How cheap Chinese tires might explain Russia's 'stalled' 40-mile-long military convoy in Ukraine

The Week ^ | MARCH 3, 2022 | PETER WEBER

[TigerLikesRoosterNew]

How cheap Chinese tires might explain Russia's 'stalled' 40-mile-long military convoy in Ukraine

MARCH 3, 2022

PETER WEBER

As the eighth day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine began Thursday morning, Russian forces appeared to have gained tactical control of their first city, the southern port city of Kherson, but Ukraine is still holding out in Mariupol, Kharkiv, and Chernihiv, despite heavy shelling. Deaths are mounting on both sides.

Big explosions were heard in Kyiv overnight, but according to the British Defense Ministry's Thursday morning update, the main body of the 40-mile-long Russian military convoy advancing on the capital remains nearly 20 miles from the city center, "having been delayed by staunch Ukrainian resistance, mechanical breakdown, and congestion. The column has made little discernible progress in over three days."

/snip

Trent Telenko, a retired Pentagon staff specialist and military history blogger, suggests another big reason may be Russia's tires, as he explained in a long, illustrated Twitter thread based on photos of deserted Russian Pantsir-S1 wheeled gun-missile systems and his own experience as a U.S. Army vehicle auditor. "When you leave military truck tires in one place for months on end," the sidewalls get brittle in the sun and fail like the tires on the Pantsir-SR, he wrote. "No one exercised that vehicle for one year."

Karl Muth, an economist, government adviser, and self-described "tire expert," jumped in, agreeing with Telenko but adding some details about the tires.

Karl T. Muth @KarlMuthReplying to @Noahpinion

Bit of a tire expert here. Those aren't Soviet-era heavy truck radials. Chinese military tires, and I believe specifically the Yellow Sea YS20. This is a tire I first encountered in Somalia and Sudan; it's a bad Chinese copy of the excellent Michelin XZL military tire design.

[Fitzy_888]

Presumably the convoy stopped under the envelope of S-400 anti-aircraft batteries in Belarus and beyond the reach of any artillery camouflaged near Kiev.

[NorseViking]

LOL. At least someone gets it. Zelensky is a puppet working to turn his country into Somalia. In cities still under Ukrainian control, they release prisoners and give away guns to absolute strangers without any training who are mostly engaging in looting. They block civilians from leaving, and place MLRS by hospitals and apartment buildings to draw Russian fire and film “atrocities” when the return fire is coming. You can find videos online of citizens clashing with their military over it.

[TigerLikesRoosterNew]

You are keep changing subject. Now a hypersonic missile?

So what about the tire anyway? If some expert says Chinese tire in Russian vehicles is a crap, it is automatically fake news?

[SkyDancer]

I saw/read what you did there.

[Zhang Fei]

[Are these the same Chinese who make the super high quality iphones, iPads etc etc which Americans just love?]

---

They have American inspectors literally standing over the people putting this stuff together. Chinese tire makers aren’t making huge iPhone margins. In fact, they’re making a hugely automated product where labor hours are tiny and materials costs are basically the entire product cost. They don’t have the brand recognition and their tech stinks. So they cut material quality and quantity to make the price point. Which is why Putin’s army is stranded.

[SkyDancer]

And they too will crack due to ozone in our atmosphere.

[SkyDancer]

Read where the road/bridges ahead of them are blown. Also they’re out of fuel.

[TigerLikesRoosterNew]

Yeah, many factors are in play for sure. But breakdown of a single vehicle alone can stop the convoy. We now see one way it can happen: a bad Chinese tire.

[2CAVTrooper]

“I read somewhere that the Russian pilots get about 1/3 the seat time per year of US pilots. That sounds like a problem too.”

Maybe less time than that.

Our pilots who fly the Mi-24 Hind, etc at Ft Polk and Ft Irwin definitely have more stick time than a large number of their Russian peers combined.

[flamberge]

Are they really stalled, or are they building up and positioning? I guess it depends on who you ask.

I asked some people who have studied Russian military doctrine.

Their answer is that the Russians are following their standard battle doctrine. They are standing off beyond potential artillery range from the defenders in the city and have positioned forward artillery of the own to pound the defenders while they prepare supplies and troops for the final assault.

