Lostconfused posted:

quote:

BCU Financial is a full service, member-owned financial institution serving the needs of the Ukrainian community in Ontario. With over 20000 members, BCU is ...

Nonsense posted:

The first fighter ever shot down was with a rifle.

PoontifexMacksimus posted:

Fetterman would crush him with his bare hands like Caesar crushed Pompey at Pharsalus

OctaMurk posted:

The T-55 looks good with the fuel tanks on the back. But without them it looks real ugly. Imo.

Regarde Aduck posted:

only somewhat related but Mlmp08 stopped posting once the leaks got posted itt lolol

must have got pissed off having to file reports

DancingShade posted:

Hand hovers over global de-dollarisation accelerator lever.

A small voice whispers "Pull! Pull!"

1stGear posted:

Feel like I've made this post a few times, but I truly don't understand trying to hold Bakhmut at this point. The city is all but lost, it doesn't appear they've been able to even temporarily push the Russians back, and they've surely bought enough time to heavily fortify the Slovyansk-Kramatorsk approach by this point.

...they have heavily fortified the Slovyansk-Kramatorsk approach, right?

1stGear posted:

Feel like I've made this post a few times, but I truly don't understand trying to hold Bakhmut at this point. The city is all but lost, it doesn't appear they've been able to even temporarily push the Russians back, and they've surely bought enough time to heavily fortify the Slovyansk-Kramatorsk approach by this point.

...they have heavily fortified the Slovyansk-Kramatorsk approach, right?

PoontifexMacksimus posted:

You can't fool me that easily, that's clearly just a Fallout 76 screenshot, right down to Bethesda's too on-the-nose satire and the unrealistic lighting.

But thanks for the info, I guess some grifts are just too small to spawn a sustainable industry?

Oglethorpe posted:

Shaken Thug Syndrome

Freezer posted:

Maybe it did allow them to evacuate a good chunk of the forces stuck in the city when it was at risk of encirclement? I've heard estimates as high as 30k troops being in the city at that point.

Getting tens of thousands of troops encircled ahead of your hyped summer offensive is terrible optics.

sum posted:

You could loosely compare the AFU's situation in the Donbass to Army Group Center's position in 1942-1944. The "smart" thing to do would be to retreat, shorten the line, and preserve their forces, but this would be an admission that taking Moscow/Donetsk is off the table. Zelensky has repeatedly stated that Ukraine will restore the 1991 borders, anything less is Rashist defeatism, etc. etc. If people start thinking that he's just drawing out Ukraine's defeat his political situation might become untenable.

Danann posted:

be aware for wagner is infiltrating the discords

Frosted Flake posted:

I think realistically we would have never heard about 90% of these, but "exotic" ammunition is cat nip for internet guys and so they have reputations that are, not just outsized, but border on ludicrous. Single prototypes that were rejected for being useless even in theory become lol well silver bullets not just in terms of the properties ascribed to them, but probably how much they would cost. IMO it's created a feedback loop where many of these smaller companies, so without serious military orders or the need for mass market commercial ammunition like Remington, create basically meme ammo, which gets huge buzz online and at SHOT Show. YouTube channels of guys shooting ballistic gelatine would be an example.



I've talked about the harebrained FAP and PELE as cannon ammunition before, because it's been a 40 year money sink. Because Oerlikon made a prototype of FAP in 12.7, there's this idea that it would be an Epic and practical munition for HMGs or anti-material rifles, instead of... nothing, they made a handful at most and scrapped it. That would be that, except, as I said, once photos got onto their discords and message boards it became part of this canon of epic ammo.



If you remember, there's a reason it's taken 4 decades with no real results to speak of, but that's the same reason it seems so cool:

Each round is armed with a penetrator consisting of individual frangible heavy metal pellets and heavy metal sub-projectiles. After penetrating the target envelope, the heavy metal pellets disintegrate into multiple fragments. As the fragments penetrate deeper into the target interior, the number of fragments increasing, turning into a cascade of heavy metal. Owing to their special design – and unlike conventional ammunition – FAP cartridges never result in ricochets as the projectile core disintegrates upon impact.



The same desired properties that would make them magical explosive bullets - without any explosive filler - is also why they're in limbo: it's fantastic, in both senses.

Here is their presentation from 2005:



Here's the same illustration, describing the same ammunition, and promising the same results in a book from 1988:



(Obviously how they reproduced data was different then, but you can see what I mean)

However, because of the culture I was mentioning, people obsess over ammunition like this as the Next Big Thing, and contractors play off that. Big ones to continue funding the R&D, small ones in the hopes of I guess some Country Sheriff's SWAT team placing an order of Epic Antiterrorist Ammo 2030.

I'll just quickly address this last point. The Brenneke shotgun slug was developed by the German gun and ammunition designer Wilhelm Brenneke in 1898. It's old, it's reliable, it's simple, whatever.



However the company wanted those GWOT dollars, and so I present to you,

Seatbelts posted:

https://twitter.com/Spriter99880/status/1646604311676305408
So like... why did a 21 year old junior National guard air force reserve have those docs?
When would he even be anyway near info like that?

