"Russia increasingly launching guided air bombs - Air Force spox
28.03.2023 15:16
As Russia’s tactical aviation is becoming more active in the front line zones and the enemy is using guided aerial bombs more often, Ukraine needs long-range air defense capabilities and modern multi-purpose warplanes. [My underline.]
That’s according to Yuriy Ihnat, the spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force, who spoke at the national telethon, Ukrinform reports.
"We see that the activity of tactical aviation has somewhat increased recently, and that the enemy is now using not only missiles that can fly at fairly long distances, but also guided aerial bombs in the frontline regions," the spokesman emphasized. [..."
Russia increasingly launching guided air bombs - Air Force spox
As Russia’s tactical aviation is becoming more active in the front line zones and the enemy is using guided aerial bombs more often, Ukraine needs long-range air defense capabilities and modern multi-purpose warplanes. â Ukrinform.www.ukrinform.net
Early in the war is was noted that Russian aviation was only using dumb bombs, but they have used smart bombs in places like Syria. It was speculated they had used up their supply in Syria. I guess they have gotten enough electronics to keep production going on those weapons and maybe expand production. It may be the electronic parts they use for those are something easily obtained off the shelf and easily obtained from China.
If they just use something like GPS and a controller to direct the fins, then the bombs may just incorporate a commercial GPS module made in China and a simple microcontroller like an 8051 which is off patent and available dirt cheap.
8051s are in all sorts of electronics. The average car (ICE) has a bunch of them controlling emissions systems, engine timing, HVAC systems, etc. One of the most common USB interface chips has an 8051 integrated. Those parts run about $4-$42 depending on the extras on the chip.
For what the Russians want to do with a smart bomb, a $1 part would work. They just need the processor and none of the other things built into a USB controller.
Communism evolved out of leftest ideals in the 19th century. The liberals of the era were concerned about the plight of industrial workers who were suffering physically and psychologically and many times being worked to death. Karl Marx (who was quite the leach BTW, he lived off the wealth of some of his supporters) believed that if the government took over all aspects of the economy, then a utopia would come out of it in which everyone shares in the benefits and everyone is equally protected.
Lenin believed that he could bring that about in Russia, but by the time he died he acknowledged that his experiment had failed.
The failure was tied to human nature and the lack of checks on power. Successful liberal democracies have systems in place to check abuses of power by those in charge. The ultimate check being voters who hopefully will vote out someone who is not representing their interests.
All liberal democracies also have some forms of socialism that provide safety nets for the unfortunate and elderly. In places like the United States the net is on the thinner side and in Scandinavia it's more robust. But all these countries also have capitalism in which someone can do better with hard work and a bit of luck, or at least a lack of bad luck. All countries also have corruption in which some people game the system for their own ends and this varies from country to country too.
Every place communism has been tried, power was too concentrated in a few hands and they always devolved into dictatorships. Communist systems do replace the guy at the top with their own mechanisms instead of falling apart when the strong man dies or gets ousted as is the case with non-communist dictatorships, but the lack of checks in the system leads to a lot of corruption and the country usually doesn't do very well.
Ultimately communism does stem from liberal idealism gone wrong. In practice it has never really been very liberal because they always devolve into dictatorships with insufficient checks on abuses.
This is the best explanation I've seen for why Ukraine is still there in Bakhmut
It's costing Ukraine, but it's costing Russia more. A lot of experts thought that both sides were going to pull back and rebuild for the winter, but Russia got an obsession to capture Bakhmut at all costs and the Ukrainians have stayed there to bleed out the Russians. Instead of rebuilding Russia has weakened itself trying to take Bakhmut. Ukraine was able to get a lot of Russians killed and burn up their resources using only a relatively small defending force.
Strategically it was and still is a brilliant move on Ukraine's part. Tactically it's a tragedy with a lot of human suffering.
Historically it's been repeated many times. The US Marines suffered horribly at Guadalcanal, but the protracted campaign burned up a lot of Japanese resources and opened the door for more offensives up the Solomons island chain in 1943. Not much is written about the island hopping chain up the Solomons because it wasn't anywhere near as dramatic as the battle for Guadalcanal. Japan had spent itself in the first campaign and couldn't bring much to bear on the later battles. By the time the allies were done with the campaign Japan's largest and strongest base in the region was isolated and the rest of their southern flank was gone.
