The Ukrainian armed forces’ aggressive counterattacks in the south and east starting in late August have chewed up several of the Russian military’s most important formations. The elite 1st Guards Tanks Army and its supporting 144th Guards Motor Rifle Division , to name two. Also, the essential 3rd Army Corps —the Kremlin’s main reserve formation…
Posts published by “David Axe”
The Russian army is sending draftees to the front lines in Ukraine with just a day or two of training— or none at all . Unhappy, unfit, poorly equipped and poorly led, these draftees are little more than cannon fodder as Ukrainian brigades continue their twin counteroffensives in the south and east. “Mobilized men with…
Explosions erupted across Russia and Russian-occupied Ukraine on Thursday night as Ukrainian forces escalated their weeks-long campaign of deep strikes on Russian logistics and airfields. The blasts, targeting ammunition dumps, airfields and other facilities, could disrupt supply lines and air operations and further isolate Russian troops in Ukraine—especially in the south, where Kyiv has been…
Ukraine continues to escalate its bombardment of Russian supply lines in southern Ukraine. But it might not matter that much in the end. Emphasis on might . Before dawn on Sunday, Ukrainian forces—perhaps a battery of American-made High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems—reportedly struck a 40-car train carrying ammunition from supply dumps in occupied Crimea to Russian…
The Ukrainian military’s success in sinking and damaging Russian warships could have a happy side-effect for Ukraine’s war effort on land. The destruction of at least two Russian ships—and damage to several others—makes a Russian amphibious assault on Odessa even less likely . And that could free up Ukrainian forces currently defending the strategic port.…
The U.S. Air Force’s top officer wants the service to develop an affordable, lightweight fighter to replace hundreds of Cold War-vintage F-16s and complement a small fleet of sophisticated—but costly and unreliable— stealth fighters . The result would be a high-low mix of expensive “fifth-generation” F-22s and F-35s and inexpensive “fifth-generation-minus” jets, explained Air Force…