Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-25

[The Larch]

Do Ukrainian small arms even use the same calibers as NATO countries? Are the munitions standards even compatible? There's a reason why every former Warsaw pact country has given Ukraine the lion's share of their stockpiles.

No they don't.  Which I'm sure causes no end of problems to Ukrainian supply depots.

And I guess that doing a full armament change in order to start employing NATO stuff in the middle of a war is hardly ideal...

[Barrister]

Do Ukrainian small arms even use the same calibers as NATO countries? Are the munitions standards even compatible? There's a reason why every former Warsaw pact country has given Ukraine the lion's share of their stockpiles.

No they don't.  Which I'm sure causes no end of problems to Ukrainian supply depots.

And I guess that doing a full armament change in order to start employing NATO stuff in the middle of a war is hardly ideal...

On the other hand long-term Ukraine wants to join NATO anyways so being forced to start using NATO-standard equipment is perhaps the silver lining to this terrible invasion.

[The Larch]

Do Ukrainian small arms even use the same calibers as NATO countries? Are the munitions standards even compatible? There's a reason why every former Warsaw pact country has given Ukraine the lion's share of their stockpiles.

No they don't.  Which I'm sure causes no end of problems to Ukrainian supply depots.

And I guess that doing a full armament change in order to start employing NATO stuff in the middle of a war is hardly ideal...

On the other hand long-term Ukraine wants to join NATO anyways so being forced to start using NATO-standard equipment is perhaps the silver lining to this terrible invasion.

I wonder how the rest of former Warsaw pact are doing in that regard. At least they've been able to get rid of lots of soon to be useless supplies for a worthwhile cause.

[Sheilbh]

I wonder how the rest of former Warsaw pact are doing in that regard. At least they've been able to get rid of lots of soon to be useless supplies for a worthwhile cause.

And got NATO partners to help bear the cost of transitioning into new equipment.

[crazy canuck]

I'm pretty intransigent about not letting Russia win...if they did then who would be next?

The USSR didn't even relax when their frontier was on the Elbe.

I think you speak for everyone here.  But as someone else noted, that may become irrelevant if a Trumpist gains power in the US.

[grumbler]

I keep going back to Dr. Strangelove. "Why would you build a doomsday device and not tell anyone? It defeats the whole purpose." It is coherent to say that we will basically do whatever it takes to stop any aggressor from gaining territory, but if that is our position we should have decided and communicated that long before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Yeah, that probably should have been enshrined in International Law, via the UN Charter.  Oh, wait...

[DGuller]

"Vladimir Vladimirovich, we have a problem.  The UN charter prohibits taking territory by military aggression."
"Really?  Let me see."
"Here you go."
"Oh, fuck.  Is this real?"
"I'm afraid so."
"*sigh* We have no choice.  Tell the army to stand down."

[alfred russel]

I also doubt that any Western military equipment is engineered for mass production. So you would first need to come up with products that can even be mass manufactured.

No idea but if not it is rather disappointing. We still have people register for a draft and are spending a fortune on military capabilities so we can hold our own in a conventional war with a near peer. It would be really dumb to find ourselves in a major conventional war and a few months end discover we don't have a way to produce the toys and related ammo needed for our conscript hordes.

[Berkut]

Lets send them our AR-15s

[Zanza]

I also doubt that any Western military equipment is engineered for mass production. So you would first need to come up with products that can even be mass manufactured.

No idea but if not it is rather disappointing. We still have people register for a draft and are spending a fortune on military capabilities so we can hold our own in a conventional war with a near peer. It would be really dumb to find ourselves in a major conventional war and a few months end discover we don't have a way to produce the toys and related ammo needed for our conscript hordes.

Maybe it is different for the US, but for European equipment makers that say build ten or twenty fancy mitary vehicles per year in manual assembly to build hundreds or thousands on robotic assembly lines is unrealistic. The product itself will just not be engineered to be assembled by robots on an assembly line. Unlike civilian vehicles.

[DGuller]

Maybe it is different for the US, but for European equipment makers that say build ten or twenty fancy mitary vehicles per year in manual assembly to build hundreds or thousands on robotic assembly lines is unrealistic. The product itself will just not be engineered to be assembled by robots on an assembly line. Unlike civilian vehicles.

I wonder whether it's a sound engineering design to have military vehicles that you can only produce ten or twenty of per year.  I'd argue that it's prudent to plan for the possibility of war when you're designing military equipment.

[Josquius]

I guess the plan is when war comes to all turn themselves into irradiated dust before that becomes an issue.

Though it would be nice to see some attempt at stripped down mass production just to give ukriane something workable. Perfect is the enemy of good.

[alfred russel]

"Vladimir Vladimirovich, we have a problem.  The UN charter prohibits taking territory by military aggression."
"Really?  Let me see."
"Here you go."
"Oh, fuck.  Is this real?"
"I'm afraid so."
"*sigh* We have no choice.  Tell the army to stand down."

It is worse t

I keep going back to Dr. Strangelove. "Why would you build a doomsday device and not tell anyone? It defeats the whole purpose." It is coherent to say that we will basically do whatever it takes to stop any aggressor from gaining territory, but if that is our position we should have decided and communicated that long before Russia invaded Ukraine.

Yeah, that probably should have been enshrined in International Law, via the UN Charter.  Oh, wait...

DGuller's jokes aside, it even has an enforcement mechanism: the UN Security Council.

[Josquius]

The UN shoukd be given all the nukes. Break the rules and feel its wrath.

I'm sure I read that book once 🤔

[Sheilbh]

Slightly mad videos from Ukraine's defence/meme army thanking Sweden (last week) and the UK (yesterday) - I imagine they'll be working through the list with Canada and the US and Poland etc to come.

Sweden:
https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1538169555108896776?s=20&t=wWKXNFf-h95m95ZpWWh_sw

UK:
https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1539671779312033793?s=20&t=KezNhah1_co5GcWOHGhB4Q