A new Pentagon budget realignment file dropped (thank you @osmnactej for finding it).
Again it has a lot of interesting info about what weapons have been sent to Ukraine... and what the Pentagon is ordering more than $2 billion from the US industry to replace it.
1/22
It seems a lot of smoke grenades have been given to Ukraine (which are used by infantry as here in Iraq):
• $2.78m M18 Smoke grenades (Red)
• $0.59m M18 Smoke grenades (Yellow)
• $1.55m M8 Smoke Pots 2/n
• $38.4m M7A4 Bradley Fire Support Team (BFIST) artillery forward observer vehicles
• $15.6m 25mm ammo for the Bradleys' M242 chain gun
• $1.14m Bradley spares
• $0.2m Bradley Operator Tablets
3/n
Other infantry equipment:
• $3.06m M2 and M240 machine guns, and M2 modifications
• $3.05m M2 .50 ammo
Until now the US delivered $2.18m in night vision devices to Ukraine... this time: $58.14m!
• $29.6m PVS-7 Night Vision Goggles
• $28.5m PVS-14 Night Vision Monoculars 4/n
M1235A4 MaxxPro DASH OGPK vehicles & M1151A1 Integrated Armor Package Humvees given to Ukraine are being replaced with JLTV Heavy Gun vehicles respectively M1165A1B3 Expanded Capacity Command & Control/General Purpose Humvees.
• $51.1m JLTV
• $23.3m M1165A1B3 5/n
A lot of demolition munitions for breaching obstacles, with three things standing out:
Ukraine also received Selectable Lightweight Attack Munition (SLAM), which is a demolition munition AND an off-route mine AND a belly attack mine. It can be triggered by the operator, by its passive infrared sensor or its magnetic influence sensor, in
• $2.65m M4A1 SLAM 7/n
short I think this means Ukrainian special forces and partisans are placing SLAMs in the russian rear to ambush russian vehicles.
And now let's move on to artillery, which at $1.634 billion is once again forms the lion's share of the Pentagon's acquisitions.
8/n
• $122.4m for M992A3 Carrier Ammunition Tracked (CAT) vehicles, which carry extra rounds and charges for the M109A6 Paladin self-propelled howitzers given to Ukraine.
In total the Pentagon is buying $1 billion of M109A7 and M992A3 CATs in FY23. So it is likely Ukraine will 9/n
receive more M109A6 in the future.
The realignment file also contains a "classified effort"... but thanks to the overall acquisition sum for this effort I can say that it is GMLRS rockets:
• $71.3m "classified effort" ($2,1 billion in FY23) = around 12,450 M30/M31 rockets 10/n
$193.7m are spent on "Ammunition Production Base Support Industrial Facilities":
• $18.5m for increased 155mm acceptance testing
• $24.7m for new Iowa Army Ammunition Plant (pictured) industrial facilities and
• $150.5m for new Load, Assemble and Pack (LAP) facilities
11/n
In total the Pentagon has spent by now at least $777.55m to increase US 155mm artillery ammo production capacity. Another $65m is being spent on the facilitization of HF-1 Steel for artillery shells.
For the first time the Pentagon is listing High Explosives for artillery
12/n
ammo production, which makes me suspect it has to be bought it from a foreign source:
• $32.1m IMX-104 for undisclosed 155mm rounds
• $47.6m TNT for M795 artillery rounds
The Pentagon is also spending $123m for redesigned components for obsolete Excalibur parts, which
12/n
will allow the increase of Excalibur production.
Speaking of which:
• $41.1m M982A1 Excalibur ($801.8m FY23 total = around 8,000 rounds), which are being used extensively by Ukraine to hit russian vehicles and equipment.
13/n
Other artillery ammo:
• $70.6m M795 High Explosive rounds
• $158m for undisclosed "155mm extended range projectiles", which I suspect are the new M1113 RAP projectiles, which replace M549A1 RAP.
Due to its streamlined shape and high-performance rocket motor the M1113 14/n
has a range of 40+ km (M549A1 RAP: 30km). Likely Ukraine is receiving all the remaining M549A1 RAP.
As for fuzes - the Pentagon is ordering two:
• $15.15m M739 Point Detonating fuzes
• $76.48m M767 Electronic Time fuzes
The latter is a surprise... I would have expected
15/n
an order for M762 Electronic Time fuzes, which are used for base ejecting projectiles... like the M483A1 DPICM and M864 DPICM cluster munitions projectiles.
M767 is used with High Explosive rounds or i.e. M110 Smoke projectiles... it could be that the US is running out of
16/n
M739 fuzes and using the M767, which includes a point detonating option, as a interim solution until M739 production can be ramped up (The Pentagon earmarked $33m for a new M739 production line in July 2022).
17/n
No howitzer can function without charges... and this time the Pentagon is spending $541.27m on charges (!) and another $70m on MACS material.
