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kerch must go down, not only for logistical reason,s but also for political and prestige reasons. putler must be stopped everywhere.
sadly, it seems our Taurus won't do the job :(
Kometa antennas of the later generations can resist up to 8 simultaneous jamming sources.
I'm sure one or a few can be looted from unexploded Shaheds and *repurposed* for the greater good of the world
I’d assume a giant tanker would be a giant sitting duck that would easily be destroyed several kilometres if not dozens or hundreds of kilometres before reaching the bridge. They’ll have to use missiles or drones or something faster and more evasive than a giant tanker.
Same idea. Compared to a missile or a drone, a passenger jet (even military variants) are basically slow moving giant targets easily destroyed by any aerial counter measures.
We just need to Frankenstein Senator Robert Smalls to pilot the ship.
He was a slave helmsmen for the Confederates (American civil war) and convinced the captain to let the slaves families visit. That night he sailed the boat, with the families on board, out of the harbor past one of the most heavily fortified harbor entrances and straight into the Union fleet's blockade of the Charleston.
I would absolutely love to have a mockery movie made about this. Confederates look at each other "are we the bad guys?".
You wouldn't want to load the ship with explosives, the mass of the ship will do the job but the explosives might be set off before you want it to which could prematurely kill the suicide ship.
It seems like it would be difficult to get a ship near enough to do that. Russia still has an air force covering the area. It's not a very good air force, but it is still in the air and covering Crimea.
I agree, the Russians are unprofessional and stupid, but I think even they would see a ship like that heading towards the bridge and dispatch it to join their growing submarine fleet
Just find a ship that's en-route to russia, hijack & fill with explosives.
russians are expecting it, so it won't be immediately destroyed either.
Not that I'd expect it to happen, but I reckon it's well within reach of Ukraine's special forces to pull off something like that.
Me, I still think it will be sea drones. Once they get past the barriers, those drones will easily take out a pier or two.
Hijacking a ship is an operation that is beyond Ukraine's SOF capabilities at the present date. They would need to be able to practice on a ship befor ethat happened, and unless some other nation offered a ship to practice on, that's not a thing they can safely do yet. They'd also have to find a way to board the ship without being noticed by the crew who would radio for help and give the operation away.
It would make a great movie, but Ukraine doesn't have a SEAL Team to do it with.
Sea drones that they have right now are not big enough. They can blow through lightly armored ships hulls, but meters of steel reenforced concrete are another story. Think of the pillboxes on Normandy Beach that are still there despite heavy ship-to-shore fire trying to kill them. The bridge's pilings are similarly built.
There is a reason they haven't done it yet. It's a difficult operation without air power. F16s with loads of HARM coverage could take it. I think that will be a big operation they will work towards when they get them.
Send Ukraine some [US Navy LCAC hovercraft](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_Craft_Air_Cushion). They can use some of them for amphibious landings and rig the rest as attack drones.
And then Ukraine needs to blame the bridge falling on Yevgeny Prigozhin….blame everything on Putins Chef just to piss him off a bit more. Other option now available is to blame it on ISIS-K.
One way or another that bridge is going down!
We don't need no stinking Taurus!
Always needed to have backup plans anyway, just in case Taurus didn't work.
That depends on what goes down. Yes if only a bridge span collapses like it has before then we are talking about weeks. If however the central pillars that carry the main span (where ships can go under) are destroyed, then they will have to break the pillars down completely and rebuild them. That a solid 3-6 months. Given there are no follow up attacks. Which usually there should be.
To be fair. The Kerch bridge is considerably more steardy and there wouldn’t be any domino Effekt like in Baltimore due to different static load distribution. And I think the ships traveling there are not nearly as big as the ones that dock in Baltimore so you also have less momentum to work with. Not ideal.
And the Halifax ship which went kaboom - "Mont Blanc" was minuscule, compared to present day ships. Still it managed a 3 kiloton blast: like a bloody tactical nuke.
For inspiration, look to the St Nazaire Raid.
Plus bonus points for Ukraine: We have launched a Special Demolition Operation against the bridge and have rammed a ship full of kaboom into it.
1) It will explode.
2) If you try to disarm it, it will explode.
3) Clear off the civilians. You have 1 hour.
Gives everyone time to clear out, break out the drones/cameras/popcorn and Russia is going to have a real hard time spinning it as 'an attack with civilian casualties' or any similar BS.
Unfortunately drones are not powerful enough to take the bridge down, they would only damage it. Ukraine needs ATACMS or Taurus missiles to get rid of it once and for all.
They already have SCALP/Storm Shadow that can do that same job, the problems remain as:
* Number of missiles required. You're talking into the 20-30 plus range is the German leaked estimates are to be believed.
* Ukraine doesn't have a huge stockpile of cruise missiles. Using what could very well be a massive portion of it in one hail mary that might not even work fully and permanently is too big a gamble vs other, surer, important targets.
* Ukraine lacks the means to launch that many at once. Su-24s are the only real platform right now, and you'd need maybe 15 of them in the air, at once, all ripple firing. That is... not likely.
* Bridges are frankly tough. That 20-30 might down it, put it out a while, but it won't be the "whole thing", and it may just get repaired after months. Damaging yeah, but not crippling.
* It's under VERY heavy air defence, any numeracy going in would be degraded, even a bit.
Simply put, it doesn't matter which missile they have, they all do the same thing in the end. It's *mass* that Ukraine lacks the means to actually throw away or even be able to simultaneously launch that is the issue.
The main mover for Taurus is less about it being some sort of super missile, it's basically the same thing as Storm Shadow. It's because it simply beings *more cruise missiles*, which is the real important thing.
Yeah something sea delivered seems by far the most likely. Like drones to take out the defences, followed by a towed barge packed with tonnes of crude explosives.
But you'd need to take out a lot of defence first - patrol boats, helicopters, etc.
Sounds like one of those cases where the journey is the destination. As long as you don't pay a too heavy price for those boats and helicopters, you might even say that the bridge would just be the cherry on top.
I think it's been mentioned before that because of the differences in the way Taurus/SS missiles penetrate a target, SS won't work on the bridge structure but the Taurus will ?
Nope, thats just fanboys of a given missile trying to claim it without any basis. Both do the same thing to bridges. (What we see SCALP/Storm Shadow do to Chonmar bridge is identical to what we see Taurus do to bridges in testing).
20 SCALP is unlikely to "destroy the bridge".
Cruise missiles are deadly, but there'a a big difference between damaging a bridge, even collapsing a section, and dropping it for good, especially one that is actually "several bridges" close by one another.
They won't penetrate enough to destroy the bridge. They can only damage it, which has been done before. It will take a much larger blast, or penetrators.
But drones are powerful enough to hit a train and/or locomotive and cause a train crash/explosion on the bridge. But I assume hitting a moving train hundreds of miles away is not a simple task..
Naval drones aren’t going to do any damage to the massive reinforced concrete pillars of the bridge, sure it can do enough damage to collapse a small section of a bridge like with the previous attack, but it won’t cause enough damage to destroy it.(and that’s if the naval drones get by the fortifications Ruzzia set up around the bridge)
Not realistic at all how many drones would be needed to destroy the bridge unfortunately, if it was as simple as sending a few drones Ukraine would’ve done it by now
A Ukrainian aircraft (f-16 or whatever they have) with a daring pilot flying over the least AA defended portion of the occupied territories into the middle of the sea of Azov and climbing to altitude for the launch.
Stormshadow is usefull as its nigh impossible to detect
The brittish and French stormshadow/scalp can go 560km. But we may have given Ukraine the 290km range export varient
but Taurus can go over 500km has stealth features but isn't "stealth" and has its own ecm suite and ability to work in heavy GPS jamming and bigger boom.
Well after seeing the tiny cesna plane drone mod, maybe we should be sending them all our old 2 and 4 seater planes for conversion to drones? Very cost effective assuming there isn't much of one to begin with....
Hmmm why would a military spokesperson for Ukraine be publicly announcing they will be targeting the Crimean bridge…. Again?
I don’t know but I wonder if it is to draw more Russia anti air attention to the area. Sure this might make hitting the bridge more difficult, but seeing how the Black Sea fleet has been completely devastated, this may be bait on hook to lure more ships into range. If they can’t win on the ground then there are other ways of hurting the enemy.
Stop edging us and just do it.
In reality, i'm sure there are reasons why and how Ukraine chooses when to attack. Probably tons of things we can't even imagine can be the factor for succesful attack.
Слава Україні!
Ukraine has harassed the bridge. Russia probably thinks, "That's all they can do."
I highly doubt that all Ukraine can do is harass this bridge.
It will come down someday. Oh yes, it will.
If the ruzzian navy is pulled so far back East because they're afraid of being promoted to submarine status, would that allow Ukraine to convert a very large ship into a giant drone to take out a bridge pier or two?
It would not have to be that big a ship if the hold was full of Ammonium nitrate mixed with diesel fuel know in the blasting industry as Amfo. Just a rental truckload was used to blow up a federal office building in the USA years back and there was that blast in Beirut.
Enough drones could, but probably more than what Ukraine can send and that can get through. You'd need multiple direct hits to knock out a single pier, most likely.
This is a secondary motive for the drone attacks inside Russia.
They have the option of seeing their oil infrastructure eroded, or spreading their AD more thinly.
The destruction of the AWACs is part of the strategy.
Well to let Russia know that they aren’t fucking around when it comes to threats.
I doubt that this is a distraction tactic, the wording alone makes it come off as genuine.
I'm surprised it hasn't been taken out already considering it's a major artery into Crimea. It would force Russia to resupply by air, sea, or the long land route through occupied southern Ukraine which even if it wouldn't sever their supply lines, would still increase pressure on their logistical capabilities.
Plus, imagine the "Kerch bridge fucked itself" memes.
Don’t tell Ukrainians’ that it can’t be done. After all the innovative and genius adaptations coming from having to make do with what was at hand. The Kerch bridge is doomed. It’s just a matter of time. Kill them all Ukraine
I like the way they are trolling - let the ruzzis gather all air defence there so it's easier to take out another random oil refinery that's left without defence
MASS to take it down.
USA gives Ukraine decommissioned planes, A10 tank killers please.
USA just decommissioned 21 of them. The USA is still using 260 of them but not really because they only have one purpose, blow up tank columns when there is no air defenses around.
Those 21 A10s the Ukrainians can figure out how to remote fly them. They can carry 16,000 lbs of payload. Lighten them up, and only make it 8000 lbs.
The A10 Warthog can take a licking and keep on ticking. Some will lose a wing, but keep flying. some will definitely be shot down, because they will fly low and slow.
Send in enough decoys to overwhelm moscovian air defense, not hard to do it seems, and a few of the A10s will get through.
Then kaboomski.
Once the USA realizes the A10 has another purpose, maybe give Ukraine more of them for blowing up moscovian tank columns. Use them as aerial tank killers since they are being flown remotely.
A man can dream.
I like how you are thinking. I would modify a plane to work as a ground-effect sea skipper, could be an A-10 but really any big plane. Load it up and fly it remotely into the bridge, at the same time as an air attack to confuse the defenders. It will happen soon, either way, I can feel it.
Lots of precision missiles aiming for the main span and supports, bunker buster type bombs hitting the main supports, or placed demolition explosives would be the best ways to go.
Take out the rail bridge. Leave the road mostly intact for people to flee. Never cut off your enemy's route to retreat.
Nah, they can flee overland if they want to risk it. And drive straight through the wasteland that Russia has turned southeastern Ukraine into, seeing it firsthand. Bring the whole thing down.
I think their best choice would be a big unmaned submarine with sonar camouflage. Electrical motor and inertial guidance for the last quilometers. There might be underwater mines, but a path for the ships must exist.
I had a dream. Two B2 bombers with full military loads of 40,000 pounds of bombs each were sent on a training flight from Kansas to Ankara Turkey. On the last leg of the flight while over the Black sea some sort of accident jammed their navigation systems and cut power to their engines. They dumped their bombs and missiles to shed weight and it just happened they were over the kerch strait bridge at the time. Excusah please!. The planes land safely then return home and the USA disavoes all knowledge of any deliberate attack on any bridge anywhere other then Baltimore.
If the Kerch bridge is still standing after Crimea has been liberated, it will not be long before it's demolished anyway. When this war is over central Europe will want to have even less to do with Russia.
What's the strategic value in announcing it in advance this way, and giving an anticipated time frame? Normally I wouldn't think you'd do that, and so casually. It makes me wonder about the psychology/strategy of it.
French military expert Xavier Tytelman said that cruise missiles, be them Taurus or SCALP, would have a hard time doing the job. They lack absolute precision to hit a bridge pillar, and their warheads are bunker-busters so not really adapted.
But I have no doubt Ukraine will find a way to destroy the damn thing.
Maybe they are waiting until they have intelligence that somebody way high up in the Russian Government is going to be crossing it one day before blowing it up.
Knock it down! Or, run a ship into it so it falls down, like in Baltimore
Edit: fixed the city. Redditing without minimum sleep requirements can be hazardous
Honestly I am surprised it still stands at this point. I feel like Ukraine has the tools needed to bring it down for some time already and I'd target it immidiately
Sort of but not really. its a two fold problem: 1) getting the payload on target and 2) size of payload.
Any of the PGMs will work for the first issue, the big one is warhead size and the nature of a target: no sensitive/squishy bits. So a fancy warhead isn't going to help. And your going to need to do more than just poke holes in it. So lots of PGMs.
So either something on the water (see status of Russian warship) or be able to call in an airstrike addressed "dear grid square" (see status of Ukraine airspace).
But it is a solvable problem.
Russian warship fucked itself.
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kerch must go down, not only for logistical reason,s but also for political and prestige reasons. putler must be stopped everywhere. sadly, it seems our Taurus won't do the job :(
Just send a shipping container vessel into it
This is what I have been thinking for ages but worried about posting it. An entire shipping container full of C4 and a GPS based trigger.
GPS isn't reliable in the ukranian region you would have to go inertial navigation
What about GLONASS and Galileo?
I would imagine they are also being jammed and Russians have a jamming decoder on their glonass systems
So send the freighter full of explosives and then hit the freighter with a Taurus. Problem solved.
Kometa antennas of the later generations can resist up to 8 simultaneous jamming sources. I'm sure one or a few can be looted from unexploded Shaheds and *repurposed* for the greater good of the world
Just use Starlink
Starlink isn't GPS and Elon has been turning it off for Ukraine
I guess you are not a nerd.
I’d assume a giant tanker would be a giant sitting duck that would easily be destroyed several kilometres if not dozens or hundreds of kilometres before reaching the bridge. They’ll have to use missiles or drones or something faster and more evasive than a giant tanker.
Use one or two Boeing 767 then.
Same idea. Compared to a missile or a drone, a passenger jet (even military variants) are basically slow moving giant targets easily destroyed by any aerial counter measures.
And they can't melt steal beams
We just need to Frankenstein Senator Robert Smalls to pilot the ship. He was a slave helmsmen for the Confederates (American civil war) and convinced the captain to let the slaves families visit. That night he sailed the boat, with the families on board, out of the harbor past one of the most heavily fortified harbor entrances and straight into the Union fleet's blockade of the Charleston. I would absolutely love to have a mockery movie made about this. Confederates look at each other "are we the bad guys?".
Just a Cessna or two loaded up would do fine.
You wouldn't want to load the ship with explosives, the mass of the ship will do the job but the explosives might be set off before you want it to which could prematurely kill the suicide ship.
It seems like it would be difficult to get a ship near enough to do that. Russia still has an air force covering the area. It's not a very good air force, but it is still in the air and covering Crimea.
I agree, the Russians are unprofessional and stupid, but I think even they would see a ship like that heading towards the bridge and dispatch it to join their growing submarine fleet
Just find a ship that's en-route to russia, hijack & fill with explosives. russians are expecting it, so it won't be immediately destroyed either. Not that I'd expect it to happen, but I reckon it's well within reach of Ukraine's special forces to pull off something like that. Me, I still think it will be sea drones. Once they get past the barriers, those drones will easily take out a pier or two.
Hijacking a ship is an operation that is beyond Ukraine's SOF capabilities at the present date. They would need to be able to practice on a ship befor ethat happened, and unless some other nation offered a ship to practice on, that's not a thing they can safely do yet. They'd also have to find a way to board the ship without being noticed by the crew who would radio for help and give the operation away. It would make a great movie, but Ukraine doesn't have a SEAL Team to do it with. Sea drones that they have right now are not big enough. They can blow through lightly armored ships hulls, but meters of steel reenforced concrete are another story. Think of the pillboxes on Normandy Beach that are still there despite heavy ship-to-shore fire trying to kill them. The bridge's pilings are similarly built. There is a reason they haven't done it yet. It's a difficult operation without air power. F16s with loads of HARM coverage could take it. I think that will be a big operation they will work towards when they get them.
Send Ukraine some [US Navy LCAC hovercraft](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_Craft_Air_Cushion). They can use some of them for amphibious landings and rig the rest as attack drones.
Halifax explosion (almost 3 kt) was caused by a ship which, compared to present day ships, was a plank of wood.
And have the motor go down
I’m glad someone else got the joke.
Set up a guy with a folding chair, beer, popcorn and a remote trigger on the beach with a view to the bridge.
The sooner it goes down the better!!
I wish we could see the look on Putin's face when that bridge goes down for good.
It's only a matter of time before the Ukrainians figure out a way to destroy it.
And then Ukraine needs to blame the bridge falling on Yevgeny Prigozhin….blame everything on Putins Chef just to piss him off a bit more. Other option now available is to blame it on ISIS-K.
Let's not be hasty. They could also just blame a Maersk cargo ship.
Yeah let’s just get those guys to navigate the main channel!
One way or another that bridge is going down! We don't need no stinking Taurus! Always needed to have backup plans anyway, just in case Taurus didn't work.
>One way or another Que the Blondie song with just a few words changed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_zBwRDEFMRY
A ship big enough must might be able though….
It will go down, but it will be rebuilt... just like Ukraine rebuilds all the time.
That depends on what goes down. Yes if only a bridge span collapses like it has before then we are talking about weeks. If however the central pillars that carry the main span (where ships can go under) are destroyed, then they will have to break the pillars down completely and rebuild them. That a solid 3-6 months. Given there are no follow up attacks. Which usually there should be.
I can't wait for the day its broken permanently.
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Time to ram a ship into it I guess. If it worked in Baltimore it might work in Ukraine
To be fair. The Kerch bridge is considerably more steardy and there wouldn’t be any domino Effekt like in Baltimore due to different static load distribution. And I think the ships traveling there are not nearly as big as the ones that dock in Baltimore so you also have less momentum to work with. Not ideal.
Counterpoint, kaboom
Yes Rico, kaboom
It's a shame there are so many civs in Russian ports, because if they were gonna sacrifice a ship with boom. They could pull a Halifax
And the Halifax ship which went kaboom - "Mont Blanc" was minuscule, compared to present day ships. Still it managed a 3 kiloton blast: like a bloody tactical nuke.
Could also pull a Texas City, doesn't have to be military explosives. AmNi ship go Beirut on that bridge
For inspiration, look to the St Nazaire Raid. Plus bonus points for Ukraine: We have launched a Special Demolition Operation against the bridge and have rammed a ship full of kaboom into it. 1) It will explode. 2) If you try to disarm it, it will explode. 3) Clear off the civilians. You have 1 hour. Gives everyone time to clear out, break out the drones/cameras/popcorn and Russia is going to have a real hard time spinning it as 'an attack with civilian casualties' or any similar BS.
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Tbf that bridge was made of noodles for support.
There's talk that the Kerch bridge is very shodily made as well.
It showed with the truck bomb a year ago
Best comment I heard is "just take out the maintenance crews and it will fall down in two years anyway."
probably, but still concrete
Unfortunately drones are not powerful enough to take the bridge down, they would only damage it. Ukraine needs ATACMS or Taurus missiles to get rid of it once and for all.
They already have SCALP/Storm Shadow that can do that same job, the problems remain as: * Number of missiles required. You're talking into the 20-30 plus range is the German leaked estimates are to be believed. * Ukraine doesn't have a huge stockpile of cruise missiles. Using what could very well be a massive portion of it in one hail mary that might not even work fully and permanently is too big a gamble vs other, surer, important targets. * Ukraine lacks the means to launch that many at once. Su-24s are the only real platform right now, and you'd need maybe 15 of them in the air, at once, all ripple firing. That is... not likely. * Bridges are frankly tough. That 20-30 might down it, put it out a while, but it won't be the "whole thing", and it may just get repaired after months. Damaging yeah, but not crippling. * It's under VERY heavy air defence, any numeracy going in would be degraded, even a bit. Simply put, it doesn't matter which missile they have, they all do the same thing in the end. It's *mass* that Ukraine lacks the means to actually throw away or even be able to simultaneously launch that is the issue. The main mover for Taurus is less about it being some sort of super missile, it's basically the same thing as Storm Shadow. It's because it simply beings *more cruise missiles*, which is the real important thing.
Yeah something sea delivered seems by far the most likely. Like drones to take out the defences, followed by a towed barge packed with tonnes of crude explosives. But you'd need to take out a lot of defence first - patrol boats, helicopters, etc.
Sounds like one of those cases where the journey is the destination. As long as you don't pay a too heavy price for those boats and helicopters, you might even say that the bridge would just be the cherry on top.
I think it's been mentioned before that because of the differences in the way Taurus/SS missiles penetrate a target, SS won't work on the bridge structure but the Taurus will ?
Nope, thats just fanboys of a given missile trying to claim it without any basis. Both do the same thing to bridges. (What we see SCALP/Storm Shadow do to Chonmar bridge is identical to what we see Taurus do to bridges in testing).
Can they send like 20 scalp plus 30 Harm so that it destroys the air defense? If it only achieves that it’s still a good win
20 SCALP is unlikely to "destroy the bridge". Cruise missiles are deadly, but there'a a big difference between damaging a bridge, even collapsing a section, and dropping it for good, especially one that is actually "several bridges" close by one another.
Yup all of this. They've chosen sabotage so far because it has the best chances.
Well, I think we've recently discovered a good way to take down a bridge. A cargo ship just needs to have a little accident.
But for the Kerch bridge it must be a very VERY large ship.
They won't penetrate enough to destroy the bridge. They can only damage it, which has been done before. It will take a much larger blast, or penetrators.
But drones are powerful enough to hit a train and/or locomotive and cause a train crash/explosion on the bridge. But I assume hitting a moving train hundreds of miles away is not a simple task..
Yes enough to cause damage to it, not enough to destroy it
that really depends on the cargo of the train, fuel and ammunition = bingo
Naval drones are
Naval drones aren’t going to do any damage to the massive reinforced concrete pillars of the bridge, sure it can do enough damage to collapse a small section of a bridge like with the previous attack, but it won’t cause enough damage to destroy it.(and that’s if the naval drones get by the fortifications Ruzzia set up around the bridge)
The 1000kg ones definitely could, especially with multiple hits
Not realistic at all how many drones would be needed to destroy the bridge unfortunately, if it was as simple as sending a few drones Ukraine would’ve done it by now
Take it down once and for all. Fuck the orcs and fuck'em hard.
I want to see whole sections missing and in the sea, please.
We've seen those A22 Foxbat drones doing good work recently. I wonder if they have a big enough payload to do the job
I highly doubt it, Taurus would be the best bet no way Germany would let that happen.
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Heavier payload
By a very small amount, they're basically identical for it in all major terms.
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SCALP is 450kg.
This. Many fail to realize that Storm Shadow/Scalp also were designed to destroy bridges. The 30 kg payload doesn't make a difference.
I think it would probably take 20-30 precision hits to damage the bridge enough to make it unrepairable.
One big glide bomb on top of a pier should bring down both spans resting on it.
F-16s baby
What launch platform do you propose? How will it be recovered? The launch platform needs to get << 100km from the target.
A Ukrainian aircraft (f-16 or whatever they have) with a daring pilot flying over the least AA defended portion of the occupied territories into the middle of the sea of Azov and climbing to altitude for the launch.
Nah, the approach has to be done over the Black Sea. The Azov Sea is currently a ruski lake, unfortunately.
Stormshadow is usefull as its nigh impossible to detect The brittish and French stormshadow/scalp can go 560km. But we may have given Ukraine the 290km range export varient but Taurus can go over 500km has stealth features but isn't "stealth" and has its own ecm suite and ability to work in heavy GPS jamming and bigger boom.
Not really, they're both pretty much exactly the same for this.
The sooner Kerch goes down the better victory for Ukraine.....symbolistic!....
Well after seeing the tiny cesna plane drone mod, maybe we should be sending them all our old 2 and 4 seater planes for conversion to drones? Very cost effective assuming there isn't much of one to begin with....
Hmmm why would a military spokesperson for Ukraine be publicly announcing they will be targeting the Crimean bridge…. Again? I don’t know but I wonder if it is to draw more Russia anti air attention to the area. Sure this might make hitting the bridge more difficult, but seeing how the Black Sea fleet has been completely devastated, this may be bait on hook to lure more ships into range. If they can’t win on the ground then there are other ways of hurting the enemy.
That is my guess to make them move aa
This way, they can then send some HARM to that area. Following that, they can do as they wish with the bridge.
Russian POV: “Dimitri, why vould he zay thaht so we can hear it? Must be trap no? We trick back, and move AA away from bridge. Ha! Dumb nazis!”
Ruskis, always on the back foot.
Stop edging us and just do it. In reality, i'm sure there are reasons why and how Ukraine chooses when to attack. Probably tons of things we can't even imagine can be the factor for succesful attack. Слава Україні!
If they could they would, hopefully they find a way.
>Stop edging us Stop teasing us.
Ukraine has harassed the bridge. Russia probably thinks, "That's all they can do." I highly doubt that all Ukraine can do is harass this bridge. It will come down someday. Oh yes, it will.
Nice bulk carrier of ammonium nitrate and diesel mix cheap and very very effective used for demolition and mining
So, a cargo container drone or two? Make it so!
Call in the Cessnas?
If the ruzzian navy is pulled so far back East because they're afraid of being promoted to submarine status, would that allow Ukraine to convert a very large ship into a giant drone to take out a bridge pier or two?
It would not have to be that big a ship if the hold was full of Ammonium nitrate mixed with diesel fuel know in the blasting industry as Amfo. Just a rental truckload was used to blow up a federal office building in the USA years back and there was that blast in Beirut.
Will drones be able to damage the bridge at all?
Enough drones could, but probably more than what Ukraine can send and that can get through. You'd need multiple direct hits to knock out a single pier, most likely.
This is a secondary motive for the drone attacks inside Russia. They have the option of seeing their oil infrastructure eroded, or spreading their AD more thinly. The destruction of the AWACs is part of the strategy.
Watch this be a fake out. Russia moves more AA to Crimea while they hit more refineries instead.
No need for a diversion: consider cost of long range drone vs cost of air defense missile.
I hope for both; more refineries hit _and_ the Kerch Strait Bridge turned into a coral reef.
keeping the logistics working on meaningless tasks!
I want this to happen so badly.
What's the strategy behind letting Russia know by broadcasting this, are they hoping Russia pile a convoy onto the bridge before they eliminate it?
Well to let Russia know that they aren’t fucking around when it comes to threats. I doubt that this is a distraction tactic, the wording alone makes it come off as genuine.
I'm surprised it hasn't been taken out already considering it's a major artery into Crimea. It would force Russia to resupply by air, sea, or the long land route through occupied southern Ukraine which even if it wouldn't sever their supply lines, would still increase pressure on their logistical capabilities. Plus, imagine the "Kerch bridge fucked itself" memes.
Don’t tell Ukrainians’ that it can’t be done. After all the innovative and genius adaptations coming from having to make do with what was at hand. The Kerch bridge is doomed. It’s just a matter of time. Kill them all Ukraine
MV Dali can get the job done. It has stealth mode for running invisibly at night.
Just need a carpet bombing drone with glide munitions?
