Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

741–750 of 791 posts

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#741

Post by denton-scratch »

PaulHoule wrote: post #625
krisoft wrote: post #613

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm puzzled why we haven't created something that can compete with S-300 / S-400 / S-500. In my opinion it is because the American way of fighting a war doesn’t need it. Let say there is a troublesome country who would want to fly airplanes to shoot at American troops. The war plans against such a threat would start with two steps: 1st supress their air defences. 2nd gain full air dominance. Supression of air defen…

The best US air defense missiles are launched from ships. (These are so good that, like the S-500 they can shoot down satellites!)

That's the AEGIS system. It works better when land-based, from what I've read; it's dramatically more accurate than the purely naval fleet-defence version.

AEGIS is an integrated, networked system; multiple sensors on multiple platforms (including AWACS) collaborate to detect and hit targets.

There was an AEGIS-equipped ship either in the Black Sea, or trying to get in through the Bosphorus (now closed to naval traffic). The presence of AEGIS ships in the Black Sea would be enough to explain the non-appearance of the Russian airforce.

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#742

Post by denton-scratch »

sofixa wrote: post #601
UltraViolence wrote: post #460

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm puzzled why we haven't created something that can compete with S-300 / S-400 / S-500. At the very least the Patriot SAM should be redesigned to allow for vertical launching to allow shooting in all directions. If you point Patriot one way and you get ambushed from behind you're basically caught with your pants down. At the very least you'd need four Patriot missile launchers pointing in all directions to prevent…

That's why it was funny that Turkey was ostracized for buying Russian/Chinese SAMs ( was it S-400 last or a Chinese version). What else could they possibly buy? The Patriot system isn't even close, and doesn't seem to be working too well for the UAE ( but then again we don't know how S-300/400/500 would deal against drones and light missiles)

My guess is that Russia doesn't have that many S-xxx missile systems, and further that they are much more expensive than the Turkish drones. I imagine they're keeping their powder dry, against the risk of NATO planes appearing over Ukraine.

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#743

Post by spacemanmatt »

axiosgunnar wrote: post #38
spacemanmatt wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At 80% conscription rate, the RF army is seriously vulnerable to mass-realization of international views. Many young Russians were deceived into this war and would rather be with their families.

Is this something we, hackers/information technology specialists, could try to achieve?

You can donate money directly to the Ukraine army. Sometimes there are browser-hosted DDoS links posted here but they don't always last. You can lobby satellite firms to provide real-time video to Ukrainians.

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#744

Post by spacemanmatt »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #117
axiosgunnar wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this something we, hackers/information technology specialists, could try to achieve?

Yes, I'd love to see more chatter on here about creative info/psyops. The fact that Russian troops are using smartphones and Google leaves them wide open. We have starlink sats above them and control DNS. Hell, we could probably convince them they'd already won and been ordered home.

It won't be here. The community here is organized along principles of startup capitalism, not activism.

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#745

Post by denton-scratch »

rootusrootus wrote: post #632
denton-scratch wrote: post #614

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but I don't think there's an offramp. I can't see the Russian leadership backing down from their stated goals. That means they have to subdue Ukraine, and probably Finland, Estonia and Poland too. If they don't win in at least Ukraine, then they have lost badly, and their economy is destroyed. I don't think they'll settle now for a piece of Crimea or a piece of Donbas. The entire story is that the whole of Ukr…

> Finland, Estonia and Poland That would be a hell of an escalation. Emphasis on hell. Estonia and Poland are NATO members, which means WW3. And attacking Finland, though not yet a NATO member, would probably invite the largest response from Europe in memory. World war indeed.

> which means WW3.

Customarily, it's been called a "World War" when both sides have participants from multiple nations. As far as I'm aware, Russia's only ally would be Belarus, which looks to me like a Russian province in all but name.

"WWIII" is a term that also refers to Global Thermonuclear War; if that's what you meant, then I apologise for being pedantic.

