https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukraine-admits-apos-serious-losses-132136423.html
“We have serious losses but the Russians’ losses are much, much bigger… They have colossal losses,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said, according to Reuters.
maneuver defense? I guess using tanks and infantry?
Institute for War Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, April 29 | Institute for the Study of War
I’m guessing Putin has body doubles for that.
Í bet a lot of planning is going on for the rapid reconstruction of Ukraine and her armed forces. Once we can send back in trainers, once the Russians take off the pressure, almost anything is possible.
I hear tell NATO is going to trade in whatever artillery they have left for Western calibers.
His identity has now been revealed as Major Stepan Tarabalka, 29, killed on March 13 when “overwhelming” Russian forces shot down the MiG-29 he was flying, The Times said…
His father told NPR that they were not told the details of their son’s final flight, only that he did not return after completing a mission.
Wasn’t this a hoax entirely created by an online streamer?
Because his identity was kept a secret, many speculated that the Ghost of Kyiv was a myth designed to boost Ukrainian morale. However, the government continued to insist that he was real.
Yes, I did read it. I also remember early on in the war someone admitting they just made him up. I’m sure you can just retroactively claim any pilot fits the profile.
It’s pretty much just not assigning troops to hold positions until defeated, but quickly plugging them in to holes as required.
Maneuver defense is when you aggressively attack the attacker instead of just hunkering down in a static position. You “Hold 'em by the nose and kick 'em in the ass” as said either by Patton or George C. Scott playing Patton.
Maneuver defense sounds like a good plan. There’s no sense in getting pinned down in a fixed position.
I’m curious if the Ukraine military can learn Western artillery tactics. I know soldiers are being trained on the equipment. Training artillery officers in the tactics that General Flynn describes takes actual experience.
On a related question how much “real” experience do Russian generals and upper officers have? My sense of history is often terrible-have there been many opportunities for them to see combat?
I’m not sure how it benefits Ukraine to lie about this pilot’s existence, then say he died. If you’re going to invent a fictitious war hero to rally morale, claiming that he’s dead now seems like it would undercut your efforts.
If I was forced to bet, I would guess this is a heavily embellished story. The simple fact is that Ukrainian fighters have inferior missiles compared to the Russians.
The Russians have fire and forget missiles. Once they are locked on a target and fired, the missile guides itself to the target and the fighter can move to engage another target or avoid incoming missiles.
Ukrainian fighters need to lock on the target with the aircraft’s radar, launch the missile and then continue to keep their radar on the target until the missile hits. That means flying in a direct line for miles to the target while painting it with active radar until a missile hits. Any deviation from the target will send the missile flying aimlessly.
I’ll just say if it’s all true, this guy was hands down the greatest fighter pilot ever.
Yes, martyrs are often morale boosters during wartime. Everybody loves a hero who goes down fighting the evil empire.
It wasn’t them who invented him, it was some War Thunder youtuber. And it seems pretty damn useful to me to have a martyr who acts as a symbol of defiance.
The R-27 (looks similar to a Sapprow) is made in semi-active radar homing versions, but also infrared and active radar homing versions. The R-60 and R-73 (look like Sidewinders) use infrared guidance.
According to this, Ukraine only has the R-27 models, all of which have passive radar, and very short range R-73. Apparently the aircraft they have couldn’t fire more advanced missiles even if they had them.
So the longer they have to fly towards the Russian aircraft, the closer they get to AA guns and missiles. And if they have to avoid ground fire, they lose control of their missiles.
Yeah, the R-27 is akin to the American AIM-7 Sparrow while Russia’s R-77 (AA-12 Adder) is more like an AMRAAM.
That being said, despite having an overwhelming advantage in the air, the Russians still have hardly gained air superiority. They are bizarrely timid and…scaredy-cat in this air war.
Either the air war is the most under-reported part of this invasion or both sides AA defenses are so incredibly deadly that no one dares fly against them unless it’s absolutely necessary.
Reports of aircraft sorties and losses are all over the place. And nobody even tries to guess if losses are by AA or air to air combat.
WaPo had a good go-over of the arty going into Ukraine right now. Time to send even more, King-of-Battle the Russkies all the way out.