I agree about t72 and t80s but this operation has seen also the use of older t55 and t62, even if not as main battle tanks (but they are still not worse than the leopard 1).
I think the point to remember is that these vehicles are not the same vehicles that went into storage, they have gotten upgrades to equipment and systems that make them more than what they were, but obviously no level of upgrade applied to a T-55 or T-62 will make it better than a later model tank with the same upgrades, but for many roles you don't need a better tank, you just need a heavy armoured vehicle that is protected from small arms fire that can carry a gun that you have lots of stored ammo for that you want to use up.
If you can't use these vehicles in this conflict then what sort of conflict are you waiting for?
What are you saving them for?
Note they didn't use their T-34s... AFAIK they have scrapped those already. When the wanted some T-34s for parade use they had to buy some from Myanmar I believe.
So an upgraded T-55 might not defeat the orc army and push them back to the Polish border, but these vehicles are mechanically simple vehicles that are easy to use and maintain and offer a powerful gun with reasonable protection for places that are not the front line.
"Our main task is to ensure that everything that happens now helps the Ukrainian army and, conversely, harms the Russian invaders. We want them to be hungry, cold, and have no desire to fight," he said, adding that the enemy should expect "surprises from the sky."
All the greatest military minds throughout history have mostly succeeded by warning their enemy about what they are going to do months in advance... like the big offensive for example.
I wonder when they will introduce airburst warheads for drones. A claymore mine would be so effective. I think if you see a drone coming at you, probably best to run towards it then turn 90 degrees as soon as it starts its dive and then dive for cover.
I would have a rifle... I would at least shoot at the damn thing... the closer it gets the better chance of a hit...
The Ukrainians and their "masters" have always tried to project what is happening to them as actually happening to the Russians
When it gets cold thermal imagers will be so much more effective when the trees and bushes lose their leaves, and the number if individual suicide drones the Russians have it wont be the bullet with your name on it... it will be the drone with your name on it...
Taking the experience of the SMO into account, the question arises if the assault gun will make a comeback.
That is interesting because a modern transmission and suspension could allow rapid and also precise adjustments for a vehicle that does not have a turret... a semi external mount gun with an autoloader at the rear with the engine in the middle and heavy front armour for the crew position in the front hull, with rear ramp doors for loading ammo directly into an autoloading system would actually be rather interesting... you could probably actually make it on a T14 base, or actually the T-15 base with the engine moved forward.
Hell, you might even manage to mount a 240mm mortar on the vehicle...
Flying pigs?
Or he still believes in Santa... he believes the Americans will save them...
Sure 100 or 115 mm ammo can do the job - but won't have the punch of higher caliber. Nor range.
Was thinking more 152mm or 160mm (mortar) or 203mm or even 240mm (mortar).
They could even make a short range near direct fire round for 5-6km range supporting roles in the direct fire role... imagine a 240mm gun/mortar vehicle with T-15 level armour...
Would need a reload vehicle like the one for Coalition.
Must be true as the MoD November 20th briefing only claimed 340 Ukrainian casualties... lowest number I can remember.
That is rather frightening because it suggests that they are trying to explain the number discrepancy between the population Ukraine should have and the population it does have. They have been hiding losses from their own population so how to you explain why they need more men and now even women to fight... ahh, they have left the country of course... I don't think there are 4 million dead, but they have to explain a lot of missing people...
They only need a sort of transition government in order to manage things for a while until those regions can be included into Russia.
They can't second guess... I rather suspect after a referendum takes place quite a few people will want an independent state, which is fine, they can be a buffer between the west and Russia. Not the lucrative position it might have otherwise been because I rather doubt there will be a lot of trade between Russia and the west.
Imagine being led by people whose only goal is to steal as much and as long as they can, using you as a spent asset to buy more time for stealing.
And being surrounded by a propaganda atmosphere that reverses the reality, telling you that it is not you who will die any moment.
Having behind your back a society so much propaganda-driven, that won't believe you when being told how the situation is fucked.
Naming you a traitor, coward or someone so ineffective that can't win a war against a stupid enemy who uses shovels to fight.
Those are today's realities of Ukrowehrmacht trooper.
Apes from cages do even worse than that ...
Snowden, Assange, Manning... can all relate to that... when you report war crimes and nothing happens so you go public to bypass your corrupt management and the news media turns on you and you end up in jail or in a foreign country hiding from your own government...
Doesn't even matter if you took the red pill or the blue pill...
Wait until enough have crossed to justify the use of KER-POW
The really funny thing is that the Russians held back the use of cluster munitions because most countries in the world had condemned them, but when the US was running low on conventional 155mm artillery shells and took the decision to open Pandoras box and provide cluster bomb munition rounds for their 155mm guns which were in storage awaiting disposal because they had decided not to use them any more it might have been a small respite for Ukraine getting shells to fire they wouldn't have gotten otherwise... but cluster munitions for the most part are anti personnel weapons that spread fragments all over the place... but being inside armour or under cover is a reasonable defence. The most important impact however is that now that the US has effectively started it Russia can now use all the cluster warhead weapons they have and their range is enormous from rockets and artillery as well as air delivered bombs... including using their new glide kits with guidance systems and payloads on their cruise missiles.
It has probably been a significant percentage of their stored ammo supply that was otherwise not very usable, but now they can use it and the real irony is that cluster warheads are very good against troops in the open that are spread out because it spreads the fragments over a much wider area than even very big bombs do.
Being able to load up 122mm rocket vehicles with anti personnel cluster munitions makes them absolutely devastating against troops on foot or in light vehicles, and all their rocket types can carry these munitions.
One of the 300mm Smerch rockets can carry over 600 anti armour HEAT sub-munitions that are also designed to fragment to kill troops in the open too... all in a single rocket...
Their bomber aircraft can deliver cluster bombs now too... remember during Desert Storm when Iraqi soldiers were retreating from Kuwait as agreed and the Americans sent their air power in and obliterated them with B-52s and A-10s and Apaches... imagine how many nazis the Russians will be able to kill if this turns into a collapse.