Dr Charles Knight @ChasAHKnight Twitter profile

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Dr Charles Knight

3 years

How do militaries avoid future urban war repeating the strategic disaster of 1st Fallujah? Pleased our monograph analysing media reporting of 6 battles, with recommendations, published by EuroISME today. Research at Macquarie & Charles Sturt Universities.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

Improvisation can be fraught!

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

11 months

@WarintheFuture As you say, nothing new. The Soviets had two battalions of tele-tanks in the Winter War of 1939, which helped breach the Mannerheim line. They even had rudimentary 'TV' by 1941. Stalin's execution of Vladimir Bekauri & his engineers ended the capability.

Where’s the Remote?

James Kinnear looks back at Russian development of remote-controlled...

www.keymilitary.com

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

Troops seem relaxed about safety angles! Difficult to draw tactical observations from context free clips, but this does reinforce the observation that urban training areas, with a couple of honourable exceptions, don't replicate the combat environment.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 month

@Mr_Andrew_Fox Huge agree, Andrew. This is compounded by the fact that , absent personal contacts, there are virtually no reliable unclassified sources of truth (& UK reliance on US product may occasionally threaten even that). We have to triangulate from the InfoOps product of both sides.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

Urbanistas take note. Thermobaric munition launchers are key to urban TTP in both 🇷🇺 & 🇨🇳. Both have dedicated unit for employing them in close combat, but far easier to train a soldier to be competent in one than competent in CQB.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

@JaysonGeroux @INTELonIRAN Depending on who you consider the attackers, the early stages of the 1937 Battle of Shanghai saw wide directed counter-attacks as did Dachang. Similarly early (Oct) Khorramshahr 1980 saw the Pasandran check the Iraqis who were pushed back by probably spontaneous Iraninan actions.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

3 years

@LtCatra Gurkha gate guard at the 🇴🇲 Zeek Special Forces Camp to Sultan Qaboos. "Yes, your majesty, I know exactly who you are but my orders are not to let anybody inside without an ID card - so you may not pass" .....duty officer let HM in - who promptly promoted the soldier.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

@daly_eddie @JaysonGeroux @INTELonIRAN Urban stay behind is an old tactic, used against an incautious enemy - but it is high risk, so more common in martydom cultures. Small groups may be trapped & rapidly eliminated, while larger ones are more likely to be discovered in hiding & are then massed & very vulnerable.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 month

@FromKulak Wow. I relish your contesting, but this is going off the reservation. I've been to Bergen-Belsen. A partners mother was in Auschwitz. I've talked to unrepentant Nazis who lamented not finishing the job. It's about as 'proven' as it can be.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 months

It is astounding to see how far Singapore is ahead of most militaries in urban training infrastructure - noting also the massive (Bn Level) live fire complex they have built at Shoalwater Bay in Australia. Why are they able to decide and act at scale and others don't?

Mike Yeo 杨启铭

@TheBaseLeg

2 months

Bit late, but here’s a panorama of what Singapore’s soon-to-open SAFTI City urban training facility looks like. Even has a MRT (subway) train

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

@Tendar It really just speaks volumes about the poor training or education of Russian technicians. There are many, many ways to sabotage an aircraft with minimal signature, some irreversibly, including with household materials.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

3 years

An underappreciated capability for urban warfare. Esp. with UAV & guided munitions the Tyulpan gives 🇷🇺 commanders an assured capability to stand off, swiftly & systemically collapse buildings & destroy strong points, without Western-like dependence on air superiority & weather.

Rob Lee

@RALee85

3 years

Video of 2S4 Tyulpan 240mm heavy mortars from the Western Military District's 45th High-Power Artillery Brigade conducting a live-fire exercise in Tambov with Orlan-10 UAVs. 5/

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

3 years

Photo illustrates the long forgotten feature that made the rubble-agile Churchill chassis ideal for urban combat. The side hatches allowed covered dismounting - mainly from AVRE - Sappers to hand place demolition charges - later infantry dismounting the Kangaroo HAPC version.

RG Poulussen

@rgpoulussen

3 years

#OTD in 1945, Senio River area, Italy. A fascine is loaded onto a Churchill AVRE (equipped with a 290mm spigot mortar). #WW2 #HISTORY

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

Urbanistas. Some of the 🇺🇦/🇷🇺 participants are re-learning that for room/bunker clearing you may need more HE blast effect than the standard grenade. Past learning is suggested by widely (re) introducing satchel charges (4lb+) & concussion grenades from ~1917 & ~1943 (8oz fill).

