War in Ukraine, technical and military aspects only

[seahawk]

7 hours ago, Ssnake said:

47 / 50 failing to qualify sounds like a leadership problem to me.

47/50 would be totally normal for ab-initio fighter pilot training.

[ink]

34 minutes ago, seahawk said:

47/50 would be totally normal for ab-initio fighter pilot training.

I think the reason people are surprised is that the hope was Ukraine would be sending existing and already trained pilots to the programme - i.e. that they would be in conversion training to fly F-16s, and not starting from scratch.

[Stuart Galbraith]

There is a good case for saying that starting from a clean sheet is the right way to go. Ive read that many European militaries had difficulty transitioning to Western equipment after years of using Soviet equipment.

Does this document reflect a reality? Call me cynical, but a single sheet pulled out of someones ass is not evidence. I want to hear someone in NATO admit that its true, or a full document with someones signature on it released. Its impossible to evaluate its reality based on such little context.

[RETAC21]

1 hour ago, ink said:

I think the reason people are surprised is that the hope was Ukraine would be sending existing and already trained pilots to the programme - i.e. that they would be in conversion training to fly F-16s, and not starting from scratch.

But even veteran Ukrainian pilots would be abysmally trained pre-war, due to low flying hours and obsolete equipment, so clean sheet training is a good idea. However, more candidates should have been sent to take attrition into account.

[Stuart Galbraith]

There is also the concern about who flies the Ukrainian Mig29's, whilst the pilots go and become budding Mavericks. Not much point getting F16's, if you have to concede the Russian's air superiority in the interim to get them.

Ultimately the whole idea seems to be expanding the force, not replacing existing types. At the rate the West is arming them, that would take years, and its obviously impractical in the middle of a war.

I was watching an RAF documentary from the early 1980's on training fighter pilots. Out of something like 20 on the show,  one of them got to be a pilot, and one a navigator, whom then quit because he hated it. Perhaps our standards are too high, but arguably it doesnt seem to be a much worse washout rate than that.

[Stefan Kotsch]

Whatever it is. The only source of the report from the Romanian MOD appears to be Guilliermo Lafferriere.

[Stefan Kotsch]

This Romanian newspaper article writes about language problems. But the number of pilots mentioned is in the range of ~20 pilots.

https://tvrinfo.ro/situatie-complicata-cu-avioanele-f-16-destinate-ucrainei-pregatirea-pilotilor-ucraineni-in-romania-s-a-impotmolit/

This Romanian newspaper writes: 12 Ukrainian pilots will be ready to fly the F-16 in combat starting in July

https://www.aktual24.ro/12-piloti-ucraineni-vor-fi-gata-sa-piloteze-f-16-in-lupta-incepand-cu-luna-iulie-noi-piloti-sunt-antrenati-la-fetesti-romania/

And this Romanian newspaper writes: U.S. officials said they plan to train about 20 pilots this year. The training takes place in the USA, the Netherlands and Denmark.

https://adevarul.ro/stiri-externe/europa/ucraina-nu-are-suficienti-piloti-pregatiti-pentru-2378555.html

Edited August 1 by Stefan Kotsch

[KV7]

12 minutes ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

There is also the concern about who flies the Ukrainian Mig29's, whilst the pilots go and become budding Mavericks. Not much point getting F16's, if you have to concede the Russian's air superiority in the interim to get them.

Ultimately the whole idea seems to be expanding the force, not replacing existing types. At the rate the West is arming them, that would take years, and its obviously impractical in the middle of a war.

I was watching an RAF documentary from the early 1980's on training fighter pilots. Out of something like 20 on the show,  one of them got to be a pilot, and one a navigator, whom then quit because he hated it. Perhaps our standards are too high, but arguably it doesnt seem to be a much worse washout rate than that.

Surely there are always more willing pilots than aircraft, so setting standards so that the positions needed are just filled would be sensible.

[Stuart Galbraith]

40 minutes ago, KV7 said:

Surely there are always more willing pilots than aircraft, so setting standards so that the positions needed are just filled would be sensible.

The RAF has somewhat messed up its training at the moment, so its a bit of an unusual case, but at the moment we have about 2 squadrons of Typhoons with little to no pilots to fly them. They found a solution though, taking them out of service.

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

43 minutes ago, Stefan Kotsch said:

This Romanian newspaper article writes about language problems. But the number of pilots mentioned is in the range of ~20 pilots.

https://tvrinfo.ro/situatie-complicata-cu-avioanele-f-16-destinate-ucrainei-pregatirea-pilotilor-ucraineni-in-romania-s-a-impotmolit/

This Romanian newspaper writes: 12 Ukrainian pilots will be ready to fly the F-16 in combat starting in July

https://www.aktual24.ro/12-piloti-ucraineni-vor-fi-gata-sa-piloteze-f-16-in-lupta-incepand-cu-luna-iulie-noi-piloti-sunt-antrenati-la-fetesti-romania/

And this Romanian newspaper writes: U.S. officials said they plan to train about 20 pilots this year. The training takes place in the USA, the Netherlands and Denmark.

https://adevarul.ro/stiri-externe/europa/ucraina-nu-are-suficienti-piloti-pregatiti-pentru-2378555.html

Sounds like a complete fabrication then.

