🚀Yuzhmash (meaning “Southern Mechanical Engineering”), is a Ukrainian state-owned aerospace manufacturer. Prior to 1991, it was a Soviet state-owned factory.
Yuzhmash produces spacecraft, launch vehicles (rockets), liquid-propellant rockets, landing gears, castings, forgings, tractors, tools, and industrial products. The company is headquartered in Dnipro, and reports to the State Space Agency of Ukraine. It works with international aerospace partners in 23 countries.
🚀Judging from 2024-11-21 strikes, the Oreshnik warheads hit two Yuzhmash missile workshops and also covered the area between workshops No. 7 and No. 8, next to the turning and forging workshops, where presumably some missile components could be produced. Interestingly, there are about 25 large workshops on Yuzhmash territory.
🚀🇺🇦🇷🇺The Ukrainian GUR claims that Russia struck the Dnieper not with an Oreshnik, as Putin stated , but with a Kedr missile system.
The flight time of this Russian missile from the moment of launch in the Astrakhan region until it hit the Dnieper was 15 minutes.
The missile had six warheads installed: each was equipped with six submunitions. The speed at the final section of the trajectory was more than 11 Machs (Putin yesterday, speaking about the “Oreshnik”, stated the speed was 10 Machs).
According to the Main Intelligence Directorate, the complex was tested at the Kapustin Yar test site in the Astrakhan region in October 2023 and June 2024.
Map 1 – source: telegram
Map 2 – source: bing maps, tomtom, maxar
Map 3 – source: OpenStreet Maps – Python script
Map 4 – source: Python script, OpenStreet Maps, ESRI
Python allows you to enter coordinates and then map the locations with OpenStreet Maps. The strike on space and rocket producing facility Yuzhnash in Dnipro, Ukraine with the Oreshnik Warheads was what interested me.
By the way, if you ask AI for the coordinates it gives you downtown HQ grids, or false ones. You need to know where to look on the map and get the coordinates yourself.
And also: The images in Telegram channels were rotated by 180 degrees, the one I use below is the way you see it on any mapping website.
import osmnx as ox
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import geopandas as gpd
from shapely.geometry import Point, Polygon
import contextily as ctx
# Define locations for Workshop X
locations = {
‘Workshop X Point 1’: (48.438378, 34.988250),
‘Workshop X Point 2’: (48.437287, 34.987540),
‘Workshop X Point 3’: (48.436271, 34.992471),
‘Workshop X Point 4’: (48.437257, 34.993123)
}
If you study why Russia has a super weapon (Oreshnik), you realise having strategic thinkers in power can be a gamechanger. Spacecraft and rocket making facilities is what they will neutralise in Ukraine in order to accomplish their strategic objectives.
➡️Russia has made notable advancements in hypersonic and missile technology through a combination of factors.
🚀Investment in Military Modernization: Following the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and growing tensions with NATO, Russia prioritized military modernization. This included significant investments in developing and testing new weapon systems, including hypersonic missiles.
🚀Existing Expertise and Infrastructure: Russia has a long history of missile development, dating back to the Soviet era. This legacy provided a strong foundation for advancing missile technology, including hypersonic systems.
🚀Focus on Hypersonic Technology: Russia identified hypersonic technology as a key area of strategic advantage. The country has been actively developing systems like the Avangard glide vehicle, the Kinzhal air-launched missile, and others designed to operate at hypersonic speeds, which are defined as speeds greater than Mach 5.
🚀Testing and Deployment: Russia has conducted extensive testing of its hypersonic systems, showcasing them in military parades and public demonstrations, which not only serve as a deterrent but also build confidence in their capabilities.
🚀Geopolitical Considerations: The perception of a strategic threat from NATO and the U.S. has driven Russia to develop these advanced systems as a means of ensuring its defense and asserting its status as a major military power.
🚀Circumventing Missile Defense: Hypersonic weapons are designed to evade traditional missile defense systems, making them a valuable asset in strategic military planning. This capability has been a key driver behind their development.
🚀Collaboration with Military and Scientific Institutions: Russia leveraged its research institutions and military-industrial complex to develop new technologies and concepts related to hypersonics, allowing for faster innovation and integration into defense systems.
➡️The combined effect of these factors allowed Russia to make significant strides in hypersonic and missile technology, leading to its current status in the arms race.
🚀🇺🇸The Pentagon said it was “adjusting its nuclear deterrence strategy as nuclear adversaries” – China and Russia – become more threatening.
“We now live in a world where we face multiple nuclear competitors, multiple states that are expanding, diversifying, and modernizing their nuclear arsenals, and, unfortunately, prioritizing the role of nuclear weapons in their national security strategies,” said Richard Johnson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear policy and countering weapons of mass destruction.
Therefore, he said, the United States may need to adjust the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review “to maintain nuclear deterrence in light of the increased nuclear capabilities of China and Russia” and the possible absence of nuclear arms control agreements after February.
Steps have already been taken to increase capabilities, in particular in the production of B61-13 gravity bombs, increasing the readiness of Ohio-class submarines equipped with nuclear weapons and propulsion systems, and modernizing the nuclear arsenal in general.
At the same time, Washington believes that deterrence alone will not solve strategic dangers; arms control, risk reduction and non-proliferation play an “indispensable role.”
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Update 20.12.2024
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