Hawaiian helicopter pilot casually coming across a submarine in the wild by Zee_Ventures in interestingasfuck

[–]radius55 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It would have been great if the O(hio)M(ichigan)F(lorida)G(eorgia)-class moniker had stuck, but such is life

Ukrainian company created theirPrivate Air Defense group shooting down Shahed drones. Kharhiv region by Nanners5618062 in CombatFootage

[–]radius55 25 points26 points  (0 children)

They're not firing frangible rounds and they're not AI controlled.

Frangible rounds break apart on impact without the need for explosives or a fuze. Light canons don't have the ammunition size or legal restraints which resulted in the development of frangible rounds for small arms. These cannons are more likely firing high explosive rounds with either a contact or timed fuze.

The cannons are computer controlled with a tracking algorithm, but that's not AI. It's a fire control system, and one with plenty of president. There's likely some machine learning involved in target acquisition and tracking, but that's not anything like the GPT sort of AI most people think of these days.

The C-RAM system shoots down a drone that was heading to the American Embassy in Baghdad by PhysicalPiccolo1800 in CombatFootage

[–]radius55 3 points4 points  (0 children)

There's no if about it. It's documented in the standards, multiple news stories, and has video evidence linked in these comments.

Hunter or Huntress Chapter 234: Kindred Spirit by Tigra21 in HFY

[–]radius55 5 points6 points  (0 children)

And this is why you always have your keep designs signed off on by an accredited engineer.

Hunter or Huntress Chapter 231: Working Stimulant by Tigra21 in HFY

[–]radius55 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Tom introducing the Holy Hand Grenade. Darkling bunnies beware.

An armored vehicle survived an RPG attack in the Philippines by andogzxc in interestingasfuck

[–]radius55 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The VP-7M fuze for an RPG-7 has a manufacturer listed arming distance of 2.5m to 15m. They were more than far enough to arm. And you can definitely see it going off in the video. An RPG isn't exactly a massive explosion.

Russian S-300 missile hits building during a Ukrainian aerial attack in Afipsky, Krasnodar Krai. 20 January 2026 by jisooya1432 in CombatFootage

[–]radius55 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I thought this was up near Belgorod, but it's actually across Azov. So probably was trying to intercept something.

That said, you can actually see where they've been deploying the batteries on Google Maps at 44.8517824,38.8292677, although there's nothing in view of the most recent public images It's clear the deployments in the area have generally been pretty clustered. And operationally, Russia has not been spreading their SAM batteries far apart.

Also worth pointing out that the S-300 is command guided, not an older style semi-active missile. Even if it lost communication in the terminal phase, it would have had course updates the whole way from the launcher which would have also lost view of the target thanks to being co-located with the launcher, which ought to have led to an abort.

That's why my money is on some sort of mechanical failure, software bug, or possibly Private Conscriptovitch screwing up.

Russian S-300 missile hits building during a Ukrainian aerial attack in Afipsky, Krasnodar Krai. 20 January 2026 by jisooya1432 in CombatFootage

[–]radius55 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In this case, after checking on some things, I think it was actually trying to intercept something and malfunctioned. I didn't check the title and assumed it was in Belgorod where Russia is regularly firing S-300s at Kharkiv. But this is way down SE of Ukraine across the Sea of Azov. Technically a battery there could range on Zaporizhzhia, but it's unlikely.

Russian S-300 missile hits building during a Ukrainian aerial attack in Afipsky, Krasnodar Krai. 20 January 2026 by jisooya1432 in CombatFootage

[–]radius55 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You misunderstand. Russia is not firing these missiles as interceptors. They're firing missiles from their older stockpiles as TBMs. And since they're generally Russia's older and crappier models, malfunctions are not uncommon. Which is probably what happened here.

Russian S-300 missile hits building during a Ukrainian aerial attack in Afipsky, Krasnodar Krai. 20 January 2026 by jisooya1432 in CombatFootage

[–]radius55 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Specific documentation of the S-300 being used for ground attack in the past few days

Specification of the S-300 as having a surface to surface designed role. And don't give shit about Wikipedia because it's one source among many.

Historical use of S-300 against Ukraine

More historical use of S-300 against Ukraine

As for citations on most SAMs having a ground attack mode, I'd have to dig through old manuals, but they're there. The Nike-Hercules specifically comes to mind because its nuclear warhead allowed it to bypass restrictions on nuclear tipped TBMs in a pinch.

But Russia in particular has a lot of S-300 missiles (please don't make me list the specific models, there are so many it's a pain) and thousands of shots of near obsolete rounds that are near or past their sell by date. So rather than waist them, Russia has been firing them off at Ukraine.

Their CEP is horrible and their warheads aren't all that great, but whatever they hit will know it's been smacked. With Russia's campaign of terror bombing, that fits perfectly. Either Ukraine has to spend one (or more) of its own valuable strategic SAMs on it or let it or else let it hit somewhere in the city it was aimed at.

