Dutch tv shows explains the working of the BUK system and interviews former Finnish BUK commander
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Dutch tv show Nieuwsuur at December 15 2017 showed a very interesting item about the BUK. One of the reporters, Gert-Jan Dennekamp travelled to Finland and talked to a former commander of a BUK battalion. Finland was one of two Western states operating the BUK. The other is Cyprus.
In a Finnish museum a BUK TELAR and a Snow Drift radar vehicle is on display. The end of the item had an interview with Marieke de Hoon. She is an expert on international law.
Nieuwsuur talked in the museum to Esa Kelloniemi, a former Finnish commander of a BUK battalion. He explains Finland bought the BUK system to defend the capital Helsinki against enemy aircraft. He was part of the team that acquired the Buk system to Finland .The interview is in english with Dutch subtitles. The item can be seen at the site of Nieuwsuur or below on Youtube. A vidoe with Ukraine subtitles can be found .
Kelloniemi tells the BUK system only works fine when all components like the command post, the Snow Drift radar and the BUK Telar are connected to eachother.
Kelloniemi was also seen in this video made by MH17 Inquiry, a channel which supports the Kremlin view of the events.
He tells that if the was a commander he would never sent a BUK TELAR without a command post and Snow Drift radar into a combat situation. He tells it is difficult to find a target with just a BUK TELAR launcher.
The mode in which a BUK TELAR operates without supporting vehicles is called autonomous mode. The radar of the TELAR in this mode can provide a 120 degrees view of the airspace.
Not part of the item, the reporter on Twitter added that Finland was aware of the shortcomming of the BUK TELAR when operating without support of the command post and Snow Drift radar. Finland modified the TELAR with self-designed equipment including an additional screen so the BUK TELAR crew always had complete vision.
In this blogpost I explain the instruments and information available to the crew of a BUK TELAR.
Nieuwsuur then explains the situation at July 17 2014. Ukraine forces were trapped between separatists controlled area and the Russian border. The only way to supply the troops with food, water and ammunition was by dropping these from a plane using parachutes. Nieuwsuur shows footage of those drops.
Nieuwsuur talks to a commander of Ukraine forces named Sergei Mandalina.
A former commander of Ukraine forces tells that an operator of a BUK TELAR will never decide on his own to launch a missile. It will always be an officer who decides to launch. When crew are trained on the BUK system, there are never civilian aircraft in the area.
The former commander states that Ukraine should have closed its airspace as it was wartime.
Ukraine media
It is interesting at January 4, 2018 Ukraine media started to report on this Nieuwsuur item. One of the first was Pravda.ua. This is 5Channel owned by Poroshenko.
Even bots on Twitter were used to spread the message.
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I’d very much like to see the Nieuwsuur programme done in English but it was still a useful piece of viewing. Funnily I found the second half of the other video -the one done done by the truther -quite informative -mainly probably because it’s in English and we got some more insight into the operating of a BUK in standalone mode from Kelloniemi who I found credible and knowledgable about the system.
I’m even in agreement with the narrator on a couple of points such as
*the system could not have been operated by part-timers.
*Russia had nothing to gain from shooting down an airliner.
Thereafter though his logic falls right out of his ass and his video has really only only served to re-inforce a suspicion I’ve had since shortly after the shootdown happened -namely that the guys from the 53rd division who fired the missile had alcohol consumed. I can’t otherwise see how they could miss so many opportunities to verify their target before launching a missile.