Fun, innit, the idea that there is a black market in tank engines?
The daily commute has a problem, the chop shop has just the part you need for it?
Russian army commander arrested for ‘selling tank engines’
Colonel Alexander Denisov is accused of stealing seven V-92S2 engines and trading them on the black market
Actually, given the Russian Army, the news here is that he got arrested.
At first, I thought a single man in Ely may have been involved, but these are the wrong type of tank engines.
Lesson identified: make sure your superiors get the cut they were expecting.
produced at the Chelyabinsk tractor factory
I would think there’s your answer. The engine doesn’t just fit in tanks. I’d imagine most tank engines are derived from civilian applications. The cost of designing & tooling up for fairly limited production runs would make anything else ruinously uneconomic.
I understand it was so well known that his nickname was Thomas.
I’ll get my own coat.
£200k is cheaper than javelins to immobilise tanks, probably Ukrainians being smart
That’s pennies level amateur grifting when compared the billions that Biden et al have washed through Ukraine.
A typical way this happens is not that Colonel Denisov is sneaking around the tank park with a portable crane, lifting out power packs, then asking dodgy geezers in back alleys “hey, wanna buy a tank engine?”.
The more Russian approach is that he’s taking engines from his unit’s spares pool & selling back them to the factory, who then announce that they’ve exceeded their production quota for this part of the Plan (vodka and bonuses all round!) as they deliver them (again) to the depot and get paid for them (again).
Cover this by declaring your unit’s driven X thousand tank miles in rigorous, detailed training (while the soldiers were actually just working fields for local farmers – wages to the CO, of course) and therefore have expended Y engines in training, hence the need for more, to disguise the gap between delivery, consumption and stockpile.
I’d go so far as to guess that the reason he’s been charged on seven specific engines, is that a batch were delivered with some sort of super-secret-squirrel identification marks, and then seven of them turned up again as a batch of supposedly “newly-produced” engines, once proper attention started being paid to “how many working tanks do we really have?”
Issues like this are why, despite reportedly still having thousands of T-72 tanks in ready-use storage just needing a quick first parade and the ammo racks loading up before they can go into action… the front-line Russian forces are now going into battle in sixty-year-old T-62s, and are sending trainloads of even older T-55s to Ukraine.
As Orwell described how to interpret production figures in a totalitarian regime…
There’s a black market in all sorts of things. A teacher at my school was sacked for inciting kids to steal fire extinguishers and selling them on.
Mitch,
Javelin’s a smart system in several senses of the world: the expensive bit is the Command Launch Unit, which you clip onto a missile tube & use to program it to “kill that one” (and is really useful just as a surveillance aid, as well as a missile fire controller).
The missiles themselves, while not cheap, were running about $120,000 (or £90k) apiece in US Army 2022 accounts, a real bargain for a reliable, lethal, fire-and-forget weapon. (Those with longer memories, may wish to compare to the Eurodisaster that was TRIGAT-MR, in development at the same time, that managed rather less capability for a considerably higher price)
I doubt you could even buy a full load of ammunition for a Russian tank for the cost of one Javelin, never mind the tank itself. (especially since in theory some of the tank’s rounds would be 9M119 gun-launched guided missiles – which have conspicuously failed to sweep the battlefield clear, suggesting they either don’t work well or simply weren’t produced in the numbers claimed).
It’s bleakly hilarious how Uncle Vova the master strategist, has put himself in a position where the West can break the Russian military’s teeth at no cost in (our) blood and remarkably little expenditure of treasure. A couple of years ago Russia wanted to claim it had the second-most powerful military in the world; today it’s on its way to be the second most powerful military in Ukraine; and it’s a few decisions in Beijing from being the second most powerful military in Russia…
Well, the UK’s media seems to be rapidly losing interest in the conflict in Ukraine.
The only Ukraine story today seems to be that people won’t be able to get the train to the Eurovision final which is being held in Liverpool which has stepped in as the original location of Kiev is a bit busy.
Jason Lynch, you speak like the very badly informed. Russia is sending T55 and 62 models as simple, inexpensive artillery platforms. They still have a lot and they don’t need much work to make them sufficiently serviceable as gun platforms. Given that the Ukraine war is at this point largely an artillery war, and the Russians have something like an 8:1 or more advantage, I’d say the USA and the UK have spent literally billions in failure, except as an exercise to destroy a generation of young (and not so damn young) Ukrainians as part of an elaborate money laundering op.
Ed Snack, you’re in St Petersburg and I claim my £5!
