Ukraine’s new rockets are wreaking havoc on Russia’s army

https://www.economist.com/europe/2022/07/13/ukraines-new-rockets-are-wreaking-havoc-on-russias-army

by CapitalistCartr • 4 years ago

96 26 4 years ago

economist.com

labrador2• 4 years ago

I was surprised to find an expression I've never heard before:

cock-a-hoop: adjective, extremely and obviously pleased, especially about a triumph or success.

"Ukrainian commanders are cock-a-hoop. They say HIMARS is tilting the war back in their favour"

Several military bloggers have also said Ukrainian partisans behind Russian lines are providing GPS targeting information of where Russians try to hide the ammo dumps

https://archive.ph/uiR8W

daza• 4 years ago

The targeting information is provided from satellite images - no need to risk peoples lives.

labrador2• 4 years ago

Behind Enemy Lines, Scouts Help Ukrainians Execute Deadly Strikes

https://twitter.com/Mikayla91188348/status/15462116879795937...

A lot of mil bloggers are under the impression Ukrainian civilians are helping with targets that are under cloud cover or vegetation cover. I'd be interested to know if this is incorrect and satellites can see everything using many wavelengths

JabavuAdams• 4 years ago

I thought Russia had good GPS-jamming technology. I guess like many "I thought Russia had ..." statements, we're learning how real and/or widely deployed various capabilities are.

mrguyorama• 4 years ago

Russia has reasonably effective GPS jamming in Moscow, but it's not exactly mobile. Also, the vast majority of Russian "tech" is made with western parts and tools so they're struggling.

ac29• 4 years ago

Even if they did jam the GPS signal, it would only reduce the accuracy of the system since the missiles have inertial guidance systems as well. I dont know if the accuracy of such a system under degraded GNSS conditions is public knowledge, but I bet its pretty good.

greedo2• 4 years ago

From what I've read, GMLRS using inertial guidance is good for a 7 meter CEP, while the GPS part brings that down to 5 meters [1].

1. https://twitter.com/noclador/status/1532841072300380161?s=20...

kylehotchkiss• 4 years ago

I like to look at the price of these missiles and compare them to whatever federal taxes I paid last year. It's amusing to think of how many years one American's federal taxes goes to launching a single strike!

mdp2021• 4 years ago

If only we had invested in preemptive civilization.

retcon• 4 years ago

We did but according to anecdotal evidence self preoccupied boomers forgot to pass it on.

desindol• 4 years ago

Depends on the American.

petre3• 4 years ago

Would you rather your fellow Americans losing their lives instead of Ukrainians defending their country and grinding the Russian army? Because that's the tradeoff being made.

unmole2• 4 years ago

Why would Americans lose their lives in a conflict in Ukraine?

saargrin• 4 years ago

what would it cost you to let Putin take over one of the largest countries in Europe and enslave its people?

Americans are so proud about being the World Police until its time to be the world police and then they try to weasel out of it by nickel and diming everything

wrp2• 4 years ago

The key points are:

America has provided eight launchers and on July 8th said it would send four more. Each one carries a pod of six gps-guided missiles accurate up to 84km...

America’s army tends to disperse and conceal its ammunition dumps across a number of smaller sites. Russia’s army, which relies heavily on trains to move munitions and human muscle to load them onto trucks, has instead created big depots close to railheads...

So, how much effect HIMARS will have seems to depend on how long it will take the Russians to adapt by dispersing their ammunition caches.

_kbh_• 4 years ago

Russian military doctrine kinda relies on these central ammunition depots, they will likely have trouble with changing it. They will probably just move the ammo depots further back but the problem is, if they move them out of the range of HIMARS then because of their lack of solid logistics their time to get ammo drastically increases.

greedo2• 4 years ago

This. Russia relies heavily on trains for logistics, so all their main depots will be near a railhead. Then they have to truck the supplies to the front. They're lacking in trucks so the further back they move the depots, the longer the supply route. Putting more wear and tear on the trucks, slowing the supply amounts, etc.

And trying to disperse the depots into smaller amounts doesn't really help; say you cut it in half somehow (ignoring the doctrinal challenges). Then you actually need more trucks, and you need to plan carefully about the supply levels at each mini-depot.

Besides, if you cut the depot size, the Ukrainians will still hit them with HIMARS etc. One or two rockets is enough for most of these sites.

mbrodersen• 4 years ago

Non-paywall link?

Ukraine’s new rockets are wreaking havoc on Russia’s army

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