[Edit] No attack on Poland or the Baltic states is possible without first subduing Ukraine; so I don't think that's at all imminent. But I wouldn't be surprised if Russia pops a tactical nuke or two in Ukraine, then all bets will be off.

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#746

Post by kaesar14 »

sofixa wrote: post #597
gamblor956 wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The difference is that Putin has previously accomplished himself as a competent military leader, and Hitler had not. Though you are right in that there are huge similarities between the two campaigns: in both cases, it appears that the executive leader ignored the advice of his military advisors to launch disastrous military campaigns that actually ended up hindering the non-military objectives behind those campaigns…

> The difference is that Putin has previously accomplished himself as a competent military leader, and Hitler had not What? Putin managed to force his vastly overwhelming forces on small countries with small and badly equipped armies like Chechnya, Syria, Georgia. And we don't know how much does he really do. Hitler presided over, and even helped with the planning of, one of the most brilliant campaigns against overw…

I have to agree with this, by what logic has Putin established himself as a brilliant military strategist in contrast to what Hitler’s government had accomplished by 1941?

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#747

Post by helloworld11 »

gamblor956 wrote: post #554
kaesar14 wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it's clearly the Trump Presidency that led to Operation Barbarossa.

The difference is that Putin has previously accomplished himself as a competent military leader, and Hitler had not. Though you are right in that there are huge similarities between the two campaigns: in both cases, it appears that the executive leader ignored the advice of his military advisors to launch disastrous military campaigns that actually ended up hindering the non-military objectives behind those campaigns…

Agreed with the above comments about Putin definitively not having established himself as a competent military leader so far (and especially at the present time with this fiasco of a military invasion, again, so far).

But that aside, my original comment, despite having been downvoted, doesn't seem at all off base: Why in the world even bother to mention Trump except out of pure kneejerk emotional need in the context of unsound military leadership on the world stage. Poor invasion planning certainly existed long before he became president of the U.S. and the current disaster essentially has nothing to do with him or his lack/presence of military leadership skills.

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#748

Post by xtian »

sAbakumoff wrote: post #735
xtian wrote: post #657

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about making baseless predictions about peoples lives?

Quoted post unavailable.

The difference is people like you aren't willing to put any skin in the game when you make these sorts of extraordinary claims.

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#749

Post by _moof »

vintermann wrote: post #277
_moof wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm guessing all the engineers you know are web software pukes. There are loads of people who could build these today.

Oh, I'm pretty sure the stuff we "web software pukes" have to work with would drive all those old-timer Real Engineers crazy in its own way. It's a bit like how a middle school teacher doesn't necessarily have an easier job than a prestigious professor.

That's true. (Although what's with "old-timer"? Most of the mech/aero/etc. engineers I know are under 35.) I'm sort of the bridge between the software and hardware folks where I work, and nobody understands what anyone else does. Which is fine - that's what specialization is. The difference I find is that most hardware folks are at least aware of that, while almost all programmers I've met outside of aerospace don't even know the basic engineering curriculum exists (as exemplified by the comment that started this thread).

Re: What happened to Russias Air Force? U.S. officials, experts stumped

#750

Post by CRConrad »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #155
HideousKojima wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Violence also helps back the idea that Russia needs to be there to stop the violent nazis that state media has painted Ukrainians to be (goes without saying, this is completely fabricated). It definitely isn't "completely fabricated": https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Battalion The real problem is, who gives a shit if a small unit in the Ukrainian National Guard is made up of far right extremists? It's a purely i…

I can't help but think Putin's guise of "denazifying Ukraine" was a poorly understood attempt to gain some favor with those in Western societies that see themselves as fighting fascism and right-wing extremism. As a westerner, I've definitely noticed my more left leaning friends agree with actions that seemingly contradict classical liberal ideals (free speech, free association) as long as such actions seem to be in…

Second time in fifteen minutes I happen to come across you serving up weird apalogetic interpretations of dictators and dictator-wannabes. (First time here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30456634 )

Twice is coincidence...

Post reply on HN