Translated material
Ready for war with NATO
Suffering huge losses, the Russian army is still moving forward, bombarding Ukrainian fortified areas with aerial bombs and throwing thousands of soldiers into “meat assaults.” They, in turn, are trying to somehow survive and hide from the ubiquitous drones, equipping their equipment with protection from scrap materials. About how import substitution of the military-industrial complex failed and the “saraization” of the army began is in a new column by writer and Z-community researcher Ivan Filippov.
While Putin is happy about the state of affairs at the front, the Russian army is fighting in barns
As I wrote in a previous column , speaking about the war, the Russian leadership exudes confidence. Putin is pleased with the state of affairs; all military tasks were completed by the Chief of the General Staff, Gerasimov. But there are two more topics that we haven’t talked about yet and that would be appropriate to discuss just before the New Year. Namely, military sovereignty, that is, the independence of the Russian army from any foreign supplies, and a hypothetical war with NATO. Both of these topics are inevitably raised by someone from time to time in the public space. Sovereignty in these conversations is important primarily as a contrast to Ukraine, which is entirely dependent on Western supplies. Well, it seems to me that there is no need to explain about the war with aggressive NATO.
Before I tell you about the state of affairs in the Russian army, as the authors of the Z-channels see it, let me make a small disclaimer. What you will read and see is the reality of the front. This is how the Russian military really fights. At the same time, aviation is in perfect order, which, combined with complete disregard for people who die by the thousands in meat assaults, ensures the slow but steady advance of the Russian army. The same thing that Vladimir Putin is so happy about.
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Although here, of course, there is a nuance. The author of the channel Alex Parker Returns expressed it most precisely the other day: “Neither Chasov Yar, nor Pokrovsk, nor Sudzha, nor Toretsk, nor Kupyansk will be liberated in 2024. It is not surprising that the wise politician refused to name the time frame for the liberation of the Kursk region at his press conference. The pace of advance at the front is minimal. <…> By the way, have you noticed that the videos using cast iron [ air bombs ] have become significantly smaller? But I recently wrote that the use of cast iron and Lancets [ kamikaze drones ] has sharply decreased. Belousov, where is the cast iron? (hereinafter the authors' spelling and punctuation are preserved).
We’ll talk about “cast iron” sometime separately, but for now let’s return to the main topic of our conversation.
“Belousov said that the Russian Ministry of Defense must be prepared for any development of the situation, including a possible military conflict with NATO in Europe in the next decade.”
And is the army ready for a direct clash with NATO?
We can start with general considerations. The other day, the author of the Voenkor Kitten channel published a fairly detailed text about the state of the armored forces:
“Almost a sensation with a “–” sign: with armored vehicles we are stuck almost in the 70s. XX century. “ Armata ,” which was talked about so much, turned out to be a hoax. Our industry was unable to replace the breakthrough technologies announced in Armata with imports. The tank, costing the budget of a large region, remained in the ceremonial crews of the Kantemirovsky division. Under the NVO, they stopped rolling the Armata around Red Square. It’s somehow inconvenient.”
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As examples of the imperfection of the equipment on which Russian soldiers are now fighting, the author gave two examples: in infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, “an attack aircraft in armor and equipment does not fit in the airborne compartment,” and “equipment is aluminum [that is, with weak armor], penetrates and is amazed, turning into a coffin for personnel.”
In Z-space, and even in propaganda, “Armata” is really rarely remembered, and if they are remembered, they call it “ Schrodinger’s tank ” - it seems to exist, but it is as if it is not there . The miracle tank was talked about seriously only once after the loud statement of the head of Rostec in March:
“Armata, in general, is a little expensive. In terms of functionality, it is, of course, much superior to existing tanks, but it is too expensive, so the army is unlikely to use it now. It’s easier for them to buy the same T-90s,” Sergei Chemezov said then.
The words that the best tank in the country for the front was too expensive then caused a sincere shock among the Z-authors.
At the same time, foreign tanks on which the Ukrainian army fights are endlessly ridiculed by military authors. How heavy the Challenger is, how beautifully the Abrams burns, how pointless the Bradley infantry fighting vehicle is - I read such texts literally every day.
