Sanctions against Russia

[willedoo]

Sources are not independently verified, but Russian military bloggers have shared some insight into Russia's battle losses in the Izyum district.

 

The Russian 35th. Combined Arms Army was brought from Russia's far east and sent into the forested areas around Izyum. Aside from supporting elements, the infantry force consisted of two brigades, the 38th. and 64th. Motor Rifle Brigades. They were possibly under strength from the start, but normally would have a strength of two to three thousand men per brigade.

 

It's being said that after accounting for killed and wounded, at least one battalion of the 64th. Brigade was down to less than twenty men, and reports of the combined strength of both brigades reduced to less than two hundred combat-ready infantry troops. There are stories that they didn't have shovels to dig in, with supply trucks arriving loaded with toilet paper and shoe polish. It was said that they were overly exposed to Ukrainian artillery by not being able to dig protective areas and made worse by the extra shrapnel from exploding trees in the forested areas. It sounds like a lot of their command is woeful at best.

[willedoo]

I can understand the need for toilet paper when being hammered by artillery, but shoe polish? Maybe the strategy was that the reflection from the shiny shoes would blind the enemy drone operators.

[facthunter]

People prefer to be killed by Immaculate looking enemy. You have to  show some respect. Can't have them looking scruffy and dishevelled.   Nev

[willedoo]

The Su-25 is a tough old beast. This one made it back to base after taking a manpads hit. Very reminiscent of similar photos from the Soviet/Afghanistan war. At least with a heat seeking missile, it will likely hit the strong engine area and not a more vulnerable part of the airframe. The survivability of the Su-25 would have a lot to do with the engines being isolated either side of the aircraft. I'd recon the side by side configuration of the Su-27/30 engines would most likely result in the loss of both engines.

[willedoo]

Spot the mercenary: Second from right is a PMC Wagner contract pilot wearing what looks like a U.S. tiger stripe uniform. Pilot on far right has his helmet pulled down over his face so his mum doesn't recognise him.

 

Can't say I really blame him. They're showing off their crowd funded radios. I don't know why the Russians continue publishing these embarrassing photos; it makes them look like total clowns. The world's 'second army' having to be crowdfunded is not a good look. The only reason I can think of is that it's for the gullible audience back home, in an attempt to get the public fully behind the special operation. Only problem is, the special operation is especially dumb.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Why would anyone think that their army going out and getting crowdfunding to buy radios is a good thing? "Look, mama! People tink we do good, dat dey buy us kit Kremliminskyt can't afford.. ooh.. ant dey vorek wen da onbaoird raydeeos doesn't.."

 

Maybe Russia shoudl pay Zelenski and his team to do their PR as the Russians seem to be doing a better job at sabotaging their propaganda than the Ukrainians ever could.

Edited June 4, 2022 by Jerry_Atrick

[Marty_d]

A solution for both problems...

 

https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/biden-and-zelensky-reach-agreement-to-send-americans-four-hundred-million-guns-to-ukraine?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Borowitz_06032022&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5bea16ee3f92a4046973a031&cndid=31732892&hasha=5a9c0746f92d107e154d883e568b7b9e&hashb=059346b55303c4a10b706993f970ddb62f706bf7&hashc=26b770f1f676e1265814898f8d7852b71ab68235a6e428825f8319a3bae3cb12&esrc=&utm_term=TNY_Borowitz

[Jerry_Atrick]

Interesting article 

The underground network of Belarusians sabotaging Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine and plotting a revolution at home
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-05/belarus-opposition-sabotages-russia-in-ukraine-plans-revolution/101072484

[willedoo]

11 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

Interesting article 

The underground network of Belarusians sabotaging Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine and plotting a revolution at home
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-05/belarus-opposition-sabotages-russia-in-ukraine-plans-revolution/101072484

The Belarusians have a lot riding on this war in Ukraine. If Putin goes down, Lukashenko goes down. There's a Belarusian battalion fighting for the Ukrainians. They won't be able to go home until the regime is gone.

[onetrack]

In other news, the Belarusians are now considering handing over a large number of Belarusian tanks to Russia, to replace a lot of the Russian tanks lost. This is going to happen, of course, because Lukashenko is nothing but a Russian stooge, and has no doubt been instructed to do so, by Putin. 

