So looks like 9 months training coming from being a pilot of fighter aircraft to be trained in an F16. obviously the Ukrainian pilots would be well trained in a fighter jet. nearly 5 months into this war, they could have already been training.
The west didn't want to supply heavy weapons until they did, they didn't want to supply HIMARS until they did. I think the west need to look as Ukraine as an ally in need and pull out all the stops. Making the war end on Ukraine's terms benefits bother Ukraine and the west.
Interesting read. Yes and the ground crew is key in this setting.
https://www.luke.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/358711/train-f-16-pilots-lukes-mission/
That's were training comes in. The pilots know the basics of flight, they just need training on a new air frame. There's plenty of NATO countries who transitioned from Soviet era aircraft to NATO, so I'm sure they maybe the best to train Ukrainian pilots.
Another key difference would be ground maintenance.
If as NATO has said, that Ukraine are transitioning to NATO equipment, then the Ukrainian air force will need to be trained in NATO aircraft, there's no getting around that. Nobody know's how this war will end but at some stage in the future, Ukraine will have a western equipped airforce, more than likely post war.... but no harm in their pilots getting a leg up!
On the upside to be a bit light hearted. The COD series of games and alike are going to have to Replace Russia with someone else.
I don't think the complexity as such would be an issue, a MiG-29 isn't really any older than the F-16, and is hardly an easy to fly aircraft in its own right. Ukrainian pilots would probably be able to fly the F-16 pretty quickly, and they're well versed in air combat tactics, so they won't need to be trained on that. However, the F-16 is designed to function in a much more interconnected battle space than the MiG-29, which is at its heart still an interceptor. Even early models of the F-16 were equipped with data link functionality and could coordinate their weapons fire without the pilots ever saying a word. Attacking multiple targets at once has also been baked in to the F-16's design for quite some time at this point. You don't so much fight in that aircraft as manage it.
This computer-centric design, combined with the language barrier I think will be the bigger issue. When operating a HIMARS, you can still quickly check Google Translate if you get an error message. That's not really an option when you're pulling 7G trying to shake that Flanker off your tail whilst trying to lock onto his wingman in front of you.
... and Russia has such a great track record of keeping to previous ageements 🙄 The only way for long term peace and stability is to leave Russia incapable of invading another country for the foreseeable future.
Apart from the training, which would take Ukrainian pilots out of the sky for a month or more, each F16/F15 would require about two dozen airmen familiar with the platform to keep the jet maintained and operational day-to-day.
Unless we're talking about basing NATO airmen in Ukraine as maintenance support, that means rotating huge amounts of the Ukrainian air force to somewhere like Ramstein Air Base or the UK for weeks on-end.
Perhaps it's already happening on the sly and we don't know about it, but I'd doubt it.
The transfer of Soviet legacy fighters from former Eastern bloc countries seems like by far the best option, but I'm no expert.
Us tech can be incredibly complex in some cases especially Aircraft. Just take a look a the cockpits from soviet era jets Ukraine is using vs Current Gen f16.
They risk killing many of their own innocent Ukrainian country men and women by doing that.
Not good optics for anyone.
The US needs to commit to equipping the Ukrainians fully, enough of the half measures in order to avoid upsetting the Russians. The should be training Ukrainian pilots now on strike aircraft, such as the F16s, along with long range precision fires and armor platforms.
Train and equip them with a goal of facilitating a full counter offensive towards the end of the year. Liberate the coast, reclaim the ports to allow freedom of trade again. Wipe out the rest of the Black Sea fleet. All achievable goals given western technology and sensor advantage
Yes and no. Yes, the situation in Donbas is pretty grim at the moment. But that's because Russia is throwing everything it has available in there, by the looks of it. Meanwhile, in Kherson Oblast, an area that has been under a media blackout for quite some time now, it looks as if Ukrainian forces are moving closer to the city of Kherson every single day. Also, whilst Lysychansk may have fallen, it looks as if Ukrainian forces were actually able to withdraw in good order, rather than being encircled and crushed as the Russians had probably hoped. That means they'll still have their equipment and, more importantly, experienced soldiers that can be circled back to the rear and used to train up replacements.
Also, what's going on with the Russian Air Farce? Can anyone explain that to me? If things everywhere were as grim as the are in Donbas, we should be seeing Russian fighters and ground attack aircraft striking everywhere between Severodonetsk and Lviv. Yet the only Russian aircraft that seem to operate deep behind enemy lines are anti ship missiles. Even with the ongoing corruption and materiel issues, there should be enough aircraft available to blanket Ukraine, but that's not happening. Makes you wonder just what state the Ukrainian Air Force is actually in...
A referendum held in the middle of a war and a war zone would be an absolute joke. A referendum is something you would hold after several years of peace and stability in the region.
Prudence Goodwyfe, died 1641...she voted to join Russia...so did Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper......
Would like to see the more iconic buildings around the Kremlin raised to the ground. This would really hit home with the Russian public and leave a lasting impact.
Undoubtedly there will be referendums, where 101% of the people support joining Russia. Doesn't make any of it legitimate, unless you're Russia or Syria. I know it can be exciting to see Russia advance, but the war isn't over just yet.
Why give them a single bullet if Ukraine is to fail, the USA and EU, UK said Putin must fail, well at the moment he is not failing. So the West now needs to step up with some real firepower for Ukraine, planes, bombers, fighter jet, kill them from 50000ft .
