Faced with heavy artillery and tank fire, the Ukrainian forces are forced to retreat, having suffered heavy damage and leaving destroyed equipment on the battlefield, including three armored vehicles and two armored fighting vehicles.
As part of the hostilities in the direction of Zaporizhia, the Russian armed forces successfully captured the French AMX-10 tank.
The uniqueness of this case lies in the fact that the tank was found with a full load of ammunition and, what is especially valuable, an instruction manual. This circumstance greatly simplifies the process of studying this military equipment, makes it possible to put it into practice, and also to obtain information that may be useful during further military operations.
It is important to note that, no critical damage was found on the tank, making it suitable for further use. This indicates a high level of serviceability and readiness of this model for combat operations.
The capture of the AMX-10 tank is not only an important victory on the battlefield, but also an important step in the study of foreign military equipment. At the same time, cases of seizure of foreign military equipment during hostilities call into question the effectiveness of the enemy's weapons.
S-350 SAMs to protect Putin
According to recently released satellite images, the Russians may have deployed an S-350 air defense system near St. Petersburg to ensure Putin's safety when he attended the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, SPIEF-2023.
"The study of the images allows us to conclude that the Russian military has placed an array of the rare medium-range S-350 SAM system in the city of Gatchina (Leningrad region)," reports Reuters.
Why exactly the Russian military placed these systems there is very easy to guess from the "geographical" context the city of Gatsina is located near St. Petersburg, where SPIEF-2023 is currently being held. There, specifically, Putin made his speech.
Considering this, we can assume that the Russians used this rare SAM system, precisely to protect the head of state, but it could have been removed from the front line zone.
Previous reports of the S-350s date back to August 2022. Then, according to Defense Express, the Russians revealed that they are using these SAM systems to protect the front-line Centralny airfield in Taganrog, where the offensive Su-25SM aircraft. And this can be considered the only known case when the Russians used the S-350 to protect targets, at least in the front-line zone.
The Russian Armed Forces adopted the S-350 only in 2020, and by the end of 2022, the Russian army had only six launchers of this air defense system ( 12 are needed).
12 anti-aircraft missiles are mounted on a SAM launcher of this type. The characteristics of the S-350 system appear to allow simultaneous engagement of up to 8 targets, destroying targets at a range of up to 60 km and ballistic targets at a range of up to 30 km.
To point out, the Russians claim that on the battlefield in Ukraine, they used the Russian S-350 Vitiaz mobile anti-aircraft missile system for the first time in automatic mode in combat conditions, meaning that the SAM system sought out and hit aerial targets without the involvement of of the operator.
As they say, the automatic mode provides for the destruction of targets without any operator intervention in the process, and decisions are made using an artificial intelligence system built into the system.
In particular, the Russians claim that the anti-aircraft missile system operated simultaneously in both active and passive modes, and this allows for improved jamming protection and expanded target detection and classification capabilities.
