The view from the front: military matters and motivation for 6/7/22.

Jun 7

Hi friend,

Happy Tuesday! Hope your week is off to a great start!

I thought we’d begin by sharing several quick items about Ukraine, then bring up some news about China, then finish with several cool pieces of tech news. Following it all up with plenty of motivation and wisdom, of course.

In Ukraine news, Vladimir Putin claimed “that Russia was not blocking Ukrainian wheat from being exported,” according to an article in The Economist. Putin made the comments while meeting with Macky Sall, the head of the African Union. There have been many countries in Africa concerned about the wheat situation in Ukraine, since high prices will impact the continent worse than most countries.

In fact, The Economist stated that Africa is on the brink of famine because of Russia’s war, something the United Nations has been warning about. Prior to the war, Russia and Ukraine combined for almost 30 percent of international wheat sales each year.

Back to what Putin stated, this is certainly an interesting comment by Putin.

On the one hand, I don’t trust a word the man says. But on the other, Russia wants to continue to have influence in Africa. And I could see him allowing the grain out as a way to show that the West is hyperventilating and over-reacting to Russia’s actions.

But while we wait to see what will happen with the wheat, Ukrainian farmers are already paying a higher price. (See below.)

Oksana Hliebushkina @hliebushkina

#KhersonOccupation The price of this year's bread in the South of Ukraine. People are blown up by mines in the fields, trying to cultivate agricultural land.

Besides worrying about whether these folks survived the mines, you also have to wonder who’s going to pay to replace the tractors. Does Ukraine have an operating insurance system? Does the government have the money in place to do so?

These are the kinds of questions that I’m not sure there are pleasant answers to.

But the leadership happening inside Ukraine is still OFF the charts good, in my opinion.

As proof, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy actually visited the most-active part of frontline. (See below.)

Oliver Carroll @olliecarroll

Zelensky actually went right into the Severodonetsk salient. Remarkable

As I saw someone mention on Twitter, this would have been as if FDR or Churchill had visited the frontline during the Battle of the Bulge.

I’m sure anyone who’s served will tell you that having a leader visit bolsters your morale and inspires you to even greater efforts. It’s no wonder these Ukrainians are fighting so hard.

Moving along, one other thing I wanted to share was the increase in attacks against Russians on ground they already control. (See below.)

Stan R. Mitchell @StanRMitchell

Ukraine’s partisans are hitting Russian soldiers behind their own lines economist.com/europe/2022/06… from @TheEconomist

Ukraine’s partisans are hitting Russian soldiers behind their own linesIn Russian-occupied cities like Melitopol, covert resistance continueseconomist.com

From the story, which documented the attacks in the strategic rail-hub city of Melitopol:

Every few days brings a surprising report: an armoured train destroyed and a grenade attack on a command post (May 18th); railway tracks and a radar station blown up (May 22nd); a pro-Ukrainian rally (May 29th); and a collaborator’s house hit by an explosion (May 30th). Ukraine claims its partisans have killed more than 100 Russian soldiers behind enemy lines in Melitopol.

Besides these partisan attacks, Russia is also waking up to new realities on the artillery front, as shown below.

Julian Röpcke🇺🇦 @JulianRoepcke

Sign of hope? Russian propagandists with Tos-1 flamethrower. 50 seconds after the first launch, Ukrainian counter artillery fire begins. 130 seconds after the first launch, they are running for their lives.

Speaking of artillery, this news isn’t going to help anything for the Russians.

Chuck Pfarrer @ChuckPfarrer

IN THE NORWEGIAN WAY: Without fanfare, Norway reveals that it delivered 20 upgraded M109/A3GN 155mm self-propelled howitzers to Ukraine. Oslo made the announcement days AFTER these weapons entered service with Ukrainian forces. Norway's M109/A3GNs are on the front lines now.

But so far, the Russian population seems more than willing to pay the price of this foolish war, as evidenced below.

Visegrád 24 @visegrad24

Russian “Z woman” confronts another Russian woman who is protesting against the Russian war of aggression in public. According to independent pollsters, most Russians still support Putin and the war.

Moving away from Russia to China, this bit of news broke, which seems pretty significant.

Derek J. Grossman @DerekJGrossman

China’s second *official* base is coming soon in Cambodia. Djibouti has stood alone since 2017 as only base. But unofficially, Beijing has maintained bases in the Spratly & Paracels in SCS for years. Plus, starting ~2016, a paramilitary base in Tajikistan.

China secretly building PLA naval facility in Cambodia, Western officials sayThe establishment of a Chinese naval base in Cambodia — only its second such overseas outpost and its first in the strategically significant Indo-Pacific region — is part of Beijing’s strategy to build a network of military facilities around the world in support of its aspirations to become a true g…washingtonpost.com

The scramble for allies in the Pacific clearly continues.

Moving to tech news, I had written several months ago about Project Origin, an unmanned system, that uses a vehicle armed with medium and heavy-weight machine guns (M240 or M2/MK19 automatic grenade launchers).

At that time, the unmanned system was being used by Green Berets of the 1st Special Forces Group. But in the time since I last wrote about the weapon system, it’s now being used by regular troops, as you can see below.

In the video above, soldiers with 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment out of Germany are doing some basic training with the weapon.

Not sure how soon this vehicle will be issued and used by all units, but the weapon system is clearly moving forward rapidly with development and delivery.

Two other quick tech news items.

First this.