Posted on 06/22/2023 3:40:27 PM PDT by Mariner
Ukraine's armed forces are gaining ground and pressing ahead with counteroffensive operations, but the Russians are putting up a fight and deploying aviation assets to the front lines in ways they haven't been until recently to blunt Ukrainian efforts to retake captured territory.
Ukrainian forces are pushing beyond the protection of some of their fixed air defenses without the kind of mobile air defenses they really need, and Russian attack helicopters, like the Ka-52 Alligators able to do damage with its 30mm cannon or anti-tank missiles, are emerging as a threat to Ukraine's ground forces that must be quickly engaged with air-defense missiles before they can eliminate its heavy armor, such as tanks and infantry fighting vehicles.
Senior Ukrainian military officials have raised concerns about Russia's "aviation and artillery superiority" during the counteroffensive operations, which they have said are meeting "fierce fighting," and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told The BBC Wednesday the counteroffensive is currently moving "slower than desired."
In a recent intelligence update, Britain's defense ministry noted that "Russia has re-enforced its attack helicopter force in" southern Ukraine, giving the Russians an advantage in an area where tougher fights have been taking place.
A Ukrainian soldier told The Financial Times this week that Russian helicopter attacks on Ukraine's armored vehicles have proven to be a "very powerful technique" the Ukrainian forces have struggled to match with the capabilities available
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
I could not have said it better myself.
The NATurds aren't used to that. :)
Slow moving helicopters are vulnerable to ground attack.
The fact that they can fly unmolested means Ukraine air defence must be down to zero.
There have been reports that Russia has been successful jamming Ukrainian communications as well as their radar sites get droned when found.
It's disgusting that NATO is letting the wholesale slaughter go on.
Well, at least some people are getting wealthy
What happened to the thousands of Stingers and Javs that we gave them?
True. If their birds are running ops unmolested, that means a lot of bad things for whoever is on the wrong end.
Russians have some very beastly choppers too. Not as manueverable as or tech as, say, an AH64, but the armament will just fk your world up... badly.
They were sold to Islamic Terrorists all over the world who promised to return them to the USA.
I think you meant: “ It is disgusting that NATO (Washington) is CAUSING the wholesale slaughter.”
Yep, they prolly wound up for sale on the international arms market.
NATO lags in electronic warfare.
This has been a known issue for years. Here is Phillip Karber talking about it five years ago.
https://youtu.be/_CMby_WPjk4?t=2081
Yup, $800 bil per year military, and they lag behind “primitive” Russia in, ..uh, .. electronic warfare.
Measured in yards, not miles.
It's disgusting that RUSSIA is making this slaughter go on. Russia could end it now by just going home. NATO is just supporting the Ukrainians in defending themselves. It is also disgusting how there are some who place no moral responsibility on the Russians, the ones who started and are continuing this war by their invasion.
The last thing you want to be is a soldier in a war which your side is operating primarily as a money-laundering scheme.
Your corrupt government will have more profitable ways to disposition incoming money and weapons, than sending it to save your sorry ass.
Attack helicopters deployed sensibly are hard to target from the ground. They use stealth techniques like hiding at low altitude behind a tree line, or smoke, only to pop up, fire off some anti tank rockets, and disappear back into the woods. It seems ukraine did not think through this “counterattack” very thoroughly.
> It’s disgusting that NATO is letting the wholesale slaughter go on.
That presumes NATO has a choice.
Most of the surviving Ukes wouldn't be trained on them.
Also, deploying them properly takes intel, lots of training, support, parts, institutional knowledge, dedicated units etc. Can't just hand them gazillions worth of $**t, pat them on them ass and expect any results.
Morons and evil clowns are in charge.
The people vying for F16s make me laugh. It's hard rnough for an AMERICAN squadron to keep F16s in the air. When foreigners try them it less than 50% in the air and terrible execution... even for ground ops.
NATO's goal was expansion and they care very little about the Ukrainian lives that will be served up for that goal.
Take another look at the history. It was Ukraine that was petitioning to join NATO, and it was NATO that repeatedly said "no."
Expended or sold. Also, a lot of the AA/MANPADS munitions supplied to the Ukranians with much fanfare turned out to be out of date and more dangerous to their users than the targets - look into the German-donated Strela MANPADS; the ones they gave to Ukraine were ones that they had stored pending disposal as being far too dangerous to fire even as training munitions.
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