We can’t rule out a Top Gun situation, where the Su-27 buzzed the tower one too many times.
I dunno. The reports of SAMs being fired at Engels airbase are widespread; but only that one poster is claiming definitively that an SU-27 was shot down. And I can’t see any solid evidence for that in the photos. So probably wishful thinking.
It’s clear that the Russians don’t trust whatever IFF systems they have. Their strategy for deconfliction in areas where their aircraft are operating has been to simply tell their air defence not to fire at anything. According to that RUSI report, again.
schurem
21815
My theories are:
A) Shitty IFF combined with panic and fear from higher-ups looking too closely at things (IE a general peeking over your shoulder at your radar screen)
B) Vodka.
C) Capitan Fyodor Blastov has a Ukrainian father and wife, and he loves them dearly, and he heard gramps got his left foot amputated because of frostbite due to the Russians bombing the power stations and he had fucking had it with this shit, so he pressed the big red button at that fucking arrogant airedale.
D) All of the above.
In other news, some dude at reddit with some experience in logistics enumerated how utterly fucked Russian logistics are because of truck losses in February/March. It is glorious. Git dem trucks boys! Fuck 'em up!
Apparently one of the most crucial things we sent the USSR via Lend-Lease was 2 1/2 ton trucks.
abrandt
21817
You post things like this on purpose don’t you. You’re testing my resolve but I’m showing restraint.
Confirmation from elsewhere (though to my eyes not exactly reliable looking).
Didn’t the USSR basically relocate its industrial base using trucks? Otherwise it would have been overrun by the Germans.
Strollen
21820
We sent them thousands of boatloads of stuff.
- 400,000 jeeps & trucks
- 14,000 airplanes
- 8,000 tractors
- 13,000 tanks
- 1.5 million blankets
- 15 million pairs of army boots
- 107,000 tons of cotton
- 2.7 million tons of petrol products
- 4.5 million tons of food
Bradleys killed more Iraqi tanks than Abrams did in Desert Storm.
vyshka
21823
I don’t know I’d consider it a tragedy. One less pilot, and SU-27 to send against Ukraine or anyone else. I’m all for Russian air defense crews shooting down as many Russian pilots and planes as they can.
jpinard
21824
Could you imagine how fast this war would be over if we could just send our guys in?
The General is a fan of the Bradley idea:
What changed with the Bradley? I can remember long ago reading an article about the Bradley being a deathtrap for the soldiers inside, it just seemed like a monumental engineering/execution error.
Clearly it was overhauled, or is this like a Bradley 2.0 rethink of the original 1980s design?
The Bradley was the F-35 of its day. An expensive project with initial teething troubles (and budget troubles) that attracted a lot of hostile press (possibly because some Pentagon insiders were briefing against it?). Then they built a few thousand of them and they turned out to be effective and reliable. Still expensive, but that’s the American way.
That rings pretty true – especially the part about some potential DoD divisiveness floating anti-Bradley info.
ddtibbs
21829
I find that extremely hard to believe. In my unit, the M1s were killing Republican Guard tanks in droves. Bradleys had to stop to fire their TOWs and keep tracking until the missile hit. There is no way that could be true.
Yeah, the general is correct. Especially on the maintenance and milage aspects. The M1 has a jet turbine instead of a diesel engine. And it burns gas like it’s a god given American right.
