“Eastern Ukraine – The cheetah takes Iran’s kamikaze drones out of the sky. Germany has delivered 30 anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine so far. BILD was the first medium to meet the crew of a cheetah. Her experience so far: highly positive. Especially against the Iranian Kamikaze drones of the type Shahed-136, the cheetah is extremely effective!” It’s a very good system,” says the gunner, codenamed Max. The cheetah has proven itself in various roles all over the country. Now it is also being used to protect critical infrastructure – as it was on this day.
“I haven’t had breakfast today,” says Max. Because already in the early morning he had the first mission – the Russian army fired on this day again massive missiles at civilian targets throughout Ukraine. There is also alarm in the northeast of the country, where Max and his comrades are stationed.
“We went out and had also detected two incoming ballistic missiles, but they were just out of range.””
Ukrainians cheer German system: This cheetah shoots down the mullah drones | Politics | BILD.de
“The C.I.A. director meets with his Russian counterpart to warn against the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
The National Security Council said William J. Burns’s meeting was not in any way to negotiate or to discuss any settlement of the war in Ukraine.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/14/world/europe/cia-burns-ukraine-russia-nuclear.html
Moon of Alabama doesn’t think they are discussing nukes in Turkey. Neither do I. I think , or better, hope, that they are discussing non-humiliating off ramps, or peace agreements. (Don’t repeat Versailles). Very nasty explosions yesterday in Turkey where these Burns – Naryshkin talks are being held. In Istanbul there are lots of possibilities.
I remember reading in Chiukov’s book “The Road to Berlin” (It was published with different titles, my favorite was “The End of the Third Reich”, I once owned a early 60s paperback edition, one of my all time favorite books, as much as for talismanic power than anything else. I would simply look at it and think about the title, which filled me with a joy) about how there was an idea that the severe allied bombings of German cities late in the war had behind them the idea to force relocation back to Germany of their powerful 88 caliber anti-aircraft guns because they were making the Russian close air support by their Yak aircraft fighter bombers very difficult. I have no idea how grounded in reality that formulation was.
If you cite the Moonie here your piece will not be published. You are notified.
I second your moonie resolution.Site need to shut down.Too much disinformation.
Its a Beautiful Machine…
Say what you want about Germans..They are Brilliant Engineers..
JT
Wow – this is really something
I always read and show these articles to my son who is into all this kind of thing – he explains to me so I do not need to bother you with questions Col. Lang.
My German language knowledge is rusty – good for translate programs
I really liked this quote from the end of the article.
‘Has his cheetah ever been targeted by the Russians to weaken Ukraine’s air defenses?
“Unfortunately not,” says Max. Although a Russian jet launched an airstrike on his convoy, it was out of range. “The next cheetah got him down”. Max laughs: “I hope they try it again with me”.’
It must be immensely satisfying to take out a drone this way – saw he got two Russian cruise missiles also? Damn impressive.
F&L –
The Red Air Force in WW2 mostly used the Ilyushin IL-2 ‘Shturmovik’ for close air support (CAS). But their understanding of CAS was different than ours. Regarding the German 88s, their rate of fire was much too low to effectively score a hit on the Il-2s once the pilots adjusted their tactics to fly low and fast. Occasionally the Soviets did use Petlyakov Pe-2 dive bombers or even Polykarpov Po-2 biplanes in a CAS role but they were not as good. Osprey publishing put out a good book on the IL-2 years ago.
I believe most Yak aircraft in WW2 were not used for CAS. They were mostly designed to be air-to-air fighters. Although there were some light bombers especially the Yak-9 used in an anti-tank role, which like the IL-2 could drop hundreds of 2.5kg mini shaped charge bomblets in a single drop on panzer units.
Makes sense, thanks. Chiukov’s two books were in large part exercises in inspiration and appreciation of his troops, nevertheless fascinating. Possibly my memory is muddling info from another source. I remember an email exchange I had with a much younger friend who is a science fiction writer wherein I tried to disabuse him of his naive ideas based on reading Kurt Vonnegut’s fiction. The guy considered himself an expert on the war because he read Slaughterhouse Five. I enjoyed his writing too and also deplore fire bombings, but Vonnegut’s death numbers were way off as were most of the Air Corps ordnance.
“We went out and had also detected two incoming ballistic missiles, but they were just out of range.”
Wait, what? Are they going after ballistic missiles or Shahed-136s?
JamesT,
The Gepard can go after anything that gets within the range of its 35mm guns, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, helicopters, jet or prop aircraft and drones. They could probably tear up a flock of angry birds if sufficiently provoked.
TTG,
I see. I do think that it will be hard for Gepard’s to shoot down low flying Shahed-136s because as I understand it such cruise missiles need to be within the Gepard’s ‘line of sight’, but let’s see how they and the NASAMS do.
I wonder if Putin is kicking himself for spending his meager budget on Kalibrs when it appears that Shahed-136s get the job done for a fraction of the price.
JamesT,
In addition to the Gepard and NASMS, there’s the IRIS-T, Avenger and Aspide along with the remaining S-300s, the old Hawk systems on their way and the Stingers which have been there since the beginning. I’m sure I’ve missed some.
Cheap drones and lots of them do seem to be a thing now… until a reliable and cheap counter is fielded.
Tues..15th…Todays Massive Russian Missle attacks on 15 Energy targets..blowing out the Power Grids..Ahead of the coming Freeze,,Was apparently Done With Russian
X-101 and X-555 Cruise Missles..70 were shot down according to UK Reports..Many Got thrrough…The Issue now are the 2 hitting Poland just across the border killing Two..
The escalation I have expected From The Russians..Typical..
Col. Lang is Right. Immediate Ruthless Pursuit..Non Stop..
JT