He’s a software engineer with a history of operating anti-tank weapons in the US military. For some reason, his recent videos on how to go about taking out Russian tanks seem to have some sort of relevance. If you know anyone who might be in the market for enlightenment on how to convert a Russian tank into ex-Russian scrap metal, point them this way.
Also some interesting general knowledge videos.
Not just any lawmaker… this is Assemblyman Jim Cooper D-Elk Grove, who in 2016 authored a bill to ban the right to make your own firearm. He doesn’t want *you* to have a gun, but boy howdy he sure wants his own.
If this was *you,* you’d spend a good chunk of the rest of your life in prison. This guy? No charges. In fact, they held onto his gun for him, returning it as soon as he got back from his trip. Why? Because he’s former law enforcement, and they’re allowed to have firearms in certain areas of the airport. Where they’re *not* allowed to take a firearm is on an airplane, where he was trying to take his gun, stashed in his man-purse.
If these jackholes didn’t have double standards, they’d have no standards at all.
A remarkable video depicting the last moments of Russian tank, as seen from an overhead drone. The tank looks to take several anti-tank rockets… probably smaller, short-range types, but they eventually get the job done. It gets a track damaged by a hit, and as it backs up it sheds the track; one crewman (looks like the driver) escapes, rolls off the front and runs away. But he doesn’t get far before an exterior explosion (mortar?) knocks him down and sets him crawling. A few seconds later, some *stuff* comes flying into view and crashes down onto the road; at first I thought it was a body, but on review it just looks like… well, stuff. The camera switches view and it looks like there might have been a second tank to get trashed not far away, perhaps it exploded and tossed bits of junk into the earlier view. No infantry support is in evidence. The operation seems to be run on Stupid Mode.
This Special Military Operation sure seems to have one hell of pricetag.
Brandon Herrara goes through some of the firearms of the current conflict. Unsurprisingly, the Ukrainians are using some odd and presumably obsolete weapons; this should be expected from a small military being steamrolled. BUT: there are Russians equipped with 19th-century-designed Mosin-Nagant bolt action rifles. They are equipped with modern rifles set up for optics, but they don’t seem to actually *have* optics. If I was a Russian soldier, I’d be a little ticked off to be sent into battle with an incomplete firearm; I’d be a *lot* ticked off to be sent into battle with a bolt action rifle. Ukrainian soldiers on the whole seem better equipped than the Russians.
And Forgotten Weapons comments on a prior video…
Some videos of interest. First: Ukrainian auto mechanics are busy at work converting captured heavy machine guns from Russian armored vehicles into hand-held weapons to turn back onto the Russians:
Second, a video showing trashed Russian vehicles. *Lots* of trashed Russian vehicles. Turns out lining up your vehicles on roads is sometimes a terminally bad idea. And a lot of armored vehicles in a town, destroyed or abandoned.
And a tank battle in an urban environment without infantry support. The tank you see here is close enough to the cameraman that he could’ve just *walked* up to it and poured napalm onto it. If he’d had *any* sort of rocket propelled grenade or LAW he could have shot from the hip and bullseye’d that tank and turned it into a pyre. One wonders if the video cut off when it did because he reached for his handy anti-tank weapon for an *easy* kill.
I know a lot of people think that Putin is playing some 4D chess thing here, leading the Ukrainians into a false sense of hope. Well, maybe… but if so, he’s taking his sweet time on springing the trap and in the mean time he’s squandering a hell of a lot of Russian lives with *stupid* tactics. One would think that if these sort of videos were widely disseminated among the Russian populace, they’d be pissed off enough to actually do something. It would surprise me exactly none at all if the Russian military has lost more soldiers in the last two weeks in Ukraine than the United States military lost in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last twenty years.
Whatever it is, it really does a number on this tank, *presumably* Russian.
Some commenters claims to be able to see someone on fire fleeing the tank at 0:22, but I can’t see ’em.
An interesting video, purporting to show combat from the point of view of someone embedded with Ukrainian forces. It may or may not be wise to have so little respect for your enemy, but it *is* funny. The Ukrainians seem to have some interesting weapons. Is it too much to ask that the US government hand out such things to Americans?
A simulation of what *could* have happened had an A-10 gone up against that kilometers-long Russian convoy in Ukraine. Note: The Russians would have had to have been particularly accommodating for this to happen… stay bunched up on the road, don’t shoot back, no air cover. Still, it’s interesting the sheer volume of destruction that could have been unleashed.
Most videos showing helicopters, either Ukrainian or Russian, getting shot down are from such a long distance that you can’t really see anything. but the video below is reasonably clear; the Hind takes a Stinger (or perhaps a Javelin) straight to the engines and promptly plummets from the sky. A bad few seconds for the crew. Of course, the possibility always exists that this is yet another computer simulation, but it certainly looks realistic.
Yeesh, I am *terrible* at advertising. Just realized I missed reporting on *several* months worth of rewards packages for APR patrons and Monthly Historical Documents program subscribers.
December 2021 rewards:
Document: “B-52G Advanced Configuration Mockup inspection,” Boeing presentation on the design of the then-new B-52G configuration
Document: “Performance Potential Hydrogen Fueled, Airbreathing Cruise Aircraft, Final report, Volume I, Summary” 1966 Convair report on hydrogen fueled hypersonic jetliners
Document: “Integral Launch and Reentry Logistics System” late-60’s Space Division of North American Rockwell presentation on very early Space Shuttle-type systems
Art: Large format McDonnell Douglas DC-10 cutaway
CAD Diagram: Convair MA-1 pod for B-58
January 2022 rewards:
Document: “The Configuration of the European Spaceplane Hermes,” 1990 conference paper on the unbuilt French spaceplane
Document: “Space Rescue Charts,” 1965 USAF presentation charts describing space “life rafts” and shelters
Document: Two nuclear-powered car brochures… Ford “Gyron” and Ford “Seattle-ite XXI”
Diagram: “AGM28 Hound Dog Missile,” North American Aviation informational graphic
CAD Diagram: Boeing MX-1965 missile
February 2022 Rewards:
Diagram: Boeing 720-022 model diagram, United Airlines configuration
Document: Aerojet Ordnance Company brochure, describes aircraft ammo
Document: “The Nova (Liquid) Vehicle a Preliminary Project Development Plan,” October 1961 NASA-MSFC report on facilities planning for the “Saturn C-8” configuration of the Nova vehicle
Document: “Ground Handling Equipment and Procedures for a X-15 Research Aircraft Project 1226,” 1955 North American Aviation report on the early B-36-launched design for the X-15
CAD Diagram: F-111 Escape capsule
If you would like to help fund the acquisition and preservation of such things, along with getting high quality scans for yourself, please consider signing on either for the APR Patreon or the APR Monthly Historical Documents Program. Back issues are available for purchase by patrons and subscribers.