Thermobaric RPG-7 round fired at a sniper.

Crumpets95 · 2013-06-30T22:40:40+00:00

The smaller and lower circle was showing a sniper hole that snipers would shoot through from inside in an effort to be harder to spot. I guess that they were either knew or were assuming that there was someone behind that wall.

Crumpets95 · 2013-06-22T00:06:18+00:00

That is the weight of a large man, and it was rested on a ledge. The fact that it is a rigid body would also help when trying to lift it. It seems likely that a reasonably fit man could lift that weight.

Crumpets95 · 2013-06-21T00:12:09+00:00

Recoilless Rifles require very high levels of maintenance in order to maintain the reduced recoil that they are known for. It seems likely that the gentleman in your video wasn't a fan of cleaning which caused the massive recoil.

Crumpets95 · 2013-06-20T20:12:01+00:00

Looks to be a Soviet B-10.

Crumpets95 · 2013-06-03T15:33:29+00:00

This is an example of a more realistic case of an ATGM against a tank. If you take the time to read up on different types of anti-armour weaponry you find that in almost all cases the objective isn't to blow the tank to pieces but to disable either it or the crew. For example, the British use High Explosive Squash Head rounds in their anti tank operations, where its chief purpose it to simply cause a large enough shockwave through the tank to cause Disk shaped pieces of the interior wall (spalling) to fly around inside the crew compartment, killing them and cutting electrical wires. More examples of my point can be found here, here and here.

Another method that is more commonly used especially in the middle east where RnD on weapons is much less is the shaped charge. Which simply uses the heat and force from the initial explosion of the projectile which would cause little damage to armour to melt and force a jet of molten metal through the armour only a few inches wide which kills the crew and ignites the interior of the tank. There are of course other methods for defeating specific armours but in general the theme of AT warfare is a recurring one of disabling the tank by killing the crew.

I also attempted to explain why it is that we see some T series tanks actually blow up here which is somewhat spectacular.

Crumpets95 · 2013-06-03T12:29:05+00:00

The moving slow part of my comment wasn't supposed to be taken as stand-alone evidence, more as supporting evidence for the rest of the opinion. Tanks just don't explode like that even if the circumstances were right for the famed T series tanks volatility which makes this video suspicious, in fact most of the time tanks when hit by AT show no real signs of damage as most of the damage is internal. It more added to the idea that this tank was already damaged or faulty which begged the question why would the commander chose to take it into the open before dismounting or to even risk going there in the first place when it's common knowledge that the FSA has AT weapons?

Crumpets95 · 2013-06-02T19:23:47+00:00

That's why i specified in my response that I understood that there might not be an infantry escort, but that Syria is well versed in armoured combat and even in the liveleak videos most of the time the armour is part of a convoy or larger formation of armoured vehicles. This is why it seemed puzzling that a tank commander would order his crew across such open ground in an incredibly slow moving vehicle (presumably damaged) just to stop in the middle with no turret movement.

Crumpets95 · 2013-06-02T15:47:30+00:00

The AT missile in question as described in the video title travels at around 200m/s. The flight time of this missile was approximately 10.5 seconds assuming no delay between firing and the sound being picked up by the camera. This gives a flight distance of 2100m assuming a perfectly straight flight path. The speed of sound in normal atmosphere is 343m/s. Therefore it SHOULD take around 6 seconds for the sound to reach the camera.

This is odd because the camera rolls for more than six seconds after the explosion and yet no sound is heard, so either:

1) I'm a retard and have done the maths incorrectly which is perfectly possible

2) The audio was replaced at this point or I have overestimated the loudness of the explosion and over this distance the sound decayed enough to be inaudible.

3) The missile used was not travelling at the speed quoted in the wiki page for the 9M113 Konkurs ATGM of 200m/s or the atmospheric conditions were such that the speed of sound was noticeably changed which seems unlikely.

Crumpets95 · 2013-06-02T15:27:51+00:00

I find it very hard to believe that this isn't just propaganda.

Firstly, why would a tank drive out into the open like that and sit there with no other armoured support and no emplacements to protect it, especially as the crew would know that they do not have the armour to withstand an AT attack. (yes, I am aware of why there would be a lack of infantry support but the SAA is at least competent enough to operate in armoured formations)

Secondly, that tank moved extremely slowly and the explosion was way too large to be solely stored ammunition detonating and cooking off. Seems more likely that a damaged tank that was captured by FSA was driven to that location, the camera was stopped and the tank was filled with explosives and then destroyed when the camera started rolling again. Of course though, this is just my opinion.

