From six days out, I understand...

Back in one of the WWII threads a few years ago, it was pointed out that a brigade or a division is basically a framework.  Some units, like the artillery, suffer generally low casualties and they get experienced and better.  Some suffer heavy casualties like rifle companies and tank crews and in general their skill sets don't really improve, that much, as soldiers and leaders are getting hit and it si a revolving door where the overall proficiency of the unit doesn't really get that much better, and the most expertise rides with the fire supporters.

That being said, this unit had some serious, significant  issues.  

In general, tanks should be around 100 meters apart.  The two tanks separating and going on opposite sides of that bermed terrain feature is a no-no.  I would have said they need a wingman concept and perhaps one stays a little behind to cover the other. But they were too far apart and couldn't see each other, and the BMP scooted off some place.

Risking two tanks and a BMP to take out a Rus squad isn't a great idea in terms of risk.  Moving without troops and artillery and blowing off combined arms is precisely the sort of things we criticized the Russians for last year.

More significantly, UAV usage.  When I first watched it,  at 00:27, when the UAV flew over, I thought, gee, that looks like an AT-5 ATGM.  The Ukrainians should have set the conditions to take that out, drop a grenade, call in artillery, or as a minimum direct the tank toward it.  Really, that's a great use for UAVs when Ukraine takes the offensive.  Kill high pay off targets, namely ATGM crews.  On second thought, maybe that wasn't it; could have been something else, but someday there will be one, and the Ukrainians will have wished that UAV was where it was supposed to be, hovering over the enemy, not playing Steven Spielberg.

Getting in that close without mutual support from another tank, or infantry, is clearly an issue.  Could have mitigated with the UAVs, didn't do that either.  I could see that you could forgo tank-infantry cooperation if you had good tank-UAV cooperation, but they need to stop filming over the shoulder movies and scan for missile teams.

Mirror imaging it, if I had infantry on the defense in a fighting position and was deploying a javelin, a swarm of UAVs hunting friendly AT assets would be very very dangerous.  Lose your AT weapons and the tank can waltz on in.  Little UAVs are better scouts then infantry, really.  But you gotta use it right. It actually occurred to me if you had a lot of UAVs, in a chotic situation, maybe have one carry a red smoke grenade or something and the tankies can pound that if you see an ATGM.  A couple of 125mm shells on a red smoke marker may be a better bet then a 1 pounder.

They won, this time, but their life expectancy isn't good and this shouldn't have been that close.

https://twitter.com/DefMon3/status/1641848860996771841?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

How battle of the somme..

I kept waiting for the infantry (which I assume was in the BTR) to assault the trench while the tank was firing into it.

They could have made short work of all in that trench.

It seems like these assaults lack communication between parties involved.

That tank was there with it's ass hanging out vulnerable to an rpg or worse.

You are making excuses for Trump when Trump had a relationship with Putin long before the first invasion. Trump has continued the Kremlin line (although toned it down when he was called out on it) for 8 years and still does to this day yet you state that it is merely Trump's ego and ignorance and the fault of others around him.

Also, you seem not to know that "much of the Uke deep state" was made up of Kremlin agents and paid off Ukrainian traitors doing the bidding of Russia.

All communist parties and associations were banned and over 100 statutes of Lenin were torn down after Ukraine began to get control of their government when Yanukovych was thrown out. As far as politicians in Ukraine not supporting Trump, why should they after his pro-Putin bullshit over all these years? Because he shipped over 150 Javelins? Only after the Russian allegations were in full swing - and Trump didnt start this anyway. It was John McCain (BYW-I never liked anti-2A JM) evidenced by the street in Kyiv named after him.

The Russians even tried to penetrate the NRA of all things. It's not just the Russians. American politicians of both parties routinely amass millions of dollars and multiple mansions before retiring into the sunset, and these are the only assets we are aware of. All of this while making around $170,000 a year as a member of the House and somewhat more as a Senator. I bet Luxemburg, Switzerland, the Cayman Islands, Panama and countless other countries have private holdings safely stored for our political elite.

