It's My Life

I n what mood am I today? Something from my today's experience reminded me of something in the past? Or I just remembered something and music from the past takes me back. Or I just want to listen to that song I liked once. See if you remember this one: Behemoth - Bartzabel It's a bit music takes us back but not so long time ago this time. I saw on social media that Behemoth reissues the album "Grom" after 27 years . This is a little trip back for me. Behemoth is the first band that I listened to when I looked up on internet for Satanic band. I was also surprised to find out that they are from Poland, neighboring country to Lithuania where I was born and grew up. I was listening a lot to other music and not so much searching for them but have to give them a credit, was listening more to them in the beginning, don't know all the discography and so on but at some point listened to "Satanist" album and wanted to join their private group on Facebook citing t...

    Hi Venus After having done this very broad overview let's continue with what marked the last year, at least what echos we could see in the press. The M142 HIMARS (/ˈhaɪmɑːrz/, M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) is a light multiple rocket launcher developed in the late 1990s for the United States Army and mounted on a standard United States Army Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) truck frame. Huge success by the echos in the press and new orders from some countries. The HIMARS carries one pod with either six GMLRS rockets or one ATACMS missile. It is based on the United States Army's FMTV five-ton truck, and is capable of launching all rockets specified in the Multiple Launch Rocket System Family of Munitions (MFOM). HIMARS ammunition pods are interchangeable with the M270 MLRS; however, it is limited to a single pod as opposed to the standard two for the M270 and its variants. I wide choice of rockets that can be used with it and ranges going to 92km which ...

    Testing of Military Equipment I quite understand some worry of certain when they are not sure if all equipment would be fully operational in real situations. Firstly, if will prove all characteristics work as initially designed. There is another reason, which I would worry more about. This is some interference in the functioning of the equipment during the operations because of some actions taking during the operations or because of some actions that was taken already before, during the production, delivery or after the weapons have been already deployed. If that is true and until such action has not been activated, it cannot be checked as some separate test would probably run without problem. So, the solution here is to look for any foreign substances that can be used of different nature that could affect the functioning of the tools. This can be distance activation or already preprogramed activation. So, some testing can be useful, but thorough auditing of all possi...

    Narrowing Down I made a very broad introduction, too broad probably. There idea is talk about current problems that we see now and make some conclusions from it, without going into too much theoretical assumptions. So,  I try to narrow down and first let's see what we have learned during the last year. In case of some bigger conflict that is going for a certain time and with some longer-term consequences the whole world is affected to some degree as we have learned. With some affected more, some less most of the world had some effect. First let's look at the cases, when the country is not involved directly but is still affected by events elsewhere. Very briefly and without going into details what are the lessons to learn. Maybe we will add some other elements later, but what comes to head now is the supply and at the same time price affected for energy natural resources and foods and the cascading effect it had on all economies and markets. This we can discu...

    Oracle for the Army It was naive for me to think that computer systems are not sufficiently used in the military, they probably are and very extensively. But I was, however, surprised how innovative some nations are and how open they are to use all possibilities in IT for their operations. It is clear that complicated systems are very computerized but to use some system also for field operations sounds very interesting as well.  " Delta software developed to help collect and disseminate information about enemy’s movements ", is one of the functionalities mentioned. "A constantly updated portrayal of the evolving battlefield [...] displayed with one click" is another functionality mentioned.  It is called Delta, a software package developed by Ukrainian programmers to give their armed forces an advantage in a contest of which side can see the battlefield more clearly and therefore predict the enemy forces’ moves and strike them faster and more accurately . A cred...

    The Accountant Inspired by the section of Military Games I start a new section in the story: "The Accountant". There is a bit of sarcasm in it because having some experience as an accountant I plan to talk here about economics, finance, demography and other issues that are of importance for the countries and the world. Nothing is more important than a "sustainable growth", the term that we can hear quite often as a long-term objective. The word "sustainable" I find interesting here, without going through the dictionaries and origins, it seems something that exists in modern language as English. It has two components at the same time at least how I understand it being not a native English speaker: a) maintained at certain level, and b) long lasting in time. For me it summarizes quite well the long-term objective of all politics and economics and development of everything in fact. How to achieve, what are the limits, what are the obstacles, whether this ...

    An Eye in the Sky I got the impression that most successful attacks or achieved results where when there was some information passed from somebody. Supposedly that somebody used the tools in their disposition to get the information that the were able, to get, to analyze, to make a suggestion and to pass it to other party. I don't know exactly; it is probably a package of intelligence information but observation or tracking satellites were probably also used in this. And it's definitely a powerful tool as I can imagine in this situation. It's more about techniques and methods and general organisation. It could be that both sides have the possibility to use the same tools but one side uses more than the other. One side relies more on other possibilities and other side tries to keep it for the day they really will need it. In one presentation that I saw recently which is absolutely unrelated to this topic, the final slide was with Bruce Lee phrase, that I try to transla...

    Man on the Moon One more player I would want to mention without making it sound important where in fact it is very important probably. Starlink is a satellite internet constellation operated by SpaceX, providing satellite Internet access coverage to 48 countries. It also aims for global mobile phone service after 2023. SpaceX started launching Starlink satellites in 2019. As of February 2023, Starlink consists of over 3,580 mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO), which communicate with designated ground transceivers. In total, nearly 12,000 satellites are planned to be deployed, with a possible later extension to 42,000. One could find some comments how important it is during the operations. And this is the only probably way to have constant communication access in intensive fighting areas. Without trying to make it sound serious, just want to mention how important it is to know also satellite internet technology, what protocols are used for data transfer....