Simple, ineffective artillery platforms, you mean. No good for indirect fire, can’t go up against a newer tank, might be useful for direct fire assault gun use at a loss rate which would be unacceptable elsewhere.
Mr Snack. The cannons on those old tanks are dumb weapons. Sure an artillery war. And if the Russians want to expend a million dollars worth of munitions doing 10k’s worth of damage, they’re welcome.
To paraphrase Kenneth Horne, I myself would personally make a beeline for whoever in the Taliban has been entrusted with converting Joe Biden’s largesse into hard cash.
As this article among a good few others points out, using tanks – with low-elevation, high-velocity guns optimised for direct fire – as artillery, is a mark of desperation not of success.
If Russia wants more artillery, why aren’t they bringing the huge stockpiles of D30 howitzers and 2S1 self-propelled guns they’re supposed to have (and even declared under Conventional Forces in Europe treaty counts!) to the front line, to use artillery as artillery?
Or is my thesis correct, and quite a bit of the supposed might of the Russian military only ever existed in the imagination of the leadership; with corruption and peculation meaning considerably less of everything – vehicles, ammunition, training – was delivered, than the Kremlin had paid for?
Why is it taking the invincible Russian military so long to conquer puny Ukraine?
This
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9i47sgi-V4
is what Jason is talking about. I might have linked it before. From the estimable Perun.
I don’t see those T62 & T55 gun barrels lasting long being used in an artillery role, assuming they have enough ammunition. They’re also going to have to be perilously close to the front line in that mode making resupply perilous.
30 seconds googling (which makes me an expert) tells me the maximum elevation of the T55 gun is 16 degrees. Doesn’t sound much like an artillery piece to me.
Why is it taking the invincible Russian military so long to conquer puny Ukraine?
Maybe because Russia is fighting Poles in Ukrainian uniforms, a myriad of Western special forces, billions of dollars of NATO kit, having already destroyed much of Ukraine’s army and original kit?
Still, you hold your breath for the imminent counter attack.
If that army was in any way competent it should have taken a couple of weeks. They can’t do proper combined-arms mobile warfare so they have reverted to World War One.
I’ve got to agree with you Rhoda. I thought they’d have overrun the place months ago.
Still I’ve got to give them congratulations on overall policy. Puke made sure that Europe was dependent on his oil and gas, and that he had plenty of food, before he tried this.
The cognitive dissonance in all those decrying Russian failure typified by J Lynch and others is hilarious when we have:
“General Cavoli is the commander of United States European Command (EUCOM) and Supreme Allied Commander Europe.
Yesterday he gave testimony at the House of Representatives HASC (House Armed Services Committee) hearing, alongside Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander.
First he reveals to a stunned congressional audience that Russia has hardly taken any damage during the conflict. His attempt to appease his bosses doesn’t come across well, as he uncomfortably stammers through trying to qualify his description of Russian forces as ‘degenerated…somewhat.’ Although, he adds shame-facedly, they are bigger today than they were at the beginning.
The second side-splitter comes a moment later when he explains how the U.S. is learning a huge lesson in Ukraine as regards consumption rates of munitions. Once again this proves how utterly unqualified American generals, planners, military ‘experts’, and think-tankers were in ever estimating a near-peer type of conflict.”
Yet another example of Steve’s track record being rather closer to how reality turned out.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/supreme-eucom-commander-gives-eye
If they’re so bloody clever why haven’t they won yet? What is the reward for Russia in winning either by taking all of Ukraine or settling a peace deal with the disputed provinces belonging to Russia? How will the country be better off in either case? What’s the strategic gain? Do they still have a list of ex-SSRs with ‘russian-speaking populations’ who need freeing?
. . . you speak like the very badly informed. Russia is sending T55 and 62 models as simple, inexpensive artillery platforms.
It’s demented that this keeps happening. The most preposterous bilge put out by the Russians to justify their actions is swallowed whole and regurgitated by a section of the online right for apparently no reason other than it goes against our own governments. Look, I get that our own governments fucked us over big time and shouldn’t be forgiven for it, but that doesn’t mean foreign isn’t still out there looking to do worse.
It’s like being furious at the council for not fixing the potholes in the street and then being persuaded by a charming Irishman that he can do a fine job resurfacing your driveway. Three months later it’s falling apart and your house has been robbed – but that fucking council!!!
Theoretically this is still Russia’s war to lose, but they don’t seem to be doing much to win. Of course, proper analysis shouldn’t come until it’s over. It’s possible the Kremlin is just lulling us into a false sense of security. It’s unlikely that Ukraine’s will be the only spring / summer offensive. Kharkiv is still vulnerable to a properly organised attack, and once Bakhmut is secured it’s an open highway to Sloviansk (a highway that links to rail hubs and goes all the way back to Russia). It’s not over until all the ladies stacked inside the fat lady sing.