[Pavel Novak]

1 hour ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

The RAF has somewhat messed up its training at the moment, so its a bit of an unusual case, but at the moment we have about 2 squadrons of Typhoons with little to no pilots to fly them. They found a solution though, taking them out of service.

 

Modern problems need modern solutions. Crazy though, in the past having less than 1,5 pilots for one fighter was suboptimal.

[TrustMe]

I believe that in the RAF we aim to have 1.1 : 1 pilots to aircraft, but at the moment we don't even have that  

[Soldier36]

Russian military personnel demonstrated the use of a robotic platform for cargo delivery, we showed it earlier. The robotic platform can also be used to evacuate the wounded, the platform's load capacity is up to 150 kg, the model name and other technical characteristics are still unknown.

 

 

[Soldier36]

Production of Akhmat armored vehicles increased by Russia, review. Rostec CEO Sergey Chemezov announced an increase in the production of Z-STS Akhmat armored vehicles; more than a thousand new armored vehicles have already been produced. The use of serial chassis and auto components made it possible to significantly increase the production rate of these armored vehicles. Earlier, we showed the Z-STS Akhmat armored vehicle with total protection against drones, more details about it in the link to the video in the comments to the video. The Russian Z-STS Akhmat armored vehicle was developed at Remdiesel in record time in 25 days, in April 2022, and the first 5 samples were created within 2 weeks. The Z-STS Akhmat is made on the KAMAZ-5350 chassis, it has high mobility and cross-country ability. The rejection of the monocoque body in favor of a simpler frame design allowed to reduce labor costs by 7-10 times compared to the armored vehicles of the Typhoon family, which are also produced by the Remdizel plant. The production of Akhmat armored vehicles takes 7-10 times less time, and they are also cheaper. The vehicle body is made of rolled and, according to some sources, ceramic armor. It is worth noting that the Akhmat armored vehicle cannot fully replace the Typhoon armored vehicles or other vehicles. The armored vehicle can be equipped with a remote-controlled Arbalet-DM module with a thermal imager and a Kord machine gun, a 30-mm grenade launcher, or a 12.7-mm machine gun. The armored vehicle can be converted into a medical module in two hours. The V-shaped bottom of the armored vehicle can withstand an explosion of 6 kg of TNT equivalent. The armored car has an armored capsule that protects the crew from 7.62 mm bullets. The total weight of the armored car is 18 tons, it is equipped with a 260 hp engine and develops a speed of up to 90 km/h. The armored car is designed for 10 people, including the crew.

 

 

[JWB]

 

[Stuart Galbraith]

Thought this was interesting.

 

[Roman Alymov]

Interesting improvided bomb found by pro-Russians with wreck of agricultural drone/bomber shot down. Looks lihe it is warhead of some sort of unguided aviation missile with optical guidance  (or laser rangefinder for airburst?) upgraded with DIY fins....

https://t.me/infomil_live/8545?single

[Markus Becker]

18 hours ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Thought this was interesting.

 

A comment I got elsewhere:

!Might be doable, especially with the L39 variant.
But i would question if it's worth the effort of establishing compatibility with the old platform.
Making a whole new towed howitzer chassis may be more worthwhile, or just ask around for old towed western howitzers.
Part of the issue may be that western modern ones like M777 and FH77 are so fancy they give Ukrainians sticker shock, but then again, a big chunk of that is probably the advanced fire control they come with, while Ukrainians have good locally made solutions in that regard that are certainly cheaper."

 

[JWB]

 

[alejandro_]

23 hours ago, Soldier36 said:

The Russian Z-STS Akhmat armored vehicle was developed at Remdiesel in record time in 25 days, in April 2022, and the first 5 samples were created within 2 weeks. The Z-STS Akhmat is made on the KAMAZ-5350 chassis, it has high mobility and cross-country ability. The rejection of the monocoque body in favor of a simpler frame design allowed to reduce labor costs by 7-10 times compared to the armored vehicles of the Typhoon family, which are also produced by the Remdizel plant. The production of Akhmat armored vehicles takes 7-10 times less time, and they are also cheaper. The vehicle body is made of rolled and, according to some sources, ceramic armor. It is worth noting that the Akhmat armored vehicle cannot fully replace the Typhoon armored vehicles or other vehicles. 

