Ukrainian drones now spray 2,500° C thermite streams right into Russian trenches

Mechanical dragons now deliver fire on command.

See full article...

 

[bjn]

And Tucker strikes again

Tucker Carlson Hosts Nazi Apologist Who Makes Heinous Claim About WWII​

Spoiler

Hitler wasn't the bad guy, it was Winston Churchill all along!

You really can't make this shit up.

Sections of the media have decided that nazis and associated scum are an underserved audience that they can make money from and are now happily exploiting that fact. I doubt Carlson actually believes much of the stuff he spouts, or respects the people he boosts, which in many ways makes it worse.

 

[MST2.021K]

I wonder what George Carlin would've thought about this one.

 

[mhalpern]

If it isn’t, deliberately using incendiaries on another person, even against a war criminal, should be highly illegal, doubly so if done using a robot for delivery.

the delivery mechanism makes no difference, there are 3 uses of incendiaries in modern western doctrines, illumination (including tracers) fooling/blinding ir sensors and removing burnable cover, the last one seems to be the express purpose of this drone

 

[IncorrigibleTroll]

You think Russia and China and Iran couldn't easily copy this tech? Weapons are just tools and can easily be turned in the opposite direction.

This is one of those statements that's so obviously true as to be meaningless. Otherwise, we'd still fight wars with bones, rocks, and chert.

 

[Tom the Melaniephile]

Thermite is Aluminum and Iron Oxide dust, not magnesium, though your points about magnesium itself aren't wrong.

Incorrect. While Aluminum and Iron Oxide is the most common composition used, it is far from the only thermite composition.

 

[Tom the Melaniephile]

Because of the wildfire risk, I presume? Or do military incendiaries tend to leave a lot of long lasting contaminants behind?

White phosphorus is going to become literal fertilizer... Many soils could benefit from phosphate additions.

 

[Tom the Melaniephile]

Can we cheer the thermobaric weapons used on Ukrainian troops, by the way? It cuts both ways, remember.

Fuck off with your false equivalence. Trying to "bothsides" Ukraine and Russia in this war is disgusting.

I cheer for Ukraine defending themselves by entirely legal means. Not for any particular soldiers' deaths.

 

[PhaseShifter]

Seems like the psychological effects alone make their use worthwhile! But how long until Vlad's forces start using the same (or worse) in a much more indiscriminate manner?

About two years...ago.

 

[Citizenkain]

You think Russia and China and Iran couldn't easily copy this tech? Weapons are just tools and can easily be turned in the opposite direction.

You mean the countries that already have the infrastructure to make incendiary weapons? At its heart, a thing that transports fire somewhere isn't new and unique.

 

[xoe]

RAID! cockroaches start running...

As much as I like to celebrate Ukrainian gains and Russian losses, dehumanization of the enemy is a bad idea.

 

[xoe]

Coming to a Russian oil refinery soon.

Probably already been there.

 

[xoe]

Isn’t this a violation of the Geneva Conventions?

Only if used to deliberately target infantry. The videoed operations so far seem to have been intended to burn away protective cover (trees/brush), which is a permitted use even if there's a risk of inflicting casualties as a side effect of the application of incendiaries.

It's Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed To Be Excessively Injurious Or To Have Indiscriminate Effects (catchy title, no?). Civilians are not supposed to be targeted, military forces are not supposed to be targeted if there's a risk of harming civilians, and plants are not supposed to be targeted unless being used for a military purpose. Most countries include that infantry should not be targeted unless there's no feasible alternative based on the Convention's stated purpose to restrict unnecessary or unjustifiable suffering.

No, the only people protected from incendiary weapons are civilians.
https://geneva-s3.unoda.org/static-...certain-conventional-weapons/PROTOCOL+III.pdf

 

[Wallachia]

Can we cheer the thermobaric weapons used on Ukrainian troops, by the way? It cuts both ways, remember.

"You fool, you imbecile, you absolute rube -- If you cheer for side you like using a weapon, don't you realize you also have to cheer for side you dont like using a weapon?"

some brilliant analysis happening here in the ars commentary

 

[Citizenkain]

You should be smarter than just repeating western propaganda. While there might have been some cases of erroneous strikes and things like that, the majority of the reporting about the Russians targeting civilian infrastructure is a total BS and propaganda. Let's take the two most recent cases.

Case #1

A devastating Russian missile strike on a university and hospital in Poltava has left 50 dead and over 200 injured.