It's hardly surprising that Ukraine is struggling. They admit themselves that Russia are out-gunning them in Donbas by a factor of 10 to 1. When you are vastly out-matched, a half dozen CESAR's here, or a dozen M777's there just isn't going to be enough to turn the situation around for Ukraine.
The situation for Ukraine looks very grim to me.
There’s a big difference - the Crimea was Russian until relatively recently… the LNR and DNR were “planted” relatively recently.
The West is now wise to Putin, he wants the USSR and its sphere of influence back, which included part of Germany… and why stop there, mighty nuclear power that it is. The west knows it screwed up trusting Russia. Now it’s pull back and let it rot. Democracy not for you? Grand, back to 5 year plans and famine, but you can stick to your fetid borders… see how the DNR and LNR like being shackled to the Russian carcass in the years to come when a developed Ukraine joins the EU.
I respect your point of view,dont get me wrong,but i wouldnt make any decisions before i have actually seen a winner in the conflict.
Its to early to say anything or predict an outcome.
Once Ukraine gets their manpower up and running,probably 1 million reserves and special units,special forces units,and trained in NATO countries on heavy weapons,air defence systems,anti ship missiles,drones,fighter jets etc etc and have started an offensive vs Russia,then we might see who will win this war.
We will see in a month or two where we are then
looks like the Utility part of the building could be aircon or some other thing that caught fire. If your gonna try gut a building start at the bottom or the middle.
More fire in Russia, Moscow-
Here's a very refined kind of 'mind control' - or call it what you like:
Philosophers as they call themselves are now telling us
What these teachings have done is to deprive us of our rich cultural heritage that goes back thousands of years. Nobody knows what is real or true anymore. Everything is being replaced by nothing. And this decadence and nothingness is one of the things that earns Putin's contempt for the west which he continually condemns as 'decadent'.
I would consider this to be a kind of tyranny, albeit of a rarified kind. But I digress...
Kinda true. But in the West we can b1tch about our liars without getting a black bag over our heads and dragged away. We can also choose which liars to elect. Freely and fairly. We can also take the absolute piss out of these people in satire on radio, TV and internet. Ireland can be many things, tyranny is not one of them.
So by your logic, if the Brits decided that the NI was a bit small and wished to expand it to include all the counties of Ulster. That they could invade Donegal, Cavan & Monaghan - lay waste to all the major towns, kill, imprison, resettle and rape the inhabitants of said counties. You reckon that just because they declared these as UK territory and seized them, that the rest of the Irish public on the island would just have to suck it up and concede that these were British territories? That the Brits would run referendums in the three new ethnically cleansed counties in order to legitimise their claims?
You hardly need me to tell that the vast majority of the Irish public would tell you to f**k right off with that logic.
It depends on how you define tyranny. We are all lied to.
All modern countries are not tyrannies, that is plain nonsense.
All modern countries are tyrannies. Some are just more subtle than others. But Russia is particularly brutal and has been for centuries. Only tonight I was reading about this (be warned, this is difficult reading and not for the faint-hearted) -
Cosmin Dzsurdzsa 🇷🇴 on Twitter: "You think you know the full horrors of communism? Let me introduce you to the Romanian People's Republic re-education experiments at Piteșt prison (1949-1951.) The program has been called among the worst acts of inhumanity by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. (THREAD) https://t.co/IGxj4lisJ1" / Twitter
I don't share your optimism, but I do take your point. But the main thing is you and I might disagree but we do so civilly and without hurling abuse at each other. That's all I was saying to the other poster.
They are living like serfs in the 1700s under the Tsar. It's not a million miles away from George Orwell's '1984' either, where all 'citizens' are just cogs in the wheel, Big Brother makes all the decisions and whatever he says is right and correct at all times.
Having known a few Russians over the years it's pretty much nothing like how you paint it. It's also a huge country with a few "Russias" in the mix. A middle class Muscovite is very different to a working class person in Nowheragrod and has different experiences. Like pretty much anywhere else your average person is not in the mix nor the sights of the State, or at least not that much more than we are here. There can also be robust private political debate. That seems to be the big difference. We're more quick to call out ballsology about politicians and freer to do so. More, we're a lot more free to call out our own nation's failings and holes in national and cultural naratives. Though that wasn't always the case. QV when Ireland was as much ruled by the Vatican as the Dail in many ways. Dissenting voices were rare enough. Then again dissenting voices against the cultural narrative are rare enough anyway, or at least a minority.
Put it another way: If this was Boards.ru and we were having debates about what we thought the West was like going by our media and prejudices, many would be quite convinced that the West was full of people who are corporate drone racists who hate Russians, afraid to speak out about and against I dunno The Gay Agenda(tm) and gender(putin has become obsessed with that stuff in his rantings of late), that we're all in debt and decadent and losing our way. Yet outside twitter and the like the average person has the same average person concerns and hopes of the average Russian for the most part. It doesn't take much or many people in any society to drive a percieved narrative of that society to outsiders while the rest of that society just trundles along 9-5, paying bills, raising families and doing average things. The vast majority of people in any society generally agree, or agree to tolerate what the society says and keep their heads down for the most part.
Problem is that this war is far from not over yet,and Ukraine havent even started their offensive push towards Russia yet.
Russia only have the advantage of 5-1 in manpower and 20-1 in artillery at the moment,but this could change.
You dont win wars by capturing and leveling cities,you win wars by defeating your enemy
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