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

@medeabenjamin @asiatimesonline Note the traditional name given to the waters East of Britain......

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

3 years

The portents are already clear. Future war will again be urban. Take a good hard look at its nature. Ponder its demands.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

@GravitysRa1nbow This may be wrong. This may even be distorted by Agitprop: it reflects some Russian commentary. However, it is pretty much the first article of its kind that examines the Russians as rational actors without partisan bias. It deserves deconstruction, not ad hominem.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

3 years

A reminder that competent urban warfare is a machine & explosive munition enabled slog through broken buildings and rubble. 'Room clearing' is a good foundation for drills, but if you just train for 'SF style' room to room CQB you risk a trajectory to a bloody attritional fight

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

3 years

@johnrobb has been challenging us to reflect on the deeper drivers of societal, and thus military unravelling since Brave New War. What he writes is uncomfortable. That's why it is worth reading.

John Robb

@johnrobb

3 years

US forces being surrounded in Kabul is a military blunder but it isn't discussed. We fought a war over WMDs that didn't exist, but nobody was held accountable. 95% of PPE production was outsourced to China (etc.), so we didn't have enough when COVID arrived. Crickets. cont.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 month

@LanceForman @sentdefender No. The ICRC can operate only with the agreement & invitation of the parties to the conflict. The nature of much of their work is not public. They pursue agreements, compromises & least worst outcomes with those engaged in brutal lethal struggles. They are not IHL police.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

@Tatarigami_UA Thank you for sharing this fascinating document - it would be great to have an English (or machine readable) version . I don't read Russian, but I can see enduring features such as Troika & coveraging - but also oddities such as allocation of D30 to the detachment.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

@thinkdefence Most commentators are missing one of the huge advantages of CVR-T. It can breach into, manoeuvre through, hide in and fight from buildings.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

Rather than share an image of a mangled foot, this makes the point about what a PFM-1 scatterable mines will do.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

Finally listened to this - recommend - especially relevant given tank employment in Ukraine.

Modern War Institute

@WarInstitute

2 years

"You won’t find any commander within the IDF infantry that will tell you they are entering the urban terrain without tanks."

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

The current issue that 🇮🇪 is experiencing with 🇷🇺 naval exercises is a good example of the consequences of a policy of weak armed neutrality (as is a now-weak 🇸🇪 considering joining NATO). This is relevant to those who commend neutrality for 🇭🇲.

Edward Burke

@Edward__Burke

2 years

Ireland can neither detect nor deter Russian naval activity off its coastline - including operations involving nuclear-powered submarines, a potential threat to transatlantic subsea cables. A question - if we can’t/won’t do we need to be in an alliance where others can do so?

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

Urban warfare. Could we do better if we have to? Will war in Ukraine prompt Western armies to develop new capabilities to avoid/reduce the default to 'fighting by bombardment'?

Charles Knight on how the West can reduce the destructiveness of urban warfare

The military expert says robotics and smoke offer an edge to Western soldiers

www.economist.com

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

'War Crimes': a cautionary thread. 1/13) The term war crime is being indiscriminately used, not only by politicians who are evidently poorly advised but by senior military commentators and NGO who should know better.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

More detail of BMP-T, especially of grenade launchers. Also Ataka missile impact shown appears to be TB version.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

6 months

Back to the future? Are the IDF reverting to the methods proven in 1944/5?

Tom Nash

@iamtomnash

6 months

IDF destroyed a major Hamas compound today. In the video you can see the combined assault with armour and infantry. No casualties on IDF side during this battle.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

@TimothyDSnyder I understand the political or moral point you are making, but from a survey design perspective the question should minimise framing if you seek validity. We actually want to identify all perspectives. In war it may be far more important to understand opponents than supporters.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

1/19 Explainer thread Soviet urban warfare doctrine. 🇷🇺, & prob 🇺🇦 doctrine is anchored in the Great Patriotic War concepts that emerged at Stalingrad in 1943 & were refined in the 'battle lab' of the drive West, especially in the city battles between the Dnieper & the Oder.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

@ichbinilya @Jack_Watling The report is inept on IHL & protected structures/persons. It failed to focus on how a commanders reasonable belief there are military objects or combatants in populated areas may make their engagement & collateral lawful. That is true whether you are shelling Donetsk or Kyiv.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

Russian military social media is not mere propaganda - often being surprisingly candid about own failings, and reflects that they are (re)learning rapidly. This 'grab' describes Ukranian use of COTS camera in defending buildings.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

Urbanistas, to remind people that you don't need to build training areas to train urban. This was perfectly normal in the 80s in Germany.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

7 months

How did Hamas cross the obstace barriers? Here is a breach training video (from Telegram). Note the use of bangalore torpedoes at the beginning and subsequently carefully fabricated linear shaped charges tailored to different target types.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

10 months

Another gem for my Urbanista colleagues. The direct assault of buildings with AFV largely faded out of training and then memory as MBT became exquisite with fragile fittings and sensitive barrel alignment. Yes, you can do it in training at minimal risk [trail a tow cable].

