Posted on 08/29/2022 3:25:20 PM PDT by SpeedyInTexas
Russian cargo planes left Tehran 10 days ago with UAVs, some of which have already malfunctioned, U.S. and allied officials say
Russian cargo planes have quietly picked up the first of scores of Iranian-made combat drones for use against Ukraine, U.S. officials said, in a move that underscores deepening ties between Moscow and Tehran while also highlighting Russia’s struggles to supply its overstretched military.
But while the weapons could provide a significant boost for Russia’s war effort against Ukraine, the transfer has been marred by technical problems, security officials from the United States and an allied government said in interviews. In early tests by the Russians, the Iranian drones experienced numerous failures, the officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Archived version: https://archive.ph/G7YRH
Technical difficulties? Awww...geee...that’s just too bad!
The US produces more quality military equipment than probably any two competitors. I was in that business for 33 years. I can tell you that you don’t figure out how to test equipment in just a decade or two. The US has had scientists studying how to conduct tests and how many tests to conduct since the 1950’s. Almost anyone can build a few weapons or vehicles. But when you build a lot of them and they absolutely must work first time, every time, that’s a skill developed over decades. And why did we do it? Because if the US wants to fight a war, it has to ship equipment across an ocean, then get it from where it lands to where it will be used. By that time the investment in whatever capability equipment represents is huge.
Russia is a land power. Their philosophy has always been, we’ll build lots crap and fire lots of it at the enemy because it’s cheaper to make lots of cheap stuff and plenty of it and then ship it by rail. This is why they don’t have much precision hardware. It’s hard to build. It’s much more expensive to build. I’ll bet that the US ships Ukraine something that disables those drones within weeks.
With software upgrades from the Mossad, no doubt.
Russia is aligned with Iran, North Korea, and China. Yet, to some here, they’re actually the good guys compared to the U.S. and NATO.
Meh, Ukraine is aligned with DC, Brussels, London, NATO, Schwab and the WEF, Soros, Biden, Nuland, Hillary, and Vindman. Yet some here claim they are the actually the good guys.
Russia has to be in very bad shape ,LOL
I don’t see many that actually think Russia is good. It’s more a notion this is just short of a civil war and not vital to our security. This wasn’t our war. I would suggest we caused it though. Hard to argue if Putin has consistently said he would go to war before Ukraine joined nato. Hard to argue we didn’t tell Russia we wouldn’t let Ukraine in nato. Seems we got lucky he didn’t invade Poland.
Do they look similar to the one Obama gave to Iran?
Well, that makes sense. We send Iran $ billions, they produce ordnance, ship it to Russia for use against Ukraine. We send $billions to Ukraine to fight the Russians.
Except this Ukrainian conflict proved otherwise. Western MIC is making overpriced and difficult to use stuff in small numbers which is at best as capable as Russian stuff but mostly doesn’t come close. It is simply a post-Cold War racket geared toward milking the budgets through sub-nation state warfare.
It cracks me up every time I hear leaks about the inventories of this and that in the NATO countries and how the makers are promising to rump up production, on some items to the same amount per year as the Russians can afford to use per day.
Obviously, not everyone who opposes aiding Ukraine is pro-Russian. However, there have been people here who actually argue that Putin/Russia is our savior from Klaus Schwab and the WEF, and therefore sees Russia as morally superior to the 2022 United States.
I guess I’m the only one who didn’t see this interview with Trump, do you know where the threads are on it?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-c1Me0Kezg
Russia was a possible swing in the next World War... looks like they’ve gone with China and Iran. Trump could have saved this..maybe he still can.
Sorry that video was 5 months ago.
I can’t find threads.
Watch it and see how pro-Ukraine Trump is.
We read in the press an article on this or that weapon system and it shapes our opinion. But when I’ve read those articles written about the systems I was working on, I wonder how on Earth the author got so much wrong. The articles are written not inform, but to get views or to pursue an agenda. Mostly, the military makes no effort to counter those articles, possibly because you can’t prove a negative. “You’re gay.” “No I’m not.”
What a lot of it comes down to in weapons like artillery is Circular Error Probability. If I can make a guaranteed hit on a target with one shot and those shot costs, say $50,000 and the competing system takes many shots and those shots are cheaper for each shot, which is better? The US has to manufacture, ship, store, ship again across an ocean, then truck to where it’s used then that shot is now very much more expensive. Further, you can only have so much capacity in that chain. So when the shot gets to the gun, if it kills the target, it doesn’t matter how much it costs as it can’t easily be replaced if it misses. Don’t forget, in a real war a lot of that chain will cease to function. So that one shot may be the only one you get.
Russia has always had internal lines of supply. Therefore, they can make lots of something cheap and send it by rail. They store thousands of rounds at each location in case the rail lines are destroyed. But having made that huge amount of ammo or systems, they must be maintained. They must be properly stored. While stored they are subject to pilfering, bugs, rats, and sabotage. And each time you fire a round, you wear down the gun it is fired from. On average a Howitzer can fire 2500 rounds before it becomes…first, less accurate, and then…dangerous. If you are firing fifty rounds per day, which is often necessary if your CEP is even mildly large, then you have to send that gun back to the plant to have a new barrel installed.
Staying with artillery as an example, though there are analogs in all US gear, it simply isn’t possible to send back every gun when it needs a new barrel. So every round must land on target. As for how much we can produce of any given system, that would require a lengthy answer. But the short version is, we do not produce huge quantities that we will not be consuming because it is expensive and wasteful. Then at some point whatever you built ages out and must be scrapped or it must be tested, refurbished, etc. We could produce more of anything Congress wants, but then you won’t be spending that money on other things. Everything is a tradeoff. But it is not the company that makes that decision. It is Congress.
Can you post a simple general description (something off the top of your head) of how much benefit the Western militaries and their weapons/ammo producers are getting from all this sending stuff to Ukraine while we replace and use up older supplies and get rid of some materials that we have more modern versions of?
Does this help us and help keep the manufacturers in operation and profits which will contribute to our readiness for the next decade or so in a war against Red China?
Is this a good period for refreshing our stocks and supplies, giving our war factories a needed boost to keep them around and operational, and perhaps a chance to get some slightly improved versions of what was in our weapons warehouses? Not just for us but for other NATO nations?
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