Is Ukraine about to get M1 Abrams Tanki

a reply to: MidnightWatcher

So the Ukraine aircraft went with a modified option 2. That's a picture of the LAU-118/A pylon that holds the HARM, that's being used as an adaptor attached to the standard APU-470 pylons, as published by The Aviationist. The adaptor is wired through the pylon, using new wiring, to an external battery that's been added to the aircraft. That battery also powers a display in the cockpit that's always on, as long as the aircraft is powered up. The battery also provides power to the seeker and missile.

gagadget.com... ig/

originally posted by: TritonTaranis

originally posted by: VictorVonDoom
I don't see why the US needs to send tanks to Ukraine. Every story I've seen since April seems to indicate that Ukraine is winning on all fronts, Russia is being routed and is on the verge of collapse. Sending in top of the line tanks seems like a waste.

And I haven't seen any stories of other countries supplying weapons to Ukraine. Where is the military hardware from France, Germany, Britain, Israel, Turkey, etc.? I admit, I haven't been keeping up, but I would have thought there might be some stories about how many billions our allies have been donating.

That's actually crazy to me that you don't know, yet have an opinion based on nothing, Just about every country you mentioned has sent hardware including just about every other nation that can be bothered to defend and upholding the rules based international order

Australia, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the UK and the US.

On any kind of proportional scale it might actually be the US that isn't pulling it's weight this time.

At a minimum, it's fair to say that the US is not currently living up to the global leadership promises we've long made on defense issue.



As an American Patriot, the rest of the world has my sincere apology, we had an election problem here (the most polite way I can put it).

(You guys probably owe us a few anyway)

a reply to: Zaphod58


Would option 2 make it any more challenging to target something like an S300 from stand off range?

A Mig 29 launched 2 of these at an S300 yesterday.

Ukraine reported a successful strike, russia reported two harm shootdowns, and there's video that supposedly shows the S300 burning.

One thing I found interesting though is that the russians didn't report engaging the Mig itself with the S300 - they usually say they shot it down whether they hit it or not, but they usually at least try to hit them.



Thank you again for all the information!

a reply to: MidnightWatcher

It would actually make it a little easier. The display in the cockpit will show them where the radar signal is coming from, in relation to the aircraft. So the missile will already be pointed close to the radar when it is launched and the seeker starts looking.

The HARM has a maximum range of 80 nmi, or 92 miles, with a top speed of Mach 1.84. So if it's launched at maximum range, that's a very short time to switch from targeting the aircraft that launched it, to seeing, tracking, locking on to, and firing on the missile, which is an extremely small target on radar. Most of the time they are going to be launched as close as possible to the launcher, which means even less time to stop it. It isn't impossible to shoot it down, but you're going to have to have a very good operator, who is ready to switch from the aircraft to the missile almost instantly. And even then there's going to have to be a great deal of luck involved.

a reply to: Zaphod58


Thank you, that all makes sense.



It looks like the S300 and 88s are almost matched in range, so if the HARMs were 'launched' near max range for the HARMs an average S300 operator would probably just start with the rapidly advancing missiles and not have time to get back to the mig before it was out of range, and in this case, the S300 was destroyed.



One last question: are the 29s limited to carrying 2 HARMs?

a reply to: TritonTaranis



I don't think Ukraine is getting M1s, but if they did, I'd use them for rapid advances through specific corridors, leading the way for hoards of old russian tanks with their most skilled infantry riding Bushmasters and the like to widen that corridor, followed up by HIMARS and SPGs that fire at identified targets 3-10 miles in front of the M1s.




A long way of saying "everyone follow the M1s while they rapidly punch holes deep into russian defenses".

(Overheard as a Marine described his orders received a few hours before the start of Desert Storm.)

a reply to: Zanti Misfit


I seen many brain meltdowns from one section of republicans because Russia-Ukraine war . It`s really alarming to see such social shape-shifting from American conservatives, who seem to forget their root`s.

‘Conservative’ Americans who are Putin apologists disgrace a fine heritage | Column


It`s crucial to support Ukraine....there would come real #t show if Russia would just continue taking countrys after Ukraine , and for sure that would not be cheap for America and other countrys , it would require a lot money and weapons, more than what`s now are send .