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

@rgpoulussen It is a demonstration of the principle & technique of applying lead and firing ahead of aircraft. A model aircraft on a pole or string is moved briskly and the firer has to 'fire' well ahead of the model in order for the stream (representing bullets) to strike the model.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

3 years

'Piering' - an example for those who don't know the term. Piering is an unrecognised issue for both tracked & wheeled AFV moving amongst rubble and within buildings on urban terrain - because Western armies have no/few suitable training areas to practise (driving or unpiering)

IgorGirkin

@GirkinGirkin

3 years

Севастополь, оккупанты, дтп

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

3 years

@rgpoulussen The instructor is using an aiming disc. It has an aperture in the centre where the soldier aims. The instructor is checking that the rifle is properly held to naturally point at the target, the breathing cycle is correct and the trigger is squeezed gently & followed through.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

11 months

Much discussion about Russian 'tank canopies' in the last year. Here is a brief perspective from their side - because we need to triangulate. Noting that almost any material from either side may involve InfoOps, this is still interesting.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

Urbanistas. To develop sound urban capability, we need a challenging training enemy that does not mirror our paradigms. To provide this, I wrote the Olvanan urban warfare for the (5-eyes, US TRADOC-led) Decisive Action Training Environment (DATE).

Urban tactics package

Olvanan Enclosure Warfare tactics package.

date.army.gov.au

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

@McFaul Who else has argued taxpaying = culpability? "The American people are the ones who pay the taxes which fund the planes that bomb us in Afghanistan, the tanks that strike and destroy our homes in Palestine, the armies which occupy our lands..." OBL

Removed: document

www.theguardian.com

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

Just out. @Stu_Lyle @nicholadrummond @gunner_schmulke @SpencerGuard @jesusfroman @4gdTrg @40ID_DeputyCG @militaryhistori @antbruceking @general_ben @RichemondBarak @DPBEthics @covetweet @GroundCuriosity @ASPI_org @SapperGeologist @LGiselICRC @ProudFusilier

Australian Army Research Centre

@AARCAusArmy

2 years

Check out the Practitioners Annotated Bibliography on Urban Warfare. "This annotated collection is for those who will fight the next war - and those who support, train and equip them. #ReadyNowFutureReady Head to:

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

@DefenceHQ @Dr_R_D @NZDefenceForce @DefenceU Legitimate 🇳🇿 warriors. Watch how the Mãori handles his Mere. During the recent @AARCAusArmy NZ Wars Staff Ride we learned Taiaha could beat 🇬🇧 bayonets ⬇️. Assaults of artillery-protective Pã forced the 🇬🇧 into 'CQB' in trenches where Mãori prevailed.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

@DrRadchenko Yes, Russia has been egregious, but this is contemporary urban war. Can you name an urban battle with a prepared, determined defender that has not involved massive bombardment by the attacker? In 1944/5, there were alternative capabilities (flame & large direct fire). No longer.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 month

For 13 years, Birdie gave our family loyalty, love, and joy. Running with us on Mount Cootha, splashing in the surf, bouncing herself on the trampoline: always smiling. Today, her pack fed her those favourite treats, then gathered around & cuddled her as we said goodbye.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

Urbanistas. Here is some valuable thinking about armoured urban raiding from Singapore. Worth noting they are probably 'leading the charge' worldwide with investment in all arms urban training capability (the facility is in Australia).

lhsingapura

@lhsingapura

1 year

@ChasAHKnight @ElbridgeColby 1. It is a raid, as SG’s goal in forward defence is to destroy the EN will to fight — not the desire to hold onto Putrajaya. 2. The SAF invested in Leopard 2SGs, Hunter AFVs, Bionix 2s & Broncos to conduct a raid, past the Mersing line — that the SAF must hold for a long time.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

6 months

OK, this is InfoOps, but yet it shows an armoured sappers war. Reshaping the battlefield with Blades & HE to neutralise & dislocate IED & ambush positions. Overwatch from cover.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

3 years

@Ninja998998 Let's not get too wrapped about whether there are better ways to take on tanks. This is outstanding confidence training and demonstrates an army that is considering the problems of Urban combat and then building facilities to train for it.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

11 months

Urbanistas. Let's agree that it is brilliant to see more urban training. Noting that the scenario is unknown, what do you make of this clip?

