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... and right away that was what happened, with predictable result.If this stays too far off topic, i.e. a continuous discussion about whether to have a discussion or not, some posts will just be archived.
I couldn't agree more. The Ukrainians are in a position where they have the absolute right to ask for anything, but NATO has to be smart now. I always felt the MiG deal could be interesting, but his arguments are indeed rather compelling. The no-fly zone should indeed be a non-starter. That's just infeasible.Key wrote: ↑18 Mar 2022, 23:18 To get back on track, here is part of a video by Ward Caroll interviewing Justin Brink, that I highly recommend. With my limited knowledge of what MiG-29 deliveries or a no-fly zone would actually encompass, I found this very enlightening. As a side note, I think Ward's content is generally recommendable.
There have been multiple reports over the past weeks that that is indeed happening. That the Ukrainians are getting direct, live, actionable inelligence. To what extend will hopefully be known after the war.Wildpicture wrote: ↑20 Mar 2022, 09:36Lets just hope that all the US and NATO EW aircraft flying up and down the Ukrainian border not only gather intel but use that intel to provide the Ukrainians with very precise up to date intel on Russian movements on the ground and in the air.
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The New York Times
How Ukraine's Outgunned Air Force Is Fighting Back Against Russian Jets
Maria Varenikova and Andrew E. Kramer
Tue, March 22, 2022, 6:56 PM·7 min read
Nearly a month into the fighting,
one of the biggest surprises of the war in Ukraine is Russia’s failure to defeat the Ukrainian air force.
Military analysts had expected Russian forces to quickly destroy or paralyze Ukraine’s air defenses and military aircraft,
yet neither has happened.
Instead, "Top Gun"-style aerial dogfights, rare in modern warfare, are now raging above the country.
The Ukrainian air force is operating in near total secrecy.
Its fighter jets can fly from air strips in western Ukraine,
airports that have been bombed yet retain enough runway for takeoffs or landings
— or even from highways, analysts say.
They are vastly outnumbered:
Russia is believed to fly about 200 sorties per day while Ukraine flies five to 10.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/ukraines-out ... 02753.html“Ukraine has been effective in the sky because we operate on our own land,”
said Yuriy Ihnat, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian air force.
“The enemy flying into our airspace is flying into the zone of our air defense systems.”
He described the strategy as luring Russian planes into air defense traps.
Dave Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies
and principal attack planner for the Desert Storm air campaign in Iraq,
said the impressive performance of the Ukrainian pilots had helped counter their disadvantages in numbers.
He said Ukraine now has roughly 55 operational fighter jets,
a number that is dwindling from shoot-downs and mechanical failures,
as Ukrainian pilots are “stressing them to max performance.”
To quote his point 2 from three weeks ago:ehusmann wrote: ↑12 Mar 2022, 15:08 Interesting predictions by not the least of all political scientists, Francis Fukuyama:
https://www.americanpurpose.com/article ... or-defeat/
And that seems to be happening right now. It seems the Russian Army around Kyiv is rapidly retreating now. Dozens of villages liberated if the reports are true. Of course the Russians call it 'objectives fulfilled', but reality is probably more like Fukuyama described. Just an utter and total collapse of the Army in that sector.The collapse of their position could be sudden and catastrophic, rather than happening slowly through a war of attrition. The army in the field will reach a point where it can neither be supplied nor withdrawn, and morale will vaporize. This is at least true in the north; the Russians are doing better in the south, but those positions would be hard to maintain if the north collapses.
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