British-made Starstreak missile 'shoots down Russian helicopter in its first use in Ukraine' as Zelensky says the 'occupiers ARE withdrawing' from West

FOR MAILONLINE ^ | 1 April 2022 | CHRIS MATTHEWS and KATIE WESTON

[PLMerite]

“People on ‘ludes should not use cell phone cameras.” - Jeff Spicoli, 1982

[tlozo]

Which is really really annoying. I mean, how can Putin go to war and not give our intelligence guys a peak at all the stuff he has really been working on.

Ukrainians have captured a number of Russia's newest military tech.

Captured Russian EW system - 1RL257 Krasukha-4, used to suppress AWACS radars & radar reconnaissance satellites.

Time for very special trophies - Ukrainian troops captured a Russian Auriga-1.2V portable satellite communications system near #Kyiv. It is used to organize two high-speed channels through a satellite for secure communication between army command and frontline units.

Another uncommon Russian loss East of #Kharkiv: a Barnaul-T 9S932-1 automated system for air defense units command post.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

Just because you put the word “tactical” in front of them doesn’t eliminate the radiation. And if you’re using them tactically, they are going to be closer to your own troops.

[AndyJackson]

That is pretty standard army fare, and not exactly top shelf stuff. But ok....

[The Sons of Liberty]

Just because you put the word “tactical” in front of them doesn’t eliminate the radiation. And if you’re using them tactically, they are going to be closer to your own troops.

Once you step on that slippery slope, it is not long until "tactical" becomes "strategic" and bye, bye world - especially when you have a Madman on one side and a Senile Imbecile on the other.

It only takes one Nuke to ruin your whole day!

[dforest]

Spot on. They want it both ways.

[nikos1121]

I didn’t say he’ll be practical. How much more is he going to take?

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

I didn’t say he’ll be practical. How much more is he going to take?

If you are referring to Putin, exactly what is he "taking?"

Regardless, what do you expect he'd accomplish by using nuclear weapons in such close proximity to his own people and/or troops? Tactical nukes - if they even make sense on the battlefield at all - would only be useful against highly concentrated enemy forces. The type of thing you'd find in a division assembly area, for example.

The troop concentrations in this war don't warrant that because the Ukrainian deep battle area is more dispersed. They don't have whole divisions just sitting around. And if you did use them, your own troops couldn't/wouldn't move through the area afterwards anyway.

Doesn't make any military sense, and that's completely ignoring the massive international and domestic blowback he'd receive for using them at all.

[conejo99]

Now don’t go being logical.

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

It's weird -- it's almost like some of these folks feel sorry for Putin. Poor guy has just had to put up with so much!!

This thing is going to come to a head soon. The shifting of forces away from Kyiv and the increased number of air sorties being flown by the Russians suggest they are going to make a major push. Their logistical situation is likely crap, and they probably figure they can't keep up a war of attrition against a Ukraine getting supplied by the West. So they're going to take whatever offensive combat power they have remaining, and make a big single-axis push. Of course, that's probably what they should have done a month ago, but the clock is ticking and is now forcing their hand.

Big advantage the Ukrainians have, though, is western intelligence. It makes it virtually impossible for the Russians to achieve any kind of strategic or operational surprise because western intelligence will let the Ukrainians know it is coming. They'll be able to see where the Russian's are assembling for a major assault, and be able to shift forces almost immediately. That is a huge boon to a defender.

[jpsb]

I don’t think Putin would use nukes.

No need to use nukes when air fuel bombs are almost as effective.

[minnesota_bound]

The russians will blow up the tanks as easy as the Ukraine’s do to the Russian armor

[catnipman]

“Everybody is having fun testing their weapons. Right?”

that’s what proxy-wars are for ...

[catnipman]

“Do people understand that this war demonstrates the obsolescence of much of the Western way of war and the mountains of metal that WE rely on?”

several of us do indeed understand that ... the era of armored warfare is coming to its end ... the future of warfare belongs to copious numbers of small, “inexpensive”, intelligent, self-guiding, lethal and observation devices, easily operated by Gomer Pyle level soldiers ...

[lapsus calami]

 

 

It's 20th century equipment and tactics meeting 21st century whiz-bang technology. The natural progression is that all sides messing around in this are going to learn new lessons and a new era of even more lethality in warfare will be developed. A whole new kind of arms race is about to take off.