Brigadier Dave McCammon

@3BrigadeTSV

11 months

The break in.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

BMP-T Not new footage but shows the use of smoke dischargers. Russian sources claim they are performing well (Mandy Rice-Davies caveat applies), but the ability to engage through obscurants is a very significant advantage & particularly promising against light anti armour teams.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

3 months

Are we about to enter a period of warfare where soldiers spend most of their time in buildings, where they can find respite from UAS?

Charlie Herbert

@Charlie533080

3 months

Like most of my generation, I was shot at, shelled, mortared, rocketed, hit by an IED and near missed by a suicide bomber over my career. But these horrendous FPV drones so prevalent in Ukraine now are a whole new level of terrifyingly fear inducing. 👇

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

@thinkdefence Both excellent direct fire weapons - but for some reason nobody younger than me seems to have used them that way? Happy to be corrected.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

Urbanistas. Useful footage. Mariupol. Edited for IO effect, so view critically: shows some detail & nature of urban fighting & suggests TTP. Clip from doco which appears to be blocked

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

6 months

Urbanistas. The IDF has the world's best tactical capabilities for urban operations. So far, that is evident. What do you make of 🇮🇱 InfoOps? Has IDF media become complacent from communicating to uncritical audiences, or are they trying to sell a bad message? ...or is this fine?

Ben Mckelvey

@benmckelvey

6 months

Walking through a destroyed hospital to find a handful of old AK variants and grenades may not be telling the story the IDF thinks it is telling

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

@5_fusiliers @4gdTrg @UKDefJournal @wavellroom A very experienced US chap used to hand these out in the 90's. Worth contemplating if and why he was wrong?

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 months

@un_a_valeable This is an excellent HAPC (copying the IDF). Those who decry front arc dismounting have not studied urban warfare - it is a brilliant feature (first approximated by Churchill AVRE) allowing precise delivery of assault troops INTO urban objectives. Here's why that's possible ⬇️

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 months

@JonHawkes275 Nah, not unless they have a gun.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

3 years

@crowstodead @Ninja998998 It is a 20mm 🇨🇭 Oerlikon AA Gun. Well suited to LLAD for the airbases and artillery fortresses in the mountains.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

@SpencerGuard I half seriously wonder if we should include not just rhetorical skills but stand up comedy in leadership courses? Pres Zelenski has proved a master of communicating with influence & fine judgement. Going to the front is not just a personal risk, but a national one. Real courage.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

Urbanistas, this is significant. Not the dependence on the God of War, rather the assertion that trained TTPs were ineffective. We could dismiss this as deceptive or justifying failure, except that there is pre-war footage showing training as described. We still do it that way.

WarTranslated (Dmitri)

@wartranslated

1 year

A.Khodakovsky woke up to realisation the only "working" tactic of Russian forces is destroying everything they see, admitting to "consequences" of their actions in Mariupol that led to huge well-documented losses from a much smaller garrison. Wants the same treatment of Vuhledar.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

@Tatarigami_UA Thank you. This is as much an information war as a kinetic one. Any open source figure is likely to be dis/mis information. Some sources will probably eventually be proven approximately correct

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

4 years

The future of War Is increasingly Urban. Not just because our asymmetric adversaries have chosen to fight us there, but because we will have to go there to survive when fighting peer adversaries.

John Spencer

@SpencerGuard

4 years

Tanks, artillery in the open, absolutely no camouflage. Easy targets. We are already seeing this quickly transition to the urban terrain in these areas where advanced military ISR and strike capabilities are degraded. It is something to watch very closely. #urbanwarfare

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

From Telegram, purportedly hand thermobaric grenades (models?). RGT-27S has a rectangular shape & is intended for use in trenches, on slopes, & due to the magnetic element against unarmored vehicles. Cylindrical RGT-27S2 is designed for use in confined spaces.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

10 months

@nicholadrummond Is yours not a rhetorical question? Boxer is an excellent self-deploying platform, but you, of all people, must know that it cannot go where a L400-3 (or an M113) can. If I'm mistaken, let's have some sand, bog, rubble & steep soft-soil slope traverse Boxer footage please?

