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ADAPTIVE INDOMITABLE UKRAINE: They Come in the Night. Ukraine's Growing Edge in Night Time Fighting [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-01-20

In its final announcements of aid to Ukraine, the Biden Administration regularly included in the enumeration, Night Vision Devices. But you had to pay attention in order to notice this line item from among the more gee whiz stuff … as it was usually tucked in at the tail end, almost as if it was an afterthought or a throw-in:

Immediate Release Biden Administration Announces Significant New Security Assistance for Ukraine April 24, 2024 The capabilities in this announcement include: RIM-7 and AIM-9M missiles for air defense;

Stinger anti-aircraft missiles;

Small arms and additional rounds of small arms ammunition, including .50 caliber rounds to counter Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS);

Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);

155mm artillery rounds, including High Explosive and Dual Purpose Improved Conventional Munitions rounds;

105mm artillery rounds;

60mm mortar rounds;

Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles;

Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles (MRAPs);

High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles (HMMWVs);

Logistics support vehicles;

Tactical vehicles to tow and haul equipment;

Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles;

Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems;

Precision aerial munitions;

Airfield support equipment;

Anti-armor mines;

Claymore anti-personnel munitions;

Demolitions munitions for obstacle clearing; and

Night vision devices ; and

; and Spare parts, field equipment, training munitions, maintenance, and other ancillary equipment.

But whether an afterthought or a throw-in, the provision to Ukraine of the latest and greatest night vision devices, especially the U.S. made Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binocular(ENVG-B) is enabling Ukrainian forces to do some serious damage to the Russians in Ukraine.

As the former CinC of the Ukrainian army, General Zaluzhnyi predicted in his now famous op ed about the war being at a stalemate and that the winner will be the one who gains technological supremacy, It was the Russians who initially introduced night vision technology as a mode of fighting into the war … at scale. Ukraine quickly responded and with the help of the United States now appears to have taken the lead in this mode of fighting.

Ukrainian Special Forces Deploy American ENVG-B Technology The Ukrainian Special Operations Forces (SSO) have recently integrated the advanced American Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binocular (ENVG-B) system into their operations, significantly boosting the effectiveness of their night missions, according to Defense Express. Developed by the American company L3Harris, the ENVG-B combines night vision and thermal imaging technologies, offering soldiers superior situational awareness in complete darkness. united24media.com/...

As with every technology the Ukrainians get their hands on they tend to put their own unique “english” on it … using it in ways that confound the Russians. On the Toretsk line, for example, where the fighting has become almost at close quarters, the Ukrainian roving night time wolf pack commandos, aware that both sides can differentiate the sound of an overhead drone from the ambient sounds, now equipped with their ENVG-B goggles which practically turns night into day, sneak up on buildings occupied by squads of Russians, lob in satchels of high explosives then like the Krypteia of ancient Sparta(secret police which terrorized the helot slave community), quietly disappear into the night. No sound of a drone, no gun fire, no nothing. Just sudden death … where from unknown. And if a Russian or two were to decide to take a leisurely night time smoke or go do a squat outside in the dark, the Ukrainian version of the krypteia(hence our modern word cryptic) with their enhanced night vision goggles could soundlessly make it your last. If nature calls or if the ever-popular Russian cigarette smoking “jones” starts crawling all over your back what’s a guy to do? Ya gotta go. Knowing all the while that sudden death is staring at ya. Ain’t this some next level heebie-jeebies inducing shit? A nightmare delivered courtesy of Ukrainian use of the ENVG-B.

But there’s more. At Avdiivka, the Russians took to night time creeping into the city sewer system to amass sufficient forces which suddenly pounced on the Ukrainian defensive lines from behind. Even though the Ukrainians kept up their long stalwart defense, fighting on bravely, Avdiivka, for all practical intents and purposes was lost soon thereafter… hard to fight out of an encirclement. So the Russians tried it again. This time at Chasiv Yar. Through enhanced night vision devices and drones, the Ukrainians saw them repeating the same trick, this time using the pipes of the Siversky-Donets-Donbas canal. Not this time, izgoi. Ukrainian fortress Chasiv Yar still stands.

And Ukraine’s use of night vision devices are not limited to just ground commando and assault missions. The enhanced night vision technology is also being used as part of the Ukrainian “Biden Line” … helping keep 24/7 watch on attacking Russians, mechanized or dismounted, large or small group before they get to the Ukrainian lines. David Axe of Forbes Magazine reports a case in point:

Ukraine’s Night Drones Are Bombing Moving Russian Tanks Now Aiming an unguided grenade at a speeding tank is a difficult task. A Ukrainian drone team from the Nemesis group scored one of the more impressive kills of Russia’s 31-month wider war on Ukraine last week when it spotted a fast-moving Russian turtle tank and, carefully leading the speeding vehicle, dropped one grenade to crack open the tank’s add-on armor—and then dropped a second grenade under the tank’s tracks. At night. www.forbes.com/...

Yes, aiming an unguided grenade at a speeding tank in the dark of night is a difficult task. But not for ADAPTIVE INDOMITABLE UKRAINE.

SLAVA UKRAINI !

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