rickair7777

When I read this I thought that you or somebody in the media got it wrong. But sure enough

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidax...h=7430eb116593

What next, P-47's and Spitfires from Lend-Lease?

Maybe there's a method to their madness though.... maybe the T-55 is too old to have been equipped with the Jack-in-the-Box feature

Hubcapped

Though obviously subjective, the book resonates with me on why we are where we are. The promise that “if you follow me, I’ll take you back to the golden age” is pretty common. Much like Putin having pictures of Catherine the great up all over his house (apparently), these men capture the weak with the promise. It Carries forward to this day, in this country. I found it interesting.

But I digress. The Atgms used against the t55s are worth more then the actual tank. Can you image being a western military district conscript and being told you’re going to drive a t-55? Jeeeezzzzuuus break my arm please

TransWorld

I heard Russian propaganda state the T-55s are preferred tanks. Why? They have been proven in the 70 years since there were built. Much superior to the recently built flimsy, inferior Abrams tanks. Even for Russian propaganda I found this far fetched.

Excargodog

I rather imagine they will bury them up to their turrets (the tanker term is ‘hull down’) and use them as a well protected pillbox with a 100 mm cannon, a 50 caliber machine gun, and multiple grenade launchers. And quite capable of engaging enemy armor with AT-10 Bastion rounds out to 4km, 5.5 km in the newer versions.




https://www.globalsecurity.org/milit...t-54-specs.htm

https://www.globalsecurity.org/milit...ssia/at-10.htm


Could a javelin take one of these out? Sure, from about 4500 meters if it were in the open. Hull down is a lot harder. Of course a javelin costs $250,000 while T-55s have been selling for about $35-50k recently.

Hubcapped

How much do the 3 tankers inside cost?

I have not been quoting you on purpose to respect Rick, but do you really believe a buried pillbox is effective in 21st century mechanized warfare?

You can’t hide static emplacements from modern reconnaissance.

Just admit that this is desperation. And all of your hyperbole about shortages (which though valid in some respects, does not have any impact on anything in Ukraine or anywhere else unless you think the PRC is going to start a war in the next 2 years) is 10 fold on the RU side.

I’m very happy we have strong leadership that don’t view appeasement as a winning strategy. It didn’t work with the Danes, mongols, Germans, Roman’s, etc etc since the dawn of warfare.


What was that word you called me but never had the integrity to apologize for during an attempt at rational discussion? Ah yes naive. That about seems to sum up your understanding of warfare and geopolitics
You seem very pro Russia and your desperation to constantly attempt to regurgitate the extreme rights view is only matched by Russians desperation for a coherent strategy.

Slava Ukraine

Excargodog

Well, in a T-55 that would be four tankers, And yeah, you can still do a lot with camouflage, particularly hull down. And with reactive armor it’s going to be reasonably secure against light antitank weapons.

And do you seriously believe those four tankers would be better off (or more effective) in a foxhole without the crew served weapons?

But everybody is pretty much using older weapons. The Bradley IFVs being shipped to the Ukraine date to 1981 (compared to 1983 for the T-55s) and are fairly lightly armored. Up close a 50 caliber round has little trouble going through their aluminum armor - lengthwise, and even at a couple of km it can go halfway through, which is all that’s really necessary. And unlike their 122 mm artillery rounds which they have been burning through, the Russians apparently have no shortage of 100mm rounds for the T-55s main gun. And while the Bradley IFV TOW missiles have almost the range of the Bastion rounds, they only mount two of them.

And the shortages are no hyperbole - that’s well documented for both sides - but the disparity in population and GDP in favor of Russia still put them at an advantage. But the very worst problem for the Ukraine is the one that has plagued the US in all the wars we have lost - the presence of an adjacent sanctuary for the opponent. The Ukraine is getting torn up, they’ll likely be hitting unexplored ordnance with the plows in their wheat fields for a couple of decades, but no one in the west is willing to provide weapons that can penetrate deeply into Russia, for fear of what that will provoke. The long border with Russia and Belarus is essentially a safe haven free of any serious attacks for logistics bases and staging areas while Ukraine is just accumulating damage.

Safe havens in China kept us from winning in Korea and Vietnam. Safe havens in Pakistan kept us from beating the Taliban. Never say never - anything can happen - but a safe haven sure stacks the deck against those compelled to be restricted to a limited territory while the other guy is safe behind a political boundary.

Comments like
are typically made by those people who are extremely naive, and have no real concept of warfare. I’d have to guess you fall into that category.

​​​​​​​Nothing about this is going to be easy, and nothing about this is going to be fun. Not for either side. It isn’t a video game.

Hubcapped

Sorry Rick, People that have bought the party line and just regurgitate it without any thought to the rest of the world are just too easy to poke. I’ll take the ding and the time out.

Excargodog

Uh…. It isn’t just the Russkies…



It’s like some big war surplus store garage sale….

rickair7777

The automatic filters caught it before I did.

rickair7777

The T-55 design dates to post WW-2. Barely. I'm actually astounded that bone-yard hardware of that vintage even runs, given how efficient and non-corrupt the RU mil system is. Although I guess one thing the commies did was make their stuff sturdy.

All this stuff about logistics is getting tiresome... it's just one part of the puzzle. And the UR situation is a net good thing strategically because it's woken up a lot of folks... they now realize that yes this kind of thing can happen in the 21st century. Even if RU had rolled up UR in a week it would still serve as an example.