Uncle Rubick's Russian military media and news thread.

[Marek_Gutkowski]

I like to recommend a YT channel.

https://www.youtube.com/@GregsAirplanesandAutomobiles

For most people, the content here will be dull as dirt. Then again enthusiasts of historical aviation are not most people.

Here is an interesting video on the US versus Soviet use of the Airacobra.
It tries to answer why P-39 did poorly in the Pacific and in the Eastern Front did great.

Not for everybody. Every time someone pulls out charts and graphs casual viewers' eyes glaze over. This is a well-researched piece of historical work.

 

[Marek_Gutkowski]

Forgotten Weapons made a video about the MSBS



I am sharing this because of course I would.

 

[Paulo Brito]

Forgotten Weapons made a video about the MSBS



I am sharing this because of course I would.

A very good one by our Croatian friends.

 

[Marek_Gutkowski]

This is something I feel too few people are interested in.
How to make something.
This is a small arms manufacturer's tour.
Enjoy:

 

[Marek_Gutkowski]

This is actually interesting.

 

[Marek_Gutkowski]

Again recommending a YT channel.

Lordhardtrasher is YouTuber who styles himself as an Englishman, making all his opinions null and void for being a tea-drinking Asiatic Island dweller.

With that low-effort joke about the English out of the way, let us look at this historic YT channel that has a very pronounced comedic tint to it.

This is the first part of a 4 part series about strategic bombing in WWII.
Boldly bombing bugger all.

Part two just appeared on his channel.

 

[Scottty]

I am guessing that this is about the (lack of) effectiveness of Allied strategic bombing in WW2?

 

[folti]

I am guessing that this is about the (lack of) effectiveness of Allied strategic bombing in WW2?

WW2 bombing accuracy was "very accurate", if most of your bombs hit the same district as the target, "accurate" when they hit the city.

 

[Rufus Shinra]

Cue why noone uses dumb bombs anymore.

 

[Paulo Brito]

Cue why noone uses dumb bombs anymore.

Unless you don't care what you hit - AKA a 'pure' terror attack.

 

[Rufus Shinra]

Unless you don't care what you hit - AKA a 'pure' terror attack.

Yeah but these don't tend to achieve much in terms of military or political goals compared to the cost of flying the planes themselves. There are much more effective ways of doing terror attacks with a military than dropping dumb bombs.

 

[Marek_Gutkowski]

I am guessing that this is about the (lack of) effectiveness of Allied strategic bombing in WW2?

It is more about poor initial assumptions, difficulty in training, woefully inadequate equipment, petty political squabbles, etc etc.
It is not about lack of effectiveness, and more about why it was ineffective.

I am actually looking forward to the part about late-war Pacific theatre. Because that was actually a successful campaign.
Even if Mister Wright was more likely to kill the American crews than the Japanese air defenses were.

 

[Scottty]

Cue why noone uses dumb bombs anymore.

To be fair, it actually is possible in principle to be reasonably accurate with manually-aimed "dumb" bombs... if you are allowed to fly in a straight line towards the target, at a constant speed and altitude, so that your bombardier guy can carefully take aim through the sights.
But don't try that in the skies over German-occupied Europe... you'd make the German AA crews so happy.

For an anology - it's one thing to be a deadly accurate sniper while aiming through optical sights and firing "dumb" bullets, if you are camped on a hilltop under cover.
Would be quite another thing to try to do your sniping while standing on the back of a pickup truck that was speeding down a dirt road, with the driver constantly having to swerve to dodge potholes and landmines.
If you are not an Elf, do not try to cosplay as Legolas.

Yeah but these don't tend to achieve much in terms of military or political goals compared to the cost of flying the planes themselves. There are much more effective ways of doing terror attacks with a military than dropping dumb bombs.

For shame, Rufus! This makes you sound like you're from some country whose military has a limited budget, and therefore has to worry about poor-people concerns like cost-effectiveness.
How un-American!

 

[Marek_Gutkowski]

This time I am recommending a website.

History and Technology - NavWeaps

www.navweaps.com

Naval Weapons is, for the most parts, a very dry collection of information on naval weapons of the steam and steel era of naval history.
If you want to know the chamber pressure of a Yugoslavian destroyer naval gun this site has your back.

But the link provided above is the list of essays written by both historians and naval enthusiasts.

If nothing else I would urge anyone to read

Designing a Ship By Stuart Slade

History and Technology - Designing a Ship - NavWeaps

www.navweaps.com

Both eye opening and funny.

