Ukrainian Defensive War against the Russian Invasion - Mark IV: The Partitioning of Discussion

[NKVD qt]

It's used on FPV drones, never seen a "repeater" drone though it would make sense. The cable is made in China, very light, specifically for applications like this.
For context, most Ukrainian drones are lost due to EW. IDK about Russians, but even if only half are lost due to interference, running a cable quickly becomes worthwhile.

Additionally, drones have issues with signal degradation close to the ground, due to terrain, which is part of the reason you see them dive on their target the way they do.
In many cable drone videos, you see them downright sneak along the ground at low speed and precisely target objects, all with perfect video signal and control.

While this is true fiber drones are forced to operate at much shorter ranges putting crews at much higher risk. Drones are cheap and plentiful the personnel who are knowledgeable to build fly and maintain them effectively are not. This is why I think the current direction Ukraine is going in FPV development is having the drone autonomously make that last 20-100 meter dash to the target. IIRC Madyar's Birds and others have been trialing their systems for a while now.

https://x.com/sternenko/status/1770348417102819563

Considering this is what one KM of bare fiber looks like

I would be surprised if these fiber optic drones could reach 5 km which is not ideal for the longevity of the operator.

 

[IAmNotAlpharius]

In 2014, Russia were able to start (and maintain) a civil war in Ukraine as well as take territory from another country. The Eurofag response to these hostile, aggressive, and expansionist actions was to send a bunch of sternly worded letters of condemnation, put some worthless sanctions of a few people, and then buy another 6 trillion dollars of natural gas from Russia. He invaded in 2022 because he expected to have the same result this go around. If Eurofags had managed to provide even a slight impreession it was possible they weren't limpwristed sissycucks utterly dependent on Russian NG, Putin might have chosen differently.

Funny enough Joe Biden said this years ago about Europe having no spine.

 

[demicolon]

It's not like Europe can do anything more than send strongly-worded letters. Punish Russia - with what army, literally? And they'll continue to have no army 'cause all the upkeep and training budget would have to cut into social security money, you'll be voted out with the speed of light if you do that.

 

[Quindoll]

2) Trump could've prevented the war.

Now, had Trump or a Trump-like person become the president years earlier and whipped the European states to increase their defense spending to meet the NATO standards, this could've been prevented. Ironically, had the Europeans spent hundreds of billions to bolster their militaries then, we could've prevented having to dump hundreds of billions on Ukraine now. Also a whole lot of people would be alive, too.

The NATO standard is 2 % of GDP.


$ 1.118.333 Million vs. $ 1.259.534 Million with the 2 % GDP minimum

I rate this very optimistic. This was never planned to be a prolonged war. That's why Russians were having to loot stores to get footstuff after the first few days in. The idea was to get in quick, establish facts on the ground and hope there will be no huge response.
We all know how it worked out.

 

[World in Scarlet]

link

Higher quality:

таємний підрозділ
The landmine brigade?

Noticed by this account.

 

[Thomas Talus]

The fiber drones would seem to have the additional vulnerability that the enemy could find the line and either cut it or give it a good hard yank.

 

[Oxyjen]

The fiber drones would seem to have the additional vulnerability that the enemy could find the line and either cut it or give it a good hard yank.

It’s coming at them over no-mans land. Trench warfare 2024 style.

The ability to fly low and not lose signal in itself means you can take your time and get properly on to a target. They still seem very manoeuvrable based on that “dogfight” video.
But I agree an autonomous version with AI vision to hit the target is really the holy grail.
There was a pic of a Russian combine harvester being blown up recently and I did wonder if that was the result of AI thinking it was a tank.

 

[Snekposter]

Funny enough Joe Biden said this years ago about Europe having no spine.

I wish we had gotten the 1990's Joe that boasted of sending crack users and crack pushers to pound-me-in-the-ass Federal prison instead of modern Dementia Joe.

 

[sodomy lifestyle]

How? Ukraine would still be outside of NATO so they wouldn't gain any of that strength and the NATO members still don't want to be in a shooting war with nuclear-armed Russia - if anything, the stronger NATO is compared to Russia the more likely it is to escalate to nukes. Depending on how the money was allocated NATO still mightn't be better positioned to supply Ukraine. Like if Germany built a new munitions factory that could directly help Ukraine, if they put all that money into shipbuilding or more infantry or something it's wasted, from Ukraine's point of view.

I submit that military spending does not automatically translate to an increase in military production capacity. So it's possible that those additional billions would've only translated to slightly larger stockpiles and not what is actually needed - the industrial base to churn out artillery shells, drones and other items of critical value in a prolonged war.

