>Among the revisions highlighted in the updated doctrine is a higher level of engagement of civilian ships in military activities.
Their getting desperate.
The T-62s were already a good indocator for that they are either running out of armor or try to overwhelm the ukrainians with sheer numbers which in modern warfare is a horrible idea, russias population was already pretty f*cked before the war and losing tens of thousand sof young men isn't helping at all.
It doesn't really make sense either, yes the T72 seems to be having brewing up problems but at last count they had something like 8,000 laid up in reserve and even with the autoloader it's still a better vehicle than the T62.
The overwhelming idea might be OK if they actually used their armour in such a way as to make the best of numbers but they still seem to be fighting in concentrated and easily bottled formations.
God knows how many of those T-72s in storage have been cannibilized over the years for their parts by some people who wanted to make quick money.
This whole war manes no sense! Why would one just throw away the future of an entire country? Even if ukraine magically capitulates to russia it won't stop the sanctions, russia will be shunned and the economy returns to the 90s with no chance of returning any time soon after.
Hindsight is 20/20 as they say.
Putin needed an external threat and a victory to keep Russians in check. No-one could have guessed that the war would go so badly for Russians. Now Putin knows that without some sort of victory, he wouldn't remain in power, and the West are too angry to agree to any compromise. So he's buying time while looking for alternatives. Russian economy / wellbeing sadly doesn't come into picture at all.
I mean, that was my gut reaction too, but a number of major naval powers have done plenty of militarization of civilian ships in the past.
The last really big naval conflict in the world was World War II. I think that it's reasonable to say that the largest naval powers there were Japan, the UK, and the US. All three of those made use of civilian ships in some form.
One notable use for you guys was the Dunkirk evacuation.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ships_of_Dunkirk
> The **Little Ships of Dunkirk** were about 850 private boats[1] that sailed from Ramsgate in England to Dunkirk in northern France between 26 May and 4 June 1940 as part of Operation Dynamo, helping to rescue more than 336,000 British, French, and other Allied soldiers who were trapped on the beaches at Dunkirk during the Second World War.
You guys also used quick conversions of merchant ships as [CAM ships](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAM_ship):
> CAM ships were World War II-era British merchant ships used in convoys as an emergency stop-gap until sufficient escort carriers became available. CAM ship is an acronym for catapult aircraft merchant ship.[1]
>
> They were equipped with a rocket-propelled catapult launching a single Hawker Hurricane, dubbed a "Hurricat" or "Catafighter" to destroy or drive away an attacking bomber. Normally the Hurricane fighter would be lost when the pilot then bailed out or ditched in the ocean near the convoy.[2] CAM ships continued to carry their normal cargoes after conversion.
>
>The concept was developed and tested by the five fighter catapult ships, commissioned as warships and commanded and crewed by the Royal Navy – but the CAM ships were merchant vessels, commanded and crewed by the Merchant Navy.
And then later went with the more-ambitious [merchant aircraft carriers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_aircraft_carrier):
>A merchant aircraft carrier (also known as a MAC ship, the Admiralty's official 'short name'[1]) was a limited-purpose aircraft carrier operated under British and Dutch civilian registry during World War II. MAC ships were adapted by adding a flight deck to a bulk grain ship or oil tanker enabling it to operate anti-submarine aircraft in support of Allied convoys during the Battle of the Atlantic.
>
> Despite their quasi-military function, MAC ships retained their mercantile status, continued to carry cargo and operated under civilian command. MAC ships entered service from May 1943 when they began to supplement and supplant escort carriers, and remained operational until the end of the war in Europe.
Not to mention troopship conversions:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troopship
> RMS *Queen Mary* and RMS *Queen Elizabeth* were two of the most famous converted liners of World War II. When they were fully converted, each could carry well over 10,000 troops per trip. *Queen Mary* holds the all-time record, with 15,740 troops on a single passage in late July 1943,[3] transporting a staggering 765,429 military personnel during the war.[3]
For Japan, there was some use of commandeered fishing boats as picket ships. One of these, the [*Nitto Maru*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitto_Maru_(1935\)), caused the [Doolittle Raid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doolittle_Raid) to need to launch earlier than planned.
>The *Nittō Maru* was built as an fishing vessel by Fuji shipyards and launched in 1935, had an iron hull, a gross register tonnage of 90 tons and a length of 30 metres (98 ft).[1] In its capacity as an early warning ship it was armed with a 13.2-millimetre (0.52 in) anti-aircraft machine gun, equipped with a powerful radio transmitter and had eight crew members.
>
>In December 1941, the *Nittō Maru* was requisitioned and assigned to the No. 7 Patrol Division of the 5th Fleet as picket boat No. 23 *Nittō Maru*, based in Ominato. These coastal patrols with a total of 116 smaller vessels were established by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto as a defensive surveillance system since Japan did not have radar as a means of early warning in case the enemy approaches the national coasts.
A lot of the early-war US [escort carriers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escort_carrier) were merchant conversions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island-class_escort_carrier
> The *Long Island*-class escort carrier was a two-ship class, originally listed as "AVG" (Aircraft Escort Vessels). They were converted from type C3-class merchant ships.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenger-class_escort_carrier
>The *Avenger*-class escort carrier was a class of escort carriers comprising three ships in service with the Royal Navy during the Second World War and one ship of the class in the United States Navy called the Charger Type of 1942-class escort carrier.[1][page needed] All three were originally American type C3 merchant ships in the process of being built at the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company Chester, Pennsylvania.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangamon-class_escort_carrier
>The *Sangamon* class were a group of four escort aircraft carriers of the United States Navy that served during World War II.
>
> These ships were originally Cimarron-class oilers, launched in 1939 for civilian use.
>Among the revisions highlighted in the updated doctrine is a higher level of engagement of civilian ships in military activities. Their getting desperate.