Insider trading and international intrigue seems to be very lucrative. Foreign money directed at any political campaign is strictly illegal, giving generous donations to someone's "Foundation", apparently not. Crooked lawyers doing crooked things, on the largest possible scale.

It should not be a wonder why the biggest scumbags always want to run for office, where could they possibly make this much money and not get arrested in the process?

When we end up in a war, it's because one of these scumbags decides that their standard level of greed and corruption just isn't enough anymore.

Winning elections is more important than the facts...

I feel ya!  My family was a mix of various hill Germans and what my Grandmother called "Lace-curtain Irish" (defined as the sort of Scots-Irish who at least finished putting a roof on the house before they started on the Whiskey still). I had plenty of "once removed" relatives who were of the "other sort".  I understand what makes some of the Russians tick, because if you took some of my distant kin, handed them a rifle and told them everyone was an enemy and act accordingly, they could pass for mobliks (except their IMT would be a lot better).  Conversely, the Ukes with their use of tractors as recovery vehicles and inventive electronic and mechanical solutions to their Orc infestation, as well as their bloody single-mindedness in defending their land, as well as their motivation and casual disregard for danger in doing so, remind me of my closer relatives.  I grieve for the waste of human life in the service of Russian delusions of Grandeur, as I can understand the fighters on both sides, and can only pray for God's Justice on those who initiated this unholy war.

I hope supplier dude got a case of Magpuls!

Don't you love that sound, it's right up there with BRRRRRRRRP from an A-10.

Trump has also said, multiple times, the RU invasion would have never happened on his watch

I used to watch videos of a guy who calls himself "Bald and Bankrupt". An English dude that toured Russia and former Soviet Republics interviewing average citizens and visiting former Soviet monuments and architecture. The average Russian was pretty down to earth, some were alcoholics, obviously, but they all hated the collapse of the Soviet Union. Gorbachev was held in ridicule, with most citizens blaming him for their economic despair. "We used to have sausages!" one lady complained.

Many of their citizens would invite him into their homes and share their meager food and drinks with him. Very friendly and hospitable, he has since been "discovering" South America.

He said that he would make the 2nd Amendment great again too... What's your point?

STOP

Thank you

I don’t have the ego, or maybe passive aggressive tendencies, to feel I have the right to hall monitor others. Especially contributing members making thoughtful conversation.

Sort of like the desire to tell the teacher (mods) on someone to win favor by enforcing the rule book. How can one’s emotions be so in control of them to raise them to action over such trivial things?

Small gov people will never understand the desire to rule others or to be Karens.

7.62 Ghostbuster coming for the Orcs.

Looks like they're adding standoff spikes to the munitions to keep em off the ground for better frag.

the latest from the WSJ -- regarding defending Bakhmut

which according to that other GD thread has fallen to the Russians...  

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Ukraine Points to Success in Defending Bakhmut

Some Western officials have questioned the wisdom of defending the city from Russia’s advance

By Matthew Luxmoore and Georgi Kantchev   Updated March 31, 2023 5:03 pm ET

Ukrainian commanders on Friday touted their latest successes in holding Russian forces back in Bakhmut, as they continue to defend the city in eastern Ukraine despite falling ammunition stocks and pressure from some Western officials to withdraw.

Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, the commander of Ukraine’s ground forces, said time was working against Russia as it suffers heavy manpower losses and struggles to mount assaults on Ukrainian positions in Bakhmut.

“Our defense forces continue to defend Bakhmut, inflicting great damage on the enemy,” Col. Gen. Syrskiy said in a Telegram post, adding that Ukrainian troops were “breaking the enemy’s fighting spirit and ruining its plans.”

He published a video showing Ukrainian surface-to-air missile systems striking Russian drones flying over Ukrainian-held territory near Bakhmut, where drones have been actively used by both sides to pinpoint enemy artillery systems and target troop positions.

The fight for Bakhmut has been going on for months, and both Ukraine and Russia are now under major pressure as their stocks of artillery shells dwindle and battlefield losses mean units on the front lines need to be replenished with reinforcements.

