strike capability is as overtaxed and inept as the rest of its forces, as repeatedly demonstrated by the other news articles here.
UK is providing £2.5bn defense package. I also read that the US and Ecuador agreed to exchange $200 million worth of soviet equipment for modern equipment. The inference is that this will go to Ukraine.
Russia’s entire land based army is rotating in and out of Ukraine. That has to leave them vulnerable along other areas. Kaliningrad for example is between Poland and Lithuania.
It is concerning their units are getting rotation back to the rear for rest and resupply.
I haven’t seen any similiar information about Ukrainian units.
Interesting report.
Link Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, January 11, 2024 | Institute for the Study of War
so when half of them are wiped out they send them to the rear where they educate the new half of the unit on what to expect.
That is exactly what to take from that. The fact that units are routinely reduced to 50% is pretty horrific.
A video shows two US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles taking out one of Russia’s main battle tanks…
Reports say the tank was a T-90M Proryv, the latest in the series, with the most advanced armor, mobility, and firepower…
Russian soldiers are “afraid” of facing against Bradleys, a Ukrainian commander said, Newsweek reported.
The Ukrainian soldier, who goes by his call sign of “Kach,” said that Russian troops in tanks and troop carriers fear going into battle against the tracked armored fighting vehicles.
The article has the embedded X video, which can be watched on X for a larger image.
If that’s true – the drone footage looks an awful lot like a video game – that’s astonishing. The Bradley is a ‘battlefield taxi’ meant to deliver a squad rapidly to where it’s needed and in no way is intended to go toe to toe against a main battle tank, even if they out-number it.
The article says they were aiming for the T-90’s weakest point. I was impressed by the accuracy. That, with the high rate of fire, might be a new tactic.
During the first stage of the war I remember a video of a Ukrainian IFV killing a Russian MBT by being so close that it could hit the bottom armor by shooting at a downward angle. So I also was not expecting then to kill one via a cannon at medium and/or long range.
The thermal exhaust port?