I had a quick look for comparison. Mine protection for KamAZ-63968 Typhoon-K corresponds STANAG 4569 (explosive device up to 8 kg of TNT), while Akhmat can only take 6. Typhoon offers protection vs 14.5 mm B-32 rounds vs 7.62mm for Akhmat.

[Roman Alymov]

14 minutes ago, alejandro_ said:

I had a quick look for comparison. Mine protection for KamAZ-63968 Typhoon-K corresponds STANAG 4569 (explosive device up to 8 kg of TNT), while Akhmat can only take 6. Typhoon offers protection vs 14.5 mm B-32 rounds vs 7.62mm for Akhmat.

Actually it is cheap mobilization wehicle  

"Accelerated project

The Remdiesel plant from Naberezhnye Chelny was engaged in the development of a new armored car Z-STS ("Protected special vehicle"). He has extensive experience in the creation and production of modern armored vehicles, which was used in the new project. The armored car was created by order of one of the law enforcement agencies from Chechnya. In this regard, the finished sample received the unofficial name "Akhmat".

It is reported that the order for the development of the future Z-STS was received in the spring of this year, shortly after the start of the Special Operation in Ukraine. Chechen security forces wanted to get an armored car that was easy to manufacture and operate, with the ability to transport personnel and various goods, as well as weapons for self-defense and fire support.

The project development activities took only 25 days. Already in early May, Remdiesel manufactured and handed over to the customer the first armored cars of a new type. On May 9, they were shown at a parade in Grozny. Then the equipment went to the Special Operation area, where it was placed at the disposal of special forces. In fact, the armored cars had to be tested immediately in real combat conditions.

On July 22, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, announced that a new batch of armored cars had been purchased for the needs of the army. Two dozen Z-STS machines were shipped by the manufacturer and were already in Grozny. They were scheduled to be sent to the area of the operation in the near future.

A new type of armored car was shown at the recent Army 2022 forum. Together with other samples from Remdiesel, he was present at the open exhibition area. Visitors to the exhibition could inspect the car both from the outside and inside. In addition, during the forum, the developer company revealed interesting information about the new project, including its brief history and basic technical data.

Thus, it is reported that Remdiesel has already manufactured and transferred a significant number of armored cars to the troops. In addition, production figures are growing. Its volumes have increased fivefold recently. This allows you to fulfill orders faster and transfer the required equipment to the army and law enforcement agencies.

The course of simplification

Over the past few years, the Remdiesel plant has been producing armored vehicles of the Typhoon family. This technique has high tactical and technical characteristics and is actively used by the army and law enforcement agencies. However, the price of high performance and potential is a certain complexity of design and the corresponding complexity of production. All this affects the cost of finished samples.

The goal of the Z-STS project was to achieve all the required characteristics using simple solutions. Due to this, it was planned to accelerate the development and pre-production, as well as simplify the production of serial equipment and reduce its final cost. It is reported that all these tasks have been successfully solved.

Armored car Z-STS at the Army-2022 forum

The new armored car was built on a serial cargo chassis with suitable mobility and load capacity characteristics. No significant changes were made to its design. The armored body was made in the form of a module mounted directly on the chassis frame. The bearing scheme of the case was abandoned due to excessive labor intensity. At the same time, it was possible to ensure the necessary composition of the devices.

The resulting armored car meets the customer's requirements. In terms of tactical, technical and operational parameters, it may be inferior to Tafuns or other developments of this kind. However, due to reasonable compromises, it was possible to reduce the cost of the machine, as well as 7-10 times accelerate its production.

Technical features

The Akhmat Z-STS is made on a KamAZ-5350 three-axle all-wheel drive chassis. It has high mobility and cross-country characteristics, and in addition, it does not differ in the complexity of operation. It is curious that the armored car, unlike the base truck, is built according to the hood scheme. This made it possible to shift the crew's seats back and increase their safety. This idea was previously used when creating the Patrol armored car.

The body of the machine is made of rolled armor and has armored glass. Probably, some design elements are borrowed from serial armored cars. The level of protection of the case is stated as "very high", without disclosing specific indicators. The type of construction suggests protection from rifle bullets, possibly armor-piercing, and fragments with equivalent energy. The availability of specialized mine protection is not reported.

The crew and troops are housed in the general habitable volume of the hull. Four seats, including the driver's seat, are installed in two rows "in a car-like manner". Six more seats are placed in the aft part of the compartment, along the sides. Access inside the armored car is provided by two pairs of side doors and a stern swing door. Due to the high height of the chassis, footrests are used.

The Z-STS can carry weapons. To install it in the roof there is a hatch with a turret for a machine gun or other weapon. Some of the serial armored cars received turret armor plates. There is probably a fundamental possibility of installing other devices, up to full-fledged combat modules.

