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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| German-supplied Flakpanzer Gepard SPAAG, armed with two 35mm autocannons, in Ukraine |
| 2022-08-26 |
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
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| Posted by:Fred |
| #20 Israel did quite well with the M-48s. Imagine what they could do now. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2022-08-26 21:22 |
| #19 M-48's... |
| Posted by: NoMoreBS 2022-08-26 18:32 |
| #18 WM, my first Tank Company command was 17 M84A5's with co-incident range-finding. We had an ancient Platoon Sergeant (E7) who was German-American who had been in the Hitler-Jugen in Berlin in 45 shooting Panzerfausts at Russian T-34s. The M-48 Automotive package was fine, but a terrible tendency to break torsion bars when you crossed over wider ditches, climbed significant creek banks or 3ft curb walls or did a diagonal traverse on a slope. |
| Posted by: NoMoreBS 2022-08-26 18:31 |
| #17 More fitting mood music. https://youtu.be/e3YzmjmAGoI From a game. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2022-08-26 18:04 |
| #16 I knew a Pakistani Major from Ranger school. I got ‘ invited’ (voluntold) to visit, and he had work for me. Lovely family, Army was happy, yada. Long time ago. Anyhoo, he commanded a tank brigade comprised of three battalions; M48’s, T55’s, and a Chinese tank unk type. If 48’s got to the battlefield, crews were good to go. T55’s and Chinese not so much; they beat the hell out of the crews. His take was M48’s IF they made it to battle, Chinese second but couldn’t hit anything, T55 but beat up crew, so-so at hitting targets. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2022-08-26 17:58 |
| #15 major combat end items like tanks and artillery that are hit with anti-armor weapons tend to be un-repairable To a point. Top down attack weapons like Javelin or NLAW tend to make tanks into unworkable paperweights true, but hits on other places, even if it is a full breach can be patched and the tank put back in action fairly quickly (with the washing out of the crew remains). The Soviet/Russian doctrine will still pull out a new tank while the other is offline, but they abandon it faster than the west. I agree now this is a war of attrition. It doesn't matter if the Russians are coming forward with only BMP-1s if the Ukrainians only have AKs to defend themselves with. Ukraine will lose. It will be the west keeping them in the fight and if a major chunk of the army can be kept cut off in the south, that might be the end of it. Maybe. I don't think the Russian army can get many more new men or expand after January. Not without full mobilization. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2022-08-26 15:03 |
| #14 ^^^ Completely accurate with one critical flaw, major combat end items like tanks and artillery that are hit with anti-armor weapons tend to be un-repairable, so to an extent, simpler stuff in far larger quantities can overcome the qualitative advantages described. The old quantity is its own form of quality argument. Eventually warehouse T-55's win if you are out of class V CG/Javelin reloads. In Ukraine right now, it appears it is becomming an attritional issue of who runs out of stuff first. I just posted an article this morning that says a US SF Whistleblower alerted that their on-hand Carl Gastves Anti-Armor systems were being collected for shipment to Ukraine! https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/stunning-development-u-s-special-forces-losing-weapons-from-active-service-to-ukraine/ |
| Posted by: NoMoreBS 2022-08-26 14:37 |
| #13 Thank you, DarthVader. Always good to get clarification from someone who actually knows about the the ideas I’ve picked up in my reading (often here). |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2022-08-26 14:31 |
| #12 I can speak for the US and some Soviet ideas on this. For the Soviets/Russians, their stuff is basic and good enough to work long enough in large enough numbers to steamroll the enemy behind an artillery barrage. Stuff mostly fixed by the crew or supporting divisional mechanic units. If it gets bad enough it has to be sent to the back, it just gets abandoned and they pull another tank out of storage. For them they have a decent supply line and they like to store items near railway junctions near the front (nothing moves in Russia without rail) and then have trucks pick up things and deliver them to the units 3x per day. The HIMARs have showed the weakness of this strategy. For the US most of the quick repairs/maintenance is done by the unit and the mechanic units attached to the battalion. More complex things gets sent back to the repair battalions for like engine swap outs and the like. Everything is designed to be a quick swap so say an M-1 needs a new engine and transmission, that can be done in a day or two and the tank is back in action. The US believes in having a very large rear support team (12 support people to every 1 combat soldier) and because of that, the US rarely has equipment offline for very long and can keep up extended operations at a high state of activity for longer than any other nation. Downside.... oh man that supply line is HUGE. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2022-08-26 13:50 |
| #11 I believe the German philosophy used to be that all repairs must be done by the experts back in their well-equipped workshop behind the lines, in contrast to the American philosophy that the crew fixes most problems on the ground, and the Soviet philosophy that things are very basic but unbothered by all the stupid things the common soldier does to it. I have no idea if that’s still the case for any of the parties. They will shiver this winter because too many of them vote Green. Expensive ideas cost more than just money — an important copybook heading lesson. It will be interesting to see how the first round of elections after this winter play out across Europe and Britain. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2022-08-26 13:30 |
| #10 Mrs Rabbit had a Mercedes SUV. Cost 600$ to change the oil/service. I can't begin to guess what that would cost. |
| Posted by: BrerRabbit 2022-08-26 13:13 |
| #9 I've got some better German music to go with that. Less... happy. |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2022-08-26 12:08 |
| #8 Who is going to fix it when it breaks down which it most likely will. |
| Posted by: bman 2022-08-26 12:00 |
| #7 Keep the Russians from flying 'low and slow' which they weren't going to do anyway because of MANPADS. |
| Posted by: magpie 2022-08-26 11:46 |
| #6 |
| Posted by: Cholutle Thrans9751 2022-08-26 11:36 |
| #5 That music....no singing? We aren't really supposed to be here, but in a war where selfies get you zapped, we're going to take one showing us continually bonking our radar/head against a tree. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2022-08-26 10:31 |
| #4 How would a Gepard or two help people stay warm? There's not that much room inside. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2022-08-26 08:21 |
| #3 SPAAG looks cool. Bet the guy in the turret gets dizzy. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2022-08-26 07:22 |
| #2 They will shiver this winter because too many of them vote Green. That's their problem. Self inflicted wound. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2022-08-26 06:23 |
| #1 Good to know Ukraine is getting gold-plated weapons while the German people shiver in the dark this winter. We have priorities, you know. The Ukraine war trumps all others. Such as caring for your own people. LOL j/k elites don't consider us their 'own' people. Maybe in that they own us. |
| Posted by: Tiny Jeater6933 2022-08-26 01:32 |