NATO didn't start the war in Ukraine. Russia started the war in Ukraine. If the Russians actually believed the West was a threat to their security they would have kept up an army capable of stopping that threat. Instead, they let their military go to absolute shit. It's totally garbage tier at this point. The war in Ukraine is nothing but a land grab. Imperialistic landgrab and nothing more. Some people are saying the Russians are doing it for security, but I don't buy that at all.

The war started back in 2014 before Trump was president. Trump can't actually stop the war. The only person that can stop it is Putin.

I think that so far the Red Army's most formidable opponent has been the Red Army. Still, it makes the European powers look all the more pathetic when they can't drag Ukraine across the finish line against such a bottom-tier opponent.

Not sure if Russia could've realistically matched the strength of the hypothetical properly maintained western armies.

The NATO standard is 2 % of GDP.

View attachment 6740739
$ 1.118.333 Million vs. $ 1.259.534 Million with the 2 % GDP minimum

I rate this very optimistic. This was never planned to be a prolonged war. That's why Russians were having to loot stores to get footstuff after the first few days in. The idea was to get in quick, establish facts on the ground and hope there will be no huge response.
We all know how it worked out.

Guess it really depends on what that margin could've been spent on. I'm not a fan of socialism, but considering the snowballing cost of a war as it drags on, I'd be in favor on government spending money to build fortified production lines that could the very least slow down the depletion of materiel stockpiles if and when a war starts.

 

[Clownish]

Oh look, someone translated this super popular Ukrainian pop song.
I wonder what they were singing about...
Oh, it's about Total Zigger and Mongol Death.

 

[-Jack-]

Is there any update on the Russian bases in Syria?

 

[East_Clintwood]

Is there any update on the Russian bases in Syria?

Nothing official one way or another, Syrians have said they're still evaluating: https://tass.com/world/1885609

TUNIS, December 11. /TASS/. The new Syrian authorities will evaluate the future of Russia’s military bases in the Arab republic from the viewpoint of the benefits and interests of the Syrian people, Mohammed Alloush, a prominent Syrian politician and former head of the opposition delegation at the Syria talks in Geneva and Astana, told a TASS correspondent.


"The issue of military bases is a sovereign decision of the Syrian state. It will undoubtedly be assessed based on the benefits and interests of the Syrian people, as well as Russia’s interests," he stated.

Speculation elsewhere is the Russkies are already evacuating/planning to, suggesting they're *not hopeful

https://x.com/Osinttechnical/status/1866629989200019732

On the subject of Syria, new cope just dropped:

https://tass.com/politics/1885743

MOSCOW, December 11. /TASS/. Russia assisted Syria in countering terrorists and stabilizing the situation after 2015, but subsequent actions were up to the country’s government, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
"A while ago, Russia helped the Syrian Arab Republic in combating terrorists and ensuring stability when the situation posed a threat to the entire region. We put in significant effort toward that goal. Russia completed its mission at that point," he said.
"Afterward, it was the [Bashar] Assad government that took charge in its own country, striving to ensure development, but unfortunately, the situation reached the point it did," Peskov said, adding that "now, we need to proceed based on the realities on the ground."
Asked how a potential change of government in Syria would affect Moscow’s geopolitical influence in the Middle East, the presidential spokesman emphasized that "Russia maintains dialogue with all countries in the region." "We are committed to continuing in this manner," Peskov said.

In late November, armed opposition forces launched a large-scale offensive on the Syrian army’s positions and entered Damascus on December 8, while government troops withdrew from the capital. A Kremlin source told TASS on Sunday that Assad and his family members had arrived in Moscow. Russia granted them asylum on humanitarian grounds.

 

[IAmNotAlpharius]

Is there any update on the Russian bases in Syria?

I wonder if the Israelis actually hit some Russian assets on accident.

 

[Tealeaf]

would be surprised if these fiber optic drones could reach 5 km which is not ideal for the longevity of the operator.

The fiber optic cable is just the last mile, and terminates at the drone launcher. The launcher is then part of further networks that provide operators access from much further away.

 

[NKVD qt]

The fiber optic cable is just the last mile, and terminates at the drone launcher. The launcher is then part of further networks that provide operators access from much further away.

Maybe I understand incorrectly but you would still need to expose competent personnel to easy retaliation if you had to setup an uplink and launch a drone within a mile of the contact line. I know I wouldn't want to be setting it up and launching the drone barely outside of small arms range of the front.

