Posted on 03/01/2022 5:27:15 AM PST by blam
Ukraine is a highly devout country – about 87% of its 41 million citizens practice Christianity. So it’s notable that, to many Ukrainians, Mary Magdalene now has a new moniker: St. Javelin.
St Javelin (left), Ukrainian Defense Ministry / AP (right) via Euronews
The viral meme (shown above) recasting the “Apostle of the apostles” is in reverence to a device that knows no religion: the FGM-148 Javelin portable fire-and-forget anti-tank missile. Since the start of Putin’s dastardly invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian freedom fighters have extensively utilized the American-made weapon system – co-produced by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon – to rain destruction down upon the Russian military’s armored vehicles. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry estimates that 102 tanks and 536 armored vehicles had been destroyed as of February 26th. The Javelin likely factored heavily into that rousing combat success.
“This weapon allows a single soldier to target and destroy even the most heavily armored main battle tank with an almost guaranteed kill rate, at great range and with minimal risk,” Army Capt. Vincent Delany wrote of the Javelin for West Point’s Modern War Institute.
So how does this ‘holy’ piece of military machinery work? Laypersons might be envisioning a bazooka-like operation, but anti-tank weapons have evolved considerably since that quintessential rocket launcher was deployed in World War II. With the Javelin, a soldier using the portable, reusable Command Launch Unit (CLU) looks through an infrared sight to locate a target up to an incredible 2.5 miles away. When the user spots a target, he operates a cursor to set a square around it, almost like cropping an image. This is then sent to the onboard guidance computer on the missile itself, which has a sophisticated algorithmic tracking system coupled with an infrared imaging device. When the missile locks on to the target, the operator can launch the self-guided weapon and quickly relocate or reload to fire another missile at a different target.
Stuart A Hill AMS
The Javelin originally debuted in 1996, bearing a couple remarkable innovations. For one, it offers a “soft launch.” David Qi Zhang of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute explained what that means in his Master of Engineering thesis on the Javelin.
“The first motor… produces enough thrust to launch the missile out of the tube and a safe distance away, but is completely burned before the nozzle left the tube, leaving no exhaust to hit the operator. The flight motor then ignites to propel the [missile] along its attack path,” he wrote.
A second innovation of the Javelin is that it strikes from above. The missile rises high into the air, up to 490 feet, then blasts down on its target from a steep angle, striking the top of an armored vehicle or tank, where the armor is typically weakest.
(Please go to the site to view a video)
Russian tanks are not helpless against the Javelin. Most are equipped with explosive reactive armor. When struck by a penetrating weapon like a missile, the armor detonates, blasting a metal plate outwards to damage the missile’s penetrator and prevent it from piercing the tank’s main armor. The Javelin overcomes this by having tandem warheads, one to deal with the reactive armor plate, and the second to impact the tank’s armor itself. Modern Russian tanks are also equipped with a radar system called Arena, which detects incoming missiles and automatically fires a wide burst of projectiles to destroy or redirect them. But here, again, the Javelin reigns supreme, Delany says.
“The Javelin can defeat Arena while in top-attack mode, due to the missile descending from too steep an angle for the system to engage properly,” he wrote.
Ukraine had been shipped roughly 77 launchers and 740 missiles before Putin invaded. Many, many more of each are now on the way courtesy of the U.S. and European allies. May the Ukrainians put them to good use. Slava Ukraini!
yes, let’s all cheer on the javelin. You don’t want a conventional war? How about a nuclear one. Almost everyone here is missing the point. This war was preventable but was intentionally ignited by the Biden/DeepState admin. We should be actively trying to push for peace and give up the Ukraine/NATO thing. Every death be it Russian soldier, Ukrainian soldier or civilian is a tragedy and we should be trying to STOP it. Quit being bewitched by the MSM.
Yet if somehow the Ukrainians were able to largely destroy that column, doubt Putin would survive politically.
A “saint” is a mere human. Blasphemy? Kinda odd.
Ukraine is more corrupt than you can imagine. What we’re seeing is the equivalent of warlords fighting for spoils.
It was the Russian allied criminals that ran the Crimean election.
That came from expats that lived there during the last invasion. The Tatars were not allowed to vote.
“There has been much made of this 40 mile long Russian convoy that is approaching Kiev from the north and is said to be just a few miles outside the city. If the Ukrainians have Javelins, drones, some aircraft and know the terrain well, how is it that this massive convoy proceeds or positions itself without being attacked? Any insights or comments”
Watched a “military analyst” on CNN. He said that 40 mile convoy isn’t the most urgent threat. It is mostly trucks (supplies). Ukraine’s more urgent target are tanks, etc.
Well yeah, if nobody random is taking pics, and we’re seeing like 10-20 pics a day, who is taking those pics and is it giving any sort of accurate sense of the war so far?
“With everyone having a mobile phone, there’s a remarkable shortage of photos and video coming out of this war, don’t you think?”
Lots of videos if you want to watch them. Great site here:
Invader Helo going down:
https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1498630618988560392?cxt=HHwWkICy5fOmmswpAAAA (missile fired)
https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1498588302450040834?cxt=HHwWhIC5geGHh8wpAAAA (helo going down in water)
https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1498634848973512706?cxt=HHwWhICz0Y-dnMwpAAAA (Ukrainian missile strike on Russian soil)
https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1498502165731721223 (RPG fired)
https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1498504975332384769?cxt=HHwWgoC9zb2V4cspAAAA (RPG result)
https://twitter.com/CalibreObscura/status/1498428447097556995 (Ukraine special forces in action)
https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1498576165723910145?cxt=HHwWgsC5rafFgcwpAAAA (Turkish drones in action)
“Ukraine is corrupt as the day is long.”
As opposed to our Union government, politicians, apparatchiks, and oligarchs.
[”U.S. assesses that morale is flagging in some Russian units, and that some Russian units have surrendered without a fight in Ukraine, a senior US defense official says”]
[”U.S. believes Russia’s main advance on Kyiv has had no appreciable movement in last 24 hours, fuel, supply shortages, possible regrouping - US official”]
About the same as the govt. pays for a urinal, isn’t it?
I don’t think that’d do much good against an actual tank, but it would probably disable a lot of thin-skinned vehicles.
Right. Not opposed to, they have their hand in the cookie jar also.
...IEDs...
__________
There’s too much talk of IUDs on TV.
Oh, that's very different....Nevermind!
I also agree.Most of the Ukrainian people are not involved or responsible for the corruption of their govt any more than most of the people of the USA are responsible for the corruption of the US govt.
Gee, there’s all the war footage a person could want on screens at the local Church’s Fried Chicken.
Sorry, couldn’t help it!
They're not using modern tanks, they're using 50 year old T55 tanks from what I have read.
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