What's new

Russia-Ukraine War - News and Developments

Status
Not open for further replies.
Russia's military tactic is outdated.

It's great on paper, it's great on military specification, but they don't know how to use it.
another problem is Russia has a serious issue with C2 which many are ignoring is this:

Russia has a serious problem of communication - they are allegedly relying of unencrypted baofeng and Motorola hf radios which are notoriously unreliable in mission critical communication.

Baofeng UV 82HP
1646914637435.jpeg

Secondly the encrypted radios that Russia do have apparently rely of 4G enabled BTS (Base Tower Stations) - as Russians have targeted Ukrainian Teleco BTS - they have discovered they cannot use their shiny encrypted radios.

Russian Encrypted VHF/UHF Azart Radio:
Azart 187-P1
1646914795348.jpeg

The Azart a sixth-generation digital tactical SDR with built-in encryption designed to provide Russian troops with secure and jam-resistant communications.

It operates in the very high frequency (VHF)/ultra high frequency (UHF) bands, has a range of 18 km in ground communications depending on configuration, can be used as a repeater station and can utilise GLONASS or GPS to provide positioning.

R168-25UE:
The Russians also utilise the R168-25UE at a battalion level which can provide a range of up to 300km depending on configuration:
1646914726360.jpeg


The Russians and indeed the Ukrainians too have been utilising satellite phones and ordinary cellphones to communicate.

Videos from the Russian War Report Wargonzo shows Russian commanders using the Thurya Sat Seleve:
1646915275785.jpeg


So why is there such a lack of encrypted military grade communication kit in the Russian military? Reading some Russian radio forums shows that there is a case of rampant corruption in the delivery and procurement of the Azart family of radios in the Russian army:

Link the the forum for your own reading pleasure: http://www.radioscanner.ru/forum/topic48460-2.html

An account provided by a captured Russian soldier states, ‘The officers started stationing themselves further and further away from the fighting … they are out of radio range at this point, and no one can contact them’.

The soldier proceeds to explain that a lack of long-range communications equipment was preventing anyone from contacting the Central Command of the deployed forces.

It follows that some Russian soldiers may have resorted to the use of mobile phones to communicate with officers and each other in order to gain some situational awareness.

Radios like the BaoFeng UV-82HP will be relatively easy for electronic warfare (EW) practitioners to exploit. Firstly, their lack of discernible military-grade COMSEC/TRANSEC means the radios should be relatively susceptible to straightforward jamming.

Secondly, this lack of COMSEC/TRANSEC could make it easy to feed false or misleading traffic into networks depending on these radios. This could pay tactical dividends for the Ukrainians, allowing them to sow disorganisation, doubt and demoralisation into Russian units.

It is highly likely these radios are being used for squad communications at the tactical edge by dismounted infantry. Attacking networks at the tactical edge using these radios could help blunt or slow Russian manoeuvres.

Moreover, transmissions from these radios could be relatively easy to detect using rudimentary communications intelligence (COMINT) equipment.

Once these transmissions are detected, COMINT systems could be used to follow the movement of the transmissions, and hence the movements of troops.

The communication of the Russians is so vulnerable that I was able to pick up a Russian transmission using SDR software where Ukrainians had hijacked comms and played the Ukrainian National Anthem over their transmission:

 
Most of people probably remember that this twitter account is one of the well-known trolls of the Syrian war. Even in this message, she talking so illogical.

Ukraine is not gaining anything. Because it has nothing to gain. With every Russian military convoy that enters the country, it is constantly losing. The occupying party is Russia. In other words, it is the side that should lead its troops into the defender side and manage its logistics. What the Ukrainian side needs to do is to slow down the invasion and stop it wherever possible.

In addition, just two weeks ago, exactly same type twitter accounts found that Russia's 'extraordinary' military power cannot be compared with Ukraine's, but 'for some reason', recently changed their minds, as if two equal military powers were colliding. On one side is Russia, the world's largest ground army, and on the other, poor Ukraine, which has not had a single western jet in the past 8 years after its air force was completely destroyed in 2014.

