HIMARS raketartelleri.

1) From the video's I conclude that a HIMARS battery has 4 pieces, where a normal Nato tube artillery has 6 pieces.
You can see that from the fact, that Ukraine is supplied with 4 at the time. Half a battery is 2 pieces - seen from how they move on the road. The defining thing is that is a weapon to be assigned on a brigade level. Hope Denmark will get a couple of batteries for the brigade in Poland and one for the division in Latvia.

2) Ukraine is doing the right thing: Before using the system in a brigade context it would be nice to know how well they work under practical conditions. To this end the system has to fire at ammunition dumps - they are reasonably easy to find - just look at the railway line and the tyre tracks from the trucks transporting shells. Ammunition dumps go nowhere by themselves. They also have the advantage, that hits cannot be disguised: 1.000 artillery shells blowing up at one time - that can be seen from a satelite.
One thing is for certain: The pieces is not hanging around to get the results coming in - it moves to a new pre-planned position and shoots at another target. The critical information (which is probably classified - anything else would be stupid) is how many rockets are required to destroy the target - at a given distance from the target.

3) Use as a battery is for the future. First you have to see if you can actually shoot the damned thing - and HIT. It is no art to use a lot of ammunition to produce gravel from rubble. HQ's are also vital in determining the effect. You might - hopefully - kill the general; but the other damage to his staff will tell you something of the general effect: No ekstra points for destroying an allready destroyed target. How much is the dispersion as a function of distance. Hitler survived a bomb placed under a table: Eksplosions are capricious creatures.

4) The HIMARS are an addition to the capabilities and does in no way deminish the importance of f.i. the M777 as their objective is different: To kill the targets that no longer can get artillery support. This gives a measure to the dissolution of the russian army's coherence - or lack of it.

5) Traitors are to be expected. When found out it is a question of when to kill them. There have been some in the Danish parliament. Unfortunately she has not been burned at the stake - yet. The important thing is to unwind the network the traitors work in.

No, I think the picture shows a half battery Himars. Maybe not even a full load - because I don't think the ratio of Himars duds is as high as 1/3. But it would make sense to use a half battery for that fire mission.

The information of particular interest to the USA is how reliable the HIMARS is under operational conditions. The scandal of the torpedo mark 13 in the beginning of WW2 still haunts the military establishment in the USA.
The rocket might be expensive - yes, but considering that they can blow up several thousands hostile artillery shells with one rocket (plus assorted orcs) and it is a target that is very unlikely to deny.
Furthermore I think the resistance in Xepcoh is likely to pick up the reception of deliveries and the information is quickly passed to the intelligence - and an order can be passed on to the HIMARS. So for a concerted attack the piece is likely to be short a shell or two.

But what I really would like is HIMARS for the Danish army forming a brigade of medium wheeled level 3-4 protected vehicles. Every brigade should have a battery of HIMARS.
The rockets expensive - yes and no. But there will be some serious discussion with the manufacturer and the price of a larger series of rockets. The significant information coming from todays briefing with defence minister Lloyd Austin was that in answer to a question he said the problem was production of the ammunition.
That means the russian claim of having destroyed the HIMARS cannot be true, because a destroyed vehicle cannot use ammunition.
One reason I would like the HIMARS in Danish Service, but on another chassis - I would like them on a protected truck chassis (8* to give the pieces a longer range on driving on the road.

I believe it was a half battery because the defensive thing to do is allways have one half of the battery moving at 80 km/hour - because that will mean that they cannot be targeted by the enemy. The trick is to keep moving day and night. The enemy might establish where the rockets were fired from; but only one thing is certain in that respect: That where the rockets came from is NOT where the vehicles are NOW.

In October 2017, a Marine Corps M142 fired a rocket while at sea against a land target for the first time from the deck of the amphibious transport dock USS Anchorage, demonstrating the system's ability to operate while on ships to deliver precision fire from a standoff range against shore defenses. The vehicle's targeting software was reworked so it can better fire while on a constantly moving and maneuvering launch platform.

“We’re putting the best and newest manufacturing technology into some of these product lines first so that when the ramp comes, we can pivot to it quicker,” Taiclet said.

1. Der er dels tale om operatørerne bliver bedre - det et spørgsmål om rutine: Taxachauffører er bedre bilister end bedstemor, der kører til købmanden og tilbage. Det gælder både artilleristerne og dem, der producerer ammunitionen. Det kan være noget så banalt, som at man flytter en maskine, så der ikke er så meget spildtid. Det er mange små ting.
2. Der er små forbedringer. Færre fejl, mindre tid anvendt på at arbejde på emner, der er behæftet med f.eks. støbefejl. Udskiftning af dele, der går i stykker i normal anvendelse. Til illustration så er her en anmeldelse af den britiske SMLE Mark V riffel - af en fagmand.
   Men det er ting, der godt kan betyde nogle procent i bedre rækkevidde og/eller forøget præcision.
3. Der er også tale om, at man lægger noget ud til produktion hos underleverandører, subsidiært investerer i bedre værktøjer. Et eksempel er B&W, der startede med at producere alt selv - inclusiv motorerne - men efterhånden som tiden gik, så blev f.eks. produktionen af pumper lagt ud til underleverandører. Mit tal, der er 30-40 år gammelt er at af produktionsomkostningerne på et skib så var det kun 30% der faldt på værftsansatte. Vi ser det ved at Flensburg Fahrzeugbau GmbH ombygger Piranha V chassier til specialkøretøjer som ambulancer, bjergningskøretøjer - det kunne MOWAG i Schweiz også gøre; men det er nok ikke så lidt billigere og bedre, at få folk, der har prøvet det før til at lave arbejdet.

1. Man sætter "folde ud" vinger på gamle bomber og får dermed længere rækkevidde, så man kan spare på de egentlige missiler.
2. Der er den meget omtalte mulighed at give Ukrainerne raketter med længere rækkevidde.
3. Der er muligheden for at trække på underleverandører til større overhaling og reparation, som man nu gør med Slovakiet. Et klassisk eksempel er: De amerikanske jernbaner køber stort set ikke nye lokomotiver, fordi de med en overhaling er lidt bedre end helt da maskinen var ny.