And this is interesting: so far the Pentagon ordered only M231 (pictured the green blocks) and M232A1 charges, and also spent $265m 18/n
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
All the people arguing against cluster munitions are clueless.
Nothing annihilates enemy formations faster than US made DPICM cluster rounds. EVERY soldier and general wants their own artillery to fire lots of DPICM rounds onto enemy formations.
Using DPICM rounds
1/4
massively reduces casualties on the side WITH the DPICM rounds.
All the European countries that signed up to the cluster ammo treaty did so against the will of their officers and soldiers, AND ALL of these European countries made it clear that Article 21 4-d allows them to
2/4
request an ally (= the US) to fire cluster munitions on their behalf, IF these countries don't explicitly request the use of cluster munitions.
And worst of all: this treaty was cooked up because of the Soviet Union's and russia's indiscriminate use of cluster munitions
3/4
In FY 2024 the US Army will spend $1,057 million to preposition equipment for the following units in Europe:
• 2x Armored Brigades
• 2x Field Artillery Brigades
• air defense, engineer, movement control, sustainment, and medical battalions
Together with the units already 1/4
stationed in Europe:
• 2nd Cavalry Regiment
• 12th Combat Aviation Brigade
• 41st Field Artillery Brigade
• 52nd Air Defense Artillery Brigade
• 173rd Airborne Brigade
and rotated to Europe:
• 2x Armored Brigades
• 1x Infantry Brigade
• 1x Combat Aviation Brigade 2/4
this force will be the most powerful armor formation in Europe.
But it would even be better if at least one of the rotating armored brigades would be based permanently in Poland; and if the US Air Force Europe would grow from seven fighter squadrons to ten (at the end of the 3/4
In Germany @derspiegel, @welt, @ntvde and in Austria @derStandardat write that "the Ukrainian Offensive has failed"... ...
That is wild nonsense.
This nonsense happens, because all of them interviewed the same expert, who doesn't understand Ukraine's Offensive phases, of
1/25
which there are at least 5, and we're barely in the middle of Phase 1 - Attrition & Interdiction.
I wouldn't have to do this thread, if i.e. @derStandardat wouldn't confuse the Ukrainian Army's Assault brigades, with the National Guard's Offensive Guard brigades, but...
2/n
The reason people don't consider Ukraine's Phase 1 a success comes from people being used to US/NATO wars, in which Phase 1 is purely air power.
Phase 1 is meant to attrition enemy forces and interdict/disrupt their lines of communication. The West uses fighters and bombers, 3/n
A few weeks ago I did a thread about mortars - today I will do a thread about mortar carriers 🧵:
Mortar carriers are becoming more and more important on the battlefield due to their speed and high rate of fire; and Poland's fully automatic M120 Rak is the best of them all. 1/n
first army to use mortar carriers in battle. The initial M4 Mortar Motor Carriage (MMC) consisted of a M2 Halftrack with a 81mm M1 mortar that could be dismounted, while the later M4A1 MMC used the same mortar but in a fixed mount in the vehicle's rear. 3/n
In 1944 production was switched to the M21 MMC, which was based on the larger M3 Halftrack. In 1945 the two M4 and M4A1 MMCs were retired, while the M21 remained in service until 1968, when it was replaced by the most produced mortar carriers in history: the M106/M125 series. 4/n
I see so much nonsense and (unfounded) fear about "Wagner acquiring nukes".
1) that is bullshit of the highest order 2) it's spread by clowns 3) it was invented by a habitual liar
Let me walk through some basics of tactical nuclear weapons (= the ones you use against enemy
1/10
units, airfields, bridges, etc.).
• let's assume Wagner really made it into a nuclear weapons storage base (absolutely no proof of that) - ok, all the nuke parts are stored in bunkers. Unless the base's officers open the bunkers for you, Wagner got nothing.
2/10
• let's assume Wagner got the officers to open a bunker - ok, now you got part of a nuke. Tactical nuclear weapons are stored unassembled. Unless the officers open ALL the bunkers, Wagner got nothing.
• let's assume Wagner got the officers to open all the bunkers - ok,
3/10
The key aspect of the aborted Prigozhin "coup" is for me that not one general came out to support putin or Prigozhin.
And not a single soldiers showed up to stop Wagner units when they passed by these division's bases:
• 150th Motor Rifle Division in Novocherkassk 1/4
• 3rd Motor Rifle Division in Boguchar
• 106th Airborne Division in Tula
and no one from the two regime-protecting divisions in moscow showed up to prepare defenses against Wagner:
• 2nd Guards Motor Rifle Division
• 4th Guards Tank Division
Most of these divisions'
2/4
units have been destroyed in Ukraine, but there are still training battalions and battalions with conscripts at their bases. Not one battalion was willing to come out and fight for putin.
Prigozhin has exposed that putin's regime is brittle. Prigozhin is hated by most of the
3/4