 

[Least Concern]

Speculation elsewhere is the Russkies are already evacuating/planning to, suggesting they're *not hopeful

I saw this video yesterday where the bases briefly come up. My takeaway is that the new authorities are not too fond of the Russians currently given they were running air campaigns against their fighters less than a week ago. However, the new authorities also probably don't want to invite Russian aggression by trying to forcefully remove them from the bases. Russia will probably try to make an offer to keep the bases, but if the authorities decide it's not good enough, one way to get Russia to decide to leave on their own would be to simply disallow Russian supply shipments to the base over land. If Russia has to resupply the bases by air or sea, the expense and other impracticalities may eventually induce them to find somewhere else on the Med to open a base and give up on the Syrians.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHBRJXen-Nw

That said I wouldn't be surprised if the true end result of this is the new Syrian authorities taking a short-term view of their own prospects and just taking whatever cash or mineral rights or whatever Russia is willing to throw on the table to keep the bases open and supplied as "normal."

 

[No. 7 cat]

I wonder if the Israelis actually hit some Russian assets on accident.

Perhaps accidently on purpose with the intent of warning them support certain parties who aren't friendly to Israel. Altho Israel's battering of Hizbollah was a factor in the fall of Assad, it seems to have grabbed a fairly notable supposed buffer zone in the south. It's no good thing, taking advantage of how the SSG has limited to no external defensive capabilities, at least in comparison. It seems like the intent is to destabilise the post Assad Syria by destroying assets which could be of use to the new government in creating a stable, functional state beyond Idlib and environs (which was run very competently).

Ukraine is conducting a series of tests of the new Ruta missile.

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi noted that the tests are going well.

The President spoke about the missile at the presentation of the Borys Paton National Award, during which participants honored the contribution of science to the country’s defense capabilities.......

archive / original

It's made by Destinus, a Swiss founded company run by a former Russian national Mikhail Kokorich.

 

[Snekposter]

I wonder if the Israelis actually hit some Russian assets on accident.

Yeah, "accident". What's Putin going to do in response if that happened, send munitions he can't spare to a Israeli enemy that doesn't exist in coherent form?

Perhaps accidently on purpose with the intent of warning them support certain parties who aren't friendly to Israel. Altho Israel's battering of Hizbollah was a factor in the fall of Assad, it seems to have grabbed a fairly notable supposed buffer zone in the south. It's no good thing, taking advantage of how the SSG has limited to no external defensive capabilities, at least in comparison. It seems like the intent is to destabilise the post Assad Syria by destroying assets which could be of use to the new government in creating a stable, functional state beyond Idlib and environs (which was run very competently).

Not the worst idea, especially if everyone's worst fears are realized about his aims. And so long as its just materiel, easy enough for the Israelis to offer a few replacements as a sign of goodwill if he does feel inclined otherwise. Israel does seem to have some serious aspirations for southern Syria though, but I can't really blame them given the insistence of the al-Assad family on not inking a peace deal with Israel.

former Russian national Mikhail Kokorich

Sure is strange how many of those have both talent and a complete disdain for their mother country.

 

[Pocket Dragoon]

Maybe I understand incorrectly but you would still need to expose competent personnel to easy retaliation if you had to setup an uplink and launch a drone within a mile of the contact line. I know I wouldn't want to be setting it up and launching the drone barely outside of small arms range of the front.

From what I understand, the Russian fiber-optic drones are connected to a man-portable base station & receiver, which is then controlled from distance by a normal transmitter/controller some distance away. The base station can act as a repeater as well, and so can be used for boosting range of traditional drones.

So to deploy they drop off/set up the drones & base, then fuck off to a safer rear area inside range of their controller. Ideally they're emplaced in a concealed & elevated position, like a roof top, hill, etc; then they can sit and wait for targets. The fiber optic cable itself has very little tension as it plays out, and spools fast enough to go between & settle over obstacles without snagging or breaking.

Supposedy a few FPV pilots chasing wired drones have purposely cut the fiber optic with their rotors without crashing, but I haven't seen definite video of it (yet). And it seems like Russian fiber optic drones also fly slower than standard FPVs, not even requiring an interceptor type.

 

[Fanatical Pragmatist]

Makes a ton of sense for ground based drones too.

There are a lot more chances of the wire getting cut or snagged on debris, rubble, nearby ordinance hits, trees, etc. at ground level than in the air.

The fiber drones would seem to have the additional vulnerability that the enemy could find the line and either cut it or give it a good hard yank.

These things are super thin, and its really unlikely for the enemy to find the line before the drone impacts its target. Most drones are considerably slower than most missiles, but for a ground crew trying to find what amounts to fishing line under fire while the clock ticks down its almost impossible.

Even for a hypothetical UGV, it would probably require the infantry to advance into no-man's-land to sneak behind the remote controlled robot with an M2 to cut its wire, without getting hit by mortar or MG fire.
At which point its easier to either engage the UGV or if you're lucky just lay explosives behind a blind corner and hope it doesn't see you before you blow it up.