This might be a little tougher than Putin thought...
- Thread starter Nole Lou
- Start date
hawkeyetraveler
HB Heisman
Russia appears to have mobilized new ground forces. They appear more capable than the Wagner morons at least.
Maybe the Ukrainian forces just need to eat more chicken.
Maybe the Ukrainian forces just need to eat more chicken.
Long article but worth a read...not behind the pay wall....
SCRANTON, Pa. — A sharp hissing sound fills the factory as red-hot artillery shells are plunged into scalding oil.
Richard Hansen, a Navy veteran who oversees this government-owned munitions facility, explains how the 1,500-degree liquid locks in place chemical properties that ensure when the shells are fired — perhaps on a battlefield in Ukraine — they detonate in the deadly manner intended.
“That’s what we do,” Hansen said. “We build things to kill people.”
The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, one of a network of facilities involved in producing the U.S. Army’s 155-mm artillery round, is ground zero for the Biden administration’s scramble to accelerate the supply of weapons that Ukraine needs if its military is to prevail in the war with Russia.
The Pentagon’s plan for scaling up production of the shells over the next two years marks a breakthrough in the effort to quench Ukraine’s thirst for weapons. But the conflict has laid bare deep-seated problems that the United States must surmount to effectively manufacture the arms required not just to aid its allies but also for America’s self-defense should conflict erupt with Russia, China or another major power.
Despite boasting the world’s largest military budget — more than $800 billion a year — and its most sophisticated defense industry, the United States has long struggled to efficiently develop and produce the weapons that have enabled U.S. forces to outpace their peers technologically. Those challenges take on new importance as conventional conflict returns to Europe and Washington contemplates the possibility of its own great-power fight.
Even as public support for the vast sums of aid being given to Ukraine grows softer and more divisive, the conflict has sparked a broader conversation about the need to shatter what military leaders describe as the “brittleness” of the U.S. defense industry and devise new means to quickly scale up output of weapons at moments of crisis. Some observers are worried the Pentagon is not doing enough to replenish the billions of dollars in armaments that have left American stocks.
Research conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) shows the current output of American factories may be insufficient to prevent the depletion of stockpiles of key items the United States is providing Ukraine. Even at accelerated production rates, it is likely to take at least several years to recover the inventory of Javelin antitank missiles, Stinger surface-to-air missiles and other in-demand items.
Earlier research done by the Washington think tank illustrates a more pervasive problem: The slow pace of U.S. production means it would take as long as 15 years at peacetime production levels, and more than eight years at a wartime tempo, to replace the stocks of major weapons systems such as guided missiles, piloted aircraft and armed drones if they were destroyed in battle or donated to allies.
“It is a wake-up call,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in an interview, referring to the production problems the war has exposed. “We have to have an industrial base that can respond very quickly.”
A year into the Ukraine fight, American military aid has reached a staggering $30 billion, funding everything from night-vision goggles to Abrams tanks. Much of the weaponry was drawn from Pentagon stocks. Other systems must be produced in U.S. factories.
U.S. and NATO officials have touted the powerful effect of foreign arms on the battlefield, where they have enabled Ukrainian troops to hold Kremlin forces at bay and, in places like the southern city of Kherson, reverse Russian gains. But the armament effort also has rattled officials in the United States and Europe, depleting the military stockpiles of donor nations and revealing the gaps in their productive power.
As the front lines have hardened during the frigid winter months, the ground war has become a bloody, artillery-heavy fight, with Ukrainian forces firing an average of 7,700 artillery shells a day, according to the Ukrainian military, greatly outpacing the U.S. prewar production rate of 14,000 155-mm rounds a month. In the first eight months after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Ukrainian forces burned through 13 years worth of Stinger antiaircraft missiles and five years of Javelin missiles, according to Raytheon, which produces both weapons.
SCRANTON, Pa. — A sharp hissing sound fills the factory as red-hot artillery shells are plunged into scalding oil.
Richard Hansen, a Navy veteran who oversees this government-owned munitions facility, explains how the 1,500-degree liquid locks in place chemical properties that ensure when the shells are fired — perhaps on a battlefield in Ukraine — they detonate in the deadly manner intended.
“That’s what we do,” Hansen said. “We build things to kill people.”
The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, one of a network of facilities involved in producing the U.S. Army’s 155-mm artillery round, is ground zero for the Biden administration’s scramble to accelerate the supply of weapons that Ukraine needs if its military is to prevail in the war with Russia.
The Pentagon’s plan for scaling up production of the shells over the next two years marks a breakthrough in the effort to quench Ukraine’s thirst for weapons. But the conflict has laid bare deep-seated problems that the United States must surmount to effectively manufacture the arms required not just to aid its allies but also for America’s self-defense should conflict erupt with Russia, China or another major power.
Despite boasting the world’s largest military budget — more than $800 billion a year — and its most sophisticated defense industry, the United States has long struggled to efficiently develop and produce the weapons that have enabled U.S. forces to outpace their peers technologically. Those challenges take on new importance as conventional conflict returns to Europe and Washington contemplates the possibility of its own great-power fight.
