Attack On Europe: Documenting Russian Equipment Losses During The 2022 Russian Invasion Of Ukraine

ORYX ^ | Since February 24, 2022 and daily | ORYX

[SpeedyInTexas]

So Sad.

“Former FSB investigator Alexei Kolbov, convicted for extortion of $1 million in Bitcoin, joined the army from prison, went to Ukraine, and got killed.”

https://twitter.com/igorsushko/status/1747324135448158371

[SpeedyInTexas]

Can’t make this stuff up.

“Let me get this straight. Russia is claiming they shot down their own A-50 as proof that Ukraine didn’t shoot it down?

That’s a win for Russia?

Killing your own men and dowing a $330 million aircraft is supposed to make the Russian people and their own pilots feel better?”

https://twitter.com/JamesLLandis/status/1747394477679923591

[JonPreston]

one guess who best fits that bill today

That would be Biden, the guy whose foreign policy you support.

[JonPreston]

When the war in Ukraine is finally over, with half the country dead or maimed, Volodymyr Zelensky will end up living in Miami with billions in the bank and a TV talk show....#Davos #UkraineWar #Ukraine️ #Russia#RussiaUkraineWar#UkraineRussianWar#Ukrainekrieg#UkraineWar… pic.twitter.com/OJy7YplfeC— Richard (@ricwe123) January 16, 2024

[BeauBo]

North Korea is getting rid of their old stockpiles as well:

ISW reports (15 Jan):

“Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate (GUR) Deputy Chief Major General Vadym Skibitskyi stated that Russia’s defense industrial base (DIB) cannot produce enough artillery ammunition to sustain Russia’s pace of fire and that North Korea delivered one million rounds of artillery ammunition to Russia in September-November 2023.”

[BeauBo]

“The German opposition will put the transfer of Taurus missiles to Ukraine to a vote in the Bundestag”

I believe that the intent of this, is to force the Scholz Administration to transfer those weapons.

“Germany’s primary opposition parties, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) coalition, will call for a Bundestag vote on the transfer of Taurus missiles to Ukraine on Jan. 17, the German news outlet NTV reported.”

Kerch Bridge much?

[ansel12]

Yes, and that is too bad, but I doubt that the replacement goods will be much of anything other than simply newer.

My impression is that our new stocks will greatly reflect the technological advancements from over the decades, that our new missiles won’t be just a fresh model of the same one from 20 or 30 years ago.

[BeauBo]

“France will send an additional 40 SCALP-EG long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine”

Also, “Hundreds of bombs” (According to President Macron today).

Maybe they are for the F-16s.

He also said that more Air Defense will be provided. France will also be hosting an “artillery coalition” conference in Paris later in January.

[blitz128]

Wouldn’t disagree entirely, but I think there is another name you may have missed?
Kind of short, no mustache but very very similar

[BeauBo]

F-16s for Ukraine:

Kyiv Independent reports (January 17, 2024):

"Washington’s authorization for allies to give F-16s to Ukraine came through in August 2023. A month earlier, 11 countries formed the “fighter jet coalition” that would deliver the planes and prepare Ukraine and its pilots to use them. It later grew to include 14 countries.

The coalition is led by the U.S., Denmark, and the Netherlands. The others include Norway, the U.K., Greece, Luxembourg, Canada, Poland, France, Romania, Belgium, Portugal and Sweden.

Some of them are supplying the actual hardware — planes, munitions and equipment. Others are making their jets and instructors available for training or preparing pilots on their soil.

The exact number of F-16s to be delivered has yet to be determined. The Netherlands and Denmark will provide at least 37, while Norway and Belgium pledged to give some as well. Delivery dates range from 2024 to 2025, as is the case for the expected completion of the pilot training programs.

There are three separate programs for pilots at different levels. Earlier this month, Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said that six advanced pilots are already flying F-16s in Denmark and should be ready to fight in the spring. The least experienced group is training in the U.K. — they might not be ready until 2025.

An intermediate group training in Arizona is expected to graduate later this year, according to a Jan. 4 briefing by the U.S. State Department.

Ukrainian ground crews are also learning to service the aircraft.

F-16s are more powerful but also more fragile than the Soviet fighters that Ukraine uses and require specialized logistics and infrastructure.

For example, they require smoother runways. One of the biggest challenges will be resurfacing the runways that Ukraine plans to use without attracting the Russians’ attention.

“Airfields must be protected from air strikes, which means it will be necessary to deploy the air defense systems if it has not already been done,” Viktor Kevliuk, an expert of Ukraine’s Center for Defense Strategies, told the Kyiv Independent.

“The allies should also provide us with air-to-air missiles for air combat because Soviet bombs are not suitable for this plane,” he said. These weapons, plus all the fuel reserves have to be kept somewhere safe and well-guarded. ”This is quite a long process...”

...Ukraine is trying to get more modern avionics and weapon systems installed on the planes it will be getting, which would significantly improve their performance. The jets will require lots of spare parts that the U.S. has pledged to provide.

The first batch of planes may be coming from the Netherlands. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Dec. 22 said that his government started preparing the initial 18 fighter jets, while a spokesperson from the Dutch Defense Ministry told NOS that more jets may be delivered at a later date. There have been no updates since then.

Denmark had pledged to supply six planes by the end of 2023, but the delivery date has been reportedly pushed back six months. Copenhagen said it would give 19 planes in total.

Danish and Dutch officials have said the delivery schedule depends on the readiness of Ukraine’s infrastructure and pilots, among other factors.

