The General Russia Thread

Well just the one.

That one man got 700 kills and it took an anti tank rifle to the face to stop him though.

Oh really when?

The Finns actually lost that war, and any army would have had horrible trouble attacking over the Karelian Isthmus. It really was a horrific place to fight, so much so that attacking during winter was actually the best choice.

Moving swiftly on...

There is a syphilis "outbreak in Saratov. A member of the Saratov City Duma, Alexander Vantsov, wants to know "who is responsible". The medical authorities say there is no actual increase in the evidence of the disease, simply that improvements in medical care mean more are being discovered.

Rosneft needs $49 billion from the state welfare fund to keep it in the black following EU sanctions. Unfortunate.

edited 23rd Oct '14 2:46:16 AM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei

Syphilis is a bacterium, not a virus.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

Same difference. Corrected.

Congratulations on missing the point.

edited 23rd Oct '14 3:40:53 AM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei

No, it isn't. Antibiotics DO NOT WORK against viruses, and using them on such can cause bacterium in your body to become antibiotic resistant. (since treatment for syphilis and gonorrhoea is antibiotics, it is quite important.)

edited 23rd Oct '14 3:30:41 AM by TheOneWhoTropes

Keeper of The Celestial Flame

I keep forgetting that syphilis isn't only a sexually transmittable disease.

For the record... Yeah, they lost, but the impressive feat is that their loss wasn't as horrible as much as everyone had expected considering the odds, for various factors that aren't limited to the aforementioned the uber-badass sniper.

edited 23rd Oct '14 12:23:50 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Found out why the sub was in Sweden.

Don't look now, but the Baltic states are buying up hundreds of anti-tank missiles. They have taken to heart the lessons of the Battle of Tshkinvali in the 2008 Georgia War. Both the expensive American Javelin top-down attack rocket and the cheaper Swedish Carl Gustav recoilless rifle are on their shopping lists.

edited 25th Oct '14 7:27:47 AM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei

But wasn't Javelin and the basic RPG types found to be ineffective against Russian tank armor during the Georgian conflict??? I think they need to start looking at some better armaments.

Javelin wasn't used in Georgia, as far as I know.

Schild und Schwert der Partei

Odd. Could've sworn one of the other tropers on this very thread mentioned that Javelin was found to have issues effectively dealing with the reactive armor and other countermeasure systems the Russians used on their tanks. Can't provide a link to prove my side unfortunately cause I've forgotten what article was used or which page it was on. :/

As far as I can tell, Georgia didn't buy Javelin until 2011, after their war with Russia.

Not so sure how useful Carl Gustavs will be in the age of active protection, but I suppose the basic ABC of armored warfare that tanks cannot operate in urban environments without infantry support remains valid. If I was a Baltic procurement officer, I'd be looking into tandem rockets to try and get through Arena.

Schild und Schwert der Partei

Russians learned from those mistakes too and made shit like this

They're also doing a much better job at putting reactive armor on their tanks and more and more vehicles are being fitted with Arena and Shtroa.

I think a Javelin might be your best bet at hurting them if only because that top attack mode is going to make it more difficult for Arena to make the intercept. But on the other hand they're fitting Relikt ERA plates to the top of turrets now and that's the best armor around. At least until Kaktus is put to work. Plus the Javelin is an IR system, it might not even get a lock when the IR dazzlers on Shtroa are active.

I dunno, there's a lot of ifs and not a lot of data, Georgia did prove that those T-90s are more than capable of absorbing a lot of fire though. I don't think relatively simple weapons like the Gustav are gonna do much more than piss one off.

edited 25th Oct '14 9:44:55 AM by LeGarcon

Oh really when?

At the same time it'll make life difficult for escorting infantry, anything that's not an MBT is going to be crispy-fried, and in general it offers the infantry squad a nice piece of vest-pocket artillery that hits harder than a grenade launcher and is more accurate than a mortar. The basics of tank-infantry fighting haven't changed.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

In fairness, Javelin aside^note And that's dubious., it is difficult to think of an infantry weapon that can crack a modern MBT, except from the rear.

edited 25th Oct '14 12:45:53 PM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei

The RPG-29 gave Merkavas some trouble in Lebanon and we lost some Abrams to it. Pierced the side armor on a turret and knocked the tank right out.

It even punched through the frontal reactive and Chobham armor on a Challenger II in Afghanistan.

Though those could have been lucky hits, especially the Challenger one.

Oh really when?

The Challenger one, IIRC, involved the weapon being used as an improvised mine. Also, the tank in question drove back to base under its own steam. It wasn't really killed in any sense, simply penetrated.

Schild und Schwert der Partei

Yeah, some injuries among the crew but the tank was fine.

Have to wonder how they'd rig a mine to punch through frontal armor on a tank. I've heard of them burying launchers and pointing them upwards to go through the floor but I'm curious about this one.

Oh really when?

That's exactly what they did, IIRC. The driver lost part of his foot, but was still able to reverse the tank to an aid-station.

edited 25th Oct '14 1:10:49 PM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei

That's honestly not even a mission kill. Damage, sure, but I think it may be possible that with modern armor packages, "penetration" doesn't equal "guaranteed kill".

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

I wonder whether the laser- and command-guided Starstreak would be a good missile instead for some roles?

Keep Rolling On

guys, could you take this to the military thread?

I wonder if TOW might not be a better system for the Baltic states - mounted on light wheeled vehicles or carried in a team of men? TOW has certainly proved fearsome in Syria and Iraq these past few years. Shtora won't affect wire-guidance, and the latest variants have a top-down attack function and tandem warheads. It's also a pretty hefty missile - even a T-90 won't drive away from a penetrating hit.

Here's a video. Admittedly, it's only a T-55, but still.

—

Back to politics:

Putin says Russia will move to a floating exchange rate rather than "burn" their forex reserves to prop up the ruble.

Russian criminals display their prison tattoos.

Reminder: never end up imprisoned in Russia. Fun fact: Medieval Russia had one of the most advanced and enlightened justice systems in the world at the time, which forbade the death penalty.

Additionally, Putin "hopes" for a gas deal w/ Ukraine by next week.

edited 26th Oct '14 4:05:21 AM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei

Our esteemed president gave quite a speech this Friday

http://eng.kremlin.ru/transcripts/23137

Personally, I think he makes some excellent points - it's just he no longer holds the moral authority making them. The same is true for USA, by the way - it is correct in it's criticism, it just has no moral high ground pushing it.

edited 26th Oct '14 6:20:48 AM by Beholderess

If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common

Framing the present situation as a contest between Russia and the United States is over-stating the case. The central theme is Russia versus Europe. And Europe's geopolitical situation is quite different, especially in the East.

edited 26th Oct '14 7:22:43 AM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei