Beer

... with a massive warhead still in place.

Anna news video from the battle of Shusha. Very grim video showing the true ugly face of the war and not the internet one...

They seem to buy everything which worked in the current NKR conflict.

Some more. View from Kadaň monastery hill, north-western Bohemia. Bellow is a small dam on the river Ohře and in the far distance it's Klínovec mountain on the western German border. Seč dam viewed from the clifs of Oheb castle ruins. Eastern Bohemia. Zbiroh castle, western Bohemia. The famous Art-Nouveau cycle The Slav Epic of Alfons Mucha was created under that glass-roof. During the WW2 the castle was used as SS headquarters for the Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren. Muddy Berounka river after strong rains. Western Bohemia. Countryside around Louny town seen from the south, North-Western Bohemia. Three views of the early October morning around Ustí nad Labem city, North-western Bohemia. The sunrise. The city and the Labe (Elbe river) somewhere under the mist. The Labe (Elbe) river somewhere under the mist.

My own photos (from my phone) of an Mi-8T working in the mountains (carrying wood from non-accessible part of the national park).

Blackhawk of MFO Sinai crashed due to a technical failure today in Egypt killing six US, one French and one Czech soldier. One US soldier is in critical condition.

I think that I will not give any drawings or 3D (any free 3D models for BT or Somua out there in the internet?) but I think I can share my thinking. Maybe it can inspire someone or at least add something into discussion. Somua S-35. IMHO the tank is not that bad platform. As it is bolted from three parts I suggest to replace the entire front-upper hull section with a new one. I don't think that replacing engine, gearbox or suspension is worth the effort (I guess creating an all new vehicle would make more sense). Moreover it's quite ok on the original vehicle. The new front-upper hull section would be welded with sloped single front plate in a way to enlarge turret ring as possible (the sloped UFP with the same bottom and top edge as the original allows to move the driver a bit to the front and move also the turret axis slightly to the front and thus enlarge its ring a little bit). One particular issue, I see here, is that to replace the engine it was necessary to unbolt the entire rear-upper hull section and remove it with a crane. In our case with larger turret it would mean that the turret also needs to be removed before the engine is replaced (I don't know how it was with the original). Therefore the turret needs also hooks for the crane. The turret shall be new welded one for two men instead of one (I don't think we can fit three there together with a bigger gun) and with commander's cupola. As for the gun I think we could fit the Italian 75/34 gun for which they had ammo and which was basically the best what the Italians had. I'm quite confident that this gun could fit in the turret. Another option could be the Škoda A11 47/L43,4 which was able to penetrate 100 mm at short distance but only with APCR PzGr. 40 about which I don't know if it was available for Italy. Otherwise this very compact gun would allow to opt for not too big turret and reduce the extra weight increase. Of course the HE would be much worse. Another improvement would be to add armoured glass vision blocks for all crew members instead of the vision slits, including for the cupola and a periscope for the gunner. The radio operator would get a machine gun because in my opinion in WW2 it was good to have the bow MG and also to use the radio operator more (now he's not needed as half-loader as with the single men turret anymore). The radio would be replaced with Italian RF-1CA. Both machnieguns would be Breda mod.38 for the sake of unification not for their performance. The big question is armor protection. The bigger turret and gun, the bow MG and its ammo and the fourth crew member would definitely add weight. The standard Somua was very well protected when created but by 1943 it's not enough. I think it would make sense to remove the armoured pannels from the suspension and thus save a lot of weight which can be used for the new turret etc. The suspension would maybe need stronger leaf springs but that is probably doable. I'm not able to say how inbalanced the original tank was and how much worse it would therefore be after the redesign. All in all I don't think that it's safe to think about more than 50-60 mm steel plates used for UFP and turret front. The exposed and very large original LFP could get at least 10 mm flat spaced armor bolted on welded spacers. Anyway since both UFP and the spaced armour for LFP would be very easy to replace, we could put maximum what the suspension could cope with based on the testing. BT-5 I was thinking to offer to the army something not exactly asked for. The BT-5 thanks to it's ridiculous engine and speed and small size and weight could be used as an ideal platform for an armoured scout vehicle with great off-road capability. It needs new turret in which I would sacrifice the gun for having two radio sets placed directly in the turret for the commander. The turret could be either opened (probably better for scout car) or closed with a large commander's cupola (more expensive and heavier). As an armament I would go for the belt-fed ZB-60 15 mm autocannon (BESA 15 basically) with large elevation angle to allow its effective use also in the mountains and possibly against aircraft. The gun could penetrate 28 mm from short distance which is not enough against tanks but could be probably enough to spray anything it encounters and run away. An alternative (larger but more standard for Italians could be Breda 20/65 autocannon but its feeding isn't ideal for being placed inside a turret. Personally I would go for the smaller ZB-60 here. I would replace also the UFP with one with larger and differently shaped driver's cabin with better visibility (three vision blocks with armoured glass giving better viewing angle for more efficient use of the vehicle speed). Since this vehicle would not serve as a tank I think better visibility is much more importnant than armor protection. For the scout job I would adjust the UFP and the turret front thickness to be resistant to M2 Browning only. Well sloped 25 mm on the UFP and slightly sloped 30 mm on the turret shall be enough. Since I would remove the gun and a lot of ammo and the turret roof I don't think there would be any weight increase even with such armor adjustment. IMHO this conversion would be also very cheap.

LoooSeR, can you please comment a little bit the maps?

Azeris took responsibility for that. Video Mi-24P RF-91855, allegedly escorting a Russian convoy. It was somewhere here, not on the active frontline but on the opposite Nachichevan side. Major fuck-up by Azerbaijan. https://www.google.com/maps/place/Yeraskh,+Arménie/@39.4393386,44.9967806,9.17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x401517fffc8301e9:0x908b18a3d91c8a5!8m2!3d39.7383492!4d44.8346993

This Azeri footage from inside Shushi seems legit.

Do you know if Nexter would offer the system on its usual chassis or it would addopt it to some specific American ones?

Something from NKR side. They have posted a lot of footage of Azeri looses in the last few days. Much more than it was common in the weeks before. It has likely a lot to do with bad weather limiting Azeri air superiority. Bayraktar TB2 shot down. Another poor An-2 shot down... Three Azeri BMP-2 destroyed in Berdzor direction. A video from few days back from Lachin showing destroyed large number of Azeri armor including one or two T-72, three BMP-2 (two posted before), several MRAPs and and other unidentified vehicles (one likely truck, the rest hard to say) and a lot of bodies of Azeri soldiers. Two Azeri BTR-82A destroyed. Allegedly two Elbrus missiles launched by Armenia today.

This footage from yesterday shows NKR troops firing from outskirts towards the center of the town, i.e. it's confirmed at least that Azeris managed to get in the town. What is the siuation now it's hard to tell but Azeri side didn't bring any footage of them being in the town. By the way close miss of the NKR tank by some Azeri munition in the video. Allegedly Stepanakert inhibants fleeing the city.

Azeri T-72 hit by ATGM. Armenian AD shot something down.

To be honest I understand very little Russian, so I miss a lot of what is being said.

Another three Azeri BMP got destroyed/captured.

WarGonzo got into several firefights and retreated under fire together with an Armenian unit evacuating wounded in the process.

I think that this video may be repost of one from like two weeks ago. I am not sure though.

I think that this is the modernized version of Polish army which they call simply Dana-M. It's built in cooperation of Polish companies EZU, WG Polska and Czech Excalibur Army.

Azeri SandCat and T-90S hit.

Somewhat related. Rocketman's dream aka ScudstormR undeground.

More UAV wreckage. Harop possibly. Aerostar but there are two engines in the debris, so it's likely not just one UAV pieces. And another An-2...

A lot of footage from the Armenian side today including a body of one Azeri Lieutenant Colonel whose photos I won't post. Orlan-10 footage guiding mortars in a fight for some major road. Two BMP-2 and one T-72 destroyed. Another SandCat

There are already several videos with captured Syrian fighters by NKR sides online. I didn't want to post them but you can see one wearing the border guard uniform here. https://twitter.com/Rahmon83/status/1323711684343681024