Russian contractors test US forces in Syria
According to Business Insider, Russian contractors tried to recon by fire a Syrian Democratic Forces base where Americans were operating near a “neutral zone” agreed upon by Russians and US officials.
The Russians came with about 500 troops, T-55 and T-72 tanks, some 122mm howitzers and multiple launch rocket systems – but they came to the fight without air cover. Witnesses claim that the Russians came to within 500 feet of US forces in an unprovoked attack firing tank rounds. The US troops responded;
The US-led coalition responded with “AC-130 gunships, F-15s, F-22s, Army Apache helicopter gunships, and Marine Corps artillery,” according to Lucas Tomlinson, a Fox News reporter. CNN also reported that Himars and MQ-9 drones were used in the attack.
“First of all, the bombers attacked, and then they cleaned up using Apaches,” attack helicopters, Yevgeny Shabayev, a Cossack paramilitary leader with ties to Russia’s military contractors, told Reuters.
The Reuters report cites an unnamed source as describing Bloomberg’s report that 300 Russians died as “broadly correct.”
One soldier on the SDF side was injured according to the report.
Thanks to AW1Ed for the link.
Category: Terror War
Like bringing a knife to a gunfight……..
300:1 – ’nuff said.
You fuck with the bull, you get the horns.
That said, Americans and Russians directly trading fire is not a positive development. We may be a Franz Ferdinand incident away from something really bad.
The Ivans were using T-55’s and T-72’s? WTF do we have that WON’T go through those damned things like a red hot machete through warm butter?
9mm ball ammo at 100 meters?
That damn Russian collusion…
Spoke to a joe in the MI Bn when I was in. Said that M-2 50 cal.would go through the T-55,excluding frontal armor of course. I certainly had no reason to doubt him.
He was wrong. I am pretty familiar with what the M-2 will do, and it ain’t going to penetrate a MBT even from point blank on the side. It is powerful, but not that hard.
Well, he was MI.
On behalf of the Russian contractors, how do you say “Fuque this. I quit!” in Russian?
That would be: Черт возьми! С меня хватит!!
What would be the most grammatically correct way for US personnel to say “Fuck you, too, Ivan!” next time?
yob tvoyu mat’ will get you pretty close.
Forgot about that one. Thanks!
John’s is accurate. Your basic street Russian would release a stream of explicatives that would melt my mother’s ears (who taught me how to cuss).
Russian lesson for today: “блядь” (blyad) can be used as very effective punctuation.
So take John’s rendition, throw in a few “Eb’ tvoyu mat'” and “blyad”‘s and you’ll be good. If you are feeling really wound up, feel free to add a few words based off of the noun “pizda” (there are a lot of them).
Jorge (CTIC(SG) (Ret))*
*Basic Russian at DLI 86-87, Tagalog 92-93
I learned something; it must be a good day!
So next time when they do bring Russian planes for air cover…
Are we getting in a shooting war with Russia over Syria?
What is our national interest there?
Is it worth it for the U.S. ?
Should we also start shooting at the Turks as they have invaded the same aree from the north?
I am for an alliance between the U.S. and the Kurds
( even if the Syrian Kurds are Marxist)
We need to decide what is our national interest in Syria
From the article:
Russian “contractors.” Just like the “Ukrainian” separatists I’m sure.
Not the first time we fought the Russkies in direct combat. Fifth Air Force F-86s frequently clashed with Russian-piloted MIG-15s of the Red Air Force 64th Fighter Corps camouflaged in ChiCom markings along Mig Alley during the Korean War.
Next time the Russian contractors attack a U.S.-aligned base in Syria, they will probably be supported by “contractor-manned” SU-25 Frogfoot CAS jets, so we better be prepared for that contingency/eventuality as well…
The F/A-18E/F Super Hornet jocks I know certainly hope so.
That may have already happened
I find it odd that a -Russian- leader would forget the hard WW2 and Afghanistan lessons about air cover and support.
Very odd indeed.
You don’t suppose that someone was hanging a nuisance out to dry? Maybe for a plus of propaganda value of howls for reprisals?
