Ukraine

[Ag3ma]

So...that's a thing they sometimes do? Copyright privateers are a thing?

As far as I am aware (from someone I knew well acquainted with Russia, although going back 10-15 years), Russia has next to no copyright enforcement anyway. He said you couldn't find music/film stores stocking authentic CD/DVDs, because if someone wants something, they get a pirated copy. The authorities don't care and don't check.

I could guess that maybe the law has a utility that it's bad form for an authority to allow the population to flout the law, so instead create a law that formalises permission for what they won't enforce.

 

[Absent]

There had been stuff like that recently :

Russia Reportedly Legalizes Piracy of Games, Movies, and More - IGN

Russia has reportedly taken steps to counteract Western sanctions by legalizing piracy of movies, games, and more, as well as potentially unblocking a popular torrent site.

www.ign.com

Russia Ally Belarus Legalizes Pirating Media From 'Unfriendly' Nations

Pirating software, music, and movies from the West is now legal in Belarus following sanctions over its support of the Ukraine invasion.

www.vice.com

 

[Gergar12]

Biden Administration Announces Additional Security Assistance for Ukraine

The DOD announced additional security assistance to meet Ukraine's critical security and defense needs. This announcement is the Biden Administration's forty-fourth tranche of equipment to be provided

www.defense.gov

.

Boooooo, no F-16 block 52s from the USAF.

 

[Dalisclock]

So, if this is to be believed, Russia apparently is putting tires on their bombers to protect them from drones.


I don't know if they're effective or not but the internet is already mocking it, as the internet does.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

So, if this is to be believed, Russia apparently is putting tires on their bombers to protect them from drones.


I don't know if they're effective or not but the internet is already mocking it, as the internet does.

Maybe Russia thinks Ukraine's drones are run by AI, and will see all those tires and determine that the target is just a very large truck.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Eh, depending on what the attack is from, could be useful. Getting the thing to explode just a little bit further from the target than it wants to is a long established defence.

During WW2 some people would put the springs of a spring mattress on their tanks, to get rocket warheads to go off when they hit them before reaching the actual armour, and variations of that idea stayed long afterwards.

Ukraine has trucks with machine guns, sometimes Maxims (!) to shoot down drones, and at night they use searchlights. Really old-fashioned, but not useless.

 

[Dalisclock]

Discussion about the Air War, now with F-16s.


Ukraine has broken the first defensive line in numerous places near Robotyne(which sadly is not a city inhabited by robots). Apparently the two lines behind it aren't as well defended because the Russians are putting everything into that first line. Per this report from the ISW

Ukrainian Tavriisk Group of Forces Commander Brigadier General Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, who commands the Ukrainian grouping in southern Ukraine, discussed Ukraine’s counteroffensive in an interview with The Guardian on September 2.[1] Tarnavskyi stated that Ukrainian forces have decisively breached Russian forces’ “first line of defense” and that he expects faster Ukrainian gains as Ukrainian forces press on a weaker “second line” of defense.[2] Ukrainian forces have advanced up to the next series of prepared Russian defensive positions in certain areas in the Robotyne area in western Zaporizhia Oblast, although many Russian sources assert that these positions are the first, not the second, defensive layer in a multi-echeloned Russian defense in southern Ukraine.[3] Ukrainian officials and Russian milbloggers are using different terminology to describe the same positions. Russian sources characterize the first series of positions that Ukrainian forces have previously breached as a forward line without giving it an ordinal number, and the series Ukrainian forces are currently approaching as the first main line of defenses — while Ukrainian forces characterize these positions as Russia’s second line of defenses.

Tarnavskyi stated that Russian forces devoted 60 percent of their time and resources into building the series of defensive positions that Ukrainian forces have now breached and only 20 percent each to the two subsequent defensive layers further south.

 

[Gergar12]

So, if this is to be believed, Russia apparently is putting tires on their bombers to protect them from drones.


I don't know if they're effective or not but the internet is already mocking it, as the internet does.

Mark 77 bomb - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Fucking do it Sec-Def Austin.

 

[Dalisclock]

Eh, depending on what the attack is from, could be useful. Getting the thing to explode just a little bit further from the target than it wants to is a long established defence.

Possibly, but part of me hopes the Ukrainians figure out a way to start a tire fire on top of that bomber.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Possibly, but part of me hopes the Ukrainians figure out a way to start a tire fire on top of that bomber.