That was reported two days ago and the original reporting repeated the Zelensky lies about university and hospital being hit. Then it turns out that the "university" was actually a military academy. The hospital was nearby but the detailed reports do not mention any specific damage there. It's possible that glass was damaged but all the casualties were in the academy.

A lot of reports about the hits on educational/recreational facilities "forget" to mention the fact that, in the war zone, those facilities were used by the Ukrainian Army.

Case #2
At least 47 injured in Russian missile attack on Kharkiv sports centre. Did it happen? It sure did. But then you go to Telegram (or similar sources) and learn that the Sport Center was long used by the military. FOr obvious reasons there are not sport events right now in Kharkiv.

Case #3
Also Kharkiv.

Reuters: KYIV, Sept 1 (Reuters) - At least 47 people, including five children, were injured on Sunday after Russian missiles struck a shopping mall and events complex in Ukraine's northeastern city of Kharkiv, officials said.

Did this happen? Yes. But here is an interesting article from the Ukrainian news site strana.today. It provides details for both Case #2 and Case #3 (as translated by Chrome):

Meanwhile, Russian media, citing "underground sources," write that units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were based in the Sports Palace in Kharkov, where several flights took place today.

Ukraine has not confirmed this. Local authorities say the strikes targeted civilian targets.

. . .

Meanwhile, a video and messages on social networks of a Kharkiv resident are currently being distributed in Kharkiv Telegram channels, stating that the 3rd assault brigade "carried out a raider seizure" of the shopping center on Akademika Pavlova and declared it a military facility. (That's the "mall" that was hit by the Russians)

Remember how many reports we had in westerns MSMs about Russia bombing hospitals in Syria? What came out of it? Was a single case referred to ICC or a similar organization? Nope. Because it was a BS fabricated by the west sponsored White Helmets.

There is tons of propaganda on both sides of this war. Reading the reporting from both sides helps a little to understand what's really going on but not always.

Tankies are worthless trash.

 

[xoe]

Utterly horrendous

You're absolutely right, the combatants in this war both need to withdraw to their internationally recognized borders as they were before the war.

 

[coconutboy]

I was watching when these fire-breathing drones hit the YouTube outlets last week and it’s yet another evolution of this war that is continually changing the way militaries around the world will operate in the future. The drone swarms hitting tank intakes, the aerial real-time filming of battlefield engagements from multiple angles, the influx of equipment from around the globe being transported onto the proving grounds of a vicious war. It is terrifying and fascinating all at once.

One example: the tank vs IFV vs drone vs ground troop dynamic is finally helping the US military to persuade politicians that America (and NATO) needs actual new from-the-ground-up tanks instead of repackaging our ancient Abrams into ever-heavier behemoths that fail on the battlefield.


View: https://youtu.be/Sw_PFCPWxCE


That link is to an excellent tank video btw if you have 20 to spare. All future tanks will have to rethink their counter-drone strategies from bullet ammo size to composite armors.

Likewise, search YT for videos of IFV vs tank combat or IFV vs drone combat and look at the major advantages of faster/nimbler/newer wheeled vehicles wrecking the battlefield and even taking out tanks with more traditional armor. Modern technologies that weigh less and do a better job of protecting the crew are being prioritized And that applies to future treaded vehicles.

 

[IncorrigibleTroll]

Sections of the media have decided that nazis and associated scum are an underserved audience that they can make money from and are now happily exploiting that fact. I doubt Carlson actually believes much of the stuff he spouts, or respects the people he boosts, which in many ways makes it worse.

I dunno about the first clause in that final sentence. I think he's a true believer white supremacist. He might not believe every last "fact" he spouts, but the racial animus is genuine. I agree that he probably doesn't respect most of his fellow travelers. He's just a smug bastard, so I think that would be true of any group he finds himself in.

And we're all agreed that Tucker is definitely an alcoholic, right? He has that facial puffiness common to boozers. There was also that reputation for randomly dialing up random journalists from the sorts of publications he decries just to dish on his fox colleagues; drunk dialing is the best fit for that behavior, to my mind.

 

[Anonymous Chicken]

I'm very surprised that these innovations in drone warfare have not found their way to domestic terrorism. One can easily imagine an explosive drone coming in through an open window at a school, into a crowded stadium or a courthouse...

You're right, but I can't bring myself to thumb-up the idea.

 

[Justin Credible]

Hey! Make do with what you have!

 

[xoe]

How can they fit that much fuel on a drone? Genuinely curious how one tiny little machine can throw that much fire.

It's probably not very tiny, there are positively massive drones in use in Ukraine.

 

[fenris_uy]

You're right, but I can't bring myself to thumb-up the idea.