Did Putin get some guys wife pregnant and decide to send him on a suicide mission to cover up?
What’s that saying? “When the battle is going your way, you’re in an ambush.”
If he did, then the sword will never leave his house.
More likely nowadays the T55 operator leading the convoy was blindly follow his GPS. Turn here. Oh crap, is that an Anerican base? Turn around. Like the kids at the NSA gate.
With similar results
Its about positioning for influence later, and honestly believing that the US wouldn’t shoot back. Remember, for 8 years, Putin had his way behind the old Iron Curtian (and you could argue even further back than that), by playing much the same game. “Contractors/Mercenaries/Separatists” move into an area, wreck havoc, shoot down a passenger jet, etc and the US response was “Bad Putin, don’t do that again!”
It paid off for him and I think he fully expected the same to happen again. A base would get overrun, Putin would get slapped on the wrists, blame the “whoever’s”, and he’d increase his influence through the Middle East.
The question now becomes, what does he do now that rather than rolling over we shot back.
My guess is, he does nothing short and waits for the next election cycle.
Vald, we’re only going to let you unilaterally annex one more country…
Well, I’m as “America, FUCK YEAH!” as the next guy but I have to wonder (a) the Russians have some pretty effective AA guns and missiles so maybe the next time it won’t be such a one-sided affair and (b) WTF is the upside in trading shots with the Russians over a shithole like Syria?
Putin may have put out a cats’ paw.
Naughty boy! Don’t you know there are no shitholes?
Dude I’ve been to Haiti!
I think if you look up “shithole” in the dictionary the definition is “E.g.: Haiti.” 😀
Some sources have pointed out that some of the gunship footage was from a video game including the game producer.
Amazing what happens when your ROE’s allow people to SHOOT THE FUCK BACK !!!
When you care enough to send the very best.
Dasvidanya!
The Ruskies came to within 500 FEET of US forces? Well within “danger close”?? Please tell me we were tracking them a lot farther out?
Must have been since we had CAS on top of them.
But 500 FEET?
Wassup?
As a favor to those of us in the cheap seats, it would be appreciated if TAH posts cited if possible the original source for stories, such as Reuters for this one about the Russian clash. Business Insider now uses an aggressive anti ad-blocker which means you can’t read their stories without either turning the ad-blocker off or paying BI money for work somebody else did.
BI is also now owned by the German media conglomerate Axel-Springer. If I wanted to support the Germans, I wouldn’t be giving cash to the publisher of eurotrash tabloids. I’d rather buy a Porsche…
I looked for a Reuters link- the only one that didn’t link right back to BI was to Bloomberg.
Not sure if it helps, but here’s a correlating link from the BBC:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-43125506
Based on the outcome I’d say one side got an A on the pop test while the other side might have wanted to study a bit more…quite a bit more in fact.
I hope we’re not seeing the starting salvos in another shooting war between super powers in some quasi-war.
That was the opening of a novel; I can’t remember if was “On the Beach” or “Alas, Babylon.”
” forces loyal to the Syrian government”
Is that a euphemistic way to say “Syrian Army” without admitting we are waging war against Syria?
” an “unprovoked attack” on a well-known … rebel cohort…”
Since they are admittedly rebels it is NOT an unprovoked attack. Just more BS to justify our aggression against Syria.
Someone refresh my memory; what are our national interests in Syria (not to mention Libya, Yemen, Niger, etc.) that justify our increasing involvement in what some naughty folk would call worthless shitholes?
I suppose one good reason for not calling those places shitholes is because it might be uncomfortable telling the next of kin that their loved one(s) died fighting for a worthless shithole.
I can just imagine this conversation between Putin and Trump;
Hi, Vlad? Yeah, Доброе утро
товарищ.
I just wanted to give you a piece of advice, from one corporate head to another.
не отправляйте свои бронированные танки к моим войскам. пойми меня?
Yeah, I knew you’d understand. Да спасибо.
Ciao!
Sounds like the Russian Ground Command may be losing command and control.
Before anyone gets too cocky, this was a Russian PMC, and not their A-team so to speak.
Read up on current Russian TTPs as executed by their UW pros and A-team of ‘contractors’ in Ukraine.