Are they blowing down their own bridges? So what, blowed bridge may hold an enemy convoy for a day, and that day can give the time to push it back by defender position. Vietnamese did something different? This is a war, you have to use anything that will disrupt the logistics of the enemy, slow down its advance.
 
Unfortunately the NATO Western parties are not interested in a peaceful resolution right now. This is their planned knee-jerk response by Russia and they will fight Russia to the last Ukrainian.

Zelensky is playing the role perfectly as the "hero" who never surrenders.

They will see and make a judgment on how good the Russian military is.

But it turns out Russia's military is weak and outdated.

It could be even if Russia is winning in Ukraine, it will lead to greater war which is USA and its allies will be brave enough to invade Russia.

another problem is Russia has a serious issue with C2 which many are ignoring is this:

Russia has a serious problem of communication - they are allegedly relying of unencrypted baofeng and Motorola hf radios which are notoriously unreliable in mission critical communication.

Baofeng UV 82HP
View attachment 822621
Secondly the encrypted radios that Russia do have apparently rely of 4G enabled BTS (Base Tower Stations) - as Russians have targeted Ukrainian Teleco BTS - they have discovered they cannot use their shiny encrypted radios.

Russian Encrypted VHF/UHF Azart Radio:
Azart 187-P1
View attachment 822623
The Azart a sixth-generation digital tactical SDR with built-in encryption designed to provide Russian troops with secure and jam-resistant communications.

It operates in the very high frequency (VHF)/ultra high frequency (UHF) bands, has a range of 18 km in ground communications depending on configuration, can be used as a repeater station and can utilise GLONASS or GPS to provide positioning.

R168-25UE:
The Russians also utilise the R168-25UE at a battalion level which can provide a range of up to 300km depending on configuration:View attachment 822622

The Russians and indeed the Ukrainians too have been utilising satellite phones and ordinary cellphones to communicate.

Videos from the Russian War Report Wargonzo shows Russian commanders using the Thurya Sat Seleve:
View attachment 822624

So why is there such a lack of encrypted military grade communication kit in the Russian military? Reading some Russian radio forums shows that there is a case of rampant corruption in the delivery and procurement of the Azart family of radios in the Russian army:

Link the the forum for your own reading pleasure: http://www.radioscanner.ru/forum/topic48460-2.html

An account provided by a captured Russian soldier states, ‘The officers started stationing themselves further and further away from the fighting … they are out of radio range at this point, and no one can contact them’.

The soldier proceeds to explain that a lack of long-range communications equipment was preventing anyone from contacting the Central Command of the deployed forces.

It follows that some Russian soldiers may have resorted to the use of mobile phones to communicate with officers and each other in order to gain some situational awareness.

Radios like the BaoFeng UV-82HP will be relatively easy for electronic warfare (EW) practitioners to exploit. Firstly, their lack of discernible military-grade COMSEC/TRANSEC means the radios should be relatively susceptible to straightforward jamming.

Secondly, this lack of COMSEC/TRANSEC could make it easy to feed false or misleading traffic into networks depending on these radios. This could pay tactical dividends for the Ukrainians, allowing them to sow disorganisation, doubt and demoralisation into Russian units.

It is highly likely these radios are being used for squad communications at the tactical edge by dismounted infantry. Attacking networks at the tactical edge using these radios could help blunt or slow Russian manoeuvres.

Moreover, transmissions from these radios could be relatively easy to detect using rudimentary communications intelligence (COMINT) equipment.

Once these transmissions are detected, COMINT systems could be used to follow the movement of the transmissions, and hence the movements of troops.

The communication of the Russians is so vulnerable that I was able to pick up a Russian transmission using SDR software where Ukrainians had hijacked comms and played the Ukrainian National Anthem over their transmission:


Uncomparable to USA military.