Seatbelts posted:

https://twitter.com/Spriter99880/status/1646604311676305408
So like... why did a 21 year old junior National guard air force reserve have those docs?
When would he even be anyway near info like that?

Frosted Flake posted:

Lostconfused posted:

Why is it just an outline of the pilot/seat.

Regarde Aduck posted:

only somewhat related but Mlmp08 stopped posting once the leaks got posted itt lolol

must have got pissed off having to file reports

Frosted Flake posted:

“The CP”, “Battery CP”, “Command Post”

Found an interesting take on the leaks:

A Russian Nesting Doll of Embarrassment

Conclusion: Asleep at the Wheel

Yet the leak as an act of subterfuge or treason is less significant than what the documents show. They show a conspicuous lack of alertness or long-range planning on the part of the Pentagon. American leadership seemingly has to contend with Ukraine as a black hole which sucks in money and munitions and gives nothing back; there is no strong sense of Ukrainian frontline strength, losses, or planning, and the Pentagon seems to lack any sort of independent intelligence streams.

Meanwhile, the material situation in Ukraine is degrading rapidly. Their artillery arm is running on fumes, with a miniscule shell ration and no reserve stocks to speak of, fed by a trickle of deliveries from the USA. Air defense is similarly worn thin, and the plan to repair this crucial umbrella threatens to quickly become vampiric and drain NATO interceptor stocks. The entire strategic logic of Ukraine has reversed. Rather than becoming a cheap way to drain the Russian military, NATO finds itself drawing down its own stocks to prop up the hemorrhaging Ukrainian state, with no clear endgame in sight. The proxy has become a parasite.

There does not seem to be any long term plan to sustain Ukraine’s war. The Pentagon’s procurement plans do not indicate any real intent to ramp up production of key systems. For FY2024, they have ordered a modest 5,016 GMLRS - the missiles launched by the famous HIMARS system. Ukraine has already fired nearly 10,000 GMLRS, making this yet another system where Ukrainian expenditures vastly exceed supply.

To salvage the situation, Kiev must place its hopes on one desperate dice roll with a mechanized attack package comprised of half-strength brigades wielding a disparate inventory of different vehicles and systems. This Frankenstein’s monster of armies - sewn together with a bevy of different tanks, IFVs, APCs, and artillery systems drawn from all corners of the NATO alliance, will likely be asked to smash through the heavily fortified and robustly manned Russian lines in the south, where it will be pulverized and become only so much more mulch for the Pontic Steppe.

Deadly Ham Sandwich posted:

I went back to read the Discord leak analysis that FF copied from substack.
https://bigserge.substack.com/p/russo-ukrainian-war-leak-biopsy

It's a good analysis on the leak's veracity and implications.

Key tldr points:

• the leak is real
  
• Ukraine's stockpile is already gone (tanks, artillery, SAM, ammo, soldiers with actual training)
  
• The trillion $$$ Pentagon doesn't know wtf is going on with Ukraine forces
  
• NATO cannot produce enough for the war
  
• Instead of depleting Russia, this war is now depleting NATO stockpiles
  

Below is the conclusion from the article. FF's actual post has the entire thing transcribed.

Slavvy posted:

I'm now totally convinced the leaks, intentional or not to start with, are the start of Ukraine getting cut loose. The NY times is what confirms it.

Frosted Flake posted:

They’re going to blame a private for losing a war. Incredible.

bedpan posted:

don't know what the end will be but I feel safe in predicting that nothing will have been learned

tazjin posted:

No, but my girlfriend went to the pre-premiere of Вызов yesterday (the movie that they partially filmed on the ISS). She said it was actually really good, not just resting on the "gimmick" of being filmed in space. Kinda looking forward to watching it now when it comes out publicly.

axelord posted:

His boss needed some email attachments printed out for a meeting

Frosted Flake posted:

They’re going to blame a private for losing a war. Incredible.

Starsfan posted:

Yeah all that stuff is bad enough and to make matters even worse NAFO still hasn't managed to completely close out the posting war and some reports are now indicating that the Fellas are getting pushed back.

PoontifexMacksimus posted:

This is where I point out that the Nazis also started the war with (insanely overengineered and overdesigned for their puny purpose) 50mm mortars, but quickly dropped them from the TOE, so like with so much else I don't trust initial Nazi technical designs to align with actual usage

Deadly Ham Sandwich posted:

I went back to read the Discord leak analysis that FF copied from substack.
https://bigserge.substack.com/p/russo-ukrainian-war-leak-biopsy

It's a good analysis on the leak's veracity and implications.

Key tldr points:

• the leak is real
  
• Ukraine's stockpile is already gone (tanks, artillery, SAM, ammo, soldiers with actual training)
  
• The trillion $$$ Pentagon doesn't know wtf is going on with Ukraine forces
  
• NATO cannot produce enough for the war
  
• Instead of depleting Russia, this war is now depleting NATO stockpiles
  

Below is the conclusion from the article. FF's actual post has the entire thing transcribed.