cctaacc

Such an amazing game, wish I could forget it entirely and play it fresh.

As far as we know there's no UMPK kit for the 9000kg bombs.

Even if there were one, dropping such a load would require a TU-95 bomber which isn't used in this conflict. Every glide bomb so far has been dropped by fighter aircraft whose weapon pylons support up to a maximum weight of 3000kg per pylon, dependent on the jet and particular hardpoint.

Besides, dropping several smaller warheads is in general more effective than one single massive one.

Edit: in case you want to see the preparation & deployment of the largest explosives (FAB-3000) currently used by Russia in Ukraine: https://old.reddit.com/r/UkraineRussiaReport/comments/1e2wb9y/ru_pov_fab3000_installation_and_delivery/

Bombing runways is almost completely useless unless done on a daily basis, since the repairs can be done quickly and cheaper than the cost of whatever ballistic missile they use. Blowing up the airplanes in the hangars incurs an irrecoverable loss to the tune of a hundred million dollars give or take.

But even were Iran or anyone else to hit some expensive F-35 or similar NATO bullshit plane they will never confirm the loss officially or do so reluctantly weeks later; case in point, the whole F-16 debacle currently in Ukraine.

The "vampire drones" aren't drones but 122mm rockets fired from an Czech RM-70 MLRS, an unguided saturation bombardment weapon aimed at civilians for the umpteenth time by Ukraine. Since these are relatively short range weapons they've started bombarding Belgorod more since Donetsk city isn't within safe firing ranges anymore after the fall of Avdiivka.

You have a point there yeah, I've seen drones get stuck in netting/windows of vehicles without detonating, something that could technically happen to an ATGM but way less likely. I was more thinking along the lines of solid metal cages where they might be redirected due to the angle but almost always detonate.

Speed of the projectile actually doesn't matter much at all for FPV drones or ATGMs, they help in catching up to the target but both methods utilize HEAT warheads which are not kinetic weapons. Upon impact an inverted cup of copper inside the warhead is heated and propelled forward by the explosion, this metal jet punches through the armor making a relatively tiny hole and igniting/penetrating vital components or the crew, it can also cause spalling on the inside of the vehicle.

Kinetic weapons on the other hand, such as armor piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot rounds fired from main battle tanks, rely on a solid metal core being propelled at high velocities and do lose power over long distances.

What does weaken HEAT warheads is the distance the molten copper jet travels, spaced armor makes sure it detonates farther away from the armor and exposes the heated metal to open air thereby cooling it somewhat before making contact with the actual vehicle. As the other comment said, badly spaced armor can actually increase the effectiveness of HEAT warheads but I'm sure soldiers keep this in mind when doing these types of modifications to their vehicles.

As for the point defense guns, those aren't a thing on vehicles. We have seen small generators plastered on Russian "turtle tanks" but those are to power electronic warfare units on the outside of the spaced armor, these devices block certain radio frequencies in a short radius around the tank in the hopes of breaking the connection between a hostile drone and its operator.

This map has daily updates showing changes in territory which have been confirmed either by geolocation or multiple sources, both Russian and Ukrainian, reporting said changes.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1Iq3OLZYhIJ3WN5Lrn8jlkCjpY8Cd9uY

If you want a rough overview of the big movements over the last months have this very detailed completely 100% accurate image that I made over the course of several hours.

Pink area was under Ukrainian control at the start of February with the most important part being Avdiivka, a city fortified since 2014 and the point from which Donetsk civilians were regularly bombarded by Ukrainian forces. This fell after a massive Russian air campaign with glide bombs, a sneaky sewer tunnel getting troops behind Ukrainian lines, and Russians gaining control of the slag deposit of the nearby coke plant which gave them the high ground and fire control over the entire city and its supply routes.

After the fall of Avdiivka and the Ukrainian retreat the front stabilized at the neon green line, this second line of defense was breached along a highway marked with the black arrows. Russian forces pushed about 3km behind Ukrainian lines and captured Ocheretyne and started pushing south, capturing Soloviove and Novobakhmutivka, which threatened encirclement for Berdychi and Semenivka to the south-east and consequently the Ukrainians retreated from those positions. Russian forces also pushed north and north-west of Ocheretyne capturing parts Arkhanhelske which again threatened encirclement and led to the retreat of Ukrainian forces from Keramik and surrounding fields.

As a last point the brown line represents a rough third Ukrainian defensive line, this line is less fortified as the first two and is possibly a target for Russian forces as after this there are increasingly sparse fortifications. As the Russian army does not broadcast its strategy in advance, unlike certain other parties, we don't know the next advances. There are speculations of the Russians advancing west to the town of Progres to once again outflank a Ukrainian defensive line, or advancing north towards the highway in order to weaken Toretsk to the north-east, or advance south-west towards the vovcha-river to capture the basically empty fields to the south.

There have been numerous expensive mishaps with Russian anti-air downing their own air assets in this war, and as the other poster said, it's not unique to this war or Russia. The locations in which the supposed A-50 losses were downed are too far removed from the front for Ukrainian anti-air to realistically engage them. Unless Ukraine decided to move their precious anti-air assets right up to the front line which would be very obvious and exposes them to all sorts of weaponry.

Russians have lost 2 so far it seems, both shot down by their own anti-air. The one struck in Belarus was supposedly superficial damage. Most of this info is completely unconfirmed except by "trusted" sources which are Russian military telegram accounts.