In naval news (I almost forgot Russia had a navy) two Russian heavy cruisers have been deemed inoperable due to a combination of poor maintenance, sanctions, and overall incompetence.

I encourage everyone to read the full article because the full description of the problem is downright hilarious.

QuoteThe heavy nuclear cruiser Admiral Nakhimov of the Russian Navy's Southern Fleet, which is under repair, will not be put into operation on time. It has been established that of the elements of on-board equipment, only the navigation system operates properly, while none of the other units are ready," the source said.

It is reported that the nuclear reactor powering the ship failed the required tests as its launch was aborted, while the vessel's radiation protection system also turned out to be faulty. It was found that the outdated protection of graphite rods, produced back in 1980, has been damaged by corrosion.

Not great, not terrible, lol.

QuoteAccording to available information, most of the high-quality components are missing due to Russian defense factories being unable to produce them.

Sanctions work!

QuoteIt was decided to tow the ship, but it was found that the survivability standard could not be maintained due to deep corrosion of the decks below the third, outer hull of the vessel, as well as the presence of water in the holds. Accordingly, there is a risk that the ship will capsize to one side or sink during towing, so the process was postponed indefinitely,"

Not to be outdone in idiocy, a Russian official proposed to buy back the unfinished Soviet aircraft carrier cruiser sold by Ukraine to China (China later finished it and put it into service, demonstrating that the problems associated with Russian naval vessels is more due to the Russians themselves than any other factor)

China is normally not willing to part with things it has seized (just ask Tibet), so it's unlikely that this Russian official will get his wish.

Also, even if it did happen, his proposal to make it the flagship of the Black Sea fleet (what happened to the old one?) is unworkable due to the obvious fact that Turkey had blocked warships from entering the Black Sea for the duration of the conflict.  And even if it somehow were to enter the Black Sea, it would likely perish in a similar manner as its predecessor.  So really, this is more of a copium-induced pipe dream than a serious proposal.

The Russians claim they blew up a Ukrainian base at Kramatorsk.  And to prove this, they show two holes in the ground in front of an abandoned building.  :/

So apparently, they launched a strike that missed an empty building and are claiming that as some great victory.

ISW also confirms that this Russian claim is bogus:

QuoteThe Russian MoD announced on January 8 that Russian forces conducted a "retaliation operation" against Ukrainian forces for the December 31 strike on Makiivka that killed up to 400 mobilized soldiers due to Russian command failures and poor personnel dispersal practices.[1] The Russian MoD falsely claimed the retaliatory strike targeted several temporary Ukrainian deployment points in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, and killed over 600 Ukrainian personnel.[2] This claim is false — a Finnish reporter visited the site of the strike in Kramatorsk on January 8 and noted that it hit an empty school.[3] Several Russian milbloggers responded negatively to the Russian MoD's claim, pointing out that the Russian MoD frequently presents fraudulent claims and criticizing Russian military leadership for fabricating a story to "retaliate" for the Makiivka strike instead of holding Russian leadership responsible for the losses accountable.

QuoteThe Russian MoD has thus created a negative feedback loop, wherein it attempts to respond to Ukrainian offensive successes with a discrete, retaliatory, offensive action, which then opens the MoD up to continued criticism from discontented Russian milbloggers highlighting their beliefs that the MoD is responding in the wrong manner or to the wrong event. The Russian MoD's response to the Makiivka strike is a clear continuation of this grievance-and-retaliation model that has once again opened Russian military leadership to staunch criticism of their conduct of the war.

If the Russians ever had any credibility they've lost it all by now.

Actually, I don't think they ever did have any.

Russia allegedly hunted down 6 of their own who intended to surrender

On one hand, this may decrease surrender rates by intimidating soldiers into staying in line.

On the other, this may significantly increase surrender rates since soldiers know that fellow soldiers cannot be trusted and absolutely will shoot them at the drop of a hat.  And all things being equal, most people would prefer to be around people who won't shoot them.

UK considering sending its Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine

Finland and Germany are considering sending theirs, and Poland will definitely send theirs if they get replacements.

So this is shaping up quite a race to send Ukraine tanks.

Well, UK and Ukraine start with the same two letters, so it only seems fitting. 😏

Russia has held off from using its most advanced fighters because they're scared they'll be shot down

Specifically, they're worried about national embarrassment (too late lol), a souring of the export market (anyone wanna buy a ka-52...never mind, it crashed), and a loss of sensitive technology (which reminds me, thanks for all those electronic warfare modules, they made some team in Nevada super happy!)

Russia fears a frozen river crossing, allowing Ukraine to strike almost anywhere along the southern front

Tense battles for Solenar with it seemingly on the verge of being surrounded by invaders from the north, east, and south. Ukrainian reinforcements have stymied the Russian advance for now, but the situation there is very fluid.

Invader KIA numbers are back up to 710 after declining the past couple of days.  Racking up those numbers is painful on the Ukrainian side as well, but every destroyed Russian battalion gets Ukraine that much closer to victory.

The Russians also lost a ship/boat today.  Don't get your hopes up, it was probably just a dinky boat, but every little bit helps.

Chinese officials say that Russia is likely to lose this war and emerge as a minor power, much weaker economically and diplomatically

Russian artillery fire is much less frequent, though the reason for this is unknown.  Russian forces have bitterly complained about a shortage of shells, so this is a likely explanation.

Perun talked about this at length, allow me to summarize.  It's not a good idea to be trigger-happy with artillery - ammo doesn't grow on trees and every gun can only be fired so many times before it starts to break.  At that point, you have two options: repair/replace the worn out parts or continue firing anyway.  That second option is not recommended, because it could detonate, killing everyone in the vicinity.

Instead of firing constantly, it is much better to fire artillery sparingly but accurately, inflicting the maximum amount of casualties per shell.

So firing less than the other side is not necessarily a bad thing.  We'll see if the Russians took that advice to heart or if the real reason is logistics difficulties.

Canada will be buying a surface-to-air missile system (NASAMS) from the United States to send to Ukraine

Cha-ching!

Ukrainian forces will be trained to use the Patriot missile system at Fort Sill, Oklahoma

I'm kinda excited about this on a personal level because I've been to that military base personally and it's a fine training ground.

But the summer heat is unbearable, combined with the fact that it is Oklahoma,  which will no doubt highly motivate the Ukrainians to complete their training in record time.

<--- Former Nike Hercules Radar Mechanic who got to see several Pershing II and Patriot launches in the late 70's early 80's and participate in multiple Nike Hercules launches.

Quote from: Hydra009 on January 10, 2023, 04:29:44 PMI'm kinda excited about this on a personal level because I've been to that military base personally and it's a fine training ground.

Sill sucks as a Patriot training site because it isn't big enough to live fire a Patriot. The air defense school used to be at Fort Bliss. From there it was just a quick 30 minute trip to McGregor Range where you could actually launch missiles like the Patriot. Shooting them is where the fun is.