Okay. I'm out of bed and have some milk and cereal, so let's start.
Fun fact: because those horses live, someone in North Korea starves.
There is absolutely no reason to mount that scope on a rifle with that short of a barrel.
I'm assuming these are tank crewmen.
(Yes, I'm going to continue with the snark for a while. I'll start a new thread for the actual missile stuff.)
North Korea's strategic Brasso reserve really took a hit for this parade.
Armored car jousting
I won't insult Kim Jong-un's suit. Apparently it was a rather emotional speech, and good on Kim for having a wider emotional range than Donald Trump.
Oh, look, they copied the M1128 Mobile Gun System. I wonder if they also copied the software problems.
Camera mounted on a remote-control car. I've seen these at Russian parades, too.
This merits further investigation, but I suspect that the chassis and gun (and probably other parts - the way those smoke grenade dischargers are attached makes me suspicious of the turret) of this tank are Pokpung-ho derivatives.
Woah, look at the rear suspension on those MRLS. Those dummy missiles must weigh next to nothing.
And you get a KN-25! And you get a KN-25! And you! And you!
I dub thee "Juche-Gerät"
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1/18 Okay. Now let's talk about what can be done to defend against this type of attack.
This is sort of pushing the limits of my knowledge, so please chime in if I miss something.
2/18 The methods for countering drones and cruise missiles can be broken into two broad categories:
Kinetic (guns, missiles, and lasers)
Electronic (jamming and spoofing)
3/18 The CIWS concept is not new, at least not in the naval realm. Sea-skimming anti-ship missiles have worried naval officers since the 1960's.
First, updated maps of the air defense sites at Abqaiq. First one is April 2019 (the date of the image), the second is how forces were deployed as of this week.
This thread will by much more analysis, much less satellite imagery.
Let's get some misconceptions out of the way:
-The Saudis are not incompetent
-Patriot is not useless
-The attackers were not merely "lucky"
-I am not actually air defense expert
In fact, I don't think the Patriot battery, or any other system south of the facility (had they even been there), ever had a chance to participate.
Two words: ground clutter.
Also, the Patriot radar might not have been turned on.
You know who I feel sorry for in Saudi Arabia right now? The Air Defense Forces officer in charge of the short range air defenses at the Abqaiq oil facility. He'll be lucky to get out of this with his life.
1/7
On paper, the point air defenses at the Abqaiq oil processing facility are rather formidable... by 1995 standards, at least.
A battery of Shahine SAMs (French system from the early 1980's)
3 or 4 anti-aircraft gun sections, each with 2 twin 35mm cannons and a fire control unit
Except that none of those systems were designed to intercept cruise missiles, and against aircraft-sized targets, the Shahine and Skyguard radars have a 20km detection range. Against smaller targets, like a drone or cruise missile, the detection range (& warning time) is shorter.
2/ Soviet nuclear ramjet research can mostly be traced back to OKB-670, originally led by Mikhail Bondaryuk.
In the 1950's, OKB-670 focused on conventional ramjets for surface-to-air missiles and experimental intercontinental cruise missiles.
3/ Among them was the Lavochkin bureau’s La-350 “Burya” – a massive missile with a 97 ton launch weight. OKB-670 was also tasked to design a nuclear ramjet for an even larger missile, item 375.
In his 1958 book on ramjet design, Bondaryuk devotes a chapter to nuclear ramjets.
UPDATE: 5 Rosatom employees died due to the fire at Nenoksa, according to Interfax and RIA Novosti. Rosatom says they were working on "изотопных источников питания, разработанных для жидкостной реактивной установки" 1/2 interfax.ru/russia/672243
2/? That translates as "Isotope source power supplies, developed for a liquid reactive engine"
an изотопный источник is a sealed radiation source, so a capsule of radioactive material, such as Strontium-90, Cesium-137, Plutonium-238, etc.
3/? In this case, the source is being used as a power supply, possibly as a radioisotope thermoelectric generator or for heating the liquid in the engine so that it boils/ignites. Or perhaps something entirely different.
1/ Was glad to help with this. Now that it’s out, I can give some explanations. I have the first nine tweets planned out. Then I’ll need to pause and write the rest
This thread might end up rather long. I apologize in advance.
2/ Missiles like Russia’s Iskander, China’s M20/DF-12, the US ATACMS, and the new North Korean Missile fly on depressed trajectories, never leaving the atmosphere and maneuvering throughout the whole duration of flight. They are sometimes called “quasi-ballistic” missiles.
3/ Depressed trajectories are used for several reasons:
-Shorter flight time
-Enables maneuvering to avoid defenses and increase precision
-Takes longer for enemy radar to spot it
(These figures do not represent the North Korean missile’s trajectory or range)