It’s the old submarine joke to me.
The turns of the helicopter give the impression to me that it was being controlled and not in some sort of autopilot setting maintaining direction and altitude. Without manual or automatic control, it seems unlikely to me that it could continue flying for that long.
Maybe the pilot feared a second MANPADS shot and, seeing the helicopter was still under his control, felt it more prudent to try and get a bit of distance before attempting a landing, but in the end it was too late.
I remember the line “A helicopter is an accident looking for a place to land” which made me wary of ever being in a helicopter. It was from an early episode of MASH but I can’t find any more details as to which one.
(nevermind - JohnnyLA showed up)
There are plenty in the US who didn’t want any Afghani refugees at all - men who have been through Iran and then (even temporarily) under the pay of Russia are highly unlikely to be allowed to come to the US.
Heck, there were Ukrainians who could only get a ticket to Mexico who then tried to seek asylum in the US and were denied because, I dunno, they got cooties or something by being south of the border.
Next you’re going to tell me that Airwolf lied to me and that you can’t fly a helicopter upside down. Tsk.
Meanwhile, another Russian oligarch may wish to avoid standing near high windows:
One surprising result of this war is that we’re learning then when push comes to shove, how little influence the notorious Russian oligarchs have over their country and over the world. Turns out that money isn’t power - power is power. Nobody cares how much money you have if the government can just seize your accounts and throw you out a window.
Controlling news inside Russia isn’t enough?
I hope this judgement isn’t enforceable?
Guardian live blog
isnt that surprising?
… since - according to Putin - everything is going as planned
… more practicality I would guess…
30km riding shotgun outside of a tank beats walking with full gear for 30km six days of the week (except the day you get javelin’d)
There are a couple other reasons to ride on top of IFV/APCs. If the vehicle hits a mine, being on top is generally more survivable than being inside. This depends a bit on the vehicle, of course. You see Ukrainians as well as Russians riding on top of BMPs and BTRs, but generally not on top of the various MRAPs they’ve received from the West. Also, it’s a lot quicker to dismount and get into a fight from on top of a vehicle than it is from inside, especially the BTR with its tiny side hatch into the troop compartment.
Being inside a vehicle is great protection from light arms fire and shrapnel from artillery near-misses, but it doesn’t help at all against direct hits from ATGM, tank and possibly even just IFV fire, or direct hits from artillery. Infantry is generally going to be where they think they’re safest from the sum total of threats. Basically if you think mines are more likely than light arms fire, on top is probably better than inside, unless your vehicle is actually designed to survive hitting a mine like MRAPs are.
And they can fire preemptively at any infantry threat to the tank
Too bad if the vehicle can’t stay on the road and goes tumbling.
And if they don’t deal with all the enemy troops with anti-tank weapons, they’re an additional layer of standoff “armor” which might help defeat a shaped-charge round.
Like sandbags with guns.
Exactly!
Those tanks are expensive, recruits are not after all.
If the vehicle does roll over and crush them all, then their relatives can be informed that they died in a simple traffic accident. And denied any payments of course.
Now that I think about it, this may be the best way to characterize this latest batch of Russian “recruits”.
Of course not. Putin wants to control the global narrative as well, that’s been apparent at least to me from the onset.
Not in actual court, no. What Putin decides to do in the way of ricin-tainted umbrellas or polonium laced tea and the like is another matter.
True. However, American stooges are getting pretty scarce.
British Intelligence is reporting that the Russian reserves arriving in Ukraine are equipped with AKM rifles instead of AK-74 rifles as are carried by the regular army troops. Will likely complicate the Russian supply situation as the rounds are different for those rifle. May not be so bad if the Russians are duing unit replacement so the standard weapons are the same for everyone in a unit.
But if they are sending individual replacements out to units with different weapon calibers it will be a nightmare getting the right mix of ammo forward. Imagine each combat unit having a random mix of guys shooting 5.45 and others shooting 7.62. Will a unit need 90% 5.45 and 10% 7.62 or a 50/50 mix or what? The Russian supply system seems to have a hard enough time pushing supplies forward. Easy to see units losing combat effectiveness because they don’t have the right mix of ammo to keep all the guys in a unit with a full load out for their personal arms.
It’s one thing for Russia to put propaganda out and hope International news will report it.
This time they charged Wikipedia in Russian court. What gives Russia the legal standing to do that? AFAIK Wikipedia doesn’t operate in Russia? It’s my understanding their content is offered in Russian and many other languages.
Anyone can edit Wikipedia and that can be abused by people or organizations with agendas.