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Eastwood

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Can someone post Russia's current estimated military losses? I can't find a good link this afternoon. My son says that Russia has a boatload of aircraft that it hasn't used and says that there must be some reason that it is holding back. I explained Occam's razor but he is still unconvinced.

I saw a Forbes article on the subject that seemed decent:

 

 

Russia’s Air Force Goes Missing At The Worst Possible Time—During Ukraine’s Counteroffensive

David Axe
Forbes Staff
I write about ships, planes, tanks, drones, missiles and satellites.
Sep 12, 2022,04:53pm EDT
 

 

Ukrainian troops are on the move—rolling along wide highways and across open fields as they counterattack in eastern and southern Ukraine.

They’re out in the open in broad daylight. They should be easy targets for the Russian air force’s hundreds of modern fighter-bombers.

But the Russian air force is missing in action. It has made no meaningful effort to halt the twin Ukrainian counteroffensives that kicked off on Aug. 30 in the south and eight days later in the east.

It’s not hard to explain the Russian warplanes’ absence. Russia’s old-fashioned air-war doctrine can’t keep up with a fast-changing battlefield. And the Ukrainian army and air force, against all odds, still are mounting a stiff defense of the air space over the front lines.

Befuddled by the chaos on the ground and harried by Ukrainian missiles and guns, Russian pilots mostly are sitting out the current campaign.

The Ukrainian brigades fighting their way south toward Russian-occupied Kherson and east across Kharkiv Oblast should have been sitting ducks. The southern front with its wide, treeless fields and numerous, difficult-to-cross rivers is famously favorable for attack pilots hunting enemy tanks.

The eastern front for its part is heavily forested in places, which forces mechanized units to stick to roads if they hope to move fast. But well-marked roads risk channeling troops into aerial ambushes.

All that is to say, the Russian air force—as well as the aerial arm of the Russian navy—had opportunities to hit the Ukrainians at their most critical moments: in the early hours of each counteroffensive, as brigades and battalions concentrated their vehicles then rolled forward in careful sequence.

But they didn’t.

The unhappy truth, for the Russian army, is that the Russian air force’s doctrine prevents it from closely supporting ground troops when the enemy is on the move. That’s because the Russian air force isn’t an “air force” in the sense that many Western observers understand the term.

Rather, the Russian air force is airborne artillery. Pilots bomb—sight unseen—coordinates that ground commanders provide them, often based on old intelligence. The air force doesn’t track enemy ground troops in real time. It doesn’t free its pilots to hunt the enemy on their own.

As long as the Ukrainians keep moving—and to be clear, they’ve been moving fast since late August—they should be able to stay inside the Russian air force’s targeting processes, and avoid attack.

On those few occasions in the last 10 days that the Russians have launched sorties, pilots have faced stiff Ukrainian air-defenses. The government in Kyiv claimed its forces shot down nine Russian warplanes between Aug. 29 and Sept. 12. Independent analysts scouring social media for photos and videos have confirmed at least five losses, including two Su-25s, two Su-34s and an Su-30.

It’s unclear exactly how the Ukrainians shot down the Russian jets, but The Economist cited Ukrainian sources singling out the German-made Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns. Berlin is providing Kyiv 20 of the classic vehicles.

The Gepard is mobile and protected, as it combines the basic chassis of a Leopard tank with a lightly-armored turret. Its twin Oerlikon cannons fire 550 rounds a minute out to a range of three miles. The three-person crew is cued by a turret-mounted radar with a nine-mile range.

The Ukrainians’ Gepards, combined with their other air-defense systems—including long-range S-300s, medium-range Buks and short-range Strelas and shoulder-fired missiles—should top the Russian air force’s list of targets. If it could suppress Ukrainian air-defenses and speed up its targeting cycle, the Russian air arm could become relevant again.

But 200 days into Russia’s wider war on Ukraine, the Russian air force still hasn’t made a concerted effort to find, track and attack Ukrainian air-defenses.

