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Beer

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Everything posted by Beer

  1. Beer
    It's not dumb. Having M1A2C offers full compatibility with 1st US ABCT stationed in Poland. The deal is probably more advantageous to US than to Poland because it gives US a support and supply chain paid by Polish tax payers but it has also a value for Poland. Buing more Leopards and becoming fully dependent on German policy makers in a situation when Polish and German governments are at odds would be trully dumb. The Leopard 2 is a great system but there is a lot more to take into account than only the vehicles alone.
  2. Beer
    Slovak MOD presented a plan to acquire 500 8x8 AFVs and 228 tracked AFVs till 2035. The acquisition shall happen in five stages with first deliveries already in next year. We'll see how much of this ambitious plan comes true. Anyway in the first phase they want to buy 76 8x8 vehicles (mostly IFV) and 156 tracked vehicles (again mostly IFV + some command vehicles, ARV and training ones). In the second phase they shall buy another 72 tracked vehicles but only 6 in IFV variant and the rest in a mix of heavy APC, mine clearing vehicles, mortar carriers or engineering vehicles. For the IFV they request 3+7 crew, 30-40 mm cannon. The wheeled vehicles shall be amphibious (i.e. no Boxer). ATM the talk is about Lynx, CV-90 or ASCOD as the tracked vehciles and Pandur II, AMV or Rosomak as the 8x8. All three tracked vehicles were already presented to Slovak army. Official document: https://www.mosr.sk/data/files/4410_zamer-projektu-pre-obstaranie-bov-8x8.pdf
  3. Beer
    Fu 11
  4. Beer
    I guess it's meant against small UCAV bombs such as MAM-L. Even though it looks ridiculous it could well work against them and I wouldn't be surprised if this mod soon appears in Donbass.
  5. Beer
    Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbeamtengesellschaft
  6. Beer
    While I'd choose different name for marketing something in Texas I'd also choose not to be oversensitive about this particular thing because there is nothing Nazi about it. It's pure technical acronym which the Germans simply love by nature. VK = Versuchskampfwagen = research combat vehicle, the first number stands for the weight and the number behind the decimal point stands for the particular variant
  7. Beer
    Few words about the let's say hottest issue about Czech IFV tender which got to public at the end of April. As I wrote here already at that time the minister of industry and trade (who is a deputy prime minister) suddenly went on public with a request to change the offset criteria. Two weeks later it was revealed by media that Rheinmetall offered basically what the minister asked for in a letter addressed to the prime minister on 9th December 2020. In short in the original requirements the MOD (both ministers are from the same party btw.) requested the final assembly and the service of the vehicles to be done under a licence in a full state-owned company VOP (for which MOD has little use now) and the total amount of the offset programme not to be under 40% of the total price of the deal. Rheinmetall on the other hand offered to build a new facility within its own Ústí nad Labem (right at the German border) automotive plant which would be owned by a company shared by Rheinmetall and Czech Republic (51/49%). This company would be responsible for R&D and production of medium calibre turret systems (for any Rheinmetall vehicles or contracts) and a final assembly of Czech vehicles (at least). It would be also a licence holder for the vehicle. The complete hulls would be produced in Hungary while Hungary would get turrets from Czech Republic and do the final assembly in Hungary. Rheinmetall offered to add potential future contracts such as for Slovakia in the future portfolio. Rheinmetall also confirmed in the letter that it already signed contracts with some Czech subcontractors related to the Hungarian deal and that they intend to enlarge Czech subdeliveries to armor components, APS components and electro-optical devices. From Rheinmetall side all is very logical. They would optimize their production chain in Europe and also the product price which would likely allow them to grow their sales to another countries. The total offset value for Czech republic would be likely higher as well but the state-owned enterprise VOP would be put aside and Rheinmetall would keep control over the production facility. Most likely very little would change for the local subcontractors who often already supply Rheinmetall anyway. It's not publically known what other competitors offered but it is reasonable to consider this situation to be a primary reason why they reqested to prolong the deadline for the final offer. In any case now it is clear that this government won't put the final stamp on the contract and it is very likely that neither of the two current ministers will have a word in the final decision... The Rheinmetall letter (in Czech) is here (scan): https://www.irozhlas.cz/zpravy-domov/bojova-vozidla-pechtoy-havlicek-metnar_2105101112_pj
  8. Beer
    Excalibur Kapa, amphibious transport for Indonesian competition to replace PTS-10 (54 to be bough): https://www.armadninoviny.cz/kapa-cesky-obojzivelny-transporter-pro-indonesii.html
  9. Beer
    At the moment we have ordered 4x AH-1Z and 8x UH-1Y (armed). It's expected that there will be second order for 8 AH-1Z and 4 UH-1Y to make it 12+12. Of course nobody can guarantee that the second order will go through with the new government. There is a Bell service center here in Prague which is one of the reasons why Bell was prefered. We keep all Mi-171Sh which went through much deeper modernization than the Mi-35.
  10. Beer
    I haven't sen any such reports. All latest reports are related only to the fact at this moment it's impossible to sign the final contract before parlamentary elections which means everything will be again delayed (if no other issues come with the new government). Before there was a lot of fuss related to Rheinmetall lobbying but there were basically no reports about any technical issues of any of the contenders (which doesn't mean none issues appeared).
  11. Beer
    No, that's nonsense. We don't buy any Blackhawks and there are no plans for doing so. Mi-35 (24V) will be phased out in next five years or so (please take into account that they are basically non-modernized machines equipped with outdated sensors and weaponry) but we buy AH-1Z instead of them. At the moment only 4 are ordered but the plan is to order more in the future.
  12. Beer
    Nice video from Czech Hinds firing salvo of S-5 during an excercise. No idea when it was taken but 7355 is Mi-35 (24V) built in 2002 and comissioned in 2003 as a part of the payment of the Russian debt. AFAIK the only modifications done to it are related to NATO comms, IFF and NVG compatibility.
  13. Beer
    IMHO the 100 mm gun would be especially helpful against fixed fortifications and buildings in the hard mountain terrain where most of Indias troubles happen. With some variant of BMP-3 there is little need for a light tank (if own MBTs can't go there, the opponent's ones can't most likely too and for the rest the 100 mm gun/GLATGM is enough).
  14. Beer
    Blackhawk carrying Colombian president was hit by small arms fire.
  15. Beer
    Tigrays shot down Ethiopian AF Hercules. It looks like the wing fuel tank was hit and immediately exploded.
  16. Beer
    Several of my relatives served on T-55 and I have never heard them complaining that it was too cramped. I don't even think there was any limit on how tall the tankers in ČSLA must have been but I have to ask to confirm that. The thing is that T-54 was 9 tons lighter and much smaller than slightly older Panther but its armor and armament were way better.
  17. Beer
    That's nonsense, sorry. The issue in shooting down UAVs is not about the weapons used but about the sensor suite to find, track and aim. It doesn't matter if you use laser, missiles or cannons if you can't find the target. The main advantage of laser is that it doesn't need to reload.
  18. Beer
    Indonesia seems to be interested as well. The letter of intent was recently signed.
  19. Beer
    Czech IFV competition takes another delay. The date for final offers was moved from 1st July to 1st September (officially per request of the bidders) which effectively means that the final decision was thrown on another government (parlamentary elections are scheduled on 8-9th October) and it is very likely that it won't be taken even this year...
  20. Beer
    Drone/loitering munition. That could be right. It looks like it has foldable wings.
  21. Beer
    IMHO the Polish deal is the only chance for K2 to break into EU because it is itself large enough to justify building a factory there. Once such factory exists more European customers will definitely join but without Poland the other possible deals for K2 are too small in my opinion.
  22. Beer

