Ouch.
This thread was written by someone, who has never heard of the ScanEagle, RQ-7B Shadow, or RQ-20 Puma, which are the US military UAVs comparable to the Orlan-10.
To compare the Orlan-10 to the MQ-1C Gray Eagle is like comparing a scooter to a truck.
russia says it built 1,000+ Orlan-10. Even if they built just half of that, then the loss of 50 isn't a problem for the russians, as there are at least 450 left.
The Orlan has a wingspan of 3.1m, is launched by catapult & lands by parachute.
2/n
The MQ-1C Gray Eagle has a wingspan of 17m - you need to place 5.4x Orlan-10 wings next to each other to get the wingspan of a Gray Eagle.
These are two entirely different systems for entirely different tasks. To compare these two makes no sense at all.
3/n
Then Trent writes: "US Army ... needs a drone 1/5 the cost, five times the numbers and about 70% the capability of a Grey Eagle."
The US Army already has such a drone. Since 2002. And 500+ pieces of it. The RQ-7B Shadow has a wingspan of 4.3m and s launched by catapult.
4/n
The US Army also has 325+ RQ-20 Puma, which has a wingspan of 2.8m and is launched by hand.
This is basic level information about the US Army. Every brigade has Puma and Shadow, and the combat aviation brigades have more Shadows and the Gray Eagles.
5/n
And the Marine Corps uses the Shadow, the Puma, and the ScanEagle. The ScanEagle has a wingspan of 3.1m and is launched by catapult too.
To dare fault the US Army for not having a drone like the Orlan-10 is not knowing anything about the US Army's equipment and drones.
6/n
Next Trent mentions the S-60 57 mm anti-aircraft gun as something to use to shoot down russian drones like the Orlan-10... which flies at 5,000m... while the S-60 can reach only to 4,000 with luck.
And if you open all 50 images of @oryxspioenkop's excellent list of
7/n
russian Orlan-10 loses you will see that most of the Orlan's came down undamaged. They fell out of the sky because they ran out of fuel, flew out of range, or got jammed by the Ukrainians.
8/n
Last but not least... the whole Hellfire missiles on the Gray Eagle vs. the MAM glide bombs on the TB2 part... that makes no sense... because again two systems are compared that have different uses and exist for different reasons. And the TB2 part totally ignores the
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development of the TB2 successor Akıncı, which is even bigger than the Gray Eagle and carries up to 8x Hellfire clones.
Enough now. I know there are many twitter users, who know even more than me about the US Army's drones and I would love to hear their take on this topic.
10/n
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With the M777 and CAESAR two of the four artillery systems promised to Ukraine are now confirmed to be at the front in Donbas:
🇺🇸🇦🇺🇨🇦 M777
🇮🇹 FH70
🇫🇷 CAESAR
🇳🇱🇩🇪 PzH 2000
How do they work? What are their differences? What makes the later two the best?
A thread 🧵:
1/n
All 155 mm NATO howitzers operate the same way and if you have not yet read my earlier thread about operating an American M777 howitzer, please do so now to familiarize yourself with fuzes, projectiles, primers, charges, etc. and how they are used.
M777 and FH70 are towed 155 mm howitzers with 39 caliber barrels.
This means their barrels are 39 × 155 mm = 6045 mm
This results in an 18 liter charge chamber, which can fit up to 5x M232A1 charges. Therefore the range for both guns is the same.
I am curious about which "advanced anti-ship missiles" the US will deliver to Ukraine. There are many missiles, but few that can actually be used by Ukraine now...
A short thread 🧵
Ukraine needs an anti-ship missile that can be fired from land - like Ukraine's Neptune ⬇️ 1/n
Modern, long-range anti-ship missiles in production in the West include the:
🇺🇸 Harpoon RGM-84L
🇫🇷 Exocet MM40 Block 3
🇮🇹 Otomat Mk 2 Block IV
🇳🇴 Naval Strike Missile
🇸🇪 RBS 15 Mk. III
🇹🇷 ATMACA
🇮🇱 Gabriel V
🇯🇵 Type 12
🇹🇼 Hsiung Feng III
2/n
While Japan's Type 12 and Taiwan's Hsiung Feng III are truck mounted, there is no chance that either country will deliver a coastal defense system to Ukraine.
Artillery, especially rocket artillery, requires a lot of transport and logistic capacity. Good militaries plan ahead to ensure munitions flow efficiently from factory to front.
But russia's military isn't a good military.
1/n
First let's go back in time to WWII:
In WWII artillery ammo came in wooden crates. Be it the US Army (color photo) or Red Army (b&w photo) - lots and lots of crates. Each crate had to be unloaded by hand, stacked by hand, loaded on trucks by hand.
Slow, tedious work.
2/n
And yes, you guessed that right: russian ammunition still comes in wooden crates.
Here we see a 152 mm projectile and the cartridge holding the charges in their crate. Lovely carpentry work... but dreadful to transport.
The M777 is a towed 155 mm howitzer with a gun crew of 8 soldiers or 10 marines.
1/n
There is a whole lot of battery and Battery Fire Direction Center (FDC) stuff that I will skip to focus on the operation of one M777.
When a fire mission is received a battery's M777 guns move to their firing positions.
2/n
Upon arrival half of a M777's crew emplaces the gun. Which means shovelling holes for the gun's spurs, raising the barrel, etc.
The less the gun moves after firing the faster the crew can fire the next projectile, so the spurs are buried deep in the earth.
🇮🇱 Israel's Iron Dome system is not what Ukraine needs. Stop asking for it.
A short thread 🧵:
Iron Dome is designed to protect population centers from short-range missile threats. It can protect an area of just 15 km in diameter from missiles fired from up to 70 km away.
1/9
The only place it would be useful is Kharkiv, but as an Iron Dome systems has max. 80 interceptors russia can overwhelm it with just two Grad launchers.
Also firing interceptors that cost an around $50,000 to intercept Grad missiles that cost $500 is ruinous for Ukraine.
2/9
What Ukraine needs is a modern, Western, radar-guided air defense system that will protect Ukrainian frontline troops from russian air attacks. The best long range systems are:
🇺🇸 Patriot
🇫🇷🇮🇹 SAMP/T
With just 3x batteries Ukraine could cover all its troops in the East.