What happened to the previous wunderwaffen? Does Ukraine have operational Bayraktars and HIMARS? I have not heard too much about them lately.
I can't believe we are still at the "fighter jets for Ukraine" stage. It has been discussed for a year why it would be a stupid idea, especially, if the jets are western.
They still have the HIMARS, the problem is Russia moved highly sophisticated AA in which means more missiles are being intercepted. Also it was said awhile ago that the Ukrainians rely on the US for positioning and firing. Not to mention with manufacturing difficulties, as with the Lockheed factory being overwhelmed from orders from both the US and other NATO countries (I think Poland ordered 80 of them), they can't really use them all that much. Kind of like they shot their load, Russia got wise and they're far more conservative with missiles. Also its full on total war with electronic warfare, so I imagine scouting and getting positional data for those HIMARS to fire on are a lot harder now than when Russia was spread thin.
LMAO. Imagine if we promised F-35s. Oh, we'll promise them....2 years later. Long after everything is done lol.
If we gave Ukrainians F-35s before any of our other buyers, we would get shanked in the fucking kidneys. Not to mention we're not going to give them something actually worth money. A lot of this has been dumping old stocks and getting weapons systems that haven't seen a modern war field tested. Anything they're getting are hand-me-downs. The US is going to have trouble meeting its own needs due to supply chain constraints and the way the chain is set up. We're already starting to cannibalize our own stocks, and some of the aid being sent is basically for stuff that isn't produced yet because NATO cannot catch up to Russia.
And building new munitions factories in the West is a huge pain in the ass. Two years to catch up is an optimistic projection.
Totally not a sign a second economic bloc is forming. Everything is good, nothing to see here folks. I guess the past 30 years of the US going, "No, you want our help, you're going to act in our interest or else" really wasn't a sustainable diplomatic posture. Who the fuck knew, huh?
...is an old outdated F-16C going to be the next wonder weapon?
Well, Biden claims he won't give them F-16s, though we are sending them 30 year old Abrams. So uh, maybe? The problem is the time and money spent training the pilots. By the time they'd actually be useful the war would be over. I know our top advisors are predicting Russia will gain 'little' this year, but the last time the top military advisors said something, it was that Afghanistan would take 2 months to fall, and instead it fell in under 2 weeks, in a theater where we supposedly supreme in. So I don't trust anything these stupid fucks have to say. Especially in a place where fog of war and propaganda dominates.
With Russia's modern AA systems, it isn't worth it at all to give them F-16s when they're just going to get blown the fuck up. Not to mention is it really going to matter? With the sheer amount of AA in theater, only now is Russia doing anything with its air power and its still being conservative with it.
To go into this sort of war with an outdated jet is fucking suicide.
www.bloomberg.com