    UAV thread

    Beer replied to Toxn's topic in Aviation

    In other words you believe that shooting down unmanned drones in support of "poor opressed ethnic Russians" would trigger article 5 in a way which would lead to a NATO military action against Russia. You can believe in that, let's leave it that way.
  23. Beer

    UAV thread

    Beer replied to Toxn's topic in Aviation

    Basically all of that footage is from Osa which is outranged by TB2+MAM-L (comparison of engagement envelopes clearly shows that). That is a case which I described before. The key which allowed that was supressing the alrerady weak medium-high altitude AD. That was done mainly by Harops (mainly that 40 years old S-300PS battery) and partially by Armenians themseves (having their Su-30 in non-mission capable state). The Su-25 was shot down during low-altitude mission. We don't know if its mission could have been carried out by TB2. Maybe not. TB2 has tiny payload (30x less than Su-25) and it can't be used to attack number of targets which Su-25 can. Logically the Azeris probably used the Su-25 in missions for which TB2 was useless. TB2 can not engage buildings, hardened shelters or undeground tunnels for example. You wrote about the article 5 in relation to the little green men and I reacted. That was not about direct Russian state attack hence why I don't know why you start with it now. I'm sorry but comprehension issue is on your side or you intentionally derail the topic you started yourself. Anyway if Russians attacks directly, having few TB2 changes nothing. If the Russians use local insurgency instead they won't let them unsupported. The key is that if they decide to start such local conflict they will do that in a way which can succeed. The rebel slaughter through drones is completely predictable scenarion which means that anyone with half of his brain would start such operation only if preventive actions are taken already during the planning. In other words they didn't hesitate to wipe out the Ukrainean air force in support of the rebels and if they do apply such rebelion again they will give it necessary support again.
  24. Beer

    UAV thread

    Beer replied to Toxn's topic in Aviation

    Those AD systems were neutralized by EW means or they were short-range system not capable to reach TB2. TB2 knocked them down when they werfe defenceless. Of course it's useful but any other aircraft or combat drone could do the same job. I do mind. Do you know what is written in article 5? I seriously doubt you do. Article 5 doesn't specify in any way how NATO countries shall react, that is entirely on them to choose. They can send a train of medical equipment or strongly condemn the action and that's it... and in the real world this is exactly what will happen if local Russians in Latvia start insurgency.
  25. Beer
    Well, it's the the military who sets the requirements. The manufacturers only offer solution to those requirements.
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