If the armour fails, you'll probably get a tyre fire on top, and also underneath with the ones that are supposed to be attached also burning. And everything else.

 

[Ag3ma]

So, if this is to be believed, Russia apparently is putting tires on their bombers to protect them from drones.

Well, I guess, if the drone bomb has a fuse system similar to the sorts a conventional artillery shell might have, I guess if it hits a tire it might prevent the fuse arming or otherwise disrupt its function and prevent/reduce damage.

It's worth noting in WW2, tanks often had bits of wood, spare track parts etc. strapped around the front and sides. This partly I think reflected the fact that there's a chance even that small amount of additional layering could possibly make a difference between a penetration or not, and if you're tank crew and it's your life on the line, maybe you wouldn't turn down even a tiny fractional improvement.

 

[Absent]

If I understood well, the tires are meant to confuse the repurposed neptune missiles' optical systems.

 

[Thaluikhain]

If I understood well, the tires are meant to confuse the repurposed neptune missiles' optical systems.

Why tyres, though? Why not a tarp or camo netting? Easy to put on and take off in a hurry.

 

[Silvanus]

Cuba uncovers ‘human trafficking ring’ recruiting for Russia’s war in Ukraine

Havana says it is dismantling network seeking to recruit Cubans as mercenaries as Moscow attempts to boost its forces

www.theguardian.com

A bizarre development: the Cuban foreign ministry has identified a human trafficking ring working to recruit Cubans to fight for Russia in Ukraine. It is now attempting to dismantle it.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Cuba uncovers ‘human trafficking ring’ recruiting for Russia’s war in Ukraine

Havana says it is dismantling network seeking to recruit Cubans as mercenaries as Moscow attempts to boost its forces

www.theguardian.com

A bizarre development: the Cuban foreign ministry has identified a human trafficking ring working to recruit Cubans to fight for Russia in Ukraine. It is now attempting to dismantle it.

Well, they say "human trafficking", but it looks like Russia is just recruiting mercenaries from wherever it can, which is not the same thing. Unless there is a lot more the article didn't mention.

Also of note, the possibility of North Korea supplying arms to support Russia, which makes sense, but seems odd from a historical context.

 

[Silvanus]

Well, they say "human trafficking", but it looks like Russia is just recruiting mercenaries from wherever it can, which is not the same thing. Unless there is a lot more the article didn't mention.

Also of note, the possibility of North Korea supplying arms to support Russia, which makes sense, but seems odd from a historical context.

Well, the Cuban government has a position against mercenary companies, so it may not be legal to join a proscribed organisation and/or travel abroad to join the war. This ring apparently isn't just recruiting in Russia, but illegally in Cuba as well. Which would mean they'd set up illegal routes out of the country.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Well, the Cuban government has a position against mercenary companies, so it may not be legal to join a proscribed organisation and/or travel abroad to join the war. This ring apparently isn't just recruiting in Russia, but illegally in Cuba as well. Which would mean they'd set up illegal routes out of the country.

Well, assuming that they had to get them illegally out of the country (and not have them legally leave and then illegally join a mercenary group), that'd be human smuggling, not trafficking. Bit of a distinction there.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Cuba uncovers ‘human trafficking ring’ recruiting for Russia’s war in Ukraine

Havana says it is dismantling network seeking to recruit Cubans as mercenaries as Moscow attempts to boost its forces

www.theguardian.com

A bizarre development: the Cuban foreign ministry has identified a human trafficking ring working to recruit Cubans to fight for Russia in Ukraine. It is now attempting to dismantle it.

Cuba and Russia have been best buds for the better part of a century, so for Cuba to call Russia out publicly like this is significant.

 

[Ag3ma]

Why tyres, though? Why not a tarp or camo netting? Easy to put on and take off in a hurry.

Something to do with not being a flat surface, a type of scattering effect on optics/EM?

 

[Thaluikhain]

Something to do with not being a flat surface, a type of scattering effect on optics/EM?

That's be a problem with a flat tarp, yes, but camo netting, with irregular cloth patches threaded through it to break up the flatness was a thing since at least WW2.

Now that I say that, I'm assuming that they had camo netting available, and they knew how to use it. Could well be that they didn't have the knowledge or the resources, and in that case that's a reasonably clever improvisation.