[MRCA] NYT video on russian army ham radio intercepts

[MARK DORNEY]

While the Russian Army hasn’t operated totally bereft of electronic communications,  they for the most part have not deployed electronic communication systems as widely as western armies really since World War Two. It’s just never been a part of their doctrine. Operations are heavily pre planned and scheduled. As long as operations go according to plan and units meet their objectives on schedule, things run pretty smoothly. Upset that operation schedule, and things go south for the Russians in a big hurry. Use of overwhelming force and in many cases blunt frontal attacks works for the Russian conscript army - movement is simply planned and carried out, and while costly to the Russian Army, achieves success simply through the use of overwhelming numbers and brute force. But the situation changes when a determined defender can slow the attacking Russian force and inflict enough casualties and destroy enough combat vehicles so that the blunt force assault by Russian forces can not be sustained. That is what is happening now in Ukraine. And so far, the Russian military hasn’t found an answer that really works for them.   Part of the problem they have is that they don’t really have an army that is as well trained and technologically savy as Western armies. The Russian military is made up mostly of very underpaid conscripts that serve anywhere from 3 to 5 years, and then go home. Professional knowledge is simply lost.  There is very little incentive especially for enlisted personnel to serve beyond their mandatory term of service.  Military service is hard, and the pay is really low.  The Equipment procurement process is also rife with corruption. People in high places are making a lot of money providing equipment that simply doesn’t cut the mustard. While there is a Russian saying that “The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good Enough”, it turns out that in many cases, the equipment isn’t even good enough and what is good enough isn’t produced and supplied in enough quantity to make a real difference.  

The Russians are also experiencing running up against a force that is determined enough, equipped well enough and are fighting in large numbers. They really haven’t experienced this since late in Afghanistan ( and that also failed for them ).  Self determination, in the end, is determined not by some invading army, but by a peoples willingness to stand up and fight for themselves and to earn it themselves. It’s a situation that is not unique to Ukraine. The Russians are not the only government that has forgotten that lesson and paid a heavy toll for their forgetfulness. 

Mark D. 
WW2RDO

“In matters of style, float with the current. In matters of Principle, stand like a rock. “.   -   Thomas Jefferson 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 24, 2022, at 4:19 PM, Tom B <tbryan at nova.org> wrote:
> About half way down the page, this article has some specific models of radios used.  I think there are mistakes in some of the model numbers.  The R-129, R-130, and R-131 are very old.  I don't think they would use these.
> 
> R-123, R-173, and R-159 are conventional VHF FM.  R-143 is an HF manpack, but there is also a mobile mount for it.
> 
> https://old.defence-ua.com/index.php/en/publications/defense-express-publications/8034-what-military-technologies-russia-is-testing-in-ukraine
> 
> Tom N3AJA
> 
> 
>> On 3/24/2022 3:51 PM, MICHAEL ST ANGELO wrote:
>> Use of commercial communications when military equipment is not available has been used in the past. Remember when Navy SEALS used the phone to contact the SEAL command when the batteries died on their radio:
>> 
>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_operations_conducted_by_SEAL_Team_Six*Governor-General's_mansion__;Iw!!KfGNmQmE!mZU14eS0jaLmG--y_Ijk6i2vKoHp4OS4xMlNCGO06dAtUKmFjrAOMqfWdgau8JK9MrZfe5utqk_qAthP$ >
>> 
>> Mike N2MS
>> 
>> 
>>>> On 03/24/2022 2:02 PM W2HX <w2hx at w2hx.com> wrote:
>>>  Adding the army-radios list. I think this is a very interesting article you sent, Mike. Thanks for sharing it.
>>> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://defence-blog.com/russian-soldiers-uses-chinese-portable-radios-during-kremlins-invasion-of-ukraine/__;!!KfGNmQmE!mZU14eS0jaLmG--y_Ijk6i2vKoHp4OS4xMlNCGO06dAtUKmFjrAOMqfWdgau8JK9MrZfe5utqmuZA0ap$
>>> 73 Eugene W2HX
>>> Subscribe to my Youtube Channel: https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.youtube.com/c/w2hx-channel/videos__;!!KfGNmQmE!mZU14eS0jaLmG--y_Ijk6i2vKoHp4OS4xMlNCGO06dAtUKmFjrAOMqfWdgau8JK9MrZfe5utqlGHgg1G$
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net <mrca-bounces at mailman.qth.net> On Behalf Of MICHAEL ST ANGELO
>>> Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2022 1:56 PM
>>> To: mrca at mailman.qth.net
>>> Subject: Re: [MRCA] NYT video on russian army ham radio intercepts
>>> They don't even bother getting mil clones:
>>> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://defence-blog.com/russian-soldiers-uses-chinese-portable-radios-during-kremlins-invasion-of-ukraine/__;!!KfGNmQmE!mZU14eS0jaLmG--y_Ijk6i2vKoHp4OS4xMlNCGO06dAtUKmFjrAOMqfWdgau8JK9MrZfe5utqmuZA0ap$ >
>>> Mike N2MS
>>>> On 03/24/2022 1:00 PM W2HX <w2hx at w2hx.com> wrote:
>>>> I recently watched a great video on youtube about the Russian army and why, despite its massive investments in equipment and technology, is not well-suited for an invasion like Ukraine. But in that video they explained that the Azart apparently was a disaster of a program and that they only recently got deployment started and therefore in very limited numbers. Baofeng has been selling radios to the Russian miliary. It would be funny if the Russians thought they were buying real Harris PRC-152s and never realized they were TCA/TRI models! haha
>>>> 73 Eugene
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