Beer

Excalibur army revealed a new SPH which seems to be a sort of further advanced and automated combination of Dana M2 and Slovak Zuzana 2 gun. Info and photos, in English: https://dita.excaliburarmy.cz/ Main features: - 155 mm L45 gun with maximum range 39 km with base bleed ammo - full automation (emergency manual mode possible) - only 2-men crew (driver and commander) operating full-time from an armoured cabin - 40 ready-to-fire rounds - selectable firing modes (single, continuous, programmed, multiple simultaneous hits on target) - modularity (system can be installed on various chassis tracked or wheeled - standard is Tatra armoured chassis similar to Dana M1/2) - rate of fire maximum 6 rpm, sustained 5 rpm Photos from previously linked website:

Somebody didn't practise launching kites in childhood...

I guess there is a huge problem with continuous data transmission in the real ground environment, especially among tall buildings.

Allegedly the Russian-made TPK-K thermal sights on the T-72B3 mod.2016. https://bmpd.livejournal.com/4244403.html

Pretty detailed video about GM-1 and MW-50 by Calum Douglas. Lots of graphs and schematics included.

Because they don't fire APFSDS which is AFAIK the only reason why tank guns use smooth bore.

AO-2.5RT bomblet is visible on one photo, so it was likely VKS airstrikes.

I believe the following info will be of great interest for you. I have recently read a book "SCUD a OKA ve službách ČSLA" from Vladimír Mohyla about Czechoslovak missile forces, mainly SCUD and OKA systems (Tochka, Luna, artillery or airforce as other delivery systems are not subject of the book). For a man who remembers the cold war only as a child some numbers were quite shocking - especially the number of nuclear warheads allocated to Czechoslovak units (to be distributed from Soviet bases in Czechoslovakia in case of war with NATO). Number of nuclear warheads allocated to ČSLA: 1964: total 115 warheads: 1st strike: 44 (theatre-tactical and tactical missiles) + 10 (airforce); 2nd strike: 42 (missile forces) + 7 (airforce); reserve: 10 (missile forces) + 2 (airforce) - at that time no nuclear warheads were stored in czechoslovakia and it was intended to airlift them here by Sovier airfoce in 12-16 hours (that seems to be optimistic) 1974: same numbers but warheads already stored directly in Czechoslovakia 1977: total 258 warheads: 1st strike: 28 (theatre-tactical missiles) + 56 (tactical missiles) + 40 (airforce); 2nd strike: 40 (missile forces) + 31 (airforce); 3rd strike: 30 (missile forces) + 15 (airforce); reserve: 10 (missile forces) + 8 airforce) 1986: total 344 warheads: 1st strike: 88 (missile forces) + 12 (airforce); 2nd strike: 139 (missile forces) + 78 (airforce); reserve: 21 (missile forces) + 6 (airforce) 1989: total 546 warheads: 1st strike: 270 (missile forces and artilley) + 58 (airforce); 2nd strike: 137 (missile forces and artillery) + 32 (airforce); reserve: 43 (missile forces and artillery) + 6 (airforce) - according to this plan the Soviet 22nd army was subordinate to the so called Czechoslovak front and is therefore counted together (22nd Soviet army had 186 warheads for missiles and artillery) What may be also interesting is, that when Czechoslovakia purchased its first SCUDs in 1962 it already didn't purchase any conventional warheads, i.e. the missiles were intended to be a delivery platform for nuclear and chemical warheads only - ČSLA considered Elbrus/SCUD to be useless with conventional warhead due to its low accuracy. I believe later conventional warheads were acquired as well but likely only for the highly accurate systems like Tochka. Czechoslovak artillery could theoretically use nuclear ammo (there were two batteries of Pion and one battery of Tulpan) but nuclear strike was never trained in the units, hence why that was probably only a case of Soviet units in Czechoslovakia. Regarding delivery systems - the most numerous were for sure different varians of Elbrus/SCUD, later also 17 modern Oka systems (the most powerful system in ČSLA inventory) and Tochkas. Also older Luna and Luna-M. From airforce it's sure about Su-7BM/BKL. The other types are not clear, some sources say that MiG-29 9.12A were nuclear capable until 1994 when the ability was removed - and there were no warheads for them anyway). It is likely that at least some MiG-23MF/ML/BN, Su-22M4 were nuclear capable too.* Also it's questionable what would be the airforce delivery platform in the plan from 1964. In theory it would be Il-28 but there don't seem to be sources confirming that. Between 1983-1988 there were also 39 theatre ballistic missile systems TR-1 (SS12) of Soviet units placed in Czechoslovakia. *I always found it very curious why ČSLA used so hugely diverse airforce (in 1989 it was MiG-21MF, MiG-23ML/MF/BN, MiG-29 9.12A, Su-22M4, Su-25K and even still several Su-7BKL). The usual answer is that it was intentional in order to keep maximum possible available local support for Soviet airforce in case of major war.

