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Key Points: The US Army's M10 Booker armored vehicle program is criticized as a prime example of a flawed requirements process. -Initially intended as a lightweight, C-130 airdroppable "light tank" to support airborne and light infantry units, successive requirement additions ("creep") resulted in a 42-ton vehicle too heavy for airdrop and even some base infrastructure, like bridges at Fort Campbell. -Despite failing its original key criteria, the airdrop requirement was dropped, and the program continued. -Critics argue the Army now fields a vehicle lacking its intended mission and unique deployability, representing bureaucratic inertia over battlefield need. -The M10 Booker has...

Sweden donated 10 of its best Strv 122 tanks to Ukraine. In two years of hard fighting, Russian forces have scored no fewer than 14 hits on the 63-ton, four-person tanks—possibly meaning all 10 of the tanks have been damaged, some more than once. Incredibly, most of the tanks—up-armored Swedish variants of the German-made Leopard 2A5—are still operational, according to one detailed accounting. The tanks’ durability is testimony to German and Swedish engineering and the courage and ingenuity of Ukrainian engineers who must tow damaged tanks off the battlefield for repairs. The add-on armor works. One up-armored Leopard 1A5 recently...

It’s no big secret that the cost of attending a four-year college or university in the United States is out of control. It’s almost gravity defying how the cost of college has increased relative to regular inflation over the past twenty years. In fact, more than 500 nonprofit private colleges have shut down in the last decade according to the Wall Street Journal, which was "three times what it was in the decade prior." The news is about to get worse, and there is a stern warning announcement coming from the pilot in the cockpit. 2025 is going to have...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released footage Friday of a tank firing a shell at the building in southern Gaza where Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was taking cover. He was killed by a sniper but the tank shell brought down the building. His body was discovered by soldiers the next day and sent to Israel for testing; his identity was confirmed hours later. The IDF said in a statement:

A military enthusiast bought a tank on eBay recently and discovered $2.5 million of gold bars hidden inside, in one of the most unexpected and intriguing places where gold has ever been found. Nick Mead discovered the five gold bars stashed inside the diesel tank of the ex-Iraqi Army Type 69, a Chinese copy of the Soviet T-55, back in 2017. It’s believed the bullion was looted by plundering Iraqi soldiers during the 1990 invasion of Kuwait but forgotten about inside the 36.7-ton tank. Man regrets handing in the gold found in the tank from eBay Stunned by the discovery,...

One modern tank that was supposed to end the stalemate was the vaunted German Leopard 2 tank. This modern beast has all the goodies that you would expect. It is arguably NATO’s best tank produced by a European member. The Leopard is fast, powerful, and agile, with great armor and a respectable gun. But how has it done in Ukraine? And what does that performance say about the overall future of the tank?

🎥 Russian troops have evacuated the first US-made M1 Abrams tank from the front line near Avdeyevka, Chief Press Officer of Russia’s Battlegroup Tsentr Alexander Savchuk told Sputnik. According to him, soon everyone will be able to see the trophy at an exhibition of NATO equipment captured in the special military operation zone on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow. VIDEO AT LINK......................

..... Today these drones—hundreds of thousands of them—are the most important systems in the Ukrainian inventory. This means tactical radio jammers, which can block the signals operators use to control their drones, are the most important systems in the Russian inventory. So when Russian tanks began rolling toward the front line with a giant new jammer—actually, clusters of multiple jammers—in recent weeks, Ukrainian drone operators were interested. Very interested. If the new jammers worked, the Ukrainian operators would need to develop countermeasures. Their chance to find out came earlier this month, when a Russian T-72 festooned with jammers ran over...

By a long shot, the enduring image of a NATO-standard modern main battle tank in the Russo-Ukraine War is a video of a stopped vehicle getting hammered by cheap FPV drones, before it gets set on fire and burns down to a six-million-dollar hulk. Combat video posted by the 79th Air Assault Brigade on Tuesday, reportedly from the eastern Avdiivka sector, was typical, showing a stationary US-made M1A2 Abrams tank hit with a detonation in the back of the turret, probably by a Russian FPV drone. Three crew hurl themselves from the main battle tank (MBT) as ammunition stored in...

CONFIRMED: Russian forces send an American Abrams tank up in flames in Ukraine!

