Thread by @TrentTelenko

Russian Army 2010 era ammunition storage practices photo thread🧵shot with a DC Elite stupidity, money & power politics on parade chaser.

All the photos are from this link:
1/
russiatrek.org/blog/army/stor…

This is another view from May 26, 2010.

2/

Russian 125mm tank rounds.

3/

Another view of 125mm tank shells with their propellent cases.

4/

The photos at the link don't identify these shells.

I -think- from the size that they are 100mm rounds for the BMP-3.

5/

Again, there are no identifications of the shells.

Given the guy with a dolly moving a shell on the left, I think these are 203mm (8-inch) shells which mass out at 110 kg

6/

Another unlabeled photo with a rail box car right with wooden ammo boxes stacked six deep center.

The foreground with rotted wooden packaging with - yikes! - muddy as well as rusted (152mm?) shells.
7/

The above photo essay shows why the US Army 2016 handbook wrote the following (H/T @Mootality)

8/

The previous eight tweets are why Ukrainian GMLRS rockets, Tochka-U missile plus 300mm Smerch and 220 mm Uragan MLRS are causing Russian ammo detonations like this👇
9/

https://twitter.com/ZMiST_Ua/status/1547158355055202305

I was tipped that we would be seeing this sort of extended range GMLRS performance in Ukraine back on July 4th.👇

10/

https://twitter.com/mehrunes1dagon/status/1547057190158192650

And the people who tipped me off were the 'deconfliction' faction(s) in the Biden Administration.

These people have a easily templated behavior pattern toward Ukraine.
11/

The biggest is the repeatedly expressed public assumption that Ukrainians are corrupt slow/learners with endless comparisons against Iraqi & Afghan troops.

The repeated expressions that Ukraine could not operate either M-1 Abrams tanks or F-16's are par for this course.
12/

The Ukrainian human skills reality regards the M-1 Abrams are 180 degrees opposite the deconfliction faction Feb-Mar 2022 public statements

The German Pzh-2000 155mm/L52 SP gun is much harder to use & maintain (but not refuel w/o trucks) than an M-1👇
13/

https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1545442908941189121

Where the deconfliction crowd really screwed up was tipping off the extra range of the GMLRS to anyone listening via public US complaints that "Ukraine is using GMLRS like an area affect weapon."

The USA has a decades old adversarial weapons testing system caused
14/

...by a lot of Pentagon over promise & under performance to Congress.

So when a US Army Chief of Staff says GMLRS can reach 85 km & hit a target within 3-to-7 meters. It is based on low ball certified test performance under old rocket performance & adverse wind conditions.
14/

The DC elites screaming "Ukraine is using GMLRS like an area affect weapon" to the world told anyone at all familiar with that history the Ukrainians were accepting less accuracy for longer range from adverse wind gusts after rocket motor burn out.

https://twitter.com/TrentTelenko/status/1547630127382638592

15/

Near simultaneously there were public videos of Ukrainian HIMARS launchers concentrated together suggesting the need for more GMLRS missiles to strike a single target set at extended ranges through point defenses.


16/

The Ukrainian officer corps grew up on Soviet MLRS doctrine that is about plastering large areas with lots of rounds.

So of course the UA will be comfortable with using GMLRS weapons in both precision regimes & area attack regimes walking a barrage over an area.

16/

Since a lot of the Russian targets are area targets you would be programming a GMLRS pod to lay a pattern on an area.

At a longer range with degraded CEP, you simply aim all rounds at the middle and let random dispersion do the job.

So, why the drama here?
17/

My gut says 3 different factions of morons on parade for money, power & budget reasons.

1. US DoD accountants who are aghast at a $100K GMLRS being used as an area effect MLRS.

2. Ukraine publicly undercutting the de-escalation faction by being effective with it's HIMARS

18/

...when they're supposed to have Afghan/Iraqi class incompetence.

3. The DoD F-35 mafia seeing that GMLRS plus drones are simply better for battlefield interdiction role within GMLRS range. The DoD budget wars that are coming from that fact are going to be utterly nasty.

19/

You can buy 640 GMLRS rockets for the purchase cost of one F-35 airframe.

The operations cost of an F-35 delivering 640 guided munitions vs a HIMARS launcher within 85-100 km of the front line doing the same is even more upside down.

20/

You can buy the HIMARS launcher & train a launcher crew for the initial training cost of a F-35 fighter pilot.

Which is higher than an F-16 pilot.

See👇
21/
forbes.com/sites/niallmcc…

Whenever you see weird decisions in DC that make no darned sense.

That is your cue to go looking for hidden money & power reasons, because money & power are the left & right hands of politics.

22/End