Fox news and Tucker Carlsson are one example of rotten thinking...

a reply to: Kenzo


Is tucker still telling everyone that the US built secret bio weapons labs for Ukrainian nazis?

That was the last tucker show I ever watched.

Or will ever watch.

a reply to: MidnightWatcher

I stopped watching Fox / Tucker also, so i dont know do they still talk about the bio lab story, probably are....


Tucker act like Russian sympathizer.

a reply to: MidnightWatcher

*shrugs*

I remember when I was told how difficult it was to become a flight engineer, I found it pretty simple.

Necessity is the mother of invention and ukraine seems pretty fricking motivated to me.

That said I still say bad idea every bit of tech we hand over is more tech that ends up in chinas hands eventually, that is the future fight that we should be focused on.

ETA: we are down almost 30% of our strategic reserve, this administration is determined to make sure we cant fight china.

originally posted by: Kenzo
a reply to: MidnightWatcher

I stopped watching Fox / Tucker also, so i dont know do they still talk about the bio lab story, probably are....


Tucker act like Russian sympathizer.

For me, it wasn't just that he reported on russia's absurd claims with zero evidence, but that he really tried to sell it as factual.

a reply to: Irishhaf


I'm constantly amazed by Ukrainian innovation, from the President down to the babushkas, in a such a wide variety of ways. Simply astonishing.





We are definitely not sending certain things that china hasn't had a chance to capture/purchase on the black market yet, and are always monitoring every unit of certain things.

I hope they know what they're doing, i don't trust anyone in the executive branch right now, which includes our most senior officers, because they have already done things that prevent ever trusting them for anything.

This is a major concern, but nothing we can do about it right now, elections have consequences.






Strategic reserves at that level only concern me because democrats are still refusing to open the American taps everywhere we can.

That's a far bigger problem than letting the reserves drop during a 'temporary shortage' (which this is not IMO).

Even when full our reserves can't power our military at war (even with little for civilians and industry) for long enough to get the taps flowing again, so this must be a higher priority than the storage level itself, but going much lower than this would be suicidal even if biden gave the "drill baby drill" order today.

Our military, like every other, has certain vulnerabilities, the 2 largest of ours being unpredictable civilian control and our extremely fuel hungry doctrine & tech. It isn't by accident that putin hit us where and when it would hurt the most.

We can't store enough fuel to ensure our military can sustain a large scale conflict without the taps also flowing, this is what the original Petro Dollar deal was about and why it was so important to move production back home after 911 - and still is today.

Elections have consequences, and you described a couple whoppers here.

a reply to: MidnightWatcher

I’m not as familiar with the Russian stuff, as far as their stress limits, but I would say probably. The HARM is a big, heavy missile, and putting it on the outboard stations would probably over stress the wing in that area. The farther out on the wing the pylon is, the less weight you can put there, unless you design a wing that can handle it, but then you get into diminishing returns.

So there was a follow up

NEW: Ukraine is looking to build more facilities to maintain and service billions worth of Western-provided weapons to fight Russia.

"We're working 24/7," one official told me.

LINK

I think this edges the Abrams question/possibility a little bit closer

Seems like US will send MQ-9 Reaper to Ukraine


The United States Send The Most Feared Drone In The World To Ukraine


MQ-9 Reaper Arrive To Ukraine


This is nice ...


Cant find reliable source confirming it, so not sure is this fake news.

If they do send any they will send just enough to prolong the war so the biden administration can continue to launder arms and money through Ukraine...

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: MidnightWatcher

I’m not as familiar with the Russian stuff, as far as their stress limits, but I would say probably. The HARM is a big, heavy missile, and putting it on the outboard stations would probably over stress the wing in that area. The farther out on the wing the pylon is, the less weight you can put there, unless you design a wing that can handle it, but then you get into diminishing returns.

That was my guess.

Was interested because only one Mig 29 was involved in the specific event I mentioned earlier where russia claimed they shot down 2 HARMs, but their S300 was seen burning, and the Mig escaped unHARMed.

I think you just helped me win a pizza wager with one of my neighbors.



🍕

Would you rather we sent Ukraine enough gear to do to russia what russia is doing to Ukraine?

Cuz we could easily do that with the stroke of a pen.