mila kunis posted:

apparently some ex-US military volunteer defected to the russians https://twitter.com/Sofiaandyusuf7/status/1630527805770399745

full rt interview here https://rumble.com/v2b8hek-former-us-mercenary-in-ukraine-talks-war-crimes-and-cia-involvement-rt-excl.html

crepeface posted:

yeah, this is from the 90s

and now with all the western sanctions, the russian oligarchs basically have no choice but to back putin. western sanctions literally reinforcing putin's domestic power in a way that he could never do himself

CODChimera posted:

how does that even happen

Regarde Aduck posted:

i mean i can't begin to fathom

like just the whole choosing to go into a war zone willingly

i can only assume these people have a kinda magical thinking where they figure everything will somehow work out. Like everyone around them is dying and the shells are falling and its just mud and blood everywhere, but they won't die, it'll be fine.

Frosted Flake posted:

Just learned about another exercise of Supremacy vs Superiority, with surprising results

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/J-CATCH?useskin=vector posted:

5-to-1 kill ratio over the fighters when fighting at close ranges with guns.

quote:

The official report details how the F-15 was able to lock on to the helicopters from around 64 km. However, it did not get visual ID until 6-9 km. (Beyond-visual range combat wasn't practiced at this exercise.) When AIM-7 Sparrows were employed for the F-15, it stacked a 2.9-1 kill ratio on the helicopters. F-4s with 20 mm cannons were less fortunate, stacking up a 0.7-1 kill ratio. The A-10 did slightly better with its 30 mm gun stacking up a 1.3-1 kill ratio.

crepeface posted:

communist antifa american joined ukraine's foreign legion and risked getting killed with a plan to be a double agent!? lmao

so some dumbass antifa american bought into the putler narrative, discovered that nazi ideology had taken over ukrainian troops and decided to parlay what he learnt/got to retroactively justify volunteering, right? luckiest idiot ever to not get a executed by azov or eat an entire 155mm shell to the face

mlmp08 posted:

plus even if Russia wanted to flatten Kyiv, it’s like… a really, really big city. It dwarfs Mariupol many times over, which was months and months of combat after encirclement.

Cuttlefush posted:

that is a pretty suspect story though. smells like absolute bullshit. but he shaves his bear in the shape of a jawline, which is so stupid it suggests that did in fact happen. did anyone watch the video?

Regarde Aduck posted:

i mean i can't begin to fathom

like just the whole choosing to go into a war zone willingly

i can only assume these people have a kinda magical thinking where they figure everything will somehow work out. Like everyone around them is dying and the shells are falling and its just mud and blood everywhere, but they won't die, it'll be fine.

crepeface posted:

the site even has speed controls so you can watch it pretty quickly.

there's several clips from his tiktoks with ukrainian troops

quote:

The United States has asked to purchase more artillery ammunition from Korea, local sources said, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed hope that Korea will send military support against the ongoing Russian invasion of his country.

According to anonymous government sources cited by the JoongAng Ilbo, Seoul received a new request for artillery ammunition from Washington last week and is currently deliberating the matter.

The United States previously bought 100,000 rounds of 155-millimeter howitzer artillery shells from Korea to send to Ukraine in November.

But Seoul’s Defense Ministry said at the time that the ammunition purchase was conducted “under the premise that the United States is the end user,” and the sale was intended to replenish depleted U.S. stockpiles.

Regarding the latest U.S. request, a Korean defense official who spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo last week on condition of anonymity only said, “There is no change to our stance of not supplying lethal military aid to Ukraine.”

Frosted Flake posted:

Just learned about another exercise of Supremacy vs Superiority, with surprising results

quote:

As the exercise continued, the 20th increasingly took on the role of the Soviet pilots. The maintenance crews hung a red tablecloth on a pole and mounted it to the back of their truck, and then added red scarves made of cut up rags. Aircrew took up this bit of flair, which has remained part of the uniform of the 20th to this day. A red star was added as a mission patch.

16-bit Butt-Head posted:

id just do a 360 and walk away from crimea

crepeface posted:

lol power of siberia 2 is already planned

https://www.euronews.com/2022/09/15/moscow-says-power-of-siberia-2-pipeline-to-china-will-replace-nord-stream-2

Cuttlefush posted:

what the gently caress


oh, okay.

this is pretty funny that they actually tested scenarios we've probably all hosed around with in arma or something as a goof.

Freezer posted:

I'm pretty sure they can flatten Kiev if they really put their heart into it.

Frosted Flake posted:

Just learned about another exercise of Supremacy vs Superiority, with surprising results

quote:

The platform represented a serious threat to NATO armour. The results of earlier experiments, and the lack of modern organic air-defence units in the Army, suggested that the Hind would run rampant over the battlefield.

16-bit Butt-Head posted:

id just do a 360 and walk away from crimea

Son of Thunderbeast posted:

mlmp08 posted:

On the one hand, it is indeed a bad idea to take a fighter fromt he 1970s and go gunfighting with helicopters in valleys. On the other, it sounds like a lot of the helicopter gun kills were them just rotating and saying "yeah, I woulda shot that jet."

With modern look-down radars and missiles, it's decidedly less favorable for helicopters, who should just hide as much as possible.

Nukes exist, sure, but cities are large and made of lots of concrete and metal. They take an insane amount of time and ordnance to flatten.

Son of Thunderbeast posted:

Cuttlefush posted:

oh yeah, it's just funny that they did that at all. sounded like they were worried about scenarios where they'd have that colonial police action kind of roe. not exactly anything applicable to war war.

mlmp08 posted:

Having learned this lesson, the F-15s just decided that if they ever saw enemy helicopters, they'd visually ID them from fast and far away and shoot them from afar, while the helicopters were clueless.

It worked, I guess. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Black_Hawk_shootdown_incident

Danann posted:

it keeps happening

BrotherJayne posted:

So we straight up lied to our ally to get a bunch of shells for Ukr, and then went back for seconds

Goddamn

Son of Thunderbeast posted:

lobster shirt posted:

helicopters seem extremely fail

Cuttlefush posted:

how the gently caress did it manage that with an awacs

lobster shirt posted:

helicopters seem extremely fail

Mean Baby posted:

so as someone who only tangentially follows the war, it seems like Ukraine’s best opportunity to negotiate was a few months ago. It seems like Russia can just play the long game and wait for funding for Ukraine to run out to get maximum concessions. is this right?

mlmp08 posted:

The AWACS crew straight up told the F-15 pilots that they held no contacts in that location and could not ID the track (low and in valley terrain). The F-15 flight misidentified the helicopters, and the F-15 pilots made the call to shoot.

AWACS always have limitations, but especially low and in terrain.

quote:

All 26 people on board the two Black Hawks were killed. After flying over the wreckage of the two helicopters lying burning on the ground, May radioed Wickson, "Stick a fork in them, they're done."

Mean Baby posted:

so as someone who only tangentially follows the war, it seems like Ukraine’s best opportunity to negotiate was a few months ago. It seems like Russia can just play the long game and wait for funding for Ukraine to run out to get maximum concessions. is this right?