4d ago

Are they finally running out of tubes?

bsky.app

ChrisO_wiki (@chriso-wiki.bsky.social)

Russian Artillery today, russian air defense yesterday, who's left for the meat grinder?

Honest question, what's left of their conventional forces if they're sending specialists into meatwaves.

9 comments

It's important to note that russia will never "run out" of anything. Making tube artillery isn't hard (compared to say, modern radar systems or nightvision gear), and they can just keep making more.
What they're running out of are the ungodly amounts of cold war reserves meant to rush the Fulda Gap. The "free" soviet holdovers that Russia could re-mobilize relatively easy is finally gone, after using up all the easy stuff, all the kinda-hard stuff, and now also the not-quite-a-rusted-scrappiece-yet.
But they CAN still make new guns, it's just much slower than pulling them out of storage. And that means Russia will have far fewer guns in the field. And that's kind of a big problem for a military that has spent the last century basically centered around massed tube artillery and tanks.
- Making tube artillery isn’t hard (compared to say, modern radar systems or nightvision gear), and they can just keep making more.
  ehhh.... harder than you think. there's a lot of metallurgy involved with the forging, requiring chromium they have to import (chromed barrels last MUCH longer, 2-3 times more rounds per tube). Then once you have a barrel blank, you have a very tight precision dance of taking that blank and boring out the tube, breech and other complex bits - these processes take time and more importantly, western sourced equipment that hasn't been replaced since the early 2010s. If you half ass it the barrel explodes, so it's a touchy bit of work. https://en.defence-ua.com/industries/artillery_barrel_production_in_russia_structure_importance_and_weak_points-12151.html
  the fact that they're fielding north korean arty in ukraine tells me whatever stores they had must be running low, because how else do you justify moving self propelled guns from manchuria to europe? https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-destroys-fifth-north-korean-artillery-system-one-month-2050575
  edit: some of these that got popped yesterday !
  https://bsky.app/profile/specialkhersoncat.bsky.social/post/3m22txhlyzk2o
  And that’s kind of a big problem for a military that has spent the last century basically centered around massed tube artillery and tanks.
  this is a very good point, RU has traditionally leaned really hard on the massed artillery aspect of warfare and that isn't going to be as easy an option moving forward
- "Never running out of anything" is a stupid claim.
russia is not a paper tiger but a shit bear, covered in shit, eating shit, smearing shit everywhere.
- accurate.
I certainly hope this is the case, and they know anything they do drag out of mothballs won't last long at all.
- they know anything they do drag out of mothballs won’t last long at all.
  they've been raiding the stored soviet shit for two years and sending it to the front.
So the war isn't a dump truck?
- only if they fit into the series of tubes.

9 comments