As Russia surrounds the city from three sides, both armies are relying heavily on artillery salvos to advance. The U.K.’s Defense Ministry on Friday said Ukraine has had success in destroying Russian counter-battery radars used to detect the location of Ukrainian artillery pieces and guide strikes against them.

The challenge of raising new recruits is acute for both sides. Ukraine is scrambling to promote military service and convince men to sign up as it continues a mobilization that has been ongoing since the start of Russia’s invasion last February, while Russia has lost many of the 300,000 men drafted into the ranks of its military following a call-up of reservists and fighting-age men in September.

Russia has thrown tens of thousands of troops at the operation to capture Bakhmut, many of them convicts recruited by the paramilitary Wagner Group to fight alongside regular Russian forces. Ukraine has defended its decision to stay in the city amid heavy losses despite calls from some Western officials to abandon it because it says it has been able to severely weaken Russian forces there.

Ian Stubbs, a senior military adviser at the U.K.’s delegation to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said that some 30,000 Russian fighters have been killed or wounded since the battle for Bakhmut began nine months ago, with the Russian side advancing 15½ miles in that time.

“The staggering casualties suffered by Russia around Bakhmut appear to have had significant impact,” Mr. Stubbs said in a statement to the OSCE on Wednesday. Russia’s assault in Bakhmut has seemingly stalled, he said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Friday said it had no plans to order a new mobilization, describing the number of men called up for service as sufficient to meet the military’s needs. On Saturday, Russia will begin its regular annual conscription, with 147,000 citizens of ages 18 to 27 expected to be called up. Russian authorities said Friday that the new conscripts wouldn’t be sent to Ukraine.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said the new conscripts wouldn’t increase Russian combat power in the short term, as they must undergo months of training and service. “[President Vladimir] Putin remains unlikely to deploy newly conscripted troops to participate in combat in Ukraine due to concerns for the stability of his regime,” the think tank said in a report.

As Ukraine on Friday marked the first anniversary of Russia’s withdrawal of forces from parts of the Kyiv region, the prime ministers of Slovakia, Croatia and Slovenia traveled to the Ukrainian capital to meet with government officials and show support for the country’s defense effort.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Andriy Kostin, said Friday that Russian troops had perpetrated more than 9,000 war crimes in and around Bucha, the city near Kyiv where evidence of mass atrocities was uncovered after Russian soldiers who had been occupying the area pulled out last March.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday described Bucha as “a symbol of the atrocities of the occupying country’s army.”

“We will never forgive. We will punish every perpetrator,” the Ukrainian president said in a statement posted to his social-media channels.

Russia has denied that its forces have committed war crimes, and has described scenes showing bodies of dead civilians found in Bucha following its forces’ withdrawal from the city as staged for the purposes of discrediting Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

In Moscow, meanwhile, Russia codified its increasingly confrontational relationship with the West into a new and more aggressive foreign-policy doctrine on Friday. The new document was necessitated by the “revolutionary changes” in world affairs brought upon by the Ukraine conflict, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a government meeting.

Though the individual policies aren’t new, as a package, they describe Russia as facing existential threats to its security and development from the West and could take “symmetric and asymmetric responses to threats” against it. The document, approved by Mr. Putin, calls the U.S. the main driver of anti-Russian sentiment.

At the same time, the document declares a strategic partnership with China, building on Moscow’s closer ties to Beijing, which has become Russia’s main economic lifeline in the face of Western sanctions.

Also Friday, the International Monetary Fund gave its final approval to a $15.6 billion loan to Ukraine, providing much-needed funds to help stabilize economic and financial conditions of the war-torn country. The loan, approved by the IMF’s executive board, will be extended over a four-year period, with $2.7 billion to be disbursed immediately.

The loan is part of a $115 billion international support package for Ukraine, provided by the Group of Seven, the European Union and other donors. The program aims to shore up the fiscal, external, price and financial stability of Ukraine, while strengthening the country’s governance and institutions to prepare for postwar reconstruction and eventual accession to the EU, the IMF said.