Belgium’s defense minister has promised several jets, which would likely arrive in 2025. According to Norwegian broadcaster NRK, Norway plans to send between five and 10 planes, but neither the total number or the delivery schedule has been fixed.

Experts told the Kyiv Independent that Ukraine will likely have at least some F-16s operational in late spring or early summer...

...“With some careful planning… I think there’s a chance that at least in the early stages before the Russians understand what’s happening, they can score some air-to-air kills by having F-16 fighters in just the right place at the right time,” said Peter Layton, Associate Fellow at Royal United Services Institute and former Royal Australian Air Force officer.

The AMRAAM air-to-air missiles that can be fired from the platform have a longer range than the weapons that can be fitted on Ukraine’s MiG-29s. However, this will only remain a tactical advantage before Russians adapt by dragging their aircraft further back from the front line, he said.

Kevliuk noted that Ukrainian and Russian warplanes have not engaged in much air-to-air combat in the past year, as both armies are trying to preserve them.

Russian planes mostly engage ground targets, including civilian targets in cities. F-16s could defend Ukraine’s airspace, reducing the pressure on ground-based air defenses, according to Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center.

“With Russia targeting Ukraine's cities, there is a very real danger that Ukraine's air defense launchers could run empty trying to engage every salvo of Russian drones and missiles… If that happens, Russia could gain air superiority over Ukraine by default, and it would be able to bring the full firepower of its air force to bear on the battlefield,” Grieco said.

“To avoid this outcome, Ukraine would need to be more selective in engaging these Russian strikes, or it needs to find additional missiles to intercept these attacks. The F-16 has the potential to be useful in this role.”

Offensively, F-16s could also engage ground targets, helping Ukraine “blast a way” into a Russian-held area by dropping high-explosive bombs “that will create a lot of blasts, noise, and bomb fragments,” according to Layton, although this won’t last long because the F-16 can’t carry a big bomb payload.

As versatile as they are, F-16s have their limitations. Grieco argued that they are unlikely to be the key to breaking through Russia's defensive lines or establishing clear air superiority. To do that, she thinks Ukraine needs to suppress or destroy Russia’s surface-to-air batteries, like the S-400.

“Ukrainian pilots flying F-16s, equipped with anti-radiation weapons, would have to fly well into the S-400's engagement range to bait Russian operators into emitting,” said Grieco.

“The S-400's engagement range is nearly four times the range of an AGM-88 anti-radiation missile, which makes it an inherently dangerous mission, and Ukraine's losses would likely and quickly become unsustainable.”

In the long term, having an F-16 program may accelerate Ukraine’s move towards synchronizing its military with NATO standards and reducing its reliance on outdated aircraft."

[BeauBo]

I expect that North Korea will draw down more of its old inventory, than they will replace by new production (like Russia has done).

They may be producing some more per month, but their total inventory is declining quickly, with much higher rates of use.

[BeauBo]

“Reports that Russia launched major offensive in the east today and were unsuccessful.”

Kyiv Post reported today:

“Ukraine ordered a mandatory evacuation of the Kindrashivka and Kurylivka settlements near Kupyansk in northeastern Ukraine, citing concerns over the “security situation” as fear of a renewed Russian offensive loomed.

All families with children in a dozen villages around the settlements were ordered to evacuate (about 3,000)...

...Kupyansk is located approximately 60 km from the Russian border in the Kharkiv region. It was captured by Russian forces at the offset of the full-scale invasion and liberated by Ukraine in September 2022 in a surprise counteroffensive.

In an update on Jan. 14, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) reported that Russian forces were “preparing to launch a new offensive in the coming weeks once the ground freezes in eastern and southern Ukraine,” citing Russian sources.

According to the sources, the new large-scale offensive is expected to take place between Jan. 12 and Feb. 2, but ISW believed that Russia “will be unable to make operationally significant breakthroughs.””

[FtrPilot]

As the F-16s arrive, I hope the Ukrainians convert their soviet made MiGs and SUUs into drones.

They can fly them into military targets in ruzzia.

[BeauBo]

Latvia is heading a “Drone Coalition” of 20 nations, to provide Ukraine with drones for its war effort.

France leads a new “Artillery Coalition”.

The UK and Norway lead a “Naval Coalition”.

USA, Denmark and the Netherlands lead the “Fighter Jet Coalition” of 14 nations.

Western Military support for Ukraine is becoming more and more institutionally entrenched.

[GBA]

Whoa … that’s a lot of coalitions!

Time to change that Biden pointing meme to one with Putin saying “I did that!”

And just think, none of these things would be happening if not for good ol’ Vlad and his special invasion.

All of this death and destruction, all of this misery, the loss of all that Russia had gained, including growing respect from and friendships and partnerships with past enemies since the fall of the Soviet Union … all gone now because Vlad felt threatened.

D’oh!!

[ansel12]

This Putin invasion has done wonders to improve the military awareness of the West and our Pacific allies.

[BeauBo]

“that’s a lot of coalitions!”

It is not even a comprehensive list.

Clearly, the model was a success with the fighter jet coalition, and it is now being replicated with other combat capabilities, spreading the administrative burden around across many allied Governments.

They will likely take on lives of their own, as bureaucrats are assigned full time, and get their evaluations and bonuses based on how they do.

[Vlad0]

No large fonts this time. Sorry to disappoint.

[ansel12]

All those people you pinged and you left off Wildcard_Redneck.