NATO members can't sent their newest vehicles to Ukraine, because NATO members don't have vehicles anymore... what they have are computers on wheels.
This is the interior of an Italian Army jeep. One soldier drives, the other operates the computer.
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In between them is the secure, jamming-resistant, encrypted radio system. If russia would capture one of these, not only would the russians be able to hack the Italian Army's encrypted signal network... even worse
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the russians would get access to various command and control (C2) systems. Like i.e. BFSA, which depicts every Italian vehicle and squad on all Italian units' maps in blue and every enemy position in red (photo).
If an enemy has access to that, it becomes really easy to 3/n
target Italian units with artillery.
These computers are in every new NATO vehicle. This gives NATO a massive advantage in combat, as NATO forces are able to combine intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance data in real time, which allows NATO units 4/n
to quickly and accurately hit enemy units with all the available fire power.
Example: a recon squad discovers an enemy unit, and enters this data into the C2 system. Every adjacent allied unit and all higher ups see that information the moment it is entered into the system. 5/n
The commanding officers orders a drone to investigate and that order is also relayed via the C2 system.
The drone squad already knows where to fly, as they have the data entered earlier by the recon squad on their displays. The drone investigates and the drone squad enter
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their findings into the C2 system. The commander assesses that info and then orders and artillery strike.
An artillery section receives the order via the C2 system and sends the coordinates from the C2 system to their Fire Control System (FCS). The artillery accurately hits 7/n
the enemy unit thanks to the detailed GPS coordinates taken from the C2 system.
Drone and recon squads report about the effect of the artillery strike via the C2 system.
If the commander then orders an airstrike - also the JTAC teams are logged into the C2 system.
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Want to send in an infantry squad to mop up the enemy - the squad leader is also logged into the C2 system, gets his orders from it, and plans his attack by using the C2 systems satellite map and the overlaid friendly/enemy icons on it.
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Need a tank or an infantry fighting vehicle to support the infantry squad - they are also logged into the C2 system.
NATO members are spending billions on these C2 systems. For a modern army it is paramount for its ability to fight that nothing compromises its C2 systems.
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This is the reason why the US Army and Marine Corps are removing components from the M777 that are being sent to Ukraine. This is the reason why Italy doesn't send the newest version of the Lince (photo) to Ukraine. This is the reason the German Army reprogrammed part of 11/n
the PzH 2000 software. This is why the US removed the friend or foe identification system from the Stinger launchers it sent to Ukraine.
The reason Ukraine gets older and/or scaled down equipment is that no NATO military can risk russia capturing a working C2 system.
12/end
As people are wondering what happens if a NATO army loses a vehicle in war: there are procedures and technical solutions to render a captured vehicle useless for the enemy. Every detail about that is classified as SECRET. End.
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This is part of a longer video from @radiosvoboda about Ukraine's CAESAR howitzers (link in next tweet).
They fire OE 155 F1 High Explosive rounds with RALEC F3 proximity fuzes and 5x charges = distance to target is 24 km and it is a soft target (likely russian infantry).
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At 4 seconds you can see the rightmost gunner pick up the fuze setter to set the detonation height for the proximity fuzes.
At 14 seconds you see a major fuck up - one gunner puts the charges down in the dirt 😱😱
2/4 The full video is on youtube:
But besides that they do an excellent job with the CAESAR. An excellent artillery system (see linked thread) that I am sure is right now killing more russian troops than the 108 US delivered M777 combined.
The currently best howitzer in Ukraine (on both sides) is the French CAESAR.
The reason is that the CAESAR arrived with its fire control system (FCS) intact and working.
It's FCS enables the CAESAR to stop, emplace via GPS, fire, and depart in under 3 minutes.
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Modern FCS tie into an army's artillery command and control (C2) system to receive target information.
Some of NATO's artillery C2 systems are:
🇺🇸 AFATDS
🇩🇪 ADLER II
🇵🇱 TOPAZ
🇫🇷 ATLAS
🇮🇹 SIF (photo)
russia would love to gain access & hack these systems. 2/n
Therefore FCS systems are classified as secret.
Some of the older howitzers delivered to Ukraine didn't have an integrated FCS and therefore were delivered to Ukraine quickly: i.e. Norwegian M109A3GN and Italian FH70.
Ukraine now uses its own GIS Arta C2 system to calculate 3/n
I will dwell on this video of a Ukrainian M109 section coming under russian fire a little bit longer:
Once you start laying out ammo behind your self-propelled howitzer you signal to the russian drone operator: "I am gonna stay here for a while."
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This obviously allows the russians to calmly get an Uragan or Smerch multiple rocket launcher into position to hit you.
So don't ever do that! This is why the M109 stores 36 rounds inside! You load the ammo and charges outside of enemy rocket range, then you drive into the
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combat zone, and shoot and scoot, shoot and scoot - for up to 6x times. This way you don't give the russians the time to shoot back, even if they spot you with a drone.
Luckily the russians fired cluster munitions at the 4x M109. As @UAWeapons pointed out likely a
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Re. weapon deliveries to Ukraine 🇺🇦 - only two categories of weapons can be sent:
• older ones that a western military doesn't need anymore or
• new ones, where production is still ongoing
No military can send wespons it needs, if they can't be replaced.
1/n
Examples for older weapons sent to Ukraine:
• 🇳🇴 had already replaced its M109A3GN howitzers with K9 Thunder
• 🇪🇸 is replacing its SPADA 2000 air defense system with NASAMS II
• 🇺🇸 Marine Corps bought too many M777 and so could donate 108 to Ukraine
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Leopard 2A4 for Ukraine are nice (unless Scholz will veto them... which is likely).
The interesting part is the Spada 2000 air defense battery, which Spain donates to Ukraine. That battery is immediately operational (unlike Germany's promised IRIS-T SLM battery), and Italy
Just watched an interview with the head of the German Armed Forces - some really interesting points: about the €100 billion "Sondervermögen" investment and about the PzH 2000 and Ukraine.
The German Luftwaffe is getting €40.9 ($43.84 billion)
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on top of its regular procurement budget. To compare: the US Air Force's procurement budget for 2022 and 2023 is $48.6 billion.
Besides American F-35A, P-8A Poseidon, and CH-47F Chinook, also more Eurofighter and a new Eurofighter ECR variant will be acquired.
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Also MEADS air defense systems, tanker aircraft, transport aircraft, etc. All this will turn the Luftwaffe in Europe's biggest air force by far.
It's clear that the focus is on the Luftwaffe, as Marine & Heer are just getting more of the stuff they planned to order anyway.
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