Getting ahold of explosives is hard in the west. That's why we aren't seeing car bombs in the parking lots of NFL games.

 

[Boskone]

Isn’t this a violation of the Geneva Conventions?

Nope.

UN has a protocol against incendiaries, but only when used against civilians or forests that don't conceal a military objective.

Burning a treeline that contains a bunch of people trying to take your territory and steal your shit is copacetic.

Probably pissing Russia off, but...meh. I feel some sympathy for the conscripts being burned by this stuff, but not enough to get particularly upset over it in a political sense. They can address complaints to their own government.

 

[mhalpern]

Humanity at its worse. Sure, we need to end illegal intrusion of territories, and war is the answer. But damn, Man has become such animals. Ah check that! Man has always been an animal.

no Russian butterfly mines are far worse, green plastic anti personnel cluster mines that can't be disarmed and lack any sort of secondary self destruct fuse,

 

[Ryan B.]

The orcish love of thermobaric artillery rather moots any grounds they have to complain. To absolutely butcher some metaphors, you should be careful playing with fire because it cuts both ways.

This is Russia. They will absolutely complain with shameless hypocrisy about anything.

 

[GlockenspielHero]

Only if used to deliberately target infantry. The videoed operations so far seem to have been intended to burn away protective cover (trees/brush), which is a permitted use even if there's a risk of inflicting casualties as a side effect of the application of incendiaries.

Back when I was in Armor school it used to be a (quite sick) joke. You can't use smoke rounds (white phosphorus) as offensive weapons, but you can use them as marker rounds after which the burning troops show up well on thermal sights.

 

[bthylafh]

Utterly horrendous

As General Lee put it, "It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it."

 

[xoe]

Humanity at its worse. Sure, we need to end illegal intrusion of territories, and war is the answer. But damn, Man has become such animals. Ah check that! Man has always been an animal.

You're right, we need to directly assist Ukrainian forces with boots on the ground to end this "illegal intrusion of territories".

 

[AusPeter]

Getting ahold of explosives is hard in the west. That's why we aren't seeing car bombs in the parking lots of NFL games.

[The ghost of Timothy McVeigh has entered the chat]

 

[mhalpern]

You're absolutely right, the combatants in this war both need to withdraw to their internationally recognized borders as they were before the war.

specifically, before 2014, when it actually started, not 2022 when it got much hotter

 

[xoe]

As General Lee put it, "It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it."

Yeah might end up like Jack Churchill

If it wasn't for those damn Yanks, we could have kept the war going another 10 years!

 

[simonbp]

As General Lee put it, "It is well that war is so terrible, otherwise we should grow too fond of it."

It was well that he was so terrible at war, lest the brutal slave regime he committed atrocities to defend have persisted any longer.

 

[mhalpern]

Hey! Make do with what you have!

View attachment 89508

actually they've been running low on PG-7 warheads and have gone more towards purpose made warheads, some of which include an HE-frag component for air burst use, especially effective against meat waves.

 

[CannonFodder314159]

No they can't. If they attempt to leave, they're likely to be shot by their own side. And you are assuming that they are there by choice in the first place. And there have been stories of Russian deserters being sent to the front lines as punishment for trying to leave.

Putin is a brutal thug who doesn't care about his own troops, and is engaging in this war to satisfy his own ego. And while I decry the invasion in the first place, the loss of life on both sides is criminal and all the deaths in this war should be laid squarely at Putin's feet.

Hard to only lay the war at the feet of Putin when plenty of Russians sign up for the armed forces for the money. They are NOT all unwilling conscripts, draftees or press-ganged into it.

Plenty more russians are happy to work making and supplying cruise missiles and glide bombs that are used to hit hospitals and apartment blocks.

Russian traditional and social media is not short of calls for genocide of Ukrainians. These are not just coming from regime propagandists but from ordinary russians too.

Russia is today much like nazi Germany in that the person at the top bears the greatest responsibility, but the rest of the political and military/industrial complex also bears responsibility and can't legitimately claim to be "just following orders".

 

[mhalpern]

Where do I sign for world peace? I really, really would like to see all violence, oppression, suffering and plain disrespect for life stop at once.

step 1 disarm countries like Russia that are interested in expansion through military force..

 

[numerobis]

Seems like the psychological effects alone make their use worthwhile! But how long until Vlad's forces start using the same (or worse) in a much more indiscriminate manner?

About negative two and a half years. Russia has been raining incendiaries against civilian areas of Ukraine since the early days of the invasion.