What is the purpose of the No.5 scheme (with the worst result)? When so many layers are connected with rubber, the rubber brings no benefit as the whole thing is basically one big rigid block. Isn't it so? Which brings a question why there is no target similar to T-72B turret inserts for example?

A guy in Eastern Bohemia was searching for historical remnants with a metal detector... he found 338 mortar rounds from WW2 burried some 1,5 meters deep underground. The article states it's 82 mm calibre, i.e. Soviet one. There were partizan units operating in these forests at the end of the war. Could be their ammo dump even though that would have to be from the last days of war because normally they used ony small arms and explosives in this area (the most prominent group active in that forest was an intelligence unit of Soviet 1st Ukrainean front lead by major Charitonov enlarged by escaped POWs, people from death marches, local resitance members but it was not the only group active in the area). Photos in the article: https://www.idnes.cz/pardubice/zpravy/miny-munice-pyrotechnici-druha-svetova-valka-hledaci.A210125_115252_pardubice-zpravy_skn

It's nonsense out of principle. What KE means? There are plenty of KE penetrators with completely different performance. In extreme that can be whatever since WW2 till today.

Allegedly GJ-11 in flight.

Just leaving it here.

What is that gigantic tube attached at the front? That is not on the bare AN/PVS-2.

Maybe an interesting point here - Czechoslovakia operated 10 Me-262 after the war - seven S-92 (A-1a) and three CS-92 (B-1a). These planes were all built post-war - partially from wartime material, partially from newly produced parts (a lot of those were produced in Czechoslovakia already during the WW2). Four were made of unfinished airframes (LBB production), the rest from planes found on various airfields. Surprisingly they weren't many despite the fact that most of the remaining Me-262 units fought from airfields in Bohemia at the end of war. The planes were partially destroyed by fighting (in Prague Ruzyně mainly), destroyed by Germans themselves before capitulation or lost in combat and accidents. Few well-preserved were taken by Russians (1-2 probably). Overall 18 airframes were gathered (1 from Ruzyně airfield, 13 from Žatec airfield and 4 unfinished from České Budějovice factory). None were airworthy. It's also notable that even when you had 10 A-1a it didn't mean they were same. Actually there were differences in cockpits, hydraulics etc. based on production abilities of the split and decentralized suppliers). The point why I'm posting it is that the engines were somewhat modified post-war but even with that and without sabotages (and proper testing before use in the aircraft) they didn't get to any massive raise of engine life. I don't remember exactly but I think they achieved something like 30 hours (which was still more than Soviet RD-10 I think). A lot of the problems were also with fuel filters which tend to get blocked at slower speeds. If I remember right Bismarck from Military Aviation History channel mentioned that Jumo 004B were actually delivered to the units straight from the production lines without any testing. That greatly contributed to the low reliability of the engines. Czechoslovak planes also had second (backup) hydraulic pump installed. They also flew with only two cannons (no idea why). Anyway while the planes were more reliable than the war production they still suffer from many issues and at least one was destroyed in accident (pilot survived landing in the field at 230 km/h). Two planes are preserved in Prague Kbely museum, one S-92 S.No.4 and one CS-92 S.No.5. As a bonus Czechoslovak manual for Jumo-004B (M-4) engine. One more thing to the engine reliability problems related to the lack of nickel, chromium and sabotages. This time with DB-605. On 13th August 1944 there was a battle between USAAF and Luftwafe over Czechoslovakia in which Luftwaffe lost 13 fighters (US lost 9 B-17 shot down and 1 B-24 fue to an accident). Out of Luftwaffe looses 5 Bf-109G-14/AS and 4 Fw-190A-8 were shot down by P-51 but another 4 Bf-109G-14/AS crashed due to an engine failure. That is 44% of Messerschmitt looses. None Fw-109A-8 crashed due to an accident in that encounter. The absolute horrible reliability of late war DB-605 was one of the reason why many Bf-109G were rebuilt post war in Czechoslovakia with bomber Jumo 211 engines. These planes called Avia S-199/CS-199 were an absolute shit to fly due to an enormous reaction torque of the propeller but nevertheless they soon fought for Izrael...