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

Urbanistas. FYI Australian Singaporean cooperation building urban operations live fire complex. 30+ internally & externally armoured fume extracted 'No danger area' live lethal CQB buildings alongside 150 associated non-lethal/dry ones. Huge deal.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

3 years

We need to keep showing this as most serving soldiers have never seen, much less used instant smoke. It is a life preserver in urban combat.

RG Poulussen

@rgpoulussen

3 years

14 February 1945, Gennep, Holland. Men from 5 Black Watch, attacking. #WW2 #HISTORY

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

I was asked to share this with @nicholadrummond - I would have DM'd if I could.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

@Mark1_1984 @nicholadrummond @thinkdefence Hmmmm, digging?

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

@3BrigadeTSV Great to see combined arms fire and manoeuvre being practised assaulting a substantial trench system - lots of excellent preparatory work evident!

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

@JaysonGeroux @SpencerGuard I'd put it more dynamically. John is leading. He saw a need, stepped out from an analytic identity, took the risk, and gave the Ukranians his best shot 80% solution immediately - and is now iteratively refining it. Kudos.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

3 years

This. We need. Badly. Do not have.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

3 years

NATO & Co largely abandoned smoke capability except for artillery & AFV dischargers and even then rarely practice manouvre in screens. 🇷🇺 has kept developing these tools and this aerosol system is worth looking at.

Dmitry Stefanovich

@KomissarWhipla

3 years

3) Aerosol smokescreen cover in visible and infrared bands for air defense assets and the defended area. Equipment used - OPFOR: Takhion, Zastava, Orlan-10 UAVs. Defenders: EW Pole-21, Zhitel', Svet-KU; thermo-smoke TDA-3; radar P-19 Dunai, Niobiy, AD Tor-M1

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

@general_ben Sir, history is built with a contest of perspectives. I disagree with Max Hastings on occasion, but your use of "once-famous" seems ad hominem. This is a thought-provoking piece about 🇪🇺 attitudes that merits specific reply - not least because recognition must precede countering.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

4 months

@nicholadrummond ......or we just go back to being ready to use tactical nuclear weapons?

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

@TimothyDSnyder @MikeLogan_5 @bellingcat The careful bellingcat report is an important OS examination of GVC, and reveals who is involved in targeting. So far it does not reveal what was targeted. Let's wait for the evidence before we move beyond 'possible war crimes'. Eventual prosecution demands thourogh steps now.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

@WarintheFuture Trench combat at any time since the 1890's might have appeared like this. What is unprecedented is that drones have allowed close combat to be seen in all its messy brutality, confusion, error, courage, fear, honour, paralysis, perfidy & blood - that which veterans rarely convey.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

5 months

My 4!

Modern War Institute

@WarInstitute

5 months

Three experts on urban warfare share what's on their wish list this year!

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

@Stu_Lyle @kingsbury_ollie Stu you are being too courteous. This is the third recent '🇬🇧 Army' clip showing poor TTP. As others have pointed out, soldiers do adsorb this stuff - with malign consequences. Perhaps it is time for @kingsbury_ollie to have a quiet word with Army Public Affairs? (Please 🙏).

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

@DuendeenF @SpencerGuard I saw comment from a Russian military commentator early in the war say that all war is about economics, and this is no exception.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

1/3 Urban dilemmas. 🇺🇦 leaders face difficult decisions in cities. While accepting the civilian cost & waging protracted urban defence may succeed or force a Pyrrhic victory on 🇷🇺, most urban battles are decisive defeats for defenders with greater losses than on open terrain.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

3 years

OK Urban folks, this is significant. An army running a trial that gets AFV back inside structures to support the urban fight. Another technique that troops have regularly reinvented & forgotten since 1918 - with the honourable exception of Bundeswehr 1980's doctrine.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

@Tatarigami_UA The use of lacrimating or riot control agents is prohibited in interstate war. Both parties appear to have used them in Ukraine. One of the reasons for maintaining that this is a Special Military Operation may be to deny that this is interstate war?

Chemical Weapons Convention

www.opcw.org

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

6 months

Urbanistas. Worth the translate. An excellent thread on the Israeli Centurion tank derived Puma Armoured Engineer Vehicle (also Nakpadon etc) & the Carpet Thermobaric Mine & IED neutralising system (which has a key role in Gaza). Danke Buttjer!

