David Axe

After months of trying, Ukrainian forces may have finally hit some of the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s Kalibr missile-armed warships The 2,500-km Kalibr is often in the mix when Russian forces bombard Ukrainian cities Hitting any Kalibr shooter is a win for Ukraine, but Russia still has at least fiveContinue Reading

Russian forces want their guns within range of Zaporizhzhia City A series of strongpoints stand in the way, including an old prison Moscow announced it had captured the prison village nine months ago. It had not After months of failed assaults, the Russians surrounded the village first—and this month cameContinue Reading

In six months of unheralded advances, Ukrainian forces liberated a wide stretch of the southeast The collapse of Russian communications turned a local push into a six-month advance Now the Russians may mobilize yet again, so the Ukrainians are digging in and consolidating their gains The scale of Ukrainian forces’Continue Reading

Ukraine’s state security service has its own special attack drone The MICH 2000 is a highly evolved copy of a Chinese drone China refused to sell There are at least eight versions of the 2,000-km drone, from $48,000 On 16 July, one-way attack drones from the Ukrainian state security service—theContinue Reading

Russian forces are creeping into Mykolaivka, the gateway to Sloviansk The Ukrainian 81st Airmobile Brigade is defending the town nearly alone Reinforcements would have to cross a canal under Russian fire—but so would the Russians, later For years, Russian troops probed the Ukrainian garrison at Mykolaivka in eastern Ukraine’s DonetskContinue Reading

Ukrainian jamming worked too well: it compelled Russian drone developers to innovate Now many Russian drones communicate via unjammable optical fiber or jam-resistant mesh radio But the Russians can’t make all the hardware themselves Instead, they rely on Chinese imports Frustrated by Ukrainian electronic warfare, Russia transformed its drone arsenalContinue Reading

The BMP-T is a Russian rarity: a heavily armed vehicle that’s not quite a tank and not quite an infantry carrier The Russians built only a few BMP-Ts, and they’re vanishingly rare in Ukraine even as the Russians restore their mechanized forces The sheer density of Ukrainian mines and dronesContinue Reading

To match Ukraine’s drone strikes on Russian logistics, the Russians need a lot more drones The “Seeker” attack Gerbera could be just the thing The Seeker modification adds AI-assisted terminal guidance to the inexpensive explosive drone Russia’s cheap Gerbera drones are getting a little more expensive—and a lot more capable.Continue Reading