Some real eye-opening warfare.
Mass use of ‘civilian’ RPVs being used to designate target for mass rocket strikes in near real-time.
They caught one of Ukraine’s best mech INF battalions forming up for movement and wiped it out – a full, top-of-the-line mech INF battalion – gone in less than 5 min. All vehicles destroyed, all personnel KIA or WIA…the Russians are no joke.
They’ve shifted their artillery brigade composition from 2 howitzer batteries and 1 rocket battery to 2/3.
The Russians are experimenting with new battlefield tech and learning and applying lessons learned at a frightening rate.
Here, they let a B-category PMC get chippy without providing air cover and they paid the price. Such an omission was not in error – it was a probe, a test.
Thank goodness we’ve got a CinC who has given our guys the ROE/leeway to bloody some noses. It was a very important message that was badly needed and fortunately taught to the Russians at a crucial moment.
Heaven knows what kind of a cluster fvck response would have taken place under the former CinC.
Our guys were allowed to play some old time hockey and they did in excellent and expected fashion.
But don’t read too much into the matchup and the result. The Russians are no joke. And as the Samurai used to say; ‘After a victory, tighten your helmet strap’.
The next probe/test will not be such a one-sided affair, and I suspect the target and methods used against it will not be so easily dealt with.
“Russians are no joke”
Hitler can attest to that! Stopped the unstoppable blitz dead in its tracks.
Not because they were a good army, they simply had enough people to waste until the Germans ran out of ammo. The Soviets won that war in the East, but did so very stupidly, causing millions to die that need not have. But that is how communists wage war. When your troops lives are of no value, it is easy to human wave the opfor until you win. That is why the Russians are so good now. Their entire country is roughly half our population, now that they don’t have their slave states to buffer them.
Not only did they have enough people, there was enough Russia and its harsh winter to absorb Germany’s blows.
With the last 6 years of sequestration the USA has a lot of catching up to do in regards to military technology. Right now we’re doing that and we’re working on countering recent developments in Russian military technology.
Correction & clarification;
‘They’ve shifted their artillery brigade composition from 2 howitzer batteries and 1 rocket battery to 2/3.’
2/3 should probably read 2+3, meaning an independent artillery bde increased in overall strength; its now 2 batteries of howitzers and 3 batteries of rocket launchers (supposedly 1 of the rocket batteries are super heavy rockets).
Putin is already starting to have to deal with some internal blow back from the families of Russian PMC personnel who were KIA. The families were completely unaware that their husbands/fathers/sons were in Syria.
There was no ‘stupidity’ involved re: lack of air cover.
It was a feint, a jab. If the US was still limited by pussified ROE and pulled back at the first sign of a real fight, then Putin snatches a refinery on the cheap, and looks like a War God to Assad, while having said refinery tucked into his belt.
Sure, -55As and -72s don’t have the armor to stand up to modern AT weapons. That’s still a lot of 100mm and 125mm HE pounding soft targets as part of a combined-arms attack. Anyone who’s ever been on the receiving end of a 122mm rocket ‘near miss’ will tell you that semi-aimed 125mm HE fired in mass volleys are ‘less than fun’.
No part of this attack/attempted snatch of a refinery was ‘in error’, planning-wise.
My semi-informed $.02.
Thanks for the gouge…sobering to say the least.
The article stated the Russians, mixed with some Syrian and Iranian troops, were expecting the usual rag-tag Middle East militia, and were shocked to find a US SPECOPS trained and led opposing force. With CAS. If they were looking for a line in the sand, they found it.
More than likely the Russian “Contractors” went in with piss poor intel and paid the price.
Ivan tends to not use the latest equipment and technology or send the “best and the brightest” to fight by proxy.
Back in the 60’s and 70’s they referred to the T-55s and T-62s they exported to the Arabs as “Monkey Models” The optics and other key equipment were either not installed or were older generations/ versions of what he Soviets kept for themselves.
Applied to many things, they had export versions of most systems. One APC had an AT rocket launcher – the internal model had an automatic loader, on the export model it was manually pushed in place with a stick.