As I said on my answer. Ukraine is bad too. But Russia should have been much better. With the exception of UAV use and sporadic higher tech equipment Russian artillery is fighting like it was early 1980s.
The War in the Ukraine
- Thread starter SampanViking
- Start date
Destruction of Ukraine Howitzers PION :
For an unknown reason, but one of the 2S7 "Pion" self-propelled guns of the Ukrainian army exploded when fired. It is not known what caused the explosion of the 2S7 Pion self-propelled guns, perhaps a defect in the projectile or depreciation of the equipment.
One of the officers of the special forces detachment of the militia "Storm" with the call sign "Batya Kharkiv", spoke about the tactics of the Ukrainian army and the defensive structures in the Avdeevka direction. (Video subtitles)
One of the officers of the special forces detachment of the militia "Storm" with the call sign "Batya Kharkiv", spoke about the tactics of the Ukrainian army and the defensive structures in the Avdeevka direction. (Video subtitles)
Is this how you would want to win if this was your war? (Rhetorical question, you wouldn't.) The question was never "will Russia ultimately win." The question was always about the operational efficiency of that victory.
Was this Russia's original intent when they did their warplanning? I doubt it. Because they would've gained a lot more by enforcing a fait accompli with a swift victory.
I would say the efficiency is pretty good when comparing losses of both sides. If this was my war, I would try to minimize losses of manpower first, material secondly, while overall trying to do it as economically sensible as possible at the same time maximizing the losses in material and manpower of the enemy, and then as a bonus maximizing the drain on their sponsors.
As for their original intent I think they had hoped on mass desertion and commanders switching sides in the early days of the war, which would explain the blitzkreig into Ukraine followed by pull out and changing their strategy to the so called Plan Z. Plan Z I think is based upon my earlier paragraph
Dozens of foreign mercenaries killed in Ukraine – Russia
Over 100 fighters from Poland and Germany have been eliminated and more than 50 injured, the Defense Ministry has claimed
Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation
The Russian military has killed dozens of mercenaries in Ukraine in high-precision strikes, the Defense Ministry claimed on Monday.
It said the Russian Air Force had hit a mercenary deployment point in Kharkov Region. “More than 100 militants from Poland as well as Germany were killed, with more than 50 injured,” the statement read.
According to the Defense Ministry, Russian airstrikes on the combat positions of the 63rd Ukrainian Mechanized Brigade in Kherson Region resulted in the 105th and 107th battalions of the unit losing more than 160 fighters.
Meanwhile, an artillery attack on the positions of the 66th Ukrainian Mechanized Brigade in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) wiped out “more than 70% of personnel in the unit’s third battalion.” Another high-precision strike near the settlements of Ugledar, Vodyanoye and Dobrovolye, in the DPR, that was conducted against the 53rd Mechanized and 68th Chaser Infantry brigades killed more than 260 fighters.
In early August, the ministry claimed that it had eliminated “more than 80 foreign mercenaries and 11 units of special equipment,” that were a part of Ukraine’s ‘International Legion’ in southeastern Ukraine.
Earlier, the ministry revealed that since February 24 – the day Russia began its military offensive – more than 7,100 mercenaries from more than 60 countries had arrived in Ukraine. The military says that it is actively monitoring the foreign fighters and specialists, noting that their number had been reduced to 2,190 as of early August.
In April, however, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov stated that the best thing the foreign mercenaries could expect in Ukraine was a “long term in prison.” In June, he also noted that while hundreds had been killed by Russian long-range precision weapons “shortly after their arrival,” most of the foreign fighters were eliminated “due to a low level of training and a lack of real combat experience.”
Regarding its own casualties, Moscow has not updated the numbers since March, when it reported 1,351 military personnel killed and 3,825 wounded.
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”
In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.
Conventional warfare doctrine hasn't changed much since the 1980s. All problems Russia has had in the Ukraine stem from ineffective SEAD. Thanks to untouchable NATO AWACS and radar sites outside the Ukraine, the Ukrainians have access to real time tracking of every Russian plane in the operating theatre. Russia can't change that without potentially starting a nuclear war.
They can wait for Ukrainian SAM stations to turn on their radars, use intelligence to find locations, but they have figured it would lead to an unacceptable level of losses for Russia. Bare in mind Ukraine has hundreds of short range mobile SAM launchers.
Drones, low cost expendable strike platforms that can target anywhere in the Ukraine are the obvious solution that Russia is lacking (despite what Russians on here say). Hopefully that will be rectified with these Iran rumours.
If the roles were reversed and it was NATO invading the Ukraine with Russia/China providing the Ukraine with intelligence the situation would be exactly the same for NATO.
Can Iran make bolometers? Can they mass produce turboprop engines? What about the semiconductors and other electronics found inside modern drones?
Maybe they can produce some components but a large number will need to be imported anyway. They may be able to smuggle in some components from western countries but most likely it's going to be from China.
If I was Putin I would ask Xi to develop one or more cheap MALE type drones that can be mass produced with a payloads ranging around 25-50kg. I'd also want electronic only VTOL type drones with a shorter range and payload (say 10-25kg).
Mark them up so they look like an Iranian drone to add a layer of deniability. The key thing is mass production, Russia can produce drones piecemeal right now, no need to rely on Iran. They've been trying that and it hasn't been effective enough.
The other thing would be each drone needs to be cheap, if they become too expensive then you'll end up in the same situation to the problem Russia has with strike pilots now.
Main issue for Russia are quantity. Such scale of combat with such size of battlefield (Ukraine is larger than France for example) had required a magnitude more drones than Russia have.
The components are probably imported from China like everything else. China doesn't need to sell finished products in this conflict, just components.