Ukraine - Russia Conflict

Russia having some problem in Dagestan... again.

The Crimean Wind Telegram channel published elements of the rocket that fell on the heads of the beachgoers today. It’s too early to rush to conclusions, but this is certainly not ATACMS, but more similar to the 9M330 missile system of the Tor-M2 air defense system. Using the Tor-M2 air defense system to intercept a ballistic missile is stupid and pointless. In turn, if the rocket fails to cope with the task, its self-destruction system is triggered. It is possible that the missile, which failed to intercept the airborne object, self-destructed right above the heads of the “vacationers.”

 
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So this is now the anniversary of Wagner's aborted mutiny. Let's celebrate the occasion by looking at the very serious and totally honest official investigation into the very very mysterious and enigmatic crash of Prigozhin's plane.


1/ A year ago today, Yevgeny Prigozhin launched his failed rebellion against Vladimir Putin. Exactly two months later he died in a suspicious plane crash which has been the focus of a pseudo-investigation by the Russian authorities. What has it found?​
2/ While Russia has competent air crash investigators, the investigation into the crash of Prigozhin's Embraer Legacy 600 jet, owned by MNT-Aero, has been hindered from the start by the high likelihood that the crash was the result of an assassination ordered by Putin himself.​
3/ In October 2023, Putin seemingly pre-judged the results of the investigation by claiming that "hand grenade fragments were found in the bodies of those killed in the plane crash" and insinuating that there may have been "alcohol and drugs" in their blood.​
4/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel has recently published a series of reports from inside the investigation. It highlights a range of findings as well as serious irregularities in how the investigation has progressed.​
5/ After the aircraft crashed near Kuzhenkino on 23 August 2023, its remains were reportedly dumped in a production workshop at Spetstekhnika JSC, a weapons and ammunition supplier to the Russian Ministry of Defence, about 30 km away in the closed military settlement of Ozyorny.​
6/ According to a source, the aircraft parts and debris were "thrown ... literally on the floor in the production area" and is still "lying dead weight" there. It was reportedly recently moved into an unused production workshop to make space for production to resume.​
7/ Spetstekhnika's management is said to have "no stamps, instructions, receipts or any documents at all. Requests to get to the bottom of the situation are ignored: MNT-Aero is in bankruptcy, and investigators and special services are only shifting responsibility to each other."​
8/ The debris does not include the black boxes, which were reportedly found intact but were seized and classified immediately by the FSB. Investigators are said to have been told to base their conclusions on data from other sources, excluding the flight data recorders.​
9/ The contents of the flight data recorders have not been disclosed. The FSB reportedly hired employees of the Aviation Register of Russia to clean them, but strictly prohibited them from looking at the contents.​
10/ Investigators were blocked from accessing documentation apart from the pilots' licences at Sheremetyevo Airport, from where the plane took off. An investigator from Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency was only reportedly allowed to interview a few of the ground staff.​
11/ The only item of documentation said to have been recovered was a crumpled inspection document for Prigozhin’s plane, which was found on the runway where the plane was parked before departure. For some reason, the crew seem to have thrown it away before departure.​
12/ However, this document was reportedly immediately confiscated from the investigators by the FSB. Its significance is unclear. The investigators were also denied access to security camera footage, which could potentially have shown the plane being tampered with.​
13/ The investigation is said to have found with a 90% probability that the plane was being subjected to electronic jamming shortly before and during the crash sequence. No mayday call was received from the pilots before it hit the ground.​
14/ The wives of several of Prigozhin's bodyguards aboard the plane were talking with their husbands before the crash. They have said that the phone connections simultaneously failed abruptly even before the explosion that brought the plane down.​
15/ The explosion happened well before footage was recorded showing the plane falling out of the sky. It was small, but powerful enough to cause the crash. The aircraft left a debris trail nearly 6 km long on the ground as it gradually disintegrated.​
16/ According to the experts, the aircraft flew for 3.5 km after the explosion, leaving small pieces of debris on the ground. At that point, the aircraft's overloaded keel beam failed and a wing fell off.​
17/ It travelled another 2 km before striking the ground and bursting into flames. The pilots were found in their seats and their bodies were reportedly not damaged by the explosion. They are believed to have remained conscious throughout and likely tried to save the plane.​
18/ No drugs, alcohol or grenade fragments are reported to have been found in the passengers' bodies or the wreckage. However, given that Putin has specifically advocated this theory, it seems unlikely that any other conclusion will be allowed.​
19/ Notably, the investigative commission is headed by Rosaviatsiya employee Valery Luchinin, who was part of the team which "investigated" the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Russian-occupied Ukraine in 2014.​
20/ As VChK-OGPU puts it, he is "known for his participation in the investigation of many high-profile aircraft accidents and fitting them into the version specified from above."​
According to the channel, the investigators have been told they have two options:​
21/ "First, on a signal from above, taking into account Putin's statement about cocaine ... and grenades, data will be received, [about] what the results should be.​
22/ And, the second, most likely – all materials will be classified forever and the results of the "investigation" will not be made public at all." /end​

As you can see, this is done with all the rigor and integrity we can expect from russia.
 

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The Hawkeye’s firing range with standard ammunition is 11.6 kilometers, and it can reach up to 19.5 kilometers with rocket-assisted projectiles. The maximum firing rate is eight rounds per minute for three minutes, with a sustained rate of three rounds per minute. The howitzer can use the full range of 105 mm ammunition utilized by the U.S. Army.

The fire control system includes an M137A2 optical telescope sight and a digital system MG 9000. This digital system comprises an LN-270 inertial navigation system from Northrop Grumman, a DFS-02 direct fire sight camera from Sekai Electronics, Inc, an S67-1575-76 GPS antenna from Sensor Systems Inc, a Weibul Scientific muzzle velocity radar, and a Mandus display unit for the gunner.

 
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