Even as public support for the vast sums of aid being given to Ukraine grows softer and more divisive, the conflict has sparked a broader conversation about the need to shatter what military leaders describe as the “brittleness” of the U.S. defense industry and devise new means to quickly scale up output of weapons at moments of crisis. Some observers are worried the Pentagon is not doing enough to replenish the billions of dollars in armaments that have left American stocks.
Research conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) shows the current output of American factories may be insufficient to prevent the depletion of stockpiles of key items the United States is providing Ukraine. Even at accelerated production rates, it is likely to take at least several years to recover the inventory of Javelin antitank missiles, Stinger surface-to-air missiles and other in-demand items.
Earlier research done by the Washington think tank illustrates a more pervasive problem: The slow pace of U.S. production means it would take as long as 15 years at peacetime production levels, and more than eight years at a wartime tempo, to replace the stocks of major weapons systems such as guided missiles, piloted aircraft and armed drones if they were destroyed in battle or donated to allies.
“It is a wake-up call,” Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in an interview, referring to the production problems the war has exposed. “We have to have an industrial base that can respond very quickly.”
A year into the Ukraine fight, American military aid has reached a staggering $30 billion, funding everything from night-vision goggles to Abrams tanks. Much of the weaponry was drawn from Pentagon stocks. Other systems must be produced in U.S. factories.
U.S. and NATO officials have touted the powerful effect of foreign arms on the battlefield, where they have enabled Ukrainian troops to hold Kremlin forces at bay and, in places like the southern city of Kherson, reverse Russian gains. But the armament effort also has rattled officials in the United States and Europe, depleting the military stockpiles of donor nations and revealing the gaps in their productive power.
As the front lines have hardened during the frigid winter months, the ground war has become a bloody, artillery-heavy fight, with Ukrainian forces firing an average of 7,700 artillery shells a day, according to the Ukrainian military, greatly outpacing the U.S. prewar production rate of 14,000 155-mm rounds a month. In the first eight months after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Ukrainian forces burned through 13 years worth of Stinger antiaircraft missiles and five years of Javelin missiles, according to Raytheon, which produces both weapons.
I know people hate him, but it might not be a bad idea to appoint Elon with a special wartime commission to innovate military equipment manufacturing. Maybe he cannot do anything but the nimbleness, creativity, and brainpower behind spacex, Tesla, and other endeavors could make that possible. Their ability to sidestep the microchip crisis by having their engineers rewrite firmware in about a week to use other kinds of microchips was an amazing feat. Toyota was also amazed at the manufacturing of a Tesla after they stripped the sheet metal off. Toyota. Food for thought.
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America’s top spymasters warn in a 35-page annual report that Russia is continuing to develop long-range nuclear-capable missiles and underwater delivery systems meant to penetrate or bypass U.S. defenses.
“Throughout its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has continued to show that it views its nuclear capabilities as necessary for maintaining deterrence and achieving its goals in a potential conflict against the United States and NATO, and it sees its nuclear weapons arsenal as the ultimate guarantor of the Russian Federation,” the intelligence community wrote in the unclassified assessment.
“After Russian military losses during Ukraine’s counteroffensive in late summer 2022, Putin publicly warned the West that he was ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia,” the report added.
Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would suspend participation in the New START treaty, a crucial nuclear arms reduction agreement. Moscow holds the world’s largest nuclear weapons stockpile.
www.cnbc.com
“Throughout its invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has continued to show that it views its nuclear capabilities as necessary for maintaining deterrence and achieving its goals in a potential conflict against the United States and NATO, and it sees its nuclear weapons arsenal as the ultimate guarantor of the Russian Federation,” the intelligence community wrote in the unclassified assessment.
“After Russian military losses during Ukraine’s counteroffensive in late summer 2022, Putin publicly warned the West that he was ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia,” the report added.
Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he would suspend participation in the New START treaty, a crucial nuclear arms reduction agreement. Moscow holds the world’s largest nuclear weapons stockpile.
Top U.S. spies warn Russia is boosting nuclear capabilities; Moscow unleashes barrage of missiles
The battle of Bakhmut continues to dominate news out of Ukraine this week, with all eyes on the fate of the city in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.
Almost certainly just BS but does Putin have the strength to use this as a provocation.
"The Princess of Wales met with the soldiers who train the Armed Forces For the first time since receiving the rank of colonel of the Irish Guards, Kate Middleton visited the Salisbury Plain military training ground in Wiltshire."
Kate>>>>Meghan"The Princess of Wales met with the soldiers who train the Armed Forces For the first time since receiving the rank of colonel of the Irish Guards, Kate Middleton visited the Salisbury Plain military training ground in Wiltshire."
To be fair, she knows what her job is and does it.
The new Chris Rock special on Netflix has a bit of time dedicated to Meghan and Harry and their complaints about the racist royal family. Paraphrasing, "You married into the family that invented colonialism and you're surprised that they're racist?"
