The Hellfire is not the only munition a Reaper is regularly tasked to carry. A Reaper can also deploy stand-off munitions, like the JDAM glide bomb that costs a third what a hellfire missile costs and which has a range of up to 26km from it's release point. These cheaper munitions would generally be preferable for many missions due to their lower cost.
You could actually be right, The RQ-180 or 170 stealth drones could easily be operating over Ukraine without anyone being the wiser. They didn't go to all that trouble making stealth variants for the fun of it.
Add a carriage return after twitter links and remove the mobile part of the url so they show up
At this rate Russia is almost self imploding with arresting their own war leaders
What's a few miles between friends
To be fair, no in this regard is probably correct because those intelligence satellites are in various locations between 500 km and about 36000 km above in the low, medium and high orbits rather than 100 km above 😏
Sorry but you keep arguing this point and despite requests for proof you just avoid providing such
No
So a Reaper drone, fighting in the Ukrainian theatre, would have to somehow position itself outside of MANPAD range, avoid SHORAD systems such as the Pantsir/Osa, avoid medium/long range systems like the Buk/S300/S400 entirely, avoid all Russian Ka-52 helicopters and fighter-bombers; and still would only be able to attack targets a few km away from its current position.
That's what I mean when I say it has to be "on top of" a target to hit it.
By the way here's an illustration of the size difference between the TB2 (which has been unable to operate since Russia consolidated its air defences) and the Predator/Reaper. Note that the larger an aircraft the easier it is to detect both visually and via radar:
This is getting off topic; but it's my considered (and by no means expert) opinion that Predator and Reaper drones are not going to help Ukraine to fight Russia; and will only be a liability if they were to be fielded as offensive weapons in particular. If used purely for surveillance purposes that might be a different story.
I wouldn't completely deny that there is an element of price-gouging when it comes to big-ticket contracts within the every country's military-industrial complex - I just wouldn't single out US military spending in particular - I think all the developed industrial powers suffer from this problem. Have you seen how much the Japanese actually pay for many of their own home-produced military hardware? Most US weapons and hardware on the open market is no more expensive that that of other countries.
When you see the vast profits that are on offer the idea that the US & UK will only send weapons to prolong the war rather than finish it decisively is less about conspiracy theory and more about an economic reality.
It's certainly more about someone's imagined conspiracy theory than anything else, actually.
"America has confirmed they are over ukraine and providing live intelligence to the Ukrainans this is weeks olds news"
No they have not, they have confirmed they are sharing intelligence and only announced this week that will be stepped up, but the source of the intel is not clear, they have not stated that they are flying Global Hawks over Ukraine like you claimed, intensifying intelligence with Ukraine does not mean that it's intelligence from the unmanned drones, you are adding 2 and 2 together to get 5 there, there are many other sources of intel available.
"They aren't doing that from the blacksea and as pointed out transponders get turned off easily enough , which no matter what membership you have to an app you wouldn't see ?
No"
So where did the multiple FR24 screenshots come from that you claimed where all over the thread post the start of the war? 🙄
I've yet to see any american official stating that the US are operating any drones in Ukrainian airspace since the Russian invasion.
They can provide live intelligence from radar from AWAC's, drones in the black sea or via satellite. Just because they say live intelligence, it doesn't mean the US are flying drones in Ukrainian airspace.
About 100 miles above, in space .
And I could go on.
Indeed.
I find your belief that Zelenskyy is spoofing and just fishing for sympathy and weapons to be a sever misjudgement of his character and intellect.
It's a pity that's not my belief. I never claimed he was "spoofing" or "fishing for sympathy". I did say as you quoted: Because of the position his invaded country finds itself in Zelensky has one major practical need; more weapons from his Western supporters. Yes he's talked about Western sanctions and help and support for Ukrainian refugees, but he talks far more about weapons and military moves like no fly zones. His pronouncments about possible Russian actions like the use of chemical weapons and nuclear weapons are to that end, to get more Western military involvement.
Bit of a difference there.
