***Hamish de Bretton-Gordon writes in The Telegraph***
‘While the world focuses on Gaza, and Putin visits his allies in China, we may be missing one of the most significant developments in the nearly two years of war in Ukraine.
‘Some weeks ago, the US Government confirmed that long-range precision artillery – the “Army Tactical Missile System”, or ATACMS – would be making its way to Ukraine’s armed forces.
‘Reports are now coming in of what appears to be a significant Ukrainian strike deep into occupied territory. Russian military bloggers are gloomily reporting that “one of the most serious blows of all time” has been dealt to the country’s air-force. If the strike – and the use of ATACMS – is confirmed, it will be a major development.
‘The airfields that have reportedly been targeted are deep behind the front-line, supposedly safe from attack. But the ATACMS system can strike targets with pinpoint accuracy at a range of up to 300kms. Not so safe after all.’
>Nine helicopters, an antiaircraft missile launcher, an ammunition warehouse and various special equipment being held on airfields were destroyed, the message said. The Ukrainian claim could not be independently verified.
>
>Airfield runways were also damaged in the strikes, the message said. The senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed ATACMS weaponry was used in the operation.
Any other airfields getting messed up? Or just that one for now?
You think Ukrainians receive coordinates and a signal to fire from western intelligence, just so they push button from their territory?
As a German, I ask my country: „Where are the TAURUS now?“ – sent them right now, so that Ukraine has time to adapt them to whatever Fighterplane possible! Scholz mach hin!
Better do it now before the GOP fucks up the funding.
Gawddamnit I fooking love this.
It’s important to hit them all quickly before they have any chance to react. Hopefully the bases in Crimea will be burning in the next few hours.
Considering how apeshit-mad Russian bloggers are about the attacks then this must have really hurt Russian aviation. Apparently, the Russians were aware of the new Ukrainian capabilities but did next to nothing to harden their positions or spread them out more.
According to Ukrainian sources at least nine helicopters of various types were destroyed. If we estimate that 4-5 of them were valuable KA-52s then Ukraine took a sizable bite out of the remaining combat-ready fleet of KA-52s which was estimated to have numbered no more than 50 units (50 was the most “optimistic” number as some sources claim that the Russians could only keep 20-30 combat-ready at any given time) prior to this attack.
And just because I like the meme: What Russian Air Defense doing?
Would be a waste on actual troops, far better to take out those nasty Ruzzian ammo dumps and HQ’s…👍
11 comments
***Hamish de Bretton-Gordon writes in The Telegraph***
‘While the world focuses on Gaza, and Putin visits his allies in China, we may be missing one of the most significant developments in the nearly two years of war in Ukraine.
‘Some weeks ago, the US Government confirmed that long-range precision artillery – the “Army Tactical Missile System”, or ATACMS – would be making its way to Ukraine’s armed forces.
‘Reports are now coming in of what appears to be a significant Ukrainian strike deep into occupied territory. Russian military bloggers are gloomily reporting that “one of the most serious blows of all time” has been dealt to the country’s air-force. If the strike – and the use of ATACMS – is confirmed, it will be a major development.
‘The airfields that have reportedly been targeted are deep behind the front-line, supposedly safe from attack. But the ATACMS system can strike targets with pinpoint accuracy at a range of up to 300kms. Not so safe after all.’
**Read more: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/10/17/atacms-russian-airfield-ukraine-war/**
Best use of American tax dollars
Many other reports coming in:
[https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/10/17/7424525/](https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2023/10/17/7424525/)
[https://apnews.com/article/atacms-ukraine-longrange-missiles-5fd95f32449d14da22b82d57d6ccab22](https://apnews.com/article/atacms-ukraine-longrange-missiles-5fd95f32449d14da22b82d57d6ccab22)
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/17/atacms-missile-ukraine-russia-war/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/17/atacms-missile-ukraine-russia-war/)
​
>Nine helicopters, an antiaircraft missile launcher, an ammunition warehouse and various special equipment being held on airfields were destroyed, the message said. The Ukrainian claim could not be independently verified.
>
>Airfield runways were also damaged in the strikes, the message said. The senior official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed ATACMS weaponry was used in the operation.
Any other airfields getting messed up? Or just that one for now?
You think Ukrainians receive coordinates and a signal to fire from western intelligence, just so they push button from their territory?
As a German, I ask my country: „Where are the TAURUS now?“ – sent them right now, so that Ukraine has time to adapt them to whatever Fighterplane possible! Scholz mach hin!
Better do it now before the GOP fucks up the funding.
Gawddamnit I fooking love this.
It’s important to hit them all quickly before they have any chance to react. Hopefully the bases in Crimea will be burning in the next few hours.
Considering how apeshit-mad Russian bloggers are about the attacks then this must have really hurt Russian aviation. Apparently, the Russians were aware of the new Ukrainian capabilities but did next to nothing to harden their positions or spread them out more.
According to Ukrainian sources at least nine helicopters of various types were destroyed. If we estimate that 4-5 of them were valuable KA-52s then Ukraine took a sizable bite out of the remaining combat-ready fleet of KA-52s which was estimated to have numbered no more than 50 units (50 was the most “optimistic” number as some sources claim that the Russians could only keep 20-30 combat-ready at any given time) prior to this attack.
And just because I like the meme: What Russian Air Defense doing?
Would be a waste on actual troops, far better to take out those nasty Ruzzian ammo dumps and HQ’s…👍