 

https://www.uawire.org/kyiv-belarus-removing-tanks-from-storage-to-hand-them-over-to-russia

 

In other news, the Ukrainians must be impressed with the Polish 155mm AHS "Crab" tracked howitzers that Poland gave them, because they've made arrangements to buy another 60 units off the Poles, to add to the 18 that Poland has already given them.

The "Crab" is a home-grown Polish special, it utilises the South Korean-designed K9 "Thunder" tracked hull, combined with a modified British AS-90 gun and turret - all built under licence, of course.

The power plant is a Korean STX Engine Co, licence-built, MTU V8 diesel of 1000HP. The Crab carries 60 rounds of 155mm ammunition, has a 12.7mm machine gun with 1000 rounds in storage, and 8 smoke grenade launchers. The Crab is being built by Huta-Stalowa-Wola, a Polish steel mill/defence contractor/heavy construction manufacturing conglomerate. It is fully compatible with all NATO equipment. The only problem at this point, is the Poles have no manufacturing ability for the 155mm ammunition, so it has to be purchased from the U.S.

 

https://www.uawire.org/ukraine-to-buy-60-krab-howitzers-from-poland

 

Some of you may recall that the Morrison Govt agreed in 2021 to purchase up to AU$1.3BM worth of South Korean armoured equipment. Part of the deal was for the Koreans to supply 30 x AS9 Huntsman 155mm howitzers - with the AS9 being a modified and improved K9 Thunder. The AS9 sports enhanced armour and weapon-locating radars. The AS9 Huntsman will be built at Hanwha's new manufacturing facility in Geelong.

 

https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/land-amphibious/9244-hanwha-defence-australia-signs-huntsman-contract

 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2022 by onetrack

[old man emu]

5 hours ago, onetrack said:

The AS9 Huntsman will be built at Hanwha's new manufacturing facility in Geelong.

How American. We can have manufacturing facilities to build weapons, but not to build things for civilians. 

[facthunter]

The Americans can buy the (assault) weapons freely. Nev

[willedoo]

Ukraine is claiming another two Russian Generals killed yesterday, two in one day. One a Major General, the other a Lieutenant General. Some news reports are claiming the Lieutenant General as the highest ranking General killed so far, but I thought they'd already got one L.G. some time back. The previous one might have been one of those unverified claims where they only die on Twitter.

[old man emu]

Irrelevant, but interesting.

 

Who's over-sexed, over-paid and over here now?

 

An American Private gets paid USD22,000 per year. An Aussie Private gets paid AUD 65,000 per year.

[onetrack]

It's a little difficult to make comparisons - but yes, U.S. military personnel nowadays do not get anything like the pay they received in WW2 - or in Korea, or in Vietnam.

 

But - and this is a big But ... the U.S. military pay system is full of allowances and additional payments - and "freebies".

 

On base, they receive free housing and excellent quality food. If they live off base, they get a housing allowance. The allowances are sizeable.

If they're living in a high cost area, they get an extra allowance for food costs in that area, plus an additional Cost of Living allowance.

They get free health care for every single health need. They get free clothing - plus they get clothing and uniform allowances. They get travel allowances.

They get useful allowances for combat zones and "imminent danger" areas. They get allowances for operating in logistics in danger zones.

They get extra pay for education levels, and for gaining skills qualifications. Most allowances are tax-free, so their actual level of tax paid, is low. Their pay increases with each year of service.

 

Then, we have to consider that one U.S. dollar is worth AU$1.38 - so USD$22,000 is over AU$30,000. Plus they can buy a lot of items cheaper than we can, tax-free, through the U.S. Military PX system.

The Americans have even extended the ability to purchase from the PX to retired Veterans. There are 4900 PX stores.

 

As a matter of interest, though - I risked my neck in the jungles of SVN in 1970-71 for AU$34 a week, take home pay, including all allowances.

The basic wage for civilian employees at the time was around AU$90 week, but most of my mates were getting around AU$100-110 week.