    Another Trademark There is another trademark that I forgot to mention until now: Bayraktar.  The Bayraktar TB2 is a medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations. It is manufactured by the Turkish company Baykar Makina Sanayi ve Ticaret A.Ş., primarily for the Turkish Armed Forces.[3] The aircraft are monitored and controlled by an aircrew in a ground control station, including weapons employment.   Performance specifications that I find: Maximum speed: 120 knots (222 km/h) Cruise speed: 70 knots (130 km/h) Range: up to 4,000 km (2,160 nmi)[217] Communication range: line-of-sight propagation, < 300 kilometers (186 mi) Service ceiling: 25,000 ft (7,620 m) Operational altitude: 18,000 ft (5,486 m) Endurance: 27 hours Payload: 150 kg (331 lb) Armaments: Hardpoints: four hardpoints with provisions to carry combinations of different armaments. I also find that the price for...

    Mr Howitzer Contest I thought all cannons are the thing of the past already, but it appears it still in use by armies, and we saw a wide range of different howitzers coming into play. I understand it became very used when both sides stopped advancing and stopped in their positions.  It seems that howitzers can be still extensively used and there were comments that they were used so extensively that over a few months finished all the firing resource. So we are talking about a range of 21-23 kms for US M777 howitzer, 42 kms for CAESAR self-propelled howitzer, up to 47 km depending on round model for Panzerhaubitze 2000. Operating ranges of self-propelled howitzers are specified in a few hundred kilometers as they of course can change position very quickly. I tried to look for information how accurate are these weapons. General comment being that artillery is not a precise weapon, there are some indications depending on type and round used it can be within 150m...

    Economy of War Weapons used recently and the strategies as well have evolved quite a bit. I had to go quite far in the research to find the weapon that I was looking for, Phalanx CIWS (gun-based close-in weapon system), that was used in the beginning of the operations. Also, show of the force by suddenly appearing in the sky finished by embarrassing result long discussed on internet for groups of Aligator attack helicopters. Without speaking of all the losses the economy of war is also incredible in this case. I found on internet without verifying it that "the price of a 20mm autocannon bullet is approximately 15 to 30 USD depending on the type of round used". CIWS machine gun fires 4500-6000 rounds per minute, which makes it a cost of between 67'500 USD to 180'000 USD for one minute of firing. In some clips of a few minutes that were circulating on internet not one but two and more helicopters were shot down. So, it's not only very effective defense but extre...

    Attack Helicopter "Fly" I have seen myself a few Hollywood films where attack helicopter comes to difficult to reach area and can cause big damages spread panic and fly away. It did look very impressive in the films. But again, the same question: how close to reality is what we see in the film? Reality seems very different at least that's the conclusion that I am making. Of course provided that those who are attacked have necessary defence weapons. With that attack helicopters are extremely vulnerable. With relatively low speed and low altitude they are a perfect target in open space for defence systems. The same as with tanks the utility and use of them should be carefully thought over. The definition remains the same, an attack helicopter is an armed helicopter with the primary role of an attack aircraft, with the offensive capability of engaging ground targets such as enemy infantry, military vehicles and fortifications .  However, the defence systems advanced so m...

   Playing Smart I am no institute for military strategies or other strategies. But there are some who already talk about drawing some conclusions, like IISS.  Without going through the material that is available, and being a bit "an expert" like sports coach as many are when watching some games on TV, it is clear that easy ride with tanks through the country era is over and this should not be the starting point of any military operation. And doing so may be a serious mistake taking big losses.  So, when somebody is not awaited to make a parade on the streets, one should keep the tanks for later when the parade can be done whether welcomed or not. That's one.

   Coca Cola, Mc Donald's and Javelin One new trade mark word that I leard about a year ago is Javelin. I should probably call the title Coca Cola Zero, Big Mac and Javelin to be more precise. But given the marketing campaign that they had in the mass media it's a bit sarcastic joke. Javelin is a single man-portable fire-and-forget medium-range antitank weapon system designed to defeat all known and projected threat armor.  Javelin was developed and produced for the U.S. Army and Marine Corps by the Javelin Joint Venture between Lockheed Martin in Orlando, Florida and Raytheon in Tucson, Arizona. I will not go into details on functioning and all technical characteristics which can be checked on internet, but again to my surprise when I was quite skeptical seeing some Eastern European countries ordering these weapons for their defence, they proved to be quite effective actually or very effective in some cases. In Lithuania we have and expression "alone in field not a soldi...

  World of Tanks You can find on internet that " main battle tanks are a key component of modern armies ". For me, who had military education watching old Soviet films from World War II it also seemed liked that. And with what I find in the news I have changed my opinion on tanks.  After seeing articles on internet like " Russian army has lost up to half of key battle tanks, analysts estimate " I start to think that this my old idea of difficult to face tanks is no longer true.  I read in the same article that "they (tanks) were picked off by [...] artillery and infantry using anti-tank weapons. We could see a lot of articles on anti-tank weapons that it seems developed so much that they make now a serious threat to this "key component" of traditional army.

  Military Games Like me you are probably are faced with this situation where you find more information about military equipment in the mass media. With all the negative sides it is an occasion to find out more about some of the military achievements and to learn something new at the same time. Which is always good. So we add a little section to our blog story called Military Games to share or to provide some links to the information that I find interesting for myself and maybe it will be interesting for somebody else as well. There is no secret information here of course, all is from the sources freely available on the internet on some specific sites or main internet publications.