A few weeks ago, I looked at some of the many systems that have been used in Ukraine that attracted their share of of media hype and asked whether they delivered on their hype.
Today, I round out that list with more hyped up systems that didn’t make in into the first video, while also looking at some that I’d probably nominate as just as, or more significant, that the ones drawing heaps of media attention.
Expect a focus on the importance of context and opportunity costs as we look at Kizhal, SCALP, the TB-2 drone and Orlan drones, as well as Starlink and Russia’s extensive park of EW assets.
Thank you all of you who voted for this topic – I hope you enjoy.
Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/PerunAU
Relevant Reading/sourcing
The Russian Way of War (Grau & Bartles) https://www.armyupress.army.mil/portals/7/hot%20spots/documents/russia/2017-07-the-russian-way-of-war-grau-bartles.pdf
Justin Bronk – Russian Combat Air Strengths and Limitations: https://www.cna.org/reports/2023/05/russian-combat-air-strengths-and-limitations
GAO-21-24 ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM OPERATIONS
https://www.gao.gov/assets/720/711469.pdf
RUSI – The Russian Air War and Ukrainian Requirements for Air Defence (Bronk, Reynolds & Watling)
https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/special-resources/russian-air-war-and-ukrainian-requirements-air-defence
RUSI – The Orlan Complex, Tracking the supply chains of Russia’s most successful UAV
https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/special-resources/orlan-complex-tracking-supply-chains-russias-most-successful-uav/interactive-summary
RUSI – Meatgrinder: Russian Tactics in the Second Year of its Invasion of Ukraine (Watling & Reynolds)
https://static.rusi.org/403-SR-Russian-Tactics-web-final.pdf
Russian military strategy core tenents and operational concepts – Michael Kofman, Anya Fink, Dmitry Gorenburg, Mary Chesnut, Jeffrey Edmonds, and Julian Waller https://www.cna.org/archive/CNA_Files/pdf/russian-military-strategy-core-tenets-and-operational-concepts.pdf
Reporting on Musk and Starlink over Crimea
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-09/elon-musk-refused-ukrainian-request-to-activate-starlink-network/102835524
Palantin making its training intro in 2019
https://www.janes.com/defence-news/news-detail/russias-palantin-electronic-warfare-system-makes-training-debut
Included image on Strelets slide – Reddit
Rosoboronexport on Strelets
https://roe.ru/eng/catalog/land-forces/military-communications-equipment-and-automated-control-systems/automated-control-systems/strelets/
Included report in intel sharing
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/may/07/us-spies-ukraine-russia-military-intelligence
Starlink use 2022
https://www.ft.com/content/f69b75cf-c36a-4ab3-9eb7-ad0aa00d230c
Starshield
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/space-force-contract-spacex-starshield/
Starlink latency map (demonstrating UA usage)
https://www.starlink.com/map?view=latency
Reporting on Pentagon deal with SpaceX
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/06/01/pentagon-awards-spacex-with-ukraine-contract-for-starlink-satellite-internet.html
Shoigu on Orlan production
https://tass.com/defense/1645501
Rosoboronexport on Orlan 30
https://roe.ru/eng/catalog/aerospace-systems/uavs/orlan-30/
Caveats & Comments:
All normal caveats and comments apply.
In particular – I would like to note as always that this material has been created for entertainment purposes and is not intended to be a complete or comprehensive examination of the topic in question and should not be relied upon to inform financial or other similar decisions.
Timestamps
00:00:00 — More Game Changers
00:01:25 — What Am I Talking About?
00:02:43 — System Shaping Battlefields
00:09:56 — Kinzhal And Storm Shadow/SCALP
00:26:12 — TB-2 And Orlan
00:40:51 — Communication
00:48:53 — Electronic Warfare
01:05:30 — Conclusions
01:06:43 — Channel Update
source
Many thanks to those of you who voted for the continuation of this series – though don't worry, I'll be looking at some of the close runners up soon enough.
I do want to stress that the ranking system is not at all scientific and is based entirely on some partly subjective criteria I settled on, but I would very much like to hear whether you agree (or not) in the comments below. And yes, I think it's important to call out places where Russian technology is effective and impactful – which I think is very much the case in some system categories.
Thanks as always, and all the best!
EVE Online players appreciate the importance of electronic warfare.
I don't love that Elon Musk has the power to snap his fingers and change the outcome of this war. He appears to have no moral anchor and I have no idea what his world view really is. I don't think he cares, morally, who wins this war. At best I think he might care about public opinion and that may keep him from enabling the Russians more than the Ukrainians but he is a wild card that I am not sure we have or are planning to have a plan b for when he shuts down Starlink for Ukraine.
need to develope systems that can track the signals of these russian ew systems and hopefully the captured systems can help develop such systems
Russian hypersonic missile scientists and lead engineer are arrested on treason charges. The Kremlin said Wednesday that three scientists face “very serious accusations” after a rare public outcry that comes as Ukraine claimed it had shot many of the missiles down .they were ended up fired and charged with treason for not fulfilling the parameters that was requested on the program. . so that really says a lot about what happened
STILL no love for the up-armored Humvee… The vehicle that performed the Kharkiv counter-offensive and took more ground back than any other system combined 🥺
I think we all want to know would you rather have feet for hands or hands for feet? 🤔
I got to build up to wading through a Perun video bc it's all biz to me.
Why would shooting down a satelite of a "company" an act of war?
Even more so if said satelite is not over that companies land of origin.
If a company takes side in a war by providing services to one or even both sides of a conflict, why wouldn't be that company and its assets fair game?
⭐
Industrial production in a strong economy is the only "game changer" to talk about. It also helps if you understand from day one what kind of a war that is fought, in this case a war of attrition. Not being a proxy for NATO, with their goals not being the rescuing of the Ukraine but instead regime change in Russia, also helps.
56:00
Perun’s description of drone warfare minus ew sounds like what Dr. Richard Gatling was looking for.
By the time this conflict is done or possibly next week we won't recognize drones, their capabilities and delivery system's.
…… that kinzhal strike russian propaganda is real creative with its stupidity
I would note that the biggest factor that makes Starlink resistant to both jamming and being shot down is that there's thousands of them whizzing by in low earth orbit. It would be almost impossible to shoot them all down.
What's a but for?
thank you for the weekly interesting powerpoint presentations perun 🙂
Where did you find that the Orlan-30 had a laser designator? When I dove deep into this, it seems like it has a laser range finder, but not a designator. In fact it was specifically mentioned as a "LIDAR" unit. So likely more for maping/recon than pinpointing specific targets
Thanks for another great vid!
Appearing on the All-In Podcast in Sept., Musk said that, yes, he turned down the service request from Ukraine. But he added that if Biden had ordered him to honor it, he would've obeyed at once.
It's rumored, btw, that many months earlier Putin told him directly that nuking Ukraine was completely on the table if the West intervened in the war, spooking him profoundly. Musk flatly denies the rumor.
Thank you for this, and most meaningful ending of your channel update closeouts so far: lest we forget.
Well… Video is great. Only problem is, it represents free of charge advisory material for Russian Federation on their problems.
War can broke economy nation but cheap weapons can broke person and ideas hold nation
This is in my top 5 Parun Military Economics Slideshows! Thank you for covering the topic!
Get this man a prize…for coping😂😂😂🤦🏻
I guess Sergeant Johnson wasn't lying about how in his day they had sticks and only one rock for the whole platoon.