Conventional ground warfare dead end is compounded by limited numbers of tanks as well as spare parts issues A Leopard 2A4 tank with the addition of Russian ERA armor that still failed to protect it on the battlefield. Ukraine has been taking first generation ERA panels from Russian tanks and welding them onto Leopard tanks. The results are not good. Photo: Defense Mirror NATO has a huge problem that will take decades to overcome. Put most simply, the armor vehicles NATO has won’t survive in a firefight with the Russians, notwithstanding the fact that Russian armor is far from the...

On Oct. 19, Ukrainian marines motored across the Dnipro River and, in a series of infantry actions in and around the settlement of Krynky, secured a bridgehead on the otherwise Russian-occupied left bank of the river. Winning, and holding, a bridgehead is a first step for Ukraine’s southern command as it tries to sustain the country’s southern counteroffensive—which kicked off in June but has idled in recent weeks—and set conditions for a possible push deeper into Russian-held southern Kherson Oblast. The gateway to occupied Crimea. The Kremlin knows it. And we now have seen the first thin evidence in several...

Women’s lingerie chain Victoria’s Secret is reportedly pulling back from its recent woke ad campaigns featuring obese models, transgenders, and anti-American gay soccer star Megan Rapinoe after sales plummeted. In 2021, the sexy underwear company moved away from what it called a “hyper-sexualized” image and dove face-first into a woke remake of its brand. But apparently, the results of this rebranding was a steep loss of revenue, Fox News reported. The rebranding kicked off in July of 2021 when the company named Rapinoe and transgender model Valentina Sampaio its brand ambassadors. At the time, hard-core, left-wing activist Rapinoe had blasted...

A Ukrainian military officer claims he managed to get Russia to provide tech support for a broken down tank that was captured from Putin's forces. A Ukrainian tank operator with the callsign 'Kochevnik' ran into problems with his captured Russian T-72B3, and cheekily decided to call the manufacturer's helpline. To his surprise, a person from Uralvagonzavod, the tank's manufacturer, picked up and began giving him advice and support over the phone, he claims.

A sabot tank penetrator round separating in flight Photo: U.S. Department Of Defense (Courtesy Image) After U.S. President Joe Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, on September 21 that a new shipment of arms would arrive in Ukraine "next week," Zelenskiy replied that the package has "exactly what our soldiers need now." Headlining the new delivery is the first shipment of U.S.-made Abrams tanks, which will presumably arrive with their controversial ammunition of 120 mm depleted uranium rounds. width =65%> An M1A1 Abrams tank fires its 120 mm cannon at a training ground in California. Depleted uranium (DU) is...

The first U.S. Abrams tanks pledged to Ukraine have arrived in the country and are being prepared to send into battle, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Monday. “Good news from Defense Minister [Rustem] Umerov. Abrams are already in Ukraine and are preparing to reinforce our brigades. I am grateful to our allies for fulfilling the agreements!” Zelensky wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. Zelensky added that Ukraine is “looking for new contracts and expanding the geography of supply.” The Pentagon confirmed the tanks arrived in Ukraine, with a spokesperson saying “the mere presence of Abrams tanks serves as a...

It seems the Ukrainian armed forces have lost their first Challenger 2 tank. A video that circulated online on Monday depicts what appears to be one of the 82nd Air Assault Brigade’s ex-British Challengers 2 in flames on a roadside outside Robotyne, in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The apparent first loss of a 69-ton, four-person Challenger 2, out of 14 that the United Kingdom pledged to the Ukrainian war effort back in January, comes just days after the Ukrainian defense ministry highlighted the tank in a video interview with an 82nd Brigade trooper.

The Biden administration will for the first time send controversial armor-piercing munitions containing depleted uranium to Ukraine, according to a document seen by Reuters and separately confirmed by two U.S. officials. The rounds, which could help destroy Russian tanks, are part of a new military aid package for Ukraine set to be unveiled in the next week. The munitions can be fired from U.S. Abrams tanks that, according to a person familiar with the matter, are expected be delivered to Ukraine in the coming weeks.

In the 13 weeks since launching a long-anticipated counteroffensive along several axes in southern and eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian army has lost just five of its 71 Leopard 2 tanks. Many more of the German-made tanks—at least 10—have suffered damage. But the Ukrainians are repairing the damaged tanks at depots in Poland and Germany and returning them to the front. The fundamental toughness of the 69-ton Leopard 2 means tanks might take damage, visit a repair depot, return to the fighting then again take damage and head out for repairs. So on and so forth. The Leopard 2 lends itself...

"Never seen a tank jump off a cliff before. Guess the driver didn't understand the gravity of the situation."