Buttjer Freimann

@ButtjerFreimann

6 months

Aufgrund mehrerer Nachfragen ein kurzer 🧵 zu dem Israelischen Puma AEV und sein CARPET Minenräumsystem. 1/

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

@rgpoulussen Yes, it is a device for demonstrating and practising aim off for engaging aircraft. The target model plane was sometimes on a wire and sometimes on a stick.Also used for demonstrating theory of MG fire on rising, falling and flat ground at different ranges from the gun.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

@Seveerity It is an OG-7, a recoilless NON Rocket propelled grenade for the RPG-7 launcher & equivalent - (AR-7V Bulgarian analogue on the left shows its configuration well). A lot more bang than Western 40mm, useful for stripping doors & windows or tree burst above enemy in close country.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

A reminder that 🇷🇺/🇺🇦 is at least 50% Info Ops & both sides are playing to win. It does not really matter which side is making this film - or if it is 'double bluff'. Consume critically (ask who benefits & how?) & remember 'pro faction A' messaging may come from 'faction B'.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

Applaud 🇺🇦 courage, but let's curb the naive enthusiasm for killing people doing their duty that's creeping into twitter. It seems that 🇷🇺 has so far chosen to sparingly use its firepower designed for exactly this type of fight. This is what it does where heroic resistance is met

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

A🧵 For anglophone military trainers - a couple of observations on 🇨🇭 Army training, with an eye on culture & maximising training value with limited time & terrain/space. The location is Gossau, in the NE, about 10km from St Gallen, wedged between industrial sites & farmland.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 month

Urbanistas. As Colonel Peter asks, how would you counter the urban tactics in the video? I include the clip below to show that using AFV to breach-assault is an old and proven method.

COL Peter Allan

@BattleLabCOMD

1 month

The latest update on how your training adversary will fight. The advance in urban terrain video shows how our training enemy will conduct offensive tactics against us. How will you and your team defeat this?

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

9 months

@BO3673 Beg to differ, there was a reason we kept these till the late 80's: there were plenty of veterans around who knew that 'toy' entrenching tools don't do the job in a peer on peer war.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

Hailing Urbanistas! This is great. We might differ on the proposed design, but @jedpc creating a graphic for Twitter is an excellent way to prompt capability thinking and conversations. (Nod to the ex USMC 🇨🇦 chap who earlier suggested something similar for their Leopard 1s)

jedpc

@jedpc

2 years

@ChasAHKnight @Stu_Lyle @SpencerGuard Which is why, and forgive my terrible MS Paint skilz, we should be turning the Challenger 2's into something like this - offer something specific and special to our allies. Yes its missing an APS, my drawing / cut and paste was not up to adding one..... :-)

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

1 year

It is a fair indication of confidence in capability if you are prepare to show your training to the public. Thanks to @karl_rieder s advice I have just observed a 🇨🇭 Army open day. The invite said it was a Company, but I stopped counting at 60 AFV.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

3 years

While not urban, this clip illustrates why AFV get stuck crossing rubble - the tracks/wheels dislodge loose material. Also shows value of trackway/small bridges/fascines. Worth noting that the Churchill was renowned for it's slope climbing ability (hence the comment in German).

Kein Mensch Kein Tier

@KampfmitKette

3 years

Mobilität ist mehr als PS pro Tonne.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

Firing RCL indoors - it can be done - but this is not ideal!

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

8 months

@RealCynicalFox ......the US tried that once before.

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

4 years

How do we understand and explain the problem that coming urban warfare presents? Is my 12 Challenges approach useful? Is something missing? Is something unclear? Is something overstated? Are there better labels/terms? This article completes the series, and I'm listening!

Grounded Curiosity

@GroundCuriosity

4 years

Today we have the final installment of @ChasAHKnight #urbanwarfare series. In this piece the final 3 frictions of the human terrain; media, non-combatant protection and civilian interference are discussed #urban #fightingincities #challengetheaccepted

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Dr Charles Knight

@ChasAHKnight

2 years

Clear advice from @SpencerGuard Add carry arms openly & wear an identifying sign. Once you have chosen where to fight from, your planning priority is to find & make routes between fighting positions & into cellars or other blast prot. shelters. Except true snipers, movt is key.

John Spencer

@SpencerGuard

2 years

So I've been asked what my advice would be to civilian resistors in Ukriane, especially Kyiv. Someone with no military training but wanting to resist. Here are a few things #Kyiv #UkraineUnderAttack :

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