Dig up all of Zelensky's speeches and quotes. They are overwhelmingly about weapons and that's fair enough, because that's what he wants and needs to prosecute the defence of Ukraine. I get that and would broadly support it too. However he had a grand oul walkabout with UK PM Johnson glad handing as they went, with ceramic cocks FTW, just because he supplied them weapons. Or that's what it certainly seems to be as the fact Johnson and his cronies have enabled and supported Russian dirty money and happily welcomed them among his cronies to the degree of enobling a couple of them into their preening archaic echelons, and that became a magical memory hole for expediency's sake, as did the fact that Britain out of all the nations in Europe has taken in one of the fewest number of Ukrainian refugees fleeing this war. These are facts, so debate them if you will.
As for experts in nuclear war and the threat of it; just like the myriad of experts wheeled out when covid hit, their pronouncements ranged from We're all dooooomed, to feck all to see here. Remarkably few of those experts called it early on, even though the major hints were there from early on. Hell, there were randomers on this very site that were more accurate. The only thing anyone can truthfully claim about putin and the possibility of a nuclear strike is; we're not in Kansas anymore Toto. They/we simply don't know, but we can guess. And that's all we can do.
As for chemical weapons: If Russia had deployed them we'd be hearing a damn sight more than breathing difficulties and nebulous symptoms from those at the sharp end of them. If you're going to take that hideous step that even Hitler baulked at, your'e not going to pussyfoot around and will go with nerve agents and the like. Zelensky and the Ukrainian authorities have said little since, actually nothing, about that after the initial hullabaloo got the headlines. I'd not be surprised to find the mobile crematoria will suffer a similar fate.
Bucha will stand, as will more, or even worse examples of Russian depravity and criminal actions as they come to light. Of that I have no doubt. I also have no doubt that there will be some pockets of Ukrainian depravity and criminal actions that will come to light when the costs and bodies are counted. Though I've even less doubt that the scales of pure murderous evil will be heavily and ovewhelmingly weighted on the Russian side of the balance.
Apologies. I missed it being posted earlier. Hairs on the back of the neck stuff.
America has confirmed they are over ukraine and providing live intelligence to the Ukrainans this is weeks olds news
They aren't doing that from the blacksea and as pointed out transponders get turned off easily enough , which no matter what membership you have to an app you wouldn't see ?
Not sure about that poster, but, I do know what I'm talking about and have numerous trackers (including a nice Gold membership to FR24 which among other things allows me to go back 365 days) and I can't find any evidence of anything flying over Ukraine since the war started (with the exception of the Ukraine Emergency Services AN26 and AN32Ps which made a daring dash to Poland after the war started), I also have not seen anything here since the war started and have not seen any nation confirm they were still over Ukranian air space since the war started like you claim.
Whoops. I'm an atheist, I don't pay too much attention to cults; obviously should have checked in on this one more frequently.
Thats it , remember when they claimed the Ukrainan police were executing people in the streets who protested against the Nazi regime,
I'm just seeing dead Russian soldiers and tanks
Can you not see all of the secret Nazi conversion centers
No matter what way they spin it, the Russians sure as hell are losing to somebody in Ukraine. It's fascinating to watch all the confidence and arrogance of the last seven weeks starting to drain away from their faces.
Irpin. Note all the high value military installations.
Bollix .
What your saying is you haven't a clue about it ,
Just like your claims of predator /reaper drones needing to be on top of a target to hit it , when in fact they can kill targets multiple kilometers away.
Child's play
It has been posted numerous times and the Americans have confirmed it yet you can't produce one iota of proof.
I suspect what you mean to say is: "I was wrong but I'm not willing to admit it, so I'll just tell you go and find the proof yourself while I move on and pretend it never happened."
Its all Nato's fault ..😂😂😂😂
I follow them with various trackers and have not seen a Global Hawke (or indeed any NATO asset) over Ukraine since the war started, have also not seen any screenshots here since the war started (your own screenshot posted as proof was from February 15th), nor have I seen NATO or any other country say they were flying them over Ukraine since the war started.
Huge change in tone on the Solovyov talk show. Anyone watching can surely tell that things are not going well in the war for Russia (it may be that they are preparing the public for general mobilisation):
Your free to search yourself ...
It's been posted numerous times and numerous screen shots from multiple posters ,the Americans have confirmed it .
But yet here we are
If the proof is "all over this thread" please share a link to one of those comments?
Well well well, it appears a NATO Global Hawke may have disappeared off radar at 13:58 UTC South West of Odessa near the Ukranian border, well actually it did disappear off radar at 13:58 near the border, that does not mean it was shot down, but unusual for the Global Hawkes to turn off their transponders.
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