As for the T-55s, they would best be used as throwaway hull down gun defences on the route to Crimea. But I haven’t seen any evidence of that yet in the satellite views of Russia’s preparations.
Yet another example of Steve’s track record being rather closer to how reality turned out.
For reasons that are not clear to me it seems to be uncricket here to go back and quote and link what was previously said. But I can, and I can assure you that Steve’s track record is lamentable. He’s a good, funny bloke but he talks bollocks.
– Maybe because Russia is fighting Poles in Ukrainian uniforms, a myriad of Western special forces, billions of dollars of NATO kit . . .
Well fucking marvellous then.
Once again this proves how utterly unqualified American generals, planners, military ‘experts’, and think-tankers were in ever estimating a near-peer type of conflict.”
Sorry, but no. There was a book published in the 80s, written by a British general, that war gamed Land/Air War Europe. And a great deal was made about expected attrition rates & munitions/assets expenditure in a high frequency peer/peer combat environment. For anyone who’s read it, the Russian incursion into Ukraine – which was just the same thing on a far smaller scale – was little short of a surprise. The Russian Army should have brushed the Ukraine forces aside & been in Kyiv in a couple of days. Land/Air War Europe was Warsaw Pact v the entire NATO in-place forces plus redeployments through the Atlantic Airbridge starting from Day 1. With the Red Army being the core component of the WP offensive. So for a start the WP would have been contesting the airspace over the battlefield with the combined airforces of NATO countries. The question was whether NATO could slow the WP in W.Germany for the Airbridge to work. NATO attrition rates of up to 50% were envisaged.
Since that’s been in the libraries for the past 30 years & it’s essentially the same Russian army, they’re unlikely to have forgotten it. Also there’s the more recent fate of Iraq in a non-peer conflict.
I note, with amusement, that the Russian estimates of artillery ammunition stockpiles were so accurate that… they’re apparently reduced to having to use obsolete T-55 and T-62 tanks to deliver indirect fire, having run out of proper guns and the ammunition to fire from them. Evidently this is proof of Russian brilliance?
Still, Russia is now 429 days into their three-day Special Military Operation, and further from victory and success today than they were a year ago. Putin remains a master strategist.
“it’s essentially the same Russian army, they’re unlikely to have forgotten it”
Well BiS, the rest of the comment is spot on, but you underestimate the Russian Army’s ability to forget. They forgot the Winter War debacle by the time of Barbarossa eighteen months later.
I’m amazed that the NATO forces of whom I was one (BiND too, I suspect) expected to get away with 50% casualties. We knew we were screwed. But maybe not if the Soviet Army was as useless as this lot.
Rhoda;
“If they’re so bloody clever why haven’t they won yet? What is the reward for Russia in winning either by taking all of Ukraine or settling a peace deal with the disputed provinces belonging to Russia? How will the country be better off in either case? What’s the strategic gain? Do they still have a list of ex-SSRs with ‘russian-speaking populations’ who need freeing?”
1. Trapped by doctrine, poor intelligence and analysis, and wishful thinking.
2. Control of resources, and the Black Sea.
3. Eurasian Economic Union, where the member states are essentially autocracies with oligarchs making up the court(s).
4. Piss-poor economics.
5. Looming succession crises.
– They forgot the Winter War debacle by the time of Barbarossa eighteen months later.
Worth bearing in mind, though, that they won the Winter War and turned Barbarossa back around onto the invader. They’re a shit show but there are a lot of them. I think the saying about Russia is “never as strong as you fear but never as weak as you hope”.
“First he reveals to a stunned congressional audience that Russia has hardly taken any damage during the conflict.”
Even if we halve these numbers from Ukr MoD, and they mostly tally with OSINT numbers this can hardly be described as hardly any damage:
Personnel: 190k (tallies with BBC accounts based on obits and graves visited)
Tanks: 3694
Armoured combat vehicles: 7181
Arty: 2905
MLRS: 543
ADS: 294
https://publicistjournalist.com/429-days-of-russia-ukraine-war-ukrainian-ministry-releases-list-of-losses-suffered-by-russian-army/
Rhoda,
I’m amazed that the NATO forces of whom I was one (BiND too, I suspect) expected to get away with 50% casualties. We knew we were screwed. But maybe not if the Soviet Army was as useless as this lot.