The Russians have uncontested air space above their convoys. That is the only way this kind of maneuver can work. Otherwise, they would all be piles of smoldering wreckage by now.

The Turkish battle drones have been devastatingly effective, but there simply aren't enough of them to make a difference. Also, while the drones are very hard to spot or take down, the operator control stations are easily located by their radio emissions. They will get wacked by Russian artillery or air strikes if the operators stay in one place very long.

Drones can be killed by battle lasers quite easily. No such systems appear to be deployed by the Russian forces.

We had best be cautious about believing our own propaganda. Rotten tires and mechanical failures are part of casualty planning for this sort of campaign. They are not decisive.

Let's see if the Russians start the full-scale artillery attack next. Their second assault on the Chechnya city of Grozny is the model they may follow.

[Ezekiel]

>>>Do you mean Chinese tires could be the chink in Putin’s army?<<<

Russia's 'stalled' 40...

Maybe they meant the percent?

Desperate times if the vodka is Staldinchiyna.

[SmokingJoe]

You are keep changing subject. Now a hypersonic missile?

Except it was you that changed the subject and brought in war planes in the first place.

So what about the tire anyway? If some expert says Chinese tire in Russian vehicles is a crap, it is automatically fake news?

Pure speculation. Read your article again will you?

Quote from article:
“
Tl”Trent Telenko, a retired Pentagon staff specialist and military history blogger, suggests another big reason may be Russia's tires, as he explained in a long, illustrated Twitter thread based on photos of deserted Russian Pantsir-S1 wheeled gun-missile systems and his own experience as a U.S. Army vehicle auditor. “When you leave military truck tires in one place for months on end,” the sidewalls get brittle in the sun and fail like the tires on the Pantsir-SR, he wrote. “No one exercised that vehicle for one year.”

Pure speculation from some retired guy who knows little about Russia or Russian history going back to when Napoleon invaded Russia and got clobbered by the severe winter and the Russians. Same with Hitler.
Nobody knows how to fight in freezing snow more than Russia does.

[McGruff]

*facepalm*

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Besides weapons, can Russia build anything right?

[SmokingJoe]

They have American inspectors literally standing over the people putting this stuff together

What makes you think that?
Were these “American inspectors “ there it was found out Apple contractors were using forced labor to make their products in China?
Do you have any link (outside of Apple) to support your ridiculous claim?

[TigerLikesRoosterNew]

...Except it was you that changed the subject...

You are the one who changed subject from tire to iphone, not me.

By the way, snow melted now. It is muddy season, Rasputitsa. Hitler's army also ran into Rasputitsa and suffered greatly.
Russians knew it but outsiders didn't.

Russians are disregarding their own taboo somehow.

[TexasGator]

I heard they are waiting for the southern forces to come up to Kyiv.

[SheepWhisperer]

Bought a new 23’ travel trailer in 2020.

Side note, I could sell it now and more than I paid.

Anyway, I was talking to a friend, who has the same manufacturer trailer. He had a complete casing failure while towing and pulled over to change the tire. It exploded and ruptured his sewage pvc and he had to change the tire in a puddle of his own poop water.

Did some research and sure enough, these cheap CHYna tires are a known issue, even on light travel trailers.

I immediately bought five new HD Goodyear tires

Choose wisely grasshopper.
No roadside assistance swimming in my own poop water.

...that is all

[BobL]

Thanks, I read RT when I can get through and Putin basically said the same, that he’s pretty much finished off neutralizing military assets and preparing for the final assaults, which is why I made my comment.

[mass55th]

As of 2020, approximately a quarter of Russian imports are from China. These are the top 15 products they were importing from China at that time:

Electronic equipment: $15 billion
Machinery: $13.1 billion
Vehicles: $2.1 billion
Plastics: $1.9 billion
Clothing (not knit or crochet): $1.85 billion
Medical, technical equipment: $1.78 billion
Organic chemicals: $1.8 billion
Iron or steel products: $1.76 billion
Footwear: $1.42 billion
Toys, games: $1.4 billion
Furniture, lighting, signs: $1.1 billion
Knit or crochet clothing: $912.7 million
Other textiles, worn clothing: $905.6 million
Base metal tools, cutlery: $601.9 million
Rubber: $588.5 million