04-25-2022, 11:17 AM
I had previously posted that I believed Russia's ability to affect Ukraine's ability to use their railroads was not zero but probably survivable. Unfortunately, I was forgetting two important things. It is true that bombing railroad tracks is a losing bet unless you can keep it up continuously. Tracks are relatively easy to repair.
The US hadn't had much luck knocking out railroads since they used strategic bombers for a month to do so as in WW II. In Vietnam, we got so frustrated trying to knock down the Long Bien Bridge that the laser guided bomb was developed to do so. (Maybe some "tall tale" there). Ukraine has lots of rivers. Rivers need railroad bridges. Repairing railroad bridges is neither quick nor easy. In WW II and even later, hitting a bridge with a bomb was real hard. You could do it, but it took lots of attempts and you would lose a lot of people. Not anymore. PGMs can do the job easily and from a long distance. Today the Russian's were hitting "critical infrastructure" on the railroads. Maybe they finally figured it out. Hopefully they haven't, but they probably will.
Ukraine also has electrified many of it's rail lines. This was not typical of France or Germany in WW II. Steam engines pulling relatively short trains were pretty much universal. It matters because electric railways have fixed location transformer sites to supply the current for tracks. These sites supply power for relatively long sections of track. Destroy one and that section of track isn't usable until the power supply is replaced. These sites (usually autotransformers on the local power grid) are big, heavy, and don't fail real often. There aren't lots of spare ones laying around. This also is a vulnerability. These sites are also much more fragile than a bridge, so a smaller warhead can be used.
So, the news on using railroads to distribute supplies in Ukraine isn't all good. We may end up needing to supply lots of trucks and fuel to move the weapons being supplied. Let's hope the Russian's just can't manage to hit enough bridges and power distribution points.
The US hadn't had much luck knocking out railroads since they used strategic bombers for a month to do so as in WW II. In Vietnam, we got so frustrated trying to knock down the Long Bien Bridge that the laser guided bomb was developed to do so. (Maybe some "tall tale" there). Ukraine has lots of rivers. Rivers need railroad bridges. Repairing railroad bridges is neither quick nor easy. In WW II and even later, hitting a bridge with a bomb was real hard. You could do it, but it took lots of attempts and you would lose a lot of people. Not anymore. PGMs can do the job easily and from a long distance. Today the Russian's were hitting "critical infrastructure" on the railroads. Maybe they finally figured it out. Hopefully they haven't, but they probably will.
Ukraine also has electrified many of it's rail lines. This was not typical of France or Germany in WW II. Steam engines pulling relatively short trains were pretty much universal. It matters because electric railways have fixed location transformer sites to supply the current for tracks. These sites supply power for relatively long sections of track. Destroy one and that section of track isn't usable until the power supply is replaced. These sites (usually autotransformers on the local power grid) are big, heavy, and don't fail real often. There aren't lots of spare ones laying around. This also is a vulnerability. These sites are also much more fragile than a bridge, so a smaller warhead can be used.
So, the news on using railroads to distribute supplies in Ukraine isn't all good. We may end up needing to supply lots of trucks and fuel to move the weapons being supplied. Let's hope the Russian's just can't manage to hit enough bridges and power distribution points.