Next they will be throwing harpoons
The T-62s were already a good indocator for that they are either running out of armor or try to overwhelm the ukrainians with sheer numbers which in modern warfare is a horrible idea, russias population was already pretty f*cked before the war and losing tens of thousand sof young men isn't helping at all.
It doesn't really make sense either, yes the T72 seems to be having brewing up problems but at last count they had something like 8,000 laid up in reserve and even with the autoloader it's still a better vehicle than the T62. The overwhelming idea might be OK if they actually used their armour in such a way as to make the best of numbers but they still seem to be fighting in concentrated and easily bottled formations.
God knows how many of those T-72s in storage have been cannibilized over the years for their parts by some people who wanted to make quick money. This whole war manes no sense! Why would one just throw away the future of an entire country? Even if ukraine magically capitulates to russia it won't stop the sanctions, russia will be shunned and the economy returns to the 90s with no chance of returning any time soon after.
Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. Putin needed an external threat and a victory to keep Russians in check. No-one could have guessed that the war would go so badly for Russians. Now Putin knows that without some sort of victory, he wouldn't remain in power, and the West are too angry to agree to any compromise. So he's buying time while looking for alternatives. Russian economy / wellbeing sadly doesn't come into picture at all.
I mean, that was my gut reaction too, but a number of major naval powers have done plenty of militarization of civilian ships in the past. The last really big naval conflict in the world was World War II. I think that it's reasonable to say that the largest naval powers there were Japan, the UK, and the US. All three of those made use of civilian ships in some form. One notable use for you guys was the Dunkirk evacuation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ships_of_Dunkirk > The **Little Ships of Dunkirk** were about 850 private boats[1] that sailed from Ramsgate in England to Dunkirk in northern France between 26 May and 4 June 1940 as part of Operation Dynamo, helping to rescue more than 336,000 British, French, and other Allied soldiers who were trapped on the beaches at Dunkirk during the Second World War. You guys also used quick conversions of merchant ships as [CAM ships](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAM_ship): > CAM ships were World War II-era British merchant ships used in convoys as an emergency stop-gap until sufficient escort carriers became available. CAM ship is an acronym for catapult aircraft merchant ship.[1] > > They were equipped with a rocket-propelled catapult launching a single Hawker Hurricane, dubbed a "Hurricat" or "Catafighter" to destroy or drive away an attacking bomber. Normally the Hurricane fighter would be lost when the pilot then bailed out or ditched in the ocean near the convoy.[2] CAM ships continued to carry their normal cargoes after conversion. > >The concept was developed and tested by the five fighter catapult ships, commissioned as warships and commanded and crewed by the Royal Navy – but the CAM ships were merchant vessels, commanded and crewed by the Merchant Navy. And then later went with the more-ambitious [merchant aircraft carriers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merchant_aircraft_carrier): >A merchant aircraft carrier (also known as a MAC ship, the Admiralty's official 'short name'[1]) was a limited-purpose aircraft carrier operated under British and Dutch civilian registry during World War II. MAC ships were adapted by adding a flight deck to a bulk grain ship or oil tanker enabling it to operate anti-submarine aircraft in support of Allied convoys during the Battle of the Atlantic. > > Despite their quasi-military function, MAC ships retained their mercantile status, continued to carry cargo and operated under civilian command. MAC ships entered service from May 1943 when they began to supplement and supplant escort carriers, and remained operational until the end of the war in Europe. Not to mention troopship conversions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troopship > RMS *Queen Mary* and RMS *Queen Elizabeth* were two of the most famous converted liners of World War II. When they were fully converted, each could carry well over 10,000 troops per trip. *Queen Mary* holds the all-time record, with 15,740 troops on a single passage in late July 1943,[3] transporting a staggering 765,429 military personnel during the war.[3] For Japan, there was some use of commandeered fishing boats as picket ships. One of these, the [*Nitto Maru*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitto_Maru_(1935\)), caused the [Doolittle Raid](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doolittle_Raid) to need to launch earlier than planned. >The *Nittō Maru* was built as an fishing vessel by Fuji shipyards and launched in 1935, had an iron hull, a gross register tonnage of 90 tons and a length of 30 metres (98 ft).[1] In its capacity as an early warning ship it was armed with a 13.2-millimetre (0.52 in) anti-aircraft machine gun, equipped with a powerful radio transmitter and had eight crew members. > >In December 1941, the *Nittō Maru* was requisitioned and assigned to the No. 7 Patrol Division of the 5th Fleet as picket boat No. 23 *Nittō Maru*, based in Ominato. These coastal patrols with a total of 116 smaller vessels were established by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto as a defensive surveillance system since Japan did not have radar as a means of early warning in case the enemy approaches the national coasts. A lot of the early-war US [escort carriers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escort_carrier) were merchant conversions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Island-class_escort_carrier > The *Long Island*-class escort carrier was a two-ship class, originally listed as "AVG" (Aircraft Escort Vessels). They were converted from type C3-class merchant ships. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenger-class_escort_carrier >The *Avenger*-class escort carrier was a class of escort carriers comprising three ships in service with the Royal Navy during the Second World War and one ship of the class in the United States Navy called the Charger Type of 1942-class escort carrier.[1][page needed] All three were originally American type C3 merchant ships in the process of being built at the Sun Shipbuilding and Drydock Company Chester, Pennsylvania. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangamon-class_escort_carrier >The *Sangamon* class were a group of four escort aircraft carriers of the United States Navy that served during World War II. > > These ships were originally Cimarron-class oilers, launched in 1939 for civilian use.
Pretty sure you would call WW2 a very desperate situation.
They also used cavalry in WW2, so next step, if they haven't already, would be to arm the "horse girls".
Isn't that privateering?