Elta won Slovak tender for new 3D AD radars (medium, short, very-short range). Slovakia will buy six ELM-2084M-MMR, five ELM-2084S-MMR and six ELM-2138M. After Czechia and Hungary it's third Central European country which decided to buy Elta radars (logically all three neighbours can share certain part of service, training and mainteanance). https://www.armadninoviny.cz/slovensko-nakoupi-17-izraelskych-3d-radiolokatoru.html

Indian Shilka with new radar and optics.

GSh-30-2 brrrrrrr (no idea where the video was taken)

Azeri T-90S wreckage.

They keep them flying?

USS Georgia filmed by Iranian helicopter near the straight of Hormuz where Iranians hold navy excercise. For some reason sailing only on periscope depth giving Iranians nice chance to track it and gather data such as accoustic profile.

How is it supposed to work? That's purely secondary property and hardly a reason to carry it. The reason for slat armor existence is increase of surivability for the cost of extra weight, ridiculous dimensions, worse driving performance and harder accessability of most of the vehicle area. However it works only against very old HEAT grenades and only sometimes. It doesn't work against ATGM and newer RPGs at all (even against pretty old ones like RPG-18). When the vehicle is equipped with APS, which can deal with all those threats much better, there is no reason to diminish its performance by adding the cage.

Why to install slat armour on a vehicle with APS? Slat armour severly degrades vehicle mobility and somewhat protects only against very old anti-tank weapons which shall be an easy prey for the APS.

Some recently uploaded very rare footage from Czech Institute of military history. It's Czechoslovak team from 1937 Zürich Air Show. Four Avia B-534 reached second place in all air racing disciplines behind Germany (Bf-109B) but ahead of other teams (France, Italy, UK, Belgium and maybe some more). One of the pilots was František Peřina who later became the first Czechoslovak fighter ace of WW2 flying as a number two of French squadron leader Jean Accart in the famous CG I/5 "Cigognes". He shot down up to 14 German planes (12 confirmed, 2 probable) before being badly injured over Paris (he managed to escape to GB where he joined Czechoslovak unit in RAF, shot down another German aircraft and became a shooting instructor). At one moment it's possible to see also acrobatic Avia Ba-122 which won the acrobatic contest both in single (František Novák) and group competition (ahead of Italian CR.32 team). Unfortunately not a single B-534, wchich became the last bi-plane aircraft in history to shot down another aircraft (in late 1944 Slovak national uprising), survived to these days however you can see a nice (although not airworthy) replica in Prague Kbely muzeum. There is also one 75% flying replica here in CZ which can be seen from time to time in airshows (it's ultralight plane in fact). The acrobatic Ba-122 is preserved in Kbely muzeum in its original state.

When You posted this vehicle... do you know guys this thing? It's firefighting tank SPOT-55 based on T-55 chassis and produced by VOP-25 factory (now only VOP) in Czechoslovakia since 1991 (and Czechia after 1993 split). This tank has been in active use in basically every major fire in our country (forest fires, ammo dump accidents, chemical and ammo plant accidents etc.). It's big advantage is that it's optionally manned and can be operated remotely up to 1500 meters from the operator. Unfotunately I don't know how many were built but at least two are also in Saxony, Germany. Technical data and many photos here (use google translate).