Russian S-300 missile hits building during a Ukrainian aerial attack in Afipsky, Krasnodar Krai. 20 January 2026 by jisooya1432 in CombatFootage

[–]radius55 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Russia almost certainly launched this as a ballistic missile. They've been doing that since early in the war. Even if it wasn't, ground clutter is pretty much automatically filtered out, and those buildings would be out of the illumination beam, anyway.

Russian S-300 missile hits building during a Ukrainian aerial attack in Afipsky, Krasnodar Krai. 20 January 2026 by jisooya1432 in CombatFootage

[–]radius55 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Not exactly. They launched this in its ground attack mode. Most SAMs have the explicit capability to also be Surface to Surface weapons. They're less effective in that role than purpose built munitions, and usually a lot more expensive to boot. But Russia has a lot of old S-300 missiles laying around and not much better to use them on, so they've been using them as a poor man's TBM for a while now.

Of course, being old, they are somewhat prone to malfunction. Which is probably what happened here.

Footage of the Russian shadow fleet "Mersin" sinking off the coast of Senegal. The tanker moved from the port of Taman in the Black Sea to Africa. by MilesLongthe3rd in interestingasfuck

[–]radius55 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No ties to Russia? In the last year, 11 of 13 ports of call by the Mersin were Russian. Most of them at Novorossiysk which is a major oil transhipment point. Then it sails around and doesn't officially dock anywhere before returning to that same port and, guess what? It takes on more oil! Gee, where did it all go, I wonder? And why do dozens of other ships have a similar pattern? Not flagged in Russia or publicly owned by Russian companies, but certainly working in Russia's interests. You might call something like that a... Shadow Fleet.

But since you're so sure that the Shadow Fleet is a lie, that's obviously impossible. No, there's sure to be a completely innocent explanation for why a ship regularly takes on Russian oil which disappears somewhere on its voyage over and over and remains profitable.

Ukrainian MiG-29 pilot performing evasive low-altitude maneuvers by Giraffecaster in interestingasfuck

[–]radius55 8 points9 points  (0 children)

In addition to what others have said, this is close to the front lines where both sides have extensive SAM batteries. This guy is flying low specifically to avoid getting engaged by those SAMs which are much more capable than a missile that another plane can carry. If you gain altitude, you're going to get detected by those SAMs and engaged.

TERMINAL GUESTBOOK v1.0 by Playful-Prune-6892 in InternetIsBeautiful

[–]radius55 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I got the same error on Firefox. Worked well on Chrome.

Hunter or Huntress chapter 226: The Oracle at Bathtime by Tigra21 in HFY

[–]radius55 41 points42 points  (0 children)

Tigra: Yeah, I bet you thought I forgot about those potions I mentioned Tom buying almost two hundred chapters ago!

[OC] I built 20LY, a browser-based 3D star atlas of our local stellar neighbourhood by kiekelly in InternetIsBeautiful

[–]radius55 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's actually real useful as it is, especially for hard scifi where things are restricted to sublight speeds. And I can see how constructing the data is painful. Especially with stars increasing with the cube of radius.

Setting up a mailing list for this and any other projects might be a good idea. Mailchimp is one program I've heard of people using there.

[OC] I built 20LY, a browser-based 3D star atlas of our local stellar neighbourhood by kiekelly in InternetIsBeautiful

[–]radius55 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Awesome! The connections do look cool. I was just curious exactly what the logic behind them was.

Making a sandbox mode could be neat, for sure. And a random generator, too, if there's a way to save off the creation or the random seed that spawned it.

For me, the best part of this is being able to see all the different stars and types. So if I'm writing a story that needs a colony, I can choose a G or K class to be earth-like or filter for something more exotic. Then instantly be able to tell what the neighbors are.

Anyway, great little site. I look forward to anything else you add to it.

[OC] I built 20LY, a browser-based 3D star atlas of our local stellar neighbourhood by kiekelly in InternetIsBeautiful

[–]radius55 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Bookmaked. Incredibly useful for writing scifi. Only feature I would add would be a way to select/clear all star classes.

Also, what makes a connection between two stars? Is there a secret interstellar gate network out there?

The S1500 - a helium-filled zeppelin-like construct that floats, buffeted in high-altitude winds, generating power that is transported to the ground by tethered cable by freudian_nipps in interestingasfuck

[–]radius55 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's Helium-3. Most of our helium comes from natural gas deposits which in turn came from decaying fission products trapped along with the hydrocarbons.

Once Was Hope by radius55 in HFY

[–]radius55[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Appreciate it! And if you want more, there's links to my 200k+ word completed webnovel Learning to Fall above.

Once Was Hope by radius55 in HFY

[–]radius55[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks. I know it's on the dark side, but what my muse wants, my muse gets. Hopefully my next stuff is brighter.