 

The Americans we fought alongside in SVN were getting double and triple in pay (for NCO's), as what we were being paid. We were in awe of U.S. military pay rates. I guess we don't have to be, now.

One thing we do do well, is in looking after our veterans. Veterans in Australia get better allowances, pensions, compensation, and health care, than the "highly honoured" U.S. Veterans.

 

https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/what-is-e-4

 

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-much-military-service-members-make-2019-2

 

 

Edited June 6, 2022 by onetrack

[facthunter]

TRUMP reckons the whole lot of them are "LOSERS & SUCKERS". and doesn't back off from saying it often, and He was their C in C.  To bad about Honour and devotion to the Cause.  Nev

[willedoo]

Russian soldiering would be one of the worst career moves, even without the current war. They don't get treated very well. Not much leave, a lot of bastardisation, even in peace time they're treated like potential cannon fodder. I think a lot of the contract (voluntarily signed up) enlisted men are from poor regional areas where there's no local work.

 

It was only a few years ago when Russian soldiers got socks and hot showers. The previous system was just a splash bath/wash system. As for socks, they only phased out the age old portyanki (foot wraps) around the same time as they were provided with showers. The portyanki had some advantages over socks while in the field. They were easier to wash and dried a lot quicker than socks, but not as comfortable.

[old man emu]

3 hours ago, onetrack said:

One thing we do do well, is in looking after our veterans

My sister and B-in-L are the local Legacy Reps. Today the B-n-L told me that in his dealings with them Veterans Affairs staff do all they can to provide for veterans.  Often it's the veteran who causes the problem. He said he was trying to help a fellow get benefits for his war widow mother, but the bloke would not give over his bank account's BSB and Account number so the B-in-L could fill out the required application form. If the paperwork's not completed, how can the VA approve payments? 

 

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

8 hours ago, willedoo said:

Russian soldiering would be one of the worst career moves, even without the current war. They don't get treated very well. Not much leave, a lot of bastardisation, even in peace time they're treated like potential cannon fodder. I think a lot of the contract (voluntarily signed up) enlisted men are from poor regional areas where there's no local work.

 

It was only a few years ago when Russian soldiers got socks and hot showers. The previous system was just a splash bath/wash system. As for socks, they only phased out the age old portyanki (foot wraps) around the same time as they were provided with showers. The portyanki had some advantages over socks while in the field. They were easier to wash and dried a lot quicker than socks, but not as comfortable.

One of my son's mate is Russian and was sent out to the UK for his secondary - and even before the war, had no intention of returning until well after the age where they can't conscript. He has gone and hidden himself oop norf.. Although, I hear now he has no intention of returning to Russia....

[facthunter]

Good thinking 99.. Nev

[Yenn]

The Aussie soldier would have a far better education and be more employable than his US counterpart. The US army and marine corps has all the no hopers, who join up because it is the best way to earn a living.

Our squaddies have to pass several aptitude and education tests and are also assessed for mental stability.

Very different from the army I was in, where if you could breath in and out you were considered fighting fit.

[onetrack]

We had some pretty extensive aptitude and intelligence testing upon induction into the Australian Army. I was quite pleased to accidentally sight my A&I report (which I did not get a copy of, naturally), and it stated, "Highly intelligent, and suitable for highly skilled training".

However, they wouldn't let me apply for officer training as I didn't have my Leaving Certificate (Matriculation), because I left school to go into business with my brother when I was 16, and in 4th year high school.

Very few National Servicemen were accepted for OTU, as the Army regarded us as very temporary soldiers, though. However, quite a number of National Servicemen signed on for a further period after completing their 2 years National Service.

One thing we did have  to meet was quite a high standard of health and fitness. The medicals were very thorough. Of course, it was well known if you didn't want to be conscripted, you could "engineer" to fail your medical.

The Govts of the time became concerned about the failure rate of potential conscripts, thinking that a large percentage of the nations youth was extremely unfit - but that really wasn't the case, it was just that a lot of young men didn't want to ruin their nightlife and girl-chasing, by having to join the Army!

[Jerry_Atrick]

I hear being a member of the armed forces as a young-an improves your ability and opportunity to chase women

[old man emu]

 

[pmccarthy]

Chasing isn't catching.