None of us expected to come through any serious conflict, even if it didn’t go nuk, but we would have right on the front line doing EW and expected to get overrun by the massed tanks.
However, we did get Int Corps briefs that pointed out that even in the early ’80s there was a lot of doubt about how poor their equipment and manpower was.
Bloke in Spain,
It’s the Murkans who have forgotten it though.
It’s NATO that’s running dry not the Russians.
That’s the whole point, it’s a US general giving evidence to a US committee.
The Russian excursion into Ukraine can hardly be called a surprise when Nato had been helping the Ukies build fortifications in the Donbas for 8 years.
Goodness only knows why SACEUR would not know of the high rates of ammunition consumption in modern warfare. The lowliest private soldier knows. Of course you can’t believe anything said by the Pentagon in evidence to Congress. Or any part of the administration for that matter, it’s a ‘we know they’re lying…’ thing.
As far as the war is concerned, everybody is talking their own book. All definite official statements should be treated with contempt. Russia should win, and they can win, wastefully, by the attritional methods they have been forced to fall back on. But it’s a pathetic performance. And there is no prize at the end.
The Russian excursion into Ukraine can hardly be called a surprise when Nato had been helping the Ukies build fortifications in the Donbas for 8 years.
For fucks sakes. They were building fortifications against the previous Russian incursion into Ukraine.
– And there is no prize at the end.
Defeating the West over Ukraine will be an enormous prize. Overturning the no-land-via-war “rules based system” will be an enormous prize. Fully and legally exploiting Ukrainian resources will be an enormous prize.
They are well advantaged at the moment in that any “peace deal” that just legally recognises what they have already taken (Crimea and Donbas) will still be a big win.
There’s a lot in it for Ivan.
PJF FFS, Google Nulands admissions about the coup.
It’s wither a flippin surprise or it wasn’t- you can’t have it both ways.
That’s what I meant about the hilarious double think presented by the US front.
Watch the flippin body language.
If you’re open to an independent appraisal this article by a Swiss OSCE inspector is worth reading.
It’s all referenced & backed up
https://www.thepostil.com/the-military-situation-in-the-ukraine/
While preparing for the next state of war, Ukrainians bribed Russian officials and bought military stolen equipment.
” Of course you can’t believe anything said by the Pentagon in evidence to Congress. Or any part of the administration for that matter, it’s a ‘we know they’re lying…’ thing.”
Thats odd, I thought we lived in democracies. Obviously we live in a military dictatorship.
I’ve said all along this war is entirely down to the US military industrial complex, and its vested interests, and will continue until those interests demand it stop.
@ Nessimmersion, Jacques Band has been discussed on here before. I followed some of his links and they didn’t say what he said they did (some the opposite, e.g. Russians firing out of Donetsk city centre rather than Ukes firing in). He’s a liar. Don’t know why, probably just a fabulist.
Loads of bullshit is “all referenced & backed up”. The Covid vaccine trials were “all referenced & backed up”. Did you stick ’em in your arm?
– I’ve said all along this war is entirely down to the US military industrial complex, and its vested interests, and will continue until those interests demand it stop.
Entirely? I guess this just shows the success of the constant drip, drip, drip of leftist propaganda via their media. Somehow one of their main agitprop points became something sage and wise conservative people can hold their pipe and nod over, completely ignoring the agency of others.
“Entirely? I guess this just shows the success of the constant drip, drip, drip of leftist propaganda via their media. ”
Nope, I just look at what the US Military say and do. They aren’t good at hiding what they’re up to.
If NATO was helping Ukraine why did Boris say that NATO shouldn’t be helping them when he was Foreign Secretary?
When Trump was trying to get dirt on Hunter Biden he threatened to withdraw support from Ukraine, all $400m of it. That’s nothing in military terms.
And yes, entirely.
The US has done nothing but isolate, antagonise and demonise Russia since the fall of the USSR. In entirely the opposite to how they have treated China over the same period. I therefore conclude their behaviour has been completely intended.
I’ve said all along this war is entirely down to the US military industrial complex, and its vested interests, and will continue until those interests demand it stop.
Yeah, I remember when the US military industrial complex invaded Ukraine.
The logic is remarkable. You wilfully ignore that Russia as the aggressor is the single party with the most power to end the conflict. Instead, Russia’s refusal to withdraw is actually down to the evil plans of the military industrial cabal. I feel a bit sorry for Vladdy now, poor agency-free dupe that he is.
Incidentally, if Russia withdrew from all Ukrainian tomorrow, how exactly would the US military industrial complex ensure that the war continues?
“Incidentally, if Russia withdrew from all Ukrainian tomorrow, how exactly would the US military industrial complex ensure that the war continues?”
