Sunday 27 March 2022

The War In Ukraine: The Charlatans

 
A Challenger 2 Life Extension Project prototype
 
 
Ukrainian infantry ambush Russian medium tanks in confined spaces,where they are unable to compensate for their lack of situational awareness by operating en masse,which is one of the reasons why the heavy cavalry regiments of An Independent Army For An Independent Nation have close reconnaissance troops with Charlatan Cavalry Heavy Armoured Vehicles whose dummy turrets allow them to carry a greater weight of armour,sensors and countermeasures than standard Chargers,despite looking similar,making them particularly suited to finding targets for Four Inch Mortars and Chastisers (upgraded Challenger 2 Main Battle Tanks could be adapted to perform a similar role,were the Ajax fiasco to be cancelled).
 

Saturday 26 March 2022

The Cost Of A General Dynamics Land Systems Abrams

The advent of military forums exposed the extent to which myths become received wisdom within the British Armed Forces,one of these myths is that,second hand,General Dynamics Land Systems Abrams Main Battle Tanks are a fraction of the cost of upgraded Challenger 2 tanks,herein we shall look at how much other countries pay for Abrams purchased via Foreign Military Sales (Assault Breacher Vehicles,Joint Assault Bridges and Hercules Combat Recovery Vehicles are included in the figures).
The sale to Poland of two hundred and ninety-three Abrams Main Battle Tanks,Hercules Combat Recovery Vehicles,Joint Assault Bridges and associated items for six thousand million United States' dollars was approved on the Seventeenth of February,Twenty Twenty-two.
 
Australian Soldiers in an M1A1 Abrams tank during exercise Talisman Sabre at Shoalwater Bay Training Area in Queensland Australia on the 14th of July 2015
 
 
The sale to Australia of one hundred and twenty-eight Abrams Main Battle Tanks,Assault Breacher Vehicles,Joint Assault Bridges,Hercules Combat Recovery Vehicles and associated items for one thousand six hundred and eighty-five million United States' dollars was approved on the Twenty-ninth of April,Twenty Twenty-one.
 
An M88A2 Hercules vehicle of Alpha Company II Marine Expeditionary Force at Combat Outpost Shir Ghazay in Helmand Afghanistan on the 6th of August 2011
 
 
The sale to Taiwan of one hundred and twenty-two Abrams Main Battle Tanks,Hercules Combat Recovery Vehicles and associated items for two thousand million United States' dollars was approved on the Eighth of July,Twenty Nineteen.
These three recent Foreign Military Sales approvals total nine thousand six hundred and eighty-five million dollars for five hundred and forty-three Abrams Main Battle Tanks,Assault Breacher Vehicles,Joint Assault Bridges,Hercules Combat Recovery Vehicles and associated items,an average of just over seventeen million eight hundred and thirty-six thousand dollars per armoured vehicle,which at current exchange rates is just over thirteen million five hundred and twenty-two thousand pounds sterling each.
 
A Challenger 3 Main Battle Tank
 
   
In contrast,the Challenger 3 upgrade is costing eight hundred million pounds sterling for one hundred and forty-eight vehicles or just over five million four hundred and five thousand pounds per unit,less than half the cost of a second hand Abrams (it would have cost even less without the obsolescent Rheinmetall Rh-120 L/55 120mm gun,yet another example of quantity being sacrificed in the pursuit of fashion).
 

Friday 25 March 2022

The War In Ukraine: The Eye Of The Beholder

 
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraines estimate of Russian combat losses from the 24th of February to the 25th of March 2022

 
During the current unpleasantness the Ukrainian armed forces claim to have killed sixteen thousand and one hundred Russian soldiers and to have destroyed sixteen hundred and twenty-five Russian light Armoured Personnel Vehicles and five hundred and sixty-one Russian medium tanks,to a transformationalist this means that heavy Main Battle Tanks are obsolete and that infantry and light Armoured Personnel Vehicles are the future.
 

Tuesday 22 March 2022

The War In Ukraine: Chastisement

 
A Royal Artillery M110 Eight Inch Self Propelled Howitzer
 
 
Tanks were invented because infantry were unable to advance under fire without suffering heavy casualties yet Russian medium tanks are vulnerable if they enter Ukrainian towns without infantry support,however,explosive projectiles can safely go where tanks and infantry cannot,which is one of the reasons why the corps engineer brigades of An Independent Army For An Independent Nation have Royal Engineers assault regiments with Chastiser Cavalry Heavy Armoured Vehicles armed with Eight Inch Howitzers capable of firing three hundred pound shells to a range of five miles.
 

