The problem is if Ukraine are given a lot of F-16s and they start getting shot down, what effect will that have on the European populations support for further donations. It will also be prime propaganda for Russia "look at us destroying the evil American airforce" How will that affect the Russian populations support for the war?
Russian invasion of Ukraine | Fewer tweets, more discussion
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I don't think it will be a problem. But the next step would be to give Ukranians a few F-35s!
Calm down now, It's a 50 year old aircraft with no stealth capabilities, it has a radar cross section of 5 square meters which makes it easily detectable for radars at very long ranges. If they even tried to fly close to the frontlines at any altitude they would get shot down immediately.
They can't. The simple issue is that the Russian strategic bombers launch cruise missiles while being far away from the border. There is no air-to-air or air-to-ground missile that could prevent this. The only way would be to fly an F-16 deep into Russian territory, and that would be a suicide mission.
The F-16 isn't that much better than the MiG-29 Ukraine currently uses and they didn't try to waste them on such missions, so they wouldn't try with an F-16.
There is no way to compose some sort of armistice any soon, which only makes this war slip toward a slowrolled escalation, for the weeks to come, which is a scary prospect per se, even without additional fronts or nuke threats.
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Tell that to the chopper pilots that flew into Belogrod.
I don't think the F-16s will be used for dogfights. Dogfights are fun in the movies, but in a real war, modern aircraft use missiles. The F-16 is just a platform for missiles and radar. And the US has developed many different missiles for the F-16, some with a very long range. For example, some variants of the following have a range of over 1,000 km.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGM-158_JASSM
You can find the position of the parked bomber using satellites or ground observers, then you send the F-16 to fire the missile, and the bomber (or the ship, or the artillery) is no more.
No comparison with the MiGs. Yes, the F-16 as a platform was developed 50 years ago, but the weapons it carries are very modern.
If they won't give them 150km MLRS ammo what makes you think they'd give 1000km missiles for an F16?
True, but the Dutch don't have that and currently they are the only ones talking about transferring F-16. If a broader coalition forms and agrees to deliver this kind of long range weapons, then the picture changes.
Not to mention state of repair and general reliability You can be pretty sure that a NATO F-16 despite a long working life has it's service manual and maintenance record in proper working order. Don't know if one can say the same about Soviet designed planes.
The US wants Ukraine to hold off on launching a major offensive.
Hard to believe someone can feck up such a sensitive statistic and not notice for a whole day. As someone pointed out on Twitter, the last poll doesn't even add to 100% as well.
regarding the political spectrum it's pretty much what expect:
However the finer distribution in a recent survey were a bit surpring to me (left coloumn: "should deliver", right coloumn: "should not deliver"):
A stark contrast between East and West, probably not surprising, considerung how strong far left/right parties usually are there, compared to the West.
What was far more surprising to me is the breakdown according to age. From my personal experience younger people are strongly in favour of supporting Ukraine and in general it usually seems to be the boomers dragging everyone down on critical issues. But here we can see the opposite. I have no idea why.
Also the breakdown by party:
I was mildly surprised to see the FPD split so evenly, though I guess that's logical with their libertarian "feck other people" contingent. Yet their official position seems much less conflicted than the SPD's, who are given a relatively clear direction by this poll.
Makes sense to me. The UKR needs to deal Bakhmut and it's surroundings first as well.
Concerning
Leopards will make it to Ukraine, with or without Germany’s consent.
I share your surprise and your experiences... no idea whst kind of young people they asked, from my personal experience I have to assume that the delusional leftist/last generation complex is completely against it, because I don't really know such people and that's the only way I can think of how to turn the opinion this far against deliveries.
Yes that is quite true.
But it is important to bear in mind that the F16 is not optimised for the ground attack role.
Out of the European forces, the Tornado is still the most capable ground attack fighter jet because of it radar and weapons. It is a similar age to the F16 and only Germany and Italy still operate it.
Keep in mind that still no one officially asked Germany about consent. Despite a lot of talk still nobody is trying to enforce this.
I mean this is getting embarrassing for Germany:
It’s obviously just a face saving lie from German authorities.
So just to clarify here, Ben Wallace is lying?
https://news.sky.com/story/berlin-a...tanks-to-ukraine-ben-wallace-reveals-12790563
Oh I missed that, probably my statement now is outdated. As of yesterday the last official statements from the German government I know of said there hasn't been a formal request, but if it is news from yesterday it fits.
40,000 convicts? Fecking hell.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/20/...rm=link&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twcnnbrk
So Russian invading forces consist in:
-200,000 professional soldiers initially appointed for the task, most of which are already dead, captured, surrendered, defected or unable to fight, and the rest is mentally broken after almost one year of poorly led war experience and the unilateral termination of their 6 months of service contracts.
-300,000 recruits with no experience in battle, no real stakes in the war's motives (with most of them reportedly from far away regions), lack of discipline and cohesion, poorly equipped and trained in a hurry, only partially mobilized to the battlefront.
-10,000 nutters who are in it for the money and -I assume- for the killing/raping/looting power trip.
-40,000 inmates who have no loyalty to the cause, are used as canon fodder and for the most part would prefer to be back in jail.
Seems like most of them won’t ever have that option, if you had to guess from the numbers:
Its easier to sneak in in a helicopter than a fighter.
That's the problem with drifting towards fascism. Once you begin the process, you're incentivized to consolidate power for fear of being overthrown, which is precisely where Putin is headed and his pal Orban won't be too far behind. As Putin becomes weaker, his aspiring acolytes will become vulnerable after realizing he's no longer able to protect them.
Suggests sendsing M1 Abrams
Lindsey channeling his inner-McCain.
I believe that, despite the support for Ukraine not being as good as it could be, Putin did not expect it to be as strong as it is. I am sure that he felt that he could blackmail many of the European countries with his gas supplies.
That is why it is so important that the support to Ukraine is increased.