Ukraine War Acronym Explainer: What do they all mean?
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This summary has been produced automatically by an AI Large Language Model (LLM) without any human intervention. Whilst every effort has been made to prompt the LLM to produce accurate output, there may be inconsistencies, inaccuracies or hallucinations!
Table of Contents 📖
| Topic ID | Topic Title | Timestamp |
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"If you're going to invade a country you you do lots of SEAD operations first that's one of the first things you do you gather your your intelligence, you do X, Y, and Z, you know, so you have as much information about as possible, which Russia, I think, did very poorly. And then you do SEAD until you've got air superiority."
Introduction
Jonathan explains that the information landscape around the Ukraine war has been littered with acronyms, which can be confusing. He aims to provide clarity on what the various acronyms mean in this explainer video. The acronyms relate to open source intelligence (OSINT), military equipment, organisations, and more.
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Open Source Intelligence (OSINT)
- OSINT stands for open source intelligence, which Jonathan is involved in as an aggregator and communicator
- There are six components to OSINT:
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
Armoured Vehicles
- AFV - Armoured Fighting Vehicle (includes tanks, SPGs, IFVs, APCs, MRAPs)
- IFV - Infantry Fighting Vehicle (tracked, armoured, with heavier weapons than APCs)
- Example: BMP (Russian IFV)
- APC - Armoured Personnel Carrier (usually wheeled for greater speed, with some weaponry)
- MRAP - Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle (heavily armoured APCs developed by the US)
- SPG - Self-Propelled Gun/Howitzer (armoured, tracked or wheeled, artillery with "shoot and scoot" capability)
- Examples: Panzerhaubitze 2000 (German), AHS Krab (Polish), CAESAR (French)
Shells and Missiles
- AP - Armour-Piercing shell
- HE - High Explosive shell
- HEAT - High Explosive Anti-Tank shell
- RAP - Rocket Assisted Projectile (extended range shells)
- BB - Base Bleed (extended range shells using a gas bleed at the base)
- MLRS - Multiple Launch Rocket System (fires rockets)
- GMLRS - Guided MLRS (fires guided rockets)
- Examples: M270 MLRS, M142 HIMARS
- ATACMS - Army Tactical Missile System (long-range guided missiles fired by MLRS, 300km range)
- MANPADS - Man-Portable Air Defence System (shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles)
- Examples: Stinger (US), Starstreak (UK)
- ATGM - Anti-Tank Guided Missile (shoulder-launched guided missiles for attacking tanks)
- Examples: Javelin (US), NLAW (UK/Sweden)
- JDAM - Joint Direct Attack Munition (kits to convert unguided bombs into guided bombs)
Drones and Vehicles
- FPV drone - First Person View drone (where the operator sees from the drone's perspective)
- UAV - Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
- UGV - Unmanned Ground Vehicle
- USV/ASV - Unmanned/Autonomous Surface Vehicle (naval drones)
Military Terminology
- SEAD - Suppression of Enemy Air Defences (destroying the opponent's surface-to-air missile systems and radar to achieve air superiority)
- AGM-88 HARM missile - High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (used for SEAD, locks onto radar emissions)
- GMLRS - Ground Line of Communication (supply routes connecting military units to their supply bases)
- OPSEC - Operational Security (keeping military operations secret to avoid revealing intelligence to the enemy)
- KIA - Killed In Action ("200" in Russian military terminology)
- WIA - Wounded In Action ("300" in Russian military terminology)
- POW - Prisoner of War
- IDP - Internally Displaced Person
Organisations and Regions
- DPR/DNR - Donetsk People's Republic (Russian-backed separatist region in eastern Ukraine)
- LPR/LNR - Luhansk People's Republic (Russian-backed separatist region in eastern Ukraine)
- FSB - Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (Russia's internal intelligence agency)
- GRU - Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (Russia's military intelligence agency, commands Spetsnaz special forces)
- SBU/SSU - Security Service of Ukraine
- RMA - Regional Military Administration (Ukrainian regional military leadership)
- AFU - Armed Forces of Ukraine
- UA - Ukrainian Army
- RAF - Russian Armed Forces
- TDF - Territorial Defence Forces (Ukrainian military reserves)
- VDV - Russian Airborne Forces
- VKS - Russian Aerospace Forces
- NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
- OSCE - Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe
Other
- UAH - Ukrainian Hryvnia (Ukraine's currency)
Wrap up
Jonathan thanks the viewers for watching to the end and apologises if he has forgotten any acronyms. He says he may add to the presentation if there are important ones he missed. He asks viewers to like, subscribe and share the video.
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🤖❓ AI Debrief (post task) - anything the AI didn't understand
The transcript was clear and I was able to understand and summarise all the key points about the various acronyms related to the Ukraine war that were covered in the video.
🤖💭 AI Plan (pre task) - the AI's step by step thought process
The video is an explainer of various acronyms related to the Ukraine war, so I will organize the summary by grouping related acronyms together under topic headings.
I will include Jonathan's explanations and insights for each acronym to provide the necessary context.
The acronyms cover military equipment, organizations, and other terminology, so I will use those as the high-level categories.
I will keep the introduction and wrap-up sections brief, focusing more on the acronym explanations in the main content.
I will make sure to use British English spellings throughout.
I will bold the acronyms themselves to make them stand out.
I will double check that I have captured all the key acronyms and explanations from the transcript.