While the U.S. chased political correctness, Russia chased the edge in battle

[GR66]

It seems to me that identifying the strengths of the Russian military SHOULD be the first step in determining where we should be concentrating our efforts in developing our own capabilities.  Anti-Air system to shoot down their drones, surveillance systems to locate their jammers, radars and artillery positions, long range precision weapons (longer range than their artillery for ground based systems or longer range than their AD weapons for air-launched systems) to take out their artillery and EW assets.

 

[jollyjacktar]

The Russians have always had a hard on for Artillery.  I wouldn't want to fall under their attention. 

I do remember the limousine that always was right behind Yeltsin's car at the G5 in Halifax in 95.  It had curtains across all the windows in the back.  Everyone's electronic gear was jammed while it was in range.  Was fun watching folks with their cell phones etc going nuts when it was rolling by.

 

[Kirkhill]

It seems to me that most of these problems can be managed by technology and tactics and going back and reconsidering the application of the principles of war.

The biggest concern that I would have is the use of thermo-barics: how do you counter that?  If you can hunker down in your trench and wait out the attack then everything else is manageable.  But if you are denied the safety of a trench then what? 

Everybody in tanks?  That doesn't seem practical.  Especially since one of the other  lessons learned is that even MBTs are vulnerable.

Iron dome type GBADs to intercept the missiles in flight?  More missiles with longer ranges for counter-battery fire?  More F35s?

How well do all of those technologies work if jammers are cheap and ubiquitous?  What happens if every thermo-baric missile carries its own jammer?

Can you create a nodal network from line of sight laser communications?  How about more autonomous Anti Aircraft Machine Guns on tracks for killing drones without disclosing the location of troops?

The commentary about the Javelin is particularly interesting -

Javelin is effective - but even it might require multiple missiles for a kill - so the answer would seem to be lots and lots of Javelins and drive the cost of production down.

Edit: Linked picture removed because I didn't want that particular solution to become a focal point of the discussion - the subject is way too broad and demands a more general discussion.

Edit2:  Curiously I have just recently been re-reading Jerry Pournelle and Robert Heinlein.  Some of their works anticipated some of this.  Both of them, for example, make reference to high teck spring loaded weapons firing darts - because everything else could be defeated or spoofed by electronic means.

 

[Kirkhill]

Reading the "lessons learned" link to the article posted by Thucydides  I realized that the Russian commentator wasn't just talking about Javelins but also about RPGs.  That would suggest that even large numbers of low cost missiles, like CG-84s, could also be useful.  All that reactive armour can only be exploded once.  Once it is stripped away the underlying vehicle becomes vulnerable. 

And that brings us back to the M77 Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munition and "Cluster Bombs" - The M77, of course, is a point detonating HEAT round that could degrade that active armour.

 

[GR66]

Low cost missiles may not be able to defeat enemy armour from all aspects to produce a hard kill but the tracks are still a weak point and creating a mobility kill might be enough to prevent the enemy from achieving their objective.

Another option could be some sort of flechette round that is designed to deplete an enemy's active defence systems and/or set off their reactive armour. 

 

[Kirkhill]

On the thermo-baric issue:

I see that the CAF has issued an RFP for more SKOP kits.  http://army.ca/forums/threads/107184/post-1448603.html#msg1448603

Does the SKOP kit need to be upgraded to include something like these?

http://www.bretonindustries.com/blast-blankets/

 

[George Wallace]

On the thermo-baric issue:

I see that the CAF has issued an RFP for more SKOP kits.  http://army.ca/forums/threads/107184/post-1448603.html#msg1448603

Does the SKOP kit need to be upgraded to include something like these?

http://www.bretonindustries.com/blast-blankets/

Looking at Wikipedia I would think that Blast Blankets would be useless as the oxygen would be sucked out of the air to fuel the explosion.  Perhaps full-time sprinkler systems would be better to defeat the fuel using up the oxygen and lessing the blast.

From Wikpedia:

Most conventional explosives consist of a fuel-oxidizer premix (gunpowder, for example, contains 25% fuel and 75% oxidizer), whereas thermobaric weapons are almost 100% fuel, so thermobaric weapons are significantly more energetic than conventional condensed explosives of equal weight. Their reliance on atmospheric oxygen makes them unsuitable for use underwater, at high altitude, and in adverse weather. They do, however, cause considerably more destruction when used inside confined environments, such as foxholes, tunnels, bunkers, and caves—partly due to the sustained blast wave, and partly by consuming the available oxygen inside. Thermobaric weapons have the longest sustained blast wave and most destructive force of any known explosive, excluding nuclear weapons.

Looks like thermo-baric munitions would be absolutely useless in a monsoon.  [

 

[Kirkhill]

Looking at Wikipedia I would think that Blast Blankets would be useless as the oxygen would be sucked out of the air to fuel the explosion.  Perhaps full-time sprinkler systems would be better to defeat the fuel using up the oxygen and lessing the blast.

Looks like therm-baric munitions would be absolutely useless in a monsoon.  [

Eggggselent!  A whole new offensive capability for the Met department.  How much are rainmakers going for these days?  [

 

[MilEME09]

http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/world/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com/news/world/putin-deploys-russias-most-advanced-air-defence-missiles-in-crimea-as-alarm-grows-war-is-imminent


What will August bring? History says another Russian power play

Sent from my LG-D852 using Tapatalk

 

[Kirkhill]

A refresher on US thermobarics?

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-american-militarys-deadly-thermobaric-arsenal-14505

Note the effort to make them go the way of the Cluster Bomb.