Russian invasion of Ukraine

The Poles didn't consult the US about the Mig giveaway. The Pentagon is very surprised and says the Migs can't operate from a Nato base. And they wouldn't make much difference. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/08/poland-mig-29-jets-us-ukraine

I can’t find it at the moment but there was a photo on twitter of an SU25 pilot using a Garmin eTrex in the cockpit for navigation. Pretty amazing if that’s a normal thing; their own mapping so bad they use commercial devices instead.

Edit - it’s from Syria apparently. Even so, quite strange

The commercial gps is probably way easier to use than the on-board. Also a handy backup and probably more accurate than a gyro based navigation system which may drift.

All this plane geekery is interesting and all, but it gives me chills to think there are normal people like me out there in Ukraine and other wartorn parts of the world on the receiving end of what these planes and pilots are designed and trained to do.

Worth repeating.

Someone I know was recently explaining how Garmin have devices for air. Because of the number of safety processes they need to go through their technology can be behind current consumer level stuff.

Something along the lines of, (passenger) aircraft need so many certificates to pass that the technology is rarely updated like in a car.

Can’t cite any actual evidence for this, but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone used a consumer item successfully as a failsafe.

I thought commercial GPS cut out above a certain speed so it couldn't be adapted for home-brew guided missiles?

That's why I can never prove all my KOMs.

Top work.

https://www.politico.eu/article/polish-mayor-confronts-italy-matteo-salvini-over-friendship-with-vladimir-putin/

Interesting read about similarities between Russia's economy and avocado cartels

https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1501360272442896388

I someone posted a graph showing twitter activity relating to different hashtags around covid, vaccine scepticism, that trucker thing in canada and a few other conspiracy type topics completely flattened out for c. 30 hours.

have any links to these? or @Sumo

Speed of an Su-25 is closer to a bike than any sort of missile.

Interesting read - thanks for sharing!

I thought commercial GPS cut out above a certain speed so it couldn't be adapted for home-brew guided missiles?

There are plenty of uncapped GPS chips about. The restriction is basically voluntary for chip manufacturers with a few regional exceptions. From memory the devices with limits are capped at about 2000kph and 55000ft in altitude.

https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/CoCom

Edit: I'm basically insinuating that Cocom rules only tends to be followed by manufacturers who want to enjoy the support of the Americans. Don't forget also that GPS is only one system. Not sure if there are speed limits on chips for Glonass, Baidu etc

Ediit 2: Its a bit unclear online so I'm not certain on this but it appears that these restrictions are at the software level in RECEIVERS as opposed to the chips themselves, so if true those limits are fairly meaningless for somebody making their own hardware anyway.

Interesting. Thanks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f-5bAy2En0

Apologies, if repost.

Thats fucked up.

Saudi and UAE not taking Biden's call to up production
https://archive.ph/6lsla/again?url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/saudi-emirati-leaders-decline-calls-with-biden-during-ukraine-crisis-11646779430

Just heard Ben Wallace announce we were sending "Starstreak" missiles to Ukraine which I definitely had to Google to make sure they weren't named after a Transformer.

https://mobile.twitter.com/oryxspioenkop are keeping a tally on equipment losses.

New acronym for me - MANPADS - Man Portable Air-Defence System

Great illustrator Matt Blease is doing a fundraiser with his drop bars not bombs patch.

http://www.mattbleasegeneralstore.com/general-store/drop-bars-not-bombs-patch-2022-pre-order

Ta.

Thanks

Had to get some medical help at a youth hostel (idiotic injury honestly) today here in Luxembourg. There were a lot of people milling around who didn't seem like the usual YH crowd. Turns out that lots of YH in Luxembourg were filled with refugees from the war over the last few days.

Interesting comment from the guy I was talking to was that for a week or two, a remote rural location can feel like a holiday but a significant number of the people don't speak English (or French, or German, or Luxembourgish) so much more than that and they're going to need to change tactics; setting up schooling in Ukrainian, finding positive outlets for adults etc. He said there was also a dynamic between families who arrived with fathers and those without which needed monitoring.

Speaking to a Lviv based colleague on the phone today. He signed up to fight last week but is still waiting to be called in. He said the reason for the wait is that the Ukrainian army's intake system is log jammed with recruits and they don't want to send insufficiently trained soldiers into battle. In his words; not wanting to use them as cannon fodder.

Not sure what my point is, but it seems to me that Russia is facing the limits of their capacity, they will probably have resort to coercion to get more soldiers down to the front, while Ukraine still has a supply of fresh recruits that are fully rested, well fed and are aching to get out and fight.