Easy. Demand the Ukrainians attacked Russian territory, and give them the tools to do so. Crimea would do. That should start the whole thing up again nicely.
Don’t forget we are talking about a country that has blatantly destroyed a pipeline belonging to its ‘ally’ just to make a point. The US has no more moral standing now than China or Russia, and I have no idea why people keep supporting it. Its obvious that it will do whatever it likes to sustain its own global hegemony. Its not surprising really, failing empires are always dangerous – they rarely go down without a fight.
Invading another country on a shaky justification?
Curse those evil
BritishAmericansRussians for invadingIraqSyriaUkraine.Yeah, boo, they’re terrible! Not like us right on, just, honourable and peaceful types. In fact we should go and bomb the crap out of them just to show them how much more peaceful western peace weapons is…
Any government does shady shit. Any country near the top of the pile of countries does lots of questionable shit.
That’s the way of the world.
Pretending our bunch of contemptible bastards are any better than theirs is childish.
Theirs are corrupt and steal money and kill people. Ours are corrupt, fix regulations to assist their own/mate’s business interests to screw over competition and make money and encourage kids to chop their nads off. Hurrah! We’re so much more civilized!
Believing anything any government says in this conflict, with regards to losses, is a bit naiive. They’re all going to lie to fit their narrative until they can’t.
PJF.
Of course I didn’t take the silly quackcine, looks like you lurve govt propaganda so you’ll be queueing up for your 6th booster.
Being of suspicious mind about gobmvt & politicians promises all the tinfoil hat stuff turns out to be fairly accurate.
Shielding is useless.
Mask do sod all & cause harms to children.
Lockdowns wreck economies & achieve sod all in preventing spread.
Vaxxes are safe & effective.
There are no neo nasties in Ukraine.
The Russians blew up their own pipeline.
The Minsk accords were broken by the Russians.
The Ukros never shelled the Donbas for 8 years.
The Plucky Ukros will defeat the stupid Ivans any minute now – just you wait.
All flippin lies.
I note you cast aspersions on Jacque Baud yet offer no proof.
I never said the Russians were nice, at the moment our lot appear to be worse- that’s all.
My position has always been , not my coconut or monkey, we should stay the f out of it.
Gee, “allthegoodnamesaretaken” how fucking original. Hope your CIA payments come through promptly as they have a rather nasty habit of stiffing their “useful idiots”.
Direct fire with such guns is rather useful against high rise buildings and other such fortified points, which the Ukrainians use extensively.
How pleasant it must be to be Nazi apologists in this day and age.
‘Somehow one of their main agitprop points became something sage and wise conservative people can hold their pipe and nod over’
Eisenhower was a Republican, he’s the one who gave the ‘Military Industrial Complex’ warning speech. His VP was Nixon. Suspicion of war profiteering is and always has been very right wing, even before Eisenhower.
The left insists that no one should have to risk their lives, or comfort, or ever have anything even moderately irritating to them. Their anti war rationale is quite different. Mainly in the 70s they just didn’t want to fight against their fellow communists. But if you notice they by and large don’t care about war profiteering, so long as their party is making the profit. At most they avoid talking about it.
“Eisenhower was a Republican, he’s the one who gave the ‘Military Industrial Complex’ warning speech.”
And pretty well placed to identify it, you’d have thought.
But hey, what does the former Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, and President of the USA know about what the US military get up to?
‘And pretty well placed to identify it, you’d have thought.’
I quite agree. The right still has a vauge recollection of Aristotle’s golden mean, there are things worth fighting for and there are things that are not, and industrial profiteering is squarely ‘not’. Halting the spread of murderous ideologies like communism generally is.
The left errs on both extremes of the mean. This is true on most topics but in this case they have both the ‘no war for any reason’ nutters and the ‘war for fun and profit’ crowd. This is how the left simultaneously comes out loudly against Vietnam where intervention was probably merited, and yet manages to be miserable when someone like Trump took baby steps away from endless middle Eastern wars.
Grey
I think the deciding factor is whether the war could assist our interests. If we suffer, it’s good. If we don’t suffer, it’s bad and should be opposed.
Boganboy,
I wish that was the case. Imagine a world where humans in general acted in rational self interest! It would be wonderful, albeit a bit too predictable.
Alas it’s idealouges all. Self destructive ideologies at that. Pick a faction in this modern world and a thoughtful analysis will show the ideas that hurt them the most were their own.
‘the ideas that hurt them the most were their own’
You’ve got me there Grey!!! I hold my hands up in surrender.