Aardvark Jr. recently attended an aerospace conference, at which one of the presenters was from Raytheon. Her title was "Chief Execution Engineer," and her responsibilities essentially focused on maximizing the lethality of weapons. Jr. was having a drink at a bar with a statistician afterwards, who remarked "I hadn't really considered 'Horseman of the Apocalypse' as a career path."
This is the best short-term solution while Ukraine faces its existential threat, especially now that we can retrofit JDAMS kits to bombs which they can use. From everything I have read Ukraine has more pilots than aircraft so this could really be an immediate game changer.
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It would be a bigly help to front line.
- Sep 13, 2002
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Was she also kind of hot? Because a semi-hot merchantess of death would definitely be my jam.
Reporting on Bahkmut has been all over the map....don't like the sound of this report.
Ukrainian soldiers are being pummelled on three sides by Russian forces who are trying to capture Bakhmut, a city in the eastern Donetsk region that has become the focus of the longest and one of the bloodiest battles since the war began.
Ukraine’s authorities insist they will continue to try to hold the city despite them suffering an estimated 100-200 casualties a day – with some saying the reason is more political and symbolic than practical. Retreating from the city now, after so many soldiers died fighting to keep it, would be a hard reality to face.
The Russian push for Bakhmut started in July and intensified in the autumn after Moscow mobilised thousands of men, many of whom were Russian prisoners who signed up with the promise of freedom after six months of service.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told CNN in an interview that retreating from Bakhmut would “open the road” for Russian forces to attack the neighbouring Ukrainian-controlled towns of Kostiantynivka and Kramatorsk.
“I hope we don’t have to leave, but we will if [the frontline] comes to us,” said Dmytro Yakovensko, a doctor working in the children’s hospital in Kramatorsk. Kramatorsk has been relatively quiet in recent weeks, as Russian forces have concentrated their firepower on Bakhmut.
But soldiers on the ground and western analysts feel differently, with Ukraine’s heavy death toll being suggested as one of the reasons Ukraine’s leadership has been unwilling to give up – and also the reason it should.
“In my opinion, it’s political,” said Andriy, a deputy commander in Donetsk region whose battalion is fighting in the Bakhmut area. Andriy, in his US-made camouflage coat, was standing next to a set of Soviet-era armoured vehicles that were being fixed. “The positions are ready [for them] to retreat to. The reason they are still there is more of a political thing.”
www.theguardian.com
Ukrainian soldiers are being pummelled on three sides by Russian forces who are trying to capture Bakhmut, a city in the eastern Donetsk region that has become the focus of the longest and one of the bloodiest battles since the war began.
Ukraine’s authorities insist they will continue to try to hold the city despite them suffering an estimated 100-200 casualties a day – with some saying the reason is more political and symbolic than practical. Retreating from the city now, after so many soldiers died fighting to keep it, would be a hard reality to face.
The Russian push for Bakhmut started in July and intensified in the autumn after Moscow mobilised thousands of men, many of whom were Russian prisoners who signed up with the promise of freedom after six months of service.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, told CNN in an interview that retreating from Bakhmut would “open the road” for Russian forces to attack the neighbouring Ukrainian-controlled towns of Kostiantynivka and Kramatorsk.
“I hope we don’t have to leave, but we will if [the frontline] comes to us,” said Dmytro Yakovensko, a doctor working in the children’s hospital in Kramatorsk. Kramatorsk has been relatively quiet in recent weeks, as Russian forces have concentrated their firepower on Bakhmut.
But soldiers on the ground and western analysts feel differently, with Ukraine’s heavy death toll being suggested as one of the reasons Ukraine’s leadership has been unwilling to give up – and also the reason it should.
“In my opinion, it’s political,” said Andriy, a deputy commander in Donetsk region whose battalion is fighting in the Bakhmut area. Andriy, in his US-made camouflage coat, was standing next to a set of Soviet-era armoured vehicles that were being fixed. “The positions are ready [for them] to retreat to. The reason they are still there is more of a political thing.”
Ukrainian forces still trying to hold Bakhmut despite heavy casualties
Soldiers and analysts suggest defending city has become more of a political than practical issue, as Russian push continues
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- Sep 13, 2002
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Dark hotel bar after 4 bourbons? I could probably make that work.
French Foreign Legion? That's what came up with 13th DBLE anyway.
"Departure this Tuesday of around 40 vehicles for Estonia, including the Griffons of the 13th DBLE 3000 km to cover for these 2 military trains and a logistics operation coordinated by the National Land Contingent Command Post – Continental Europe"
"Departure this Tuesday of around 40 vehicles for Estonia, including the Griffons of the 13th DBLE 3000 km to cover for these 2 military trains and a logistics operation coordinated by the National Land Contingent Command Post – Continental Europe"
Now that I am pointing out that she has a can opener chin like Jay Leno, you will need 6 bourbons.
- Sep 13, 2002
- 97,904
- 204,179
- 113
