Really important question below: why would you even design a T-72 so that the crew literally has to sit on top of hundreds of kilos of highly explosive ammunition and propellant? /1
@clmazin answered this by analogy in his brilliant script for #Chernobyl. In the (fictional) courtroom scene in the final episode, Soviet nuclear scientist Valeriy Legasov explains why Chernobyl was effectively rigged to explode: /2
"It's cheaper". That's the answer to the T-72's design flaws. It's much smaller and lighter than the US M1A1 Abrams or similar British and German tanks. But it costs a fraction of their price, at the cost of crew safety. /3
I think we often forget how much poorer Russia (and the USSR before it) is than the West. Millions of Russians still live in abject poverty, without clean water, indoor sanitation or paved roads - much as their great-grandparents did 100 years ago./4
Russia and the USSR have sought to compete with the West by making cheaper and less safe weapons because they didn't have the means to compete on quality. Unfortunately for thousands of Russian soldiers, that philosophy is now costing them their lives. /end
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1/ The notorious Russian colonel Igor 'Evil' Puzik is once again making news for the wrong reasons. His regiment's political officer is reported to have confessed to the FSB that he and the colonel were imprisoning and torturing their own men to extract money from them. ⬇️
2/ Colonel Puzik, the commander of the 87th Motorised Rifle Regiment, is widely detested by Russian warbloggers, his own men, and their relatives, for his alleged corruption, brutality, and willingness to send men to their deaths or shoot them himself to shut them up.
3/ He became notorious over his alleged involvement in drug dealing which prompted him to send two UAV operators, who had spoken out about it, to die in an assault. No action was taken against him despite an outcry. However, it seems he may now be the target of an investigation.
1/ Why can't Russia have n̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ interceptor drones that work, unlike Ukraine? The answer, says one warblogger, is that Russia's military-industrial complex has been captured by big vested interests who've made it into a "gravy train". ⬇️
"The Ukrainians also made a "Yolka." How is it different from ours?
P1-SUN.
Acceleration up to 450 km/h.
Interception altitude up to 5000 m.
3/ "Our Yolka:
Maximum speed 250.
Interception altitude 2000 m.
Not allowed in the rain, not allowed at night, not allowed if facing the sun. If a bird flies between the Yolka and an enemy UAV, the Yolka can lock onto it. It can simply get knocked off course.
1/ The Russian army's response to the threat of Ukraine's drones is to give its soldiers prayer cards appealing for divine help against "demonic drones". Incredulous Russian warbloggers are demanding something a bit more tangible. ⬇️
2/ The text of the "Prayer against demonic drones" says: "O, Saint Barbara, the great martyr and patroness, look upon us who grieve and suffer from the demonic drones, that sow death and destruction."
3/ "Strengthen us in faith and hope, give us strength and courage not to despair in the struggle for truth and freedom. Our intercessor, pray for us, that He will spare us and that He deliver us from the evil slander of our enemies. Amen."
1/ The Russian government's claims that it isn't blocking GitHub are widely disbelieved by Russian commentators, who continue to protest about the severe impact that the apparent restrictions on accessing it will have on military-industrial software development. ⬇️
2/ The military-technical Telegram channel 'Atomic Cherry' is one of many to note that Russian software developers – like developers everywhere – are functionally dependent on the open-source code libraries provided by GitHub:
3/ "Russia's restrictive policies continue to strike at various locations, smashing and destroying not just the "free internet," but the information space itself, and they've finally reached the resource I've been anticipating for so long—GitHub.
1/ The Russian Navy now appears to be covering entire submarines in anti-drone nets. A satellite photograph published by a Russian warblogger shows two net-covered Pacific Fleet submarines anchored alongside quays. ⬇️
2/ According to the Russian warblogger 'Ramsay', the photo "shows the Pacific Fleet's submarine command attempting to prevent a repeat of Operation Spiderweb." The location in question is the Rybachiy Naval Base in Kamchatka, over 7,300 km from Ukraine.
3/ Ramsay writes: "The checklist for preparing the nuclear-powered missile submarine for sea now includes the item "Clearing the superstructure of anti-drone protection."
1/ Russian programmers are reporting that GitHub, the world's largest cloud platform for IT projects and collaborative development, is becoming increasingly inaccessible for them. The reasons aren't clear, but it's a looming disaster for Russian military and civilian IT. ⬇️
2/ The Internet censorship monitoring service OONI has recorded a growing trend, beginning on 5th May, of failed connections to Github from Russian users, reaching 16% of all Russian connection attempts.
3/ While Github isn't officially listed on the Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor's registry of banned websites, over 130 projects on the site have been blocked by Russian court orders, Roskomnadzor, the consumer regulator Rospotrebnadzor, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.