Quickly and efficiently

The Z-STS armored car can already be recognized as one of the most interesting modern domestic developments in this field. First of all, the timing of the project creation and ways to speed up the design are of interest. It took only a few months from the order and technical specifications to the delivery of dozens of cars.

The development was accelerated by maximizing the use of ready-made components and accumulated experience. So, instead of individual units, a ready-made chassis was used, and the hull was built using previously mastered solutions. The resulting machine shows the required characteristics, but it is quite easy to manufacture.

Curiously, the project is based on several compromises, but the designers managed to get rid of their negative influence. Thus, the rejection of the load-bearing body and the use of a frame chassis worsens the weight qualities of the structure and reduces the load capacity. However, the correct choice of the base car ensured that the characteristics were maintained at an acceptable level.

The frame chassis increases the overall height of the machine and also makes it difficult to access the body. These problems were solved due to the correct design of the body and the developed footrests under all doors. From the point of view of ergonomics, the new Akhmat practically does not differ from other armored cars of this kind.

KamAZ-5350 chassis in the configuration of an on-board truck

It should be noted that the Z-STS project has shown the most important ability of our industry. It is capable not only of carrying out a full cycle of development of armored vehicles with all necessary measures. If necessary, enterprises can use the accumulated experience and available units to quickly create a new "mobilization" model.

An armored car of this kind can be a good addition to other equipment that has gone through all the necessary stages. At the same time, the Z-STS will not be able to fully replace Typhoons or other vehicles. This is hampered by differences in design and characteristics, including those related to the compromise nature of the project, as well as a number of other factors.

Nevertheless, such an armored car does not require superiority over other vehicles. The main requirement for it is the possibility of rapid and mass production, so that combat units can receive the desired armored vehicles in the shortest possible time, and with it the corresponding combat and operational capabilities.

A quick novelty

Thus, the creators of the Z-STS project from the Remdiesel plant set a real record. Just six months ago, they received a technical assignment, and over the past time they have developed an armored car, brought it to production, and then delivered dozens of units of such equipment to the customer. The work completion rates, unique for modern times, are shown.

Thanks to the efforts of Remdiesel, several units of the army and law enforcement agencies have already received new armored vehicles with a high level of protection and the possibility of fire support. Production will continue, and with the help of such equipment, the industry will cover part of the army's needs for protected vehicles. And this process will obviously affect the capabilities of the units, as well as help achieve the goals of the current Special Operation."

Бронеавтомобиль З-СТС «Ахмат»: быстро и просто (topwar.ru)

[RETAC21]

On 8/1/2024 at 9:20 AM, Stefan Kotsch said:

Whatever it is. The only source of the report from the Romanian MOD appears to be Guilliermo Lafferriere.

Aaaand, it's a Russian fake, quelle surprise...

[Soldier36]

Kurganmashzavod sent the next batch of BMD-4M and BMP-3 combat vehicles with additional protection to the troops. In total, two batches were sent - one contained BMD-4M, and the other - BMP-3, the exact quantity is unknown. "The armored vehicles received standard sets of additional protection - armor and lattice screens from cumulative ammunition. BMP-3 received standard factory protection from drones, in the form of a visor above the turret, also called "Mangal". It is worth noting that this type of protection saves the BMP-3 crew only from drones dropping ammunition from above. Additional protection for armored vehicles is supplied complete with it and is installed in combat units, which allows for the prompt transportation of BMPs and BMDs on regular cargo platforms. As reported, Kurganmashzavod fully fulfills the plan for the delivery of equipment every month. Technical information about the equipment is available on the channel.

 

 

[Soldier36]

In Russia, tests of the Iskander-1000 tactical ballistic missiles with an expected range of 900 to 1300 km have begun at the Kapustin Yar test site. The missiles are supposedly planned to be deployed in the western part of Russia and Kaliningrad. Why is this being done?! The fact is that the takeoffs of MiG-31K aircraft with Kh-47M2 missiles are quickly detected by optical-electronic reconnaissance satellites, as a result of which the enemy has 15 to 20 minutes to prepare to repel the attack. When launching Iskander-1000 ballistic missiles, the warning time will vary from 2 to 7 minutes, which significantly reduces the chance of repelling a missile attack. The new Iskander-1000 missiles retain the classic layout of the 9M723-1/K5 series of missiles, but have a solid propellant charge volume increased by 15%, which increases the operating period of the missile engine. Presumably, the Iskander-1000 missiles with an octogen-based fuel charge will be able to hit targets at a range of up to 1,000 km, having a charge of 300-350 kg, for strikes at targets at a range of up to 1,300 km, the missiles will have a warhead weighing from 200 to 230 kg. In the future, the speed of the Iskander-1000 missiles may reach the values of the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.

 

 

[seahawk]

Very good, this is a needed first strike option against NATO aggression.