The IMF acknowledged that its lending program to the country at war comes with “exceptionally high” risks, and was made available with the reaffirmation of support from a number of member nations.

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to have a devastating economic and social impact,” Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s first deputy managing director said in a statement. “Activity contracted sharply last year, a large swathe of the country’s capital stock has been destroyed, and poverty is on the rise.” She noted that the Ukrainian authorities have nevertheless managed to maintain overall macroeconomic and financial stability.

Yuka Hayashi contributed to this article.

-----------------------------------------------

He had to get it on.

They are just mooning the Russians at this point keep multiple himars this close to each other.

ISW assessment for March 31st.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-march-31-2023

Concur with some:

1) Zelensky has been doing God's Work in cleaning out the remnants of the Ukrainian "Deep State"; the fact that he has been paying attention and coming down hard and with a quickness on any hint of corruption will be a blessing, since he has done more to clean out the vipers nest than any previous Ukrainian leader (noting that some leaders actually helped build/perpetuate the corrupt system).  Ukraine is a very different place post 2014 (and especially post 2022), so being "pro-Kremlin" in 2010 or so in Ukraine did not have the level of radioactivity it does now.  Zelensky has ruthlessly utilized this fact to reach out and destroy the remnants of the pro-Russian elements of the Uke Deep State, and he should be commended for this.  I also know that when the Biden crime syndicate was in bed with the "Ukrainians" he might as well have been sleeping directly with the Russians, as that who was really in charge of Burisma and a lot of other Ukrainian assets pre-2014.  Trump seriously underestimated both the vindictiveness and venality of the US "Deep State"; Zelensky in contrast knew what he was up against and didn't quit, even though they were on the verge of winning against him before the invasion.  

2) Defending Trump? Sort of but not really. more trying to add context.  This "good guy bad guy" stuff is great if you are writing a comic book, but people act for a lot of different reasons, and understanding your adversary's (and your Allies') motivations are important in the business/racket know as human conflict.  I think that Sun Tzu fellow is a lot more on-point than anything I could write here. When I teach, WWII, I tell my students if pre-Holocaust Hitler was magically teleported to the present day I could get him elected as a "Democratic Socialist" Democrat in certain precincts in Broward County and it wouldn't even be hard.  Then I make the case using the real prewar policies and rhetoric of the National Socialists, as well as his personal characteristics, such as being a war hero, artist, animal lover, vegetarian, environmentalist, etc.  It is kind of sobering, as I personally find Hitler despicable. You have to understand how Trump is different from other politicians as well as the ways he is the same as other politicians.  Love the guy or despise him, his opinion may matter in 20 months, not so much now, and the war will be (of for the sake of Ukraine, had better be) different in 20 months.  20 months in WWII was the difference between Pear Harbor and the invasion of Mainland Italy, or the end of the Guadalcanal Campaign and the Liberation of the Philippines.   Besides, we never DID pull out of Syria under Trump's watch, let alone Afghanistan, despite his rhetoric.

3)  Ukrainian politicians can believe/support whatever they want/feel; However, there are distinct 2nd and 3rd order effects regarding this, and it is also can be hazardous to ally with a foreign politician under any circumstances since you may like his/her foreign policy or policy towards your country while unknowingly linking your cause/country to unpopular domestic policies in said countries.  It is hard to quantify how badly the US hurt it's image and long-term interests in places like the Philippines by supporting politicians for their pro-American and Anticommunist stances while ignoring the fact that they were repressive crooks.  Also, the Kremlin disinformation script against Ukraine virtually writes itself using these guys words.  Tucker Carlson wouldn't even mention Ukraine if not for the perception (pushed hard by pro-Kremlin elements) that the Ukrainians helped elect Biden.  From a strictly objective viewpoint, Biden is just continuing and expanding the Trump Administration policy of providing weapons to Ukraine, which was a change from the Obama Administration (in which Biden was Vice President) policy of not providing "Lethal Aid".  Being on the losing side of an I/O operation sucks!

I recall reading they wipe the software and replace it with their own trustworthy combatware.

Thats awesome. Now I'm curious how to use the Great Cloak.