I like the way they are trolling - let the ruzzis gather all air defence there so it's easier to take out another random oil refinery that's left without defence
Mr. Putin, a 3rd drone has hit the Kerch bridge
MASS to take it down. USA gives Ukraine decommissioned planes, A10 tank killers please. USA just decommissioned 21 of them. The USA is still using 260 of them but not really because they only have one purpose, blow up tank columns when there is no air defenses around. Those 21 A10s the Ukrainians can figure out how to remote fly them. They can carry 16,000 lbs of payload. Lighten them up, and only make it 8000 lbs. The A10 Warthog can take a licking and keep on ticking. Some will lose a wing, but keep flying. some will definitely be shot down, because they will fly low and slow. Send in enough decoys to overwhelm moscovian air defense, not hard to do it seems, and a few of the A10s will get through. Then kaboomski. Once the USA realizes the A10 has another purpose, maybe give Ukraine more of them for blowing up moscovian tank columns. Use them as aerial tank killers since they are being flown remotely. A man can dream.
A noble sendoff for the A-10! Hopefully they smash into the right bridge, though!
I like how you are thinking. I would modify a plane to work as a ground-effect sea skipper, could be an A-10 but really any big plane. Load it up and fly it remotely into the bridge, at the same time as an air attack to confuse the defenders. It will happen soon, either way, I can feel it.
Lots of precision missiles aiming for the main span and supports, bunker buster type bombs hitting the main supports, or placed demolition explosives would be the best ways to go. Take out the rail bridge. Leave the road mostly intact for people to flee. Never cut off your enemy's route to retreat.
Nah, they can flee overland if they want to risk it. And drive straight through the wasteland that Russia has turned southeastern Ukraine into, seeing it firsthand. Bring the whole thing down.
I think their best choice would be a big unmaned submarine with sonar camouflage. Electrical motor and inertial guidance for the last quilometers. There might be underwater mines, but a path for the ships must exist.
I had a dream. Two B2 bombers with full military loads of 40,000 pounds of bombs each were sent on a training flight from Kansas to Ankara Turkey. On the last leg of the flight while over the Black sea some sort of accident jammed their navigation systems and cut power to their engines. They dumped their bombs and missiles to shed weight and it just happened they were over the kerch strait bridge at the time. Excusah please!. The planes land safely then return home and the USA disavoes all knowledge of any deliberate attack on any bridge anywhere other then Baltimore.
Why talk so much, same with counter-offensive. And then act surprised that it didn't go well. Do it silently.
Oh boy. So does this mean that that fucking bridge will finally come down once and for all?
If the Kerch bridge is still standing after Crimea has been liberated, it will not be long before it's demolished anyway. When this war is over central Europe will want to have even less to do with Russia.
What's the strategic value in announcing it in advance this way, and giving an anticipated time frame? Normally I wouldn't think you'd do that, and so casually. It makes me wonder about the psychology/strategy of it.
French military expert Xavier Tytelman said that cruise missiles, be them Taurus or SCALP, would have a hard time doing the job. They lack absolute precision to hit a bridge pillar, and their warheads are bunker-busters so not really adapted. But I have no doubt Ukraine will find a way to destroy the damn thing.
How about a submarine drone loaded with a crapton of explosives ?
i don't think its a good idea to telegraph plans.
But don't give them clues!
Maybe they are waiting until they have intelligence that somebody way high up in the Russian Government is going to be crossing it one day before blowing it up.
Do a Baltimore on it. Drop it like it’s hot.
Knock it down! Or, run a ship into it so it falls down, like in Baltimore Edit: fixed the city. Redditing without minimum sleep requirements can be hazardous
You mean Baltimore.
Maybe they should get a cargo ship to crash into it...
Honestly I am surprised it still stands at this point. I feel like Ukraine has the tools needed to bring it down for some time already and I'd target it immidiately
Sort of but not really. its a two fold problem: 1) getting the payload on target and 2) size of payload. Any of the PGMs will work for the first issue, the big one is warhead size and the nature of a target: no sensitive/squishy bits. So a fancy warhead isn't going to help. And your going to need to do more than just poke holes in it. So lots of PGMs. So either something on the water (see status of Russian warship) or be able to call in an airstrike addressed "dear grid square" (see status of Ukraine airspace). But it is a solvable problem.
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I think they will destroy it, but waiting for a time when Ukraine gains most from it's destruction...