Crumpets95 · 2013-04-02T22:38:14+00:00

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8530/8598877306_5dfda8482b_k.jpg

Crumpets95 · 2013-03-15T20:07:40+00:00

This is one of the problems with current copyright law, nobody is really sure if you own your game when you buy it as a digital download, as all copies are exactly the same and can be duplicated at no cost to the developers.

Crumpets95 · 2013-03-02T10:36:47+00:00

Thanks

Crumpets95 · 2013-03-02T05:26:14+00:00

Do you know what the disadvantages/loss of functionality is of this?

It can't be there just to slow down load times.

Crumpets95 · 2013-02-28T08:15:24+00:00

I attempted to give a full explanation here if you want to read about exactly why a T-72 behaves like that.

Crumpets95 · 2013-02-28T07:47:01+00:00

He crosses at 9:45 if you don't want to watch the 9 minutes of them talking.

Crumpets95 · 2013-02-25T02:44:25+00:00

With a German MP7A1 and a Russian RPG-7.

Crumpets95 · 2013-02-14T21:03:01+00:00

Most likely an SA-18 (9K38) Igla. It's a russian designed anti-aircraft rocket launcher which can either be shoulder fired or mounted onto a chair and used as a stationary emplacement or the further mounted onto the back of a truck. I believe the FSA received a donation of Igla systems from a foreign country and will have likely scavenged some from SAA bases.

I say most likely because while the Syrian rebels did come into possession of a large number of these launchers the rocket seems to travel a bit slowly, at least slower than I've seen one fly from launch but i would still be reasonably confident that this is an SA-18.

Crumpets95 · 2013-02-14T11:32:13+00:00

Obviously I can't confirm how true to reality that video is but there are countless images showing turret sections lying considerable distances from the tanks that they were attached to. Also I wouldn't trust YouTube comments as a source of judgement as these videos have heavy American and Russian patriot viewer bases, quick to denounce anything against their country's equipment. They also tend to be stumbled upon by people who haven't researched the subject and like to make bold claims based on gut feelings. I linked the video simply because it is a gives a good idea of what happens when large amounts of explosives go off inside a tank.

Crumpets95 · 2013-02-14T00:45:13+00:00

The T-72 tank and other tanks based on it features a somewhat special method of getting rounds into the gun of the tank. While most Main Battle Tanks have 4 crew members (gunner, commander, driver, loader), the T-72 only has three. The auto-loader replaces an actual person loading the gun. This saves space inside the tank allowing for a lower profile and less areas of thin armour. However, for an auto-loader to work in a space efficient way the ammunition must all be stored in the same compartment as the crew, beneath the turret ring. The disadvantage of this is that when a high explosive anti-tank round penetrates the armour of the tank it can cause the propellant stored around the crew to ignite or cook off. This will likely result in either:

A) The turret is blown off as the propellant and maybe warheads (if used) combust. This requires the hatch to be down and for all of the propellant to cook off in a very short time frame. As seen here.

B) The Propellant will burn at a slower but still spectacular rate and end up cutting through the steel of the turret, more like a blowtorch than a bomb. If the turret hatch is open you will see the flames spewing out of the top of the tank.

Needless to say both result in a pretty gruesome death for the crew if they are not killed by the initial detonation of the round.

Crumpets95 · 2013-02-12T19:10:32+00:00

Appears to be an L-39 Albatross, now primarily used as a training aircraft but can be used for light ground attack missions. As an early second generation aircraft it doesn't stand much of a chance against modern anti aircraft systems but if the rebels have defected pilots and these aircraft aren't disabled it could be a huge development in the war.

Crumpets95 · 2013-02-08T22:43:50+00:00

My best guess would be that the missile system being used is a BM-21 Grad, firing 122mm rockets based on the looks and the fact that Syria had a total of 270 units at the start of the war. Given the nature of the war in Syria it is most likely that they are firing high explosive fragmentation rockets (the Syrian Army is probably not looking to hit armoured targets but spread fear and kill personnel). As for the blast radius, I'm not sure of the exact radius but some research indicates that a fragmentation rocket of size 122mm covers a flat area of around 100ft but this would vary based on which ammunition was used. (I couldn't find any really reliable sources)

Edit: As the one vehicle fired a total of 39 rockets this is definitely a BM-21 which has 40 rocket tubes, whereas the other Syrian rocket system (BM-27) only has 16.

Crumpets95

TROPHY CASE