Thomas C. Theiner Profile picture
Aug 7 โ€ข 2 tweets โ€ข 1 min read
๐Ÿ˜ณ๐Ÿ˜ณ

The russians found the remains of an American made AGM-88D HARM anti-radiation missile.

BSU-60/B is the fin of AGM-88D HARMs made by Raytheon. Once fired they will automatically seek and destroy enemy air defense radars or jamming stations... but this is an
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air-launched missile.
In theory it can also be launched from the ground, but then it loses most of its range... and I never heard anyone do that.
Or a Western nation integrated the 88D with Ukrainian fighter jets... or some Ukrainian pilots don't fly Soviet planes anymore.

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More from @noclador

Aug 8
How did the US mount AGM-88 HARM missiles onto Ukrainian fighters... well, I think I know how. A short thread ๐Ÿงต:

AGM-88B/C-1/D missiles have three operation modes:

โ€ข Self-Protect (SP)
โ€ข Target Of Opportunity (TOO)
โ€ข Pre-Briefed (PB)

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When US Air Force F-16CM Falcon or US Navy EA-18G Growler fighters fly Wild Weasel missions they use Self Protect mode.
In this mode the Falcon's AN/ASQ-213 HTS R7 (to the left of the air inlet) and the Growler's AN/ALQ-218(V)2 (on the wingtips) sensor systems detect, locate,
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analyze, and identify sources of radio frequency emission. Once a threat is identified the pilot transmits the target data to the missile and launches it.

There is no chance this would work with Ukrainian fighters as US sensor systems can't be installed on Ukrainian planes
3/n
Read 16 tweets
Aug 2
NATO's role in Kosovo - a short thread ๐Ÿงต:

On 10 June 1999 the UNSC adopted Resolution 1244, which tasked NATO to enter Kosovo & establish a peacekeeping mission with the duties of:

โ€ข deterring renewed hostilities
โ€ข maintaining & where necessary enforcing a ceasefire

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โ€ข ensuring the withdrawal & preventing the return into Kosovo of (Yugoslav) Federal & Republic military, police & paramilitary forces

russia voted Yes & Yugoslavia accepted.

50,000 troops from ๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡ณ๐Ÿ‡ด๐Ÿ‡ฉ๐Ÿ‡ฐ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡ซ๐Ÿ‡ฎ๐Ÿ‡ธ๐Ÿ‡ช๐Ÿ‡ฆ๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ต๐Ÿ‡น๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡ท๐Ÿ‡ด๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฟ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ฑ๐Ÿ‡น entered Kosovo 2 days later.

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All NATO members' parliaments repeatedly voted to support KFOR, which is operationally assigned to NATO's Joint Forces Command (JFC) Naples.

Therefore talk of "NATO can't intervene if Serbia invades Kosovo unless member parliaments vote for it" is factually wrong.

3/n
Read 6 tweets
Aug 1
I think last evening Serbia's General Staff officers explained to President Vuฤiฤ‡ that if he orders to attack Kosovo NATO fighter jets would appear over Serbian forces within hours and start bombing them... and within 48 hours the US Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade would be
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airlifted to Pristina Airport and the Italian Army's Paratropers Brigade "Folgore" airlifted to Gjakova Airport (which Italy's military built for this purpose).
Followed a day later by the Italian Army's Mechanized Brigade "Pinerolo", which is based in and around Bari, and
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would be shipped by the Italian Navy's 3rd Naval Division with its amphibious ships from Brindisi to Durrรซs within 2 days. From Durrรซs to Mitrovicia the Pinerolo's wheeled Freccia IFVs and Centauro tank destroyers need 6 hours thanks to the Western co-financed A1 highway.
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Read 4 tweets
Jul 30
Olenivka POW massacre thread ๐Ÿงต:

1) it wasn't a GMLRS rocket
2) it was a thermobaric weapon
3) russia staged it and did so (as usual) incompetently

Firstly: keeping POWs so close to the front violates Article 19 of the Third Geneva Convention making it a war crime.

1/n
Secondly: Olenivka is about 15 km from the frontline. Striking a target so close to the front with sparse and expensive long-range GMLRS rockets, when one could use 105 mm artillery rounds that cost around 0.4% of a GMLRS rocket makes no sense.

2/n
Thirdly: Olenivka has been a well known DNR POW and concentration camp for years (and a penal colony for decades). So much so that the wives of the POWs knew about it. One needs to be a delusional russian troll or propagandist to believe Ukraine would strike this target.

3/n
Read 15 tweets
Jul 30
There is a lot of debate about this video as it is unclear what weapon was used... it could even have been the first use of an autonomously operating loitering munition.

The tank was definitely hit by an explosively formed penetrator (EFP) fired by a top-attack weapon.
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The weapon's trajectory rules out howitzer fired systems like SADARM, SMArt or Bonus. It's also not an anti-tank guided missile as it flies too slow and is too high above the target for an NLAW or BGM-71F TOW. The initial suspect, a M93 wide area mine doesn't fly this far.
2/4
This leaves a not publicly disclosed loitering munition carrying an EFP forming submunition.

As such submunitions scan for and attack targets fully autonomously this undisclosed loitering munition can likely be programmed to patrol an area and will automatically attack enemy
3/4
Read 4 tweets
Jul 29
A deeper dive into this munition:

The trajectory and the top attack mode point to a US Army M93 Hornet wide-area anti-tank mine (or its russian copy PTKM-1R)... but the distance the munition flies seems to be more than 100m. It is not an BGM-71F TOW as it flies too slow for
an ATGM and so far no country has announced that it deliverd TOW missiles to Ukraine.

Another possibility is an undisclosed loitering munition that has an EFP warhead... or it is a XM204 wide-area top attack mine that the US Army is currently introducing to replace the M93.
2/2
PS: definitely not a SMArt or Bonus round as the trajectory or these two systems is different from the one we see here.
Read 4 tweets

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