Posted on 11/09/2003 7:03:35 AM PST by 11B3
I hadn't seen these posted, and I hadn't even heard about this incident until finding these photos. In Iraq, a US 4th Infantry Division tank was destroyed (and two of the four man crew killed) when they rolled over three anti-tank mines, buried in the road, one on top of another. It sounds to me just like the method the Palis used to knock out a Merkava - so either the Palis have come to Iraq, or they have trained someone who is there.
These photos are a little hard to look at, but unfortunately it needs to be done. I can only hope that the two KIA died instantly, and that the other two crewmen will recover fully. (Plus I hope that the rest of the company/platoon gets some payback.) Anyway, here's the photos.
Turret upside down, some distance from the hull.
The remains of the hull.
More detail of the hull.
Yes, that looks like a kevlar helmet.
Turret being recovered.
They say there are two kinds of people on the modern battlefield. The dead and those about to die. Increasingly, the killers are not even on the field. Walking into the roach trap takes the romance out of going to the refrigerator.
It's hard to imagine an occupation against a population armed with millions of rifles capable of hitting a soldier at 500+ yards.
It's hard to imagine any well armed population being successfully occupied against it's will. Look at how much difficulty a small percentage of the population is causing in Iraq, and most of them aren't all that well trained.
As the Japanese Admiral noted when asked why Japan didn't ever try to land in the US, 'What are you crazy? Every one there owns a gun.'
The sharpshooter scenario though is very much like the English approach to the long bow. The real key to any such defense is that if the people all want the same thing, and all are willing to risk everything for it, they essentially don't need command and control. If the Shite's ever lose patience with the occupation, we will see that happen, and it won't be pretty.
Nah. We're getting close to being able to shoot those things down. The bottom, where the cover is closest, will remain the hardest part to defend.
Turkeys act is still hurting us.
It's hard to imagine any well armed population being successfully occupied against it's will. Look at how much difficulty a small percentage of the population is causing in Iraq, and most of them aren't all that well trained.
As the Japanese Admiral noted when asked why Japan didn't ever try to land in the US, 'What are you crazy? Every one there owns a gun.'
The sharpshooter scenario though is very much like the English approach to the long bow. The real key to any such defense is that if the people all want the same thing, and all are willing to risk everything for it, they essentially don't need command and control. If the Shite's ever lose patience with the occupation, we will see that happen, and it won't be pretty.
Essentially what the Swiss have depended on for 400 years, and it's worked for them. But in today's world they need a few other things: Light Antitank Weapons or RPG-7s, night vision device equipped weapons, possibly suppressed, and a MANPADS antiaircraft missile for about every 50th or 100th trooper.
Add in some mines or demo charges, and possibly some *Liberator* or *Deer Gun* single-shot assassination pistols, and life becomes very difficult for the occupiers, indeed.
Note though, that in 1959 when faced with a Soviet invasion of Finland following Soviet military operations in Hungary and East Germany, the Finns found a simple but effective response: They sold off a few tons of relic and captured weapons from the WWI and WWII period to the Interarmco weapons brokering firm, and in return got 100,000 leftover British Sten guns. The Russians recalled the 4 months of 1939-40 when they last visited in Finland, and two thirds of their invasion force became permanent fixtures in the Finnish countryside, fertilizing the fields and forests as their last favour to those they'd have enslaved.
The Russians chose not to press their luck. Those murderous Finns were crazy, and a tenth of a million of them had Sten guns, with many of the others still maintaining rifles from the last time such things took place.
-archy-/-
Nah. We're getting close to being able to shoot those things down. The bottom, where the cover is closest, will remain the hardest part to defend.
The T-90 features the low silhouette of the earlier Russian tanks, with a low rounded turret centered on the hull, and is fitted with combined passive and active defenses which make the T-90 one of the best protected main battle tanks in the world. The glacis is covered by second generation explosive reactive armor [ERA] bricks, as is the turret. This ERA gives the turret an angled appearance, with the ERA bricks forming a "clam shell" appearance. ERA bricks on the turret roof provide protection from top-attack weapons.
The T-90 is equiped with the TShU-1-7 Shtora-1 optronic counter measures system which is designed to disrupt the laser target designation and rangefinders of incoming ATGM. The T-90 is also equipped with a laser warning package that warns the tank crew when it is being lased. Shtora-1 is an electro-optical jammer that jams the enemy’s semiautomatic command to line of sight (SACLOS) antitank guided missiles, laser rangefinders and target designators. Shtora-1 is actually a soft kill, or countermeasures system. It is most effective when used in tandem with a hard kill system such as the Arena. During the International Defense Exposition (IDEX) held in Abu Dhabi in 1995, the system was shown fitted to a Russian MBT. The first known application of the system is the Russian T-90 MBT that entered service in the Russian Army in 1993. Shtora-1 is currently installed on the T-80UK, T-80U, T-84 and T-90 MBTs.
The Shtora-1 system comprises four key components, the electro-optical interface station, which includes a jammer, modulator, and control panel; a bank of forward-firing grenade dischargers mounted on either side of the turret that are capable of firing grenades dispensing an aerosol screen; a laser warning system with precision and coarse heads; and a control system comprising control panel, microprocessor, and manual screen-laying panel. This processes the information from the sensors and activates the aerosol screen-laying system. Two infrared lights, one on each side of the main gun, continuously emit coded pulsed infrared jamming when an incoming ATGM has been detected. Shtora-1 has a field of view of 360-degrees horizontally and -5 to +25-degrees in elevation. It contains 12 aerosol screen launchers and weighs 400kg. The screening aerosol takes less than 3 seconds to form and lasts about 20 seconds. The screen laying range is between 50-70 meters.
Prayers for protection and strength for the troops, and strength and guidance for those on the homefront - for courage to face the hardest truths and to still fight when you're ready to give up.
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