USA military has a command center with live satellite or drone images of the entire battlefield.

And each soldier on the ground is backed with an airstrike.

USA has the eye and tools needed for every situation.

One good thing about USA, USA doesn't want to take the risk, try to minimize the loss.

If it can strike heavily at the beginning to destroy the enemy, USA will do it.

It's better to lose hundreds of missiles rather than one tank on the ground.
 
Last edited:
What Russia wanted to avoid is just happening before our eyes.

Putin bet on a clean and swift operation,the quick surrender of Ukraine and eastern Ukraine rallying on the Russian cause,towns falling one by one,welcoming Russian troops as liberators,a quick war that would limit the worldwide outrage and the world's response to the Russian invasion as well as the cost of the operation. (in terms of money and human lives)

The exact opposite happened. Ukraine is resisting,more united than ever,majority Russian speaking towns are the ones resisting the most to Russian assaults,Zelensky didn't surrender,Ukrainians living under Russian occupation haven't welcomed Russian as liberators,but are protesting against the occupier.

Meanwhile the operation is pretty much stalling,what Putin didn't want. Because the longer the operation lasts,the higher the cost is in Russian lives (already thousands killed,even more wounded....) and for Russian finances. (You've got to fund that 200K strong force.... and they can't forever).

The longer the conflict lasts,the more destructions Ukraine will suffer,higher the international outrage would be and higher the sanctions would be,higher the international support for Ukraine would be...

What has Putin achieved so far is ruining Russia's economy,turning Russia into a pariah state on par with North Korea,getting Europe and NATO even more united,making more and neutral countries wanting to join NATO (NATO expension which the Russians do not want) and last but not least showing the whole world the questionnable performance and quality of the Russian armed forces on the ground.

@LeGenD @RescueRanger
 
Russian demands for outcome of the war seems to be not clear. For example Ukraine giving high autonomy to Donetsk Luhansk and Crimea region(similar to north Iraq) and accepts Russian bases military presence there with non aggression packt and non militarized zone around Azov sea region connecting Donetsk with Crimea. This gives those strategic Azov sea area to Russian control. But If putin wants whole black sea control that is another issue.
In return maybe some sanctions can be lifted from Russia as well depending on the bargain rolling back the situation as much as possible before the war conditions. It is easy to disband azov battalion and similar groups and full iaea control on Ukraine future nuclear activities also non nato membership guarantee. But what are Russian terms.full scale submission or demilitarization and control of whole black sea coast that would be very hard to accept unless Ukr is totally defeated costing high both sides especially the civilians trapped in cities.
 
What Russia wanted to avoid is just happening before our eyes.

Putin bet on a clean and swift operation,the quick surrender of Ukraine and eastern Ukraine rallying on the Russian cause,towns falling one by one,welcoming Russian troops as liberators,a quick war that would limit the worldwide outrage and the world's response to the Russian invasion as well as the cost of the operation. (in terms of money and human lives)

The exact opposite happened. Ukraine is resisting,more united than ever,majority Russian speaking towns are the ones resisting the most to Russian assaults,Zelensky didn't surrender,Ukrainians living under Russian occupation haven't welcomed Russian as liberators,but are protesting against the occupier.

Meanwhile the operation is pretty much stalling,what Putin didn't want. Because the longer the operation lasts,the higher the cost is in Russian lives (already thousands killed,even more wounded....) and for Russian finances. (You've got to fund that 200K strong force.... and they can't forever).

The longer the conflict lasts,the more destructions Ukraine will suffer,higher the international outrage would be and higher the sanctions would be,higher the international support for Ukraine would be...

What has Putin achieved so far is ruining Russia's economy,turning Russia into a pariah state on par with North Korea,getting Europe and NATO even more united,making more and neutral countries wanting to join NATO (NATO expension which the Russians do not want) and last but not least showing the whole world the questionnable performance and quality of the Russian armed forces on the ground.