However, the author of the most popular channel “Voenkor Kitten” points out a fundamental error in such reasoning: “Yes, enemy tanks are heavy, large, with errors and shortcomings. They are not prodigies. Compared to them, we should have been better, but...we can’t! Let's not pull it out! By the way, also because we don’t want to change anything! The chatter about modernization - on TV, on the front line - is another truth.”
What exactly is the truth?
The war in Ukraine gave the Russian language such a word as “saraizatsiya” - meaning “installation of additional protection against drones” on tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles and “loaves”. Additional protection can be in the form of welded metal structures covered with steel sheets. They can be made from long logs. Sometimes tanks are lined with rubber. Z-authors themselves traditionally publish miracles of front-line “savvy” in the “what are you” section. Here are just a few examples.
“Barns”, “Tsar-sheds”, “barbecues” - all these are the realities of the Russian army. At the same time, these fancy products help little against enemy FPV strike drones, but this does not make the attempts of the Russian military to at least slightly increase their chances of survival any less.
“Many such photographs with tanks retrofitted in local repair battalions with pieces of garages and bars from windows indicate that the new coordinator of the Russian defense-industrial complex has a lot of work. <…> Surely the country has enough metal and welding to do this at a higher technological level on a systematic basis. This is definitely cheaper than building a new tank to replace one that was burned out by a Chinese drone, of which the enemy has plenty,” writes the Two Majors channel.
At the same time, there is not enough such equipment at the front. First one or another Z-author or military analyst writes that, for example, the Russian military acquired enduro motorcycles for a reason - there is not enough “armor” to deliver “manpower” for assaults. Enduro has no level of protection, and sometimes videos appear on Ukrainian channels about how “new cavalrymen” meet, for example, with a machine gun.
Recently, the channels “Military Informant” and “Informant” drew attention to a new practice: a video appeared of a burned Russian military convoy, in which cars were traveling .
“Well, apparently, the losses of armored fighting vehicles in indiscriminate attacks are making themselves felt, and a new trend in the current realities is attempts to attack Zhiguli and other civilian vehicles,” the Informant channel wrote .
This is about readiness for war with NATO. A few more words can be said about that very sovereignty that the Russian president loves to talk about . How independent is the Russian army from foreign supplies? Well, how can I tell you...
Let's leave Iranian drones out of the equation. Over the past couple of weeks, military channels have been discussing not only the North Korean military liberating the Kursk region, but also North Korean weapons supplied to the Russian army. For example, the 170-mm self-propelled gun (self-propelled artillery unit) M1989 Koksan. According to the Military Informant channel, there are already “more than a dozen” of these in Russia.
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The military praises North Korean self-propelled guns for their record firing range. True, they immediately note that the shells, of course, fly far, but it is not always clear where exactly they will hit .
Another gift from the fraternal people that the Russian military is mastering is the North Korean Type 73 machine gun, which is considered obsolete in Korea itself. “The reason for the appearance of such exotic machine guns in the ranks of the Russian army is both simple and unpleasant - the production and reserves of domestic machine guns were not enough for a major war,” explains Military Informant.
So, to be honest, sovereignty is not very good either. It came unglued from Vladimir Vladimirovich.
And in general, I think the picture is more or less clear. No, this does not change the fact that the Russian army, even in this form, is deadly. That Russian missiles are hitting Ukrainian cities even on Christmas, and the army is slowly but moving the front line in its favor. But as I try to say in any column or interview, any information needs context.
Today we are talking exclusively about armored vehicles, but there is also front-line logistics - “Informant” gives an excellent example of a “ loaf” convertible , the roof of which has been cut off to provide “maximum visibility, and, as a result, a firing sector, as well as the possibility of prompt dismounting and loading.” .
And we didn’t talk about the quality of the new contract soldiers, or about the meat assaults and the lack of people - about all the unresolved and, it seems, unsolvable problems of the army, which, according to the Minister of Defense, is ready to enter into direct conflict with the most powerful military alliance.
The author's opinion may not coincide with the opinion of the editors.
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Author: Ivan Filippov Editor: Maxim Martemyanov Cover photo Alexander Polegenko / TASS / Profimedia