Contrast this with the Ukrainian air force’s own SEAD campaign. Ukrainian MiG-29s and Su-27s firing American-made anti-radar missiles have knocked out some Russian air-defense systems and suppressed many more, in essence, scaring their crews into turning off their radars.

Which is one reason why the Ukrainian air force–with its 100 or so surviving jets–is active where the much larger Russian air force—300 jets just at bases near Ukraine—is idle. Photos and videos from the current counteroffensives depict Ukrainian planes conducting close-air-support missions near the fast-moving front lines.

It’s possible that, with the onset of winter in the next couple months, the front could freeze in place—and Russian commanders might discover that their outdated doctrine is useful again.

But Ukrainian air-defenses might be even more dangerous by then. The United States and Germany both have pledged to Ukraine new and better surface-to-air missiles, which should begin arriving soon.

 

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3 minutes ago, Born to Run said:
6 hours ago, Scheiss Meister said:
My Grandma would be just like that babushka.  Even looks like her.

Same, but mine was Polish. I could never eat enough to keep her truly happy. And I could freaking eat as a kid.

My Grandma was a Scot, French, and English mutt.  Babushka attitude transcends nationality.

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7 hours ago, Scheiss Meister said:

My Grandma would be just like that babushka.  Even looks like her.

35 minutes ago, Scheiss Meister said:

My Grandma was a Scot, French, and English mutt.  Babushka attitude transcends nationality.

42 minutes ago, Born to Run said:
7 hours ago, Scheiss Meister said:
My Grandma would be just like that babushka.  Even looks like her.

Same, but mine was Polish. I could never eat enough to keep her truly happy. And I could freaking eat as a kid.

Yeah, but did they bring you such awesome ammo?

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3 hours ago, Shaddie said:

Replying to Bevo. 
Another issue that I think may be a bigger issue. 
Maintaining them cost money that was probably siphoned off long ago. 

@Bevo Yeah, the oligarchs really fucked over the Russian military, whether it’s a lack of spare parts, etc., or things like the missing 1.5 million winter uniforms.

I would toss in that NATO has sent literally thousands of MANPADS, to the point where even small units in Ukraine have them, and so flying helicopter or close-air-support is dangerous for Russians.  And every one of those that’s goes down isn’t being replace, which means the remaining aircraft have to pick up the slack, which means more wear-and-tear.

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Ukraine is going to be running the hurry up on the Russians asses once the mud freezes up again. They will be as comfortable as is possible, while the Russians will be freezing to death. Some of them literally.

The motivation delta is going to be enormous. 

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2 hours ago, Walser said:

I was walking the dog before heading to the game today and I live in a non-descript Austin neighborhood. After about a block I see a couple guys standing around a parked red mercedes. They look about as cliche Eastern European as you can get. They start staring at me as I approach down the sidewalk. As I passed one of the guys says "Slava Ukraini" and I realize I am wearing a (rather tacky) sweater with "Don't Tread on Me" in Cyrillic against the Ukraine colors. I think I bought it drinking-while-Etsy in the early days. I just responded with a smile and a Slava Ukraini back.

What a weird random encounter. I, for one, welcome our new Ukrainian military advisors.

Yep, they see it, and it is fun. My house flies the UA flag. On Halloween had more than a 1 kid comment. Tonight my friend was wearing my UA Armor pull over. More than one person commented. 

She also had an ass talk shit to her so my Canadian bud offered to meet him out back for a discussion. Dude walked away faster than a Vatnik running from a window. 

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6 hours ago, Walser said:

I was walking the dog before heading to the game today and I live in a non-descript Austin neighborhood. After about a block I see a couple guys standing around a parked red mercedes. They look about as cliche Eastern European as you can get. They start staring at me as I approach down the sidewalk. As I passed one of the guys says "Slava Ukraini" and I realize I am wearing a (rather tacky) sweater with "Don't Tread on Me" in Cyrillic against the Ukraine colors. I think I bought it drinking-while-Etsy in the early days. I just responded with a smile and a Slava Ukraini back.

What a weird random encounter. I, for one, welcome our new Ukrainian military advisors.

There was a sizeable pro-Ukraine demonstration outside the Texas Capitol yesterday

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