Cued up to footage of 51st GRAU Arsenal during 2017 modernization. Shows ammo bunkers being built. Very thin concrete walls. Appears to rely on compacted soil for most of the protection on the sides with very little top protection:
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AhhhâŠ. bunkers are not intended to protect the ammo from weather but enemy action. Weather is generally controlled by the packaging of the ammo - one reason old ammo cans are so highly prized. They are water-proof, THE biggest enemy of ammo.
Military ammo is, furthermore, produced under different requirements than civilian ammo. So primers are generally coated to seal from potential water infiltration. So is the neck of the round around the bullet. Even the gunpowder is often mixed with compounds to minimize water damage, a major factor in the early M-16 failures (barrel corrosion from a calcium-based desiccant used in early non-chrome-lined barrels).
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You cannot bring up a more important point. Germany had the Blitzkreig but it still depended on rail transport and horse-drawn carts to haul supplies up to the lines. WE depended upon the Red Ball Express, a truck âhighwayâ of supplies going forward to fuel Pattonâs historic rampages through the German lines. We were by far THE most mechanized army out there. BEFORE D-Day the 8th Air Force hit every major manufacturing center in Germany. That may not have destroyed Germanyâs ability to manufacture weaponry, but it sure put a big crimp in it. After their loss to the Russians at Kursk, Guderian was never able to assemble enough tanks to resurrect his reserve as he wished. (The Germans lost over 900 tanks in that one battle.)
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One noticeable thing about Israelâs attacks in Iran is the microscopic nature of their munitions.
From the look of this, they are using incendiary warheads probably only a few ounces:
RECAP of Our Recent Operations Over Tehran:
â Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) June 16, 2025
đ« Strike on two F-14 fighter jets that were located at an airport in Tehran. These jets were intended to intercept Israeli aircraft.
â Thwarted a UAV launch attempt toward Israel.
đŻ Eliminated a launch cell minutes before launch⊠pic.twitter.com/y1gY7oBz99
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I wonder how the U.S. would respond to the same kind of âmicroscopicâ attacks.
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I imagine that payload management is critical for such long-distance operations. Given the âfixed costâ per sortie, carrying more numerous, smaller munitions is deemed to be more effective for many particular tasks.
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Part of the tradeoff is more and smaller weapons need more time over target. An unladen F-15I with the FASTpacks has a one way range of around 2400 miles. The distance to Iran is around 1000 miles. I assume they are using mid air refueling, but am not sure where they are tanking up. It seems unlikely to be over Jordan or Iraq, but if it is that will help their time over target a lot.
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Two wingtip AMRAAMs; two outboard pylons with 4 SDBs apiece; fuel hung everywhere else plus in the conformal tanks.
https://x.com/osinttechnical/status/1933397961645367806?s=46
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Apparently thatâs:
450 gallons combined for the CFTs;
600 gallons apiece for the wing tanks (v. 370 for older F-16 tanks);
300 Gallons centerline; and
about 800 gallons internally.
Thatâs 14000 lbs plus of fuel, plus the tank weight.
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That was the same thing the joint chiefs of staff had me working on a federal acquisition doctrine priority One project back in 1987. And that was also how I came to be the first person to offer a commercial system with hardware convolution to neural networks a few years later at IJCNN. Ironically a China lake NAVY admiral, who might have set neural networks ahead by 15 years was told my system was worthless by his PhD advisor. I donât think itâs necessary to hypothesize that PhD was a Chinese asset. The entire academic establishment is one big Chinese asset.
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So, how many Patriot systems have been destroyed by Russia?
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Gripen E/F is finally getting foreign buyers (beyond the Brazilian coproduction):
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While FedGov is tying itself in knots over the Epstein situation, letâs not forget there is a real war going on. Hot news from the Ukraine:
Zelensky considers legalizing porn production â RT Russia & Former Soviet Union
To be fair to Zelensky, the legalization of porn is a grass roots movement â young women eager to earn money so they can pay taxes to support Zelenskyâs war.
A petition demanding the legalization of pornography production in Ukraine has been forwarded to the countryâs parliament for review, Vladimir Zelensky announced on Tuesday. The statement was published on his website after the initiative got more than 25,000 signatures, meeting the legal threshold that requires formal consideration. âŠ
[Only Fans content producer] Dvornikova stated that she had paid over 40 million hryvnias (approximately $958,200) in taxes over the past five years. âWhat causes no harm should not be a crime,â she insisted. âŠ
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Cyborg bees. Part of the power problem for micro-drones solved:
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"⊠Citing a statement from Ukraineâs 3rd Separate Assault Brigade on July 9, the Kyiv Independent reported that the operation took place in Kharkiv where the brigade deployed first-person view (FPV) drones and kamikaze ground robotic platforms to attack Russian fortifications. The exact date of the operation was not provided.
According to the brigade, Ukrainian forces targeted and destroyed Russian bunkers with kamikaze drones and robotic ground vehicles. As another robot approached a damaged Russian holdout, the remaining Russian soldiers reportedly chose to surrender. The captured troops were then guided out of the combat zone by drones and taken into custody by Ukrainian forces, the Kyiv Independent reported. âŠ"
It is a report from the Ukrainian side which has apparently not been doing a whole lot of advancing recently, and so a hefty dose of salt may be required. On the other hand, if this were simply the usual Ukrainian propaganda, surely they would have reported capturing North Korean soldiers?
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