World War Update.
Cuba Has “Occupying Army” in Venezuela, OAS Secretary General Claims
“Artillery lends dignity to what might otherwise be a vulgar brawl.”
– Frederick the Great
“There is one thing that our government does that suits me to a dot. That is, we fight mostly with artillery. The Rebels fight mostly with infantry. They fight as if a man’s life is not worth one cent; or in other words, with desperation.”
- Union Soldier, American Civil War
Field Artillery: the King of Battle. Canon artillery is not only the biggest killer on the battlefield (causing for 75-88% of all casualties in most conflicts) it is also the most economic killer. A plain ole 155mm high explosive shell like the US M795 costs only $300 a piece and can kill and wound scores of enemy soldiers at a time. Not to mention the tremendous suppressive effect of artillery fire on enemy activity and movement. Nobody is doing much of anything while high explosive shells are going off all around. Nowadays thanks to computerized fire control and smart munitions canon artillery has gone from being largely just an area weapon to a precision guided weapon. The 155mm M982 Excalibur GPS guided projectile, introduced in 2008, has performed spectacularly well. A single 106 pound high explosive Excalibur shell is cable of landing within 30 feet of a target after being fired from a howitzer 14 to 25 miles away (depending on the propellant charge used). One Excalibur shell can destroy a point target when in the past it might taken dozens or even hundreds of conventional howitzer shells to hit it. However this level of accuracy came with high price ($89,000 a piece), until now. Now the U.S. Army has the Projectile Guidance Kit (PGK), a device that can turn dumb conventional high explosive shells, like the M795, into smart GPS guided shells for a lot less money per unit.
Artillery: When Cheaper Is Better And More Popular – Strategy Page
Army buys more accurate artillery shells
Weapons: A Better AK-47 But So What? – Strategy Page
“War is a matter not so much of arms as of money.”
- Thucydides, “The History of the Peloponnesian War”, 404 B.C.
“July 18, 2017: Ukraine and the “war against NATO” is becoming an expensive distraction for Russia. While Russian backed rebels still hold parts of eastern Ukraine (the Donbas) it is costing Russia a lot of money to support the civilians there and the heavy-handed discipline (assassination and so on) required to keep rebel leaders in line also requires more efforts to keep foreign journalists out. Too many people in Russian occupied Donbas are willing to talk with foreign reporters. In the rest of Ukraine security measures and increasing popular hostility towards Russia has made it more difficult and expensive to carry out covert operations. Making matters worse is the fact that no matter how much Russia threatens Ukraine the Ukrainians become more determined to develop stronger economic, cultural and military ties with nations to the west, especially NATO and the EU (European Union). Every month Ukrainians are reminded that Ukrainian soldiers are still dying while confronting the Russian aggression in Donbas. In June 28 Ukrainian troops died in the east and over 170 were wounded. Since the Russian invasion began in 2014 about 10,000 Ukrainians have died, 70 percent of them civilians.”
“Ukraine has also suffered from more Russian Cyber War attacks, particularly the recent WannaCry and NotPetya attacks. This has generated a lot of sympathy from hackers for Ukraine, in part because Ukraine has long been home to lots of criminal hackers. Now this hacker underground is quietly providing evidence of how Russian Cyber War operations work and who is involved (along with lots of incriminating details). This is a cost of the Donbas operation that Russia will not admit even exists, yet it surely does and is getting worse. There is no easy way out of this mess for Russia and it seems to keep getting worse.”
“Further west a new American government has pledged more support for East Europe against Russian aggression and this has led to more orders for American anti-missile systems and all manner of military upgrades for the countries on Russia’s western border. Even Sweden and Finland, which remained neutral during the Cold War, are now joining military alliances with the rest of Europe to better deal with the Russian threat.”
“The U.S. has long sought to put anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe to protect against ballistic missile attacks from Iran. Russia has opposed this and sees it as a subterfuge to weaken the effect of Russian ballistic missiles attacking European targets. Most Europeans don’t know what to make of that, but East European countries (like Romania) that spent 1945-89 as involuntary Russian vassal (or “satellite”) states, do see a need for protection from Russian missiles.”
Russia: Too Many Threats – Strategy Page
“The wars of the People are more terrible than the wars of the Princes.”
– Frederick the Great
Iraq: The Avengers – Strategy Page
“People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”
– George Orwell
Leadership: Britain Establishes An Exclusive Club For Rough Men - Strategy Page
link › jameslafond.blogspot.com
The Great Train Wreck of the West
Russia: Too many threats-Strategy Page. Total hogwash and anti-Russian propaganda. Who writes this crap? Russia hating warmongers in the US State Dept? "Russian aggression in the Ukraine"-what Russian aggression? The Russian speaking people of the eastern Ukraine seceded from their own country after the US overthrew their legally elected government, and they have been punished by Ukrainian regulars as well as neo-Nazi scum like the Azov battalion and mercenary trash ever since. You really need to do some homework and stop promulgating these kinds of lies. Sprinkling it with quotes from Thucydides doesn't alter the fact that it's still lies, and spreading them makes one complicit in war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Oh and the US is putting missile systems in Europe to protect against missile attacks from Iran..." Yeah right. Now pull the other one.
Donnie, imagine how we would feel if the Russians put missiles on our border, someplace like Cuba for instance and had the KGB overthrow the Mexican government?
Of course, we would take action. But Americans are so immune to geopolitical self-examination that very few of us see the most obvious examples of our government doing such things abroad.
"... Every month Ukrainians are reminded that Ukrainian soldiers are still dying while confronting the Russian aggression in Donbas..."
Complete and total horseshit. We overthrew the Ukrainian government and put a Jew, from Switzerland no less, over the country who promptly attacked the portions he didn't control.
I looked at the AK-12 and not impressed. Back when I had money I had a AK and I also had a FN-FNC. They should have just copied the FN-FNC. The best AK action copy ever. Simple build, good balance unlike the AK which is too front heavy. Great gun. I sold it because they were making machine guns out of them and I got a fortune for it.
One of the advances of it was it opened with the pivot in the lower front like a AR-15. This means the whole top is solid and the sights always stay aligned with the barrel.
FN-FNC
military-today.com/firearms/fn_fnc.jpg
Look at the AK-12
s017.radikal.ru/i407/1202/5d/c1e1205ab81c.jpg
See how the top pivots up. Notice the pivot on top means the sight is not always 100% aligned because it's not one piece. Stupid design.
As long as I'm complaining might as well talk about the AR-15. It has a lot of super intelligent design and then they go and screw the whole thing up with the bolt and receiver. See how the bolt(lower right) is round? Well it fits into a receiver that is the same shape with not a whole lot of clearance. Duhhh, if a little dirt gets into it then a cylinder rubbing on another cylinder makes friction and ...it jams. Blowing gunpowder debris into the gun doesn't help but if it were reworked it wouldn't matter. Stupid. The AK bolt rides on a couple of rails and if dirt gets in it it just pushes it to the side. If they would have done this one thing it would have made the rifle 100% better. What bothers me is they keep saying it's the best. Can't get any better, when a moments brief look at it tells you it can. More stupidity.
emptormaven.com/img/ar-15-field-stripped.jpg