 

[Marek_Gutkowski]

I found this interesting.
A quick summary of Eastern versus Western Siegecraft.



From a history enthusiast perspective when someone says Eastern everybody thinks of Japan and Sengoku Jidai period and likely because of Shogun Total War or Akira Kurosawa movie.
China is more or less "here be dragons" part of the map.
I am not any different. The most notable thing I knew was that the Japanese in the WWII had trouble in invasion of China because every remote village had wall around it that you would need to shoot a lot with a 37mm gun to get rid off.

So yeah, anyone interested give it a watch.

 

[Marek_Gutkowski]

So there was a 30mm Gatling gunpod designed for the F-16.
Who knew? I didn't.

The time stamp is there because the history lesson is not worth listening to. We know what the A-10 and the F-16 is.
tl;dr
This is story is oddly familiar. And it involves another 30mm Gatling on another mach 2 jet.
The MiG-27. But when the cannon on the MiG disassembled its cockpit panels this thing would just knock itself out of alignment, making it an area effect weapon. And that is a polite way of saying it was unable to hit anything of value.

Still intersting. Somewhat, maybe...

 

[Rufus Shinra]

This is story is oddly familiar. And it involves another 30mm Gatling on another mach 2 jet.
The MiG-27. But when the cannon on the MiG disassembled its cockpit panels this thing would just knock itself out of alignment, making it an area effect weapon. And that is a polite way of saying it was unable to hit anything of value.

That one I heard about thanks to Flight High School.

 

[Marek_Gutkowski]

the wz.35 AT rifle.

Interesting because it used soft lead core round.

Turns out you transfer enough energy to a homogeneous steel plate the plate will have the back end of it fly off.
This principle, a heavy but soft bullet, was also tried by the French. It was experimented on with the 120mm/55 smooth bore on the Leclerc. Various compositions including mercury(sic!) were tried.
However current composite tank armour is far better at retaining its structural integrity.

The side note should be taken with a pinch of salt. I have only one source on it and it doesn't go in to detail.

 

[Scottty]

the wz.35 AT rifle.

Interesting because it used soft lead core round.

Turns out you transfer enough energy to a homogeneous steel plate the plate will have the back end of it fly off.
This principle, a heavy but soft bullet, was also tried by the French. It was experimented on with the 120mm/55 smooth bore on the Leclerc. Various compositions including mercury(sic!) were tried.
However current composite tank armour is far better at retaining its structural integrity.

The side note should be taken with a pinch of salt. I have only one source on it and it doesn't go in to detail.

IIRC, the idea of making a layer of steel plate behave like a Newton's Cradle was called spalling.

 

[Marek_Gutkowski]

IIRC, the idea of making a layer of steel plate behave like a Newton's Cradle was called spalling.

Not the same thing. Or you could say that it made the unintended effect of spalling being the primary destructive method. I guess the closest comparison would be purely kinetic HESH.
I doubt an anti spalling layer would help much.

 

[Rufus Shinra]

Courtesy of @folti

x.com

x.com

It looks like Russia's balistic missile development is going the Kerbal way, AKA with big fireballs.

 

[Scottty]

Courtesy of @folti

x.com

x.com

It looks like Russia's balistic missile development is going the Kerbal way, AKA with big fireballs.

As long as they don't kill half their rocket scientists in the process. Remember the Soviet plans for a manned Moon landing?

 

[Rufus Shinra]

As long as they don't kill half their rocket scientists in the process. Remember the Soviet plans for a manned Moon landing?

LOL! Yep, the only survivors were the ones getting a smoke behind a bunker.

 

[Aetherius]

Courtesy of @folti

x.com

x.com

It looks like Russia's balistic missile development is going the Kerbal way, AKA with big fireballs.

Heard about it on YT today, Artur Rehi was having a "blast" with it. (sorry for the pun)

 

[Rufus Shinra]

Heard about it on YT today, Artur Rehi was having a "blast" with it. (sorry for the pun)

Though it doesn't seem to be even in the Top 5 of explosions in Russia these days - lots of satellite imagery and battle damage assessment pics in the following link:

Satellite Images Show Massive Devastation At Russian Ammo Storage Sites Struck By Ukrainian Drones

Before and after satellite images of the Oktyabrsk, Tikhoretsk and Toropets munitions storage facilities show the recent results of Ukraine's long-range drone operations.

www.twz.com

The demilitarisation seems to progress reasonably fast, with the Sarmat boom just being the enthusiastic contribution from locals.