@LeGenD @RescueRanger
Very well said and personally Russia should accept the off ramp being provided during negotiations.
 
another problem is Russia has a serious issue with C2 which many are ignoring is this:

Russia has a serious problem of communication - they are allegedly relying of unencrypted baofeng and Motorola hf radios which are notoriously unreliable in mission critical communication.

Baofeng UV 82HP
View attachment 822621
Secondly the encrypted radios that Russia do have apparently rely of 4G enabled BTS (Base Tower Stations) - as Russians have targeted Ukrainian Teleco BTS - they have discovered they cannot use their shiny encrypted radios.

Russian Encrypted VHF/UHF Azart Radio:
Azart 187-P1
View attachment 822623
The Azart a sixth-generation digital tactical SDR with built-in encryption designed to provide Russian troops with secure and jam-resistant communications.

It operates in the very high frequency (VHF)/ultra high frequency (UHF) bands, has a range of 18 km in ground communications depending on configuration, can be used as a repeater station and can utilise GLONASS or GPS to provide positioning.

R168-25UE:
The Russians also utilise the R168-25UE at a battalion level which can provide a range of up to 300km depending on configuration:View attachment 822622

The Russians and indeed the Ukrainians too have been utilising satellite phones and ordinary cellphones to communicate.

Videos from the Russian War Report Wargonzo shows Russian commanders using the Thurya Sat Seleve:
View attachment 822624

So why is there such a lack of encrypted military grade communication kit in the Russian military? Reading some Russian radio forums shows that there is a case of rampant corruption in the delivery and procurement of the Azart family of radios in the Russian army:

Link the the forum for your own reading pleasure: http://www.radioscanner.ru/forum/topic48460-2.html

An account provided by a captured Russian soldier states, ‘The officers started stationing themselves further and further away from the fighting … they are out of radio range at this point, and no one can contact them’.

The soldier proceeds to explain that a lack of long-range communications equipment was preventing anyone from contacting the Central Command of the deployed forces.

It follows that some Russian soldiers may have resorted to the use of mobile phones to communicate with officers and each other in order to gain some situational awareness.

Radios like the BaoFeng UV-82HP will be relatively easy for electronic warfare (EW) practitioners to exploit. Firstly, their lack of discernible military-grade COMSEC/TRANSEC means the radios should be relatively susceptible to straightforward jamming.

Secondly, this lack of COMSEC/TRANSEC could make it easy to feed false or misleading traffic into networks depending on these radios. This could pay tactical dividends for the Ukrainians, allowing them to sow disorganisation, doubt and demoralisation into Russian units.

It is highly likely these radios are being used for squad communications at the tactical edge by dismounted infantry. Attacking networks at the tactical edge using these radios could help blunt or slow Russian manoeuvres.

Moreover, transmissions from these radios could be relatively easy to detect using rudimentary communications intelligence (COMINT) equipment.

Once these transmissions are detected, COMINT systems could be used to follow the movement of the transmissions, and hence the movements of troops.

The communication of the Russians is so vulnerable that I was able to pick up a Russian transmission using SDR software where Ukrainians had hijacked comms and played the Ukrainian National Anthem over their transmission:

And I enjoyed listening to it. This just confirms how much overrated the Russian military has been all these years. Don't get me wrong no country even the mighty USA cannot take Russia head on but these small conflicts define and establish a precedent, Russia and Russian commanders have been seriously a let down.

People on this forum were comparing USA in Iraq vs Russian progression what they always conveniently forget is how USA was fighting 1000s of miles away from USA mainland and still managed to maintain logistics/communication network etc. Russia is fighting in its backyard and struggling to keep a lid on thing.

I heard an ex-Royal Army logistics man on a podcast and he was very right in saying that the Ukrainians don't need to target everything in the Russian convoys, they just need to use the Turkish drones to take out the actual support vehicles, fuel and ammo carriers.

An army marches on its Stomach - something Putin should have learned from Napoleon.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom