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Russian troops are proving that cell phones in war zones are a very bad idea:
It’s been a nightmare scenario for U.S. commanders for years: An amphibious readiness group sails stealthily towards its objective, one reckless Marine or sailor goes topside and uses a personal cell phone to check Facebook, revealing the position of the assault ship. The Chinese or Russians quickly detect the cell phone signal in the middle of the ocean and realize they can’t miss. The enemy fires its anti-ship ballistic or cruise missiles at Pfc./Seaman Schmuckatelli as he posts a meme and suddenly the entire ship along with thousands of sailors and Marines are lying on the ocean floor.
To some, this type of scenario may seem as hyperbolic as warnings that wearing white socks in combat could give away your location to the enemy, but Russian troops in Ukraine have shown the perils of using cell phones in modern-day warzones.
The Ukrainians claim to have killed 12 general Russian officers since late February, in part because the Russians have resorted to using cell phones when their communications systems break down.
“It is not hard to geo-locate someone on a phone talking in the clear,” retired Army Gen. Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. Army Europe, told the New York Times.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bradley13 on Monday May 16 2022, @12:31PM (5 children)
Well, Russia is generally showing the world how *not* to wage a war.
That said, I'm not sure how much better Western militaries would do. The US, for example, certainly showed how *not* to conquer Afghanistan, and definitely how *not* to withdraw.
Russia, however, seems intent on making every mistake in the book: poor logistics, poor intelligence, poor strategy, poor training, poor troop discipline. On top of all that, they have obviously done an equally rotten job on the political front, having turned their country into an international pariah.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by looorg on Monday May 16 2022, @01:06PM (2 children)
Not sure. This seems to be the same superpower-proxy-bullshit as we have seen for the last half century. They don't really want to do war with each other so instead they are content with fucking the other one over when they are at war (or whatever they like to call it at the time). Afghanistan, first the Russians get there and the US fucks them over. Then when the US takes their turn the Russians do all they can to fuck them over in return. Vietnam, Korea, Iraq etc the list just goes on. The Ukraine is just another brick in that long running game. One of them does something and the other one just instantly supports whomever is there to fight back with guns, training, resources of some kind etc to totally fuck over the other power. They have no interest in this being a short war, they want to prolong that shit for as long as they can to make the other one bleed and suffer.
That said yes it does seem that this wasn't planned or executed very well. One clearly wonders what they thought would happen. But I guess they figured that this kind of annexation freedom special operation thing (or whatever they call it now) has worked fine in other former soviet republics and nobody have really cared all that much. Mostly cause it has been so far away but now that it's a bit closer it has become a big problem. But still one wonders what their planning looked like? They assumed the west would stop at sending a strongly worded letter to the UN as per usual or something? Seems like they are now instead funneling in massive amounts of resources (money, weapons, volunteers etc). So that the operation isn't going according to plan is one thing. But I doubt Russia is really going to lose, they might not just win as much as they had hoped they would.
Also the reporting we get here in the west seems very one sided. It's hard to take most of it very seriously. So far this (and last) week Putin has had several deadly diseases, there is a military coup in the making, he is going to get assassinated any day now, the war is going to shit, there is going to be some Stalin-like-purge to correct this. All the while the Ukrainian side are apparently now winning the war, I suspect from how the reporting goes that their army will be at the gates of Moscow before the end of summer ...
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 16 2022, @05:30PM
I was thinking the same thing at the beginning of March. But what is happening on the ground now doesn't really support that conclusion. Russian troops, who were always poorly prepared for this fight, are now refusing to attack and fragging their officers. Meanwhile, their officers seem committed to throwing any troops they can actually get to fight into doomed offensives. Something has gone wrong in their chain of command that not only doesn't allow them to admit defeat, it doesn't even allow them to regroup until they are better prepared. If they keep going this way, their army will completely shatter.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday May 16 2022, @08:49PM
From the "two weeks to flatten the curve" department.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Monday May 16 2022, @03:23PM (1 child)
That is what the Western media coverage is saying, for sure... What is the picture from sources like RT? Yes RT is biased, but...
The proof will be in the timing of Russian withdrawl. In the meantime, media spin will be fierce on both sides.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 17 2022, @05:08PM
RT aren't biased. They are liars of the worst sort. Nothing of value is lost by ignoring them.