Friday 18 March 2022

The War In Ukraine: The Hero Kiev

M
A Hero Kiev at the Dirran Pub Hotel in Dirranbandi Queensland Australia on the 9th of May 2021
 
 
It is time to right an historic wrong,this delicious food should no longer be known as a Chicken Kiev,henceforth it should be known as,a Hero Kiev,because Kiev is not chicken.
 

Thursday 17 March 2022

The Five Reconnaissance Vehicles: Ox,Mule,Pony,Matilda And Charger

 
Royal Air Force Chinook helicopters lifting Spartan vehicles at RAF Lyneham on the 11th of October 2005
 
 
Despite the predictable failure of the Tetrarch,Harry Hopkins,Alecto and Locust air mobile light tanks during the Second World War (bad ideas never die),and despite the fact that the then planned fleet of Hercules aircraft did not have the capacity to rapidly fly a significant armoured force to anywhere outside of Europe,and that there was little need to fly one to anywhere within Europe,shortly after the United States' Army had ordered the M551 Sheridan Armored Reconnaissance/Airborne Assault Vehicle,British generals decided that a new family of,highly fashionable,air mobile reconnaissance tanks called Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance Tracked (which was a remarkably good design considering the constraints placed on it's engineers,being far superior to it's American counterparts) would be absolutely transformational.
 
Scorpions Saracens and a Ferret of the Irish Guards during a summer exercise in Germany
 
 
In true British Army fashion,thousands of these,lightly armed and lightly armoured,air mobile vehicles were then issued to units which had no need for air mobility but which did need heavy armour and heavy armament,because they were sitting in West Germany waiting for the Soviet Army to roll over the Inner German Border,since then generations of British Army cavalry troopers have been taught that reconnaissance is all about sneaking around the battlefield like ninjas (because they were equipped with vehicles which lacked the protection and firepower needed for anything other than sneaking around the battlefield like ninjas),an approach which may be appropriate when screening a defending light infantry division but which is not viable when reconnoitering for an armoured division advancing in to enemy held territory at a rate of tens of miles per hour,in contrast,elements of the proposed An Independent Army For An Independent Nation may use any vehicle they have been trained on which is appropriate to the situation and herein we shall list the vehicles which they shall typically use for reconnaissance.
 
A 2nd Commando Regiment Death Adder and a 6th Aviation Regiment Black Hawk during Exercise Talisman Sabre in Townsville Queensland on the 5th of July 2019
 
 
The Ox vehicle family shall not typically be used by any reconnaissance element but may be used all of them when operating in confined spaces.
 
Royal Marines from Bravo and Delta Company of 40 Commando in Jackal armoured vehicles at the end of Operation Herrick 12 on the 29th of September 2010
 
 
The Mule vehicle family shall typically be used (for sneaking around the battlefield like ninjas) by army reconnaissance regiments.
 
A Foxhound vehicle of 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment during Exercise Trident Juncture 2018 on the 3rd of November 2018
 
 
The Pony vehicle family shall typically be used by army reconnaissance troops,corps reconnaissance regiments,light infantry division reconnaissance battalions and light infantry division reconnaissance platoons and troops.
 
An FV432 Mark 3 Bulldog Armoured Personnel Carrier of the Royal Green Jackets in Basra City Iraq on the 25th of January 2007
 
 
The Matilda vehicle family shall typically be used by infantry division reconnaissance regiments and infantry division reconnaissance platoons and troops.
 
An Israel Defense Forces Merkava Mark 4 of the 188th Armored Brigade on the 4th of December 2017
 
 
The Charger vehicle family shall typically be used by cavalry division reconnaissance regiments and cavalry division reconnaissance troops.
 

Friday 11 March 2022

The War In Ukraine: The Rake's Progress

 
Russian Ground Forces Ural 432019 trucks marked with the V symbol being attacked by Ukrainian troops near Kiev during the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the 8th of March 2022
 
 
The progress of Vlad the Invader's attack on Ukraine is unclear at present,but it is worth remembering that eight decades ago it took the Wehrmacht six weeks to invade France,a nation of similar size,but there is one thing which is clear,had the proposed An Independent Army For An Independent Nation (a force which the British Army had the time,money and manpower to create) been deployed to Ukraine then Russian forces would have been soundly defeated by now,had they not been deterred from invading in the first place.
 

Tuesday 8 March 2022

The War In Ukraine: Journalistic Licence

 
The British Broadcasting Corporation World News logo
 
 
Viewers of the British Broadcasting Corporation,Channel 4 and Sky might be forgiven for thinking that the streets of England and Wales are littered with the corpses of women and black people murdered by white policemen,meanwhile,back in the real world,seven out of ten murder victims are men and for every black person murdered by a white person there are three white people murdered by black people,racist and misandrist journalists now routinely use deceit by omission to create a distorted perception of reality in order to attack the objects of their hatred,consequently it is impossible to believe anything they say about the current war in Ukraine (or anything else).