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Russia-Ukraine War - News and Developments PART 2

Numerically speaking, Ukraine would need hundreds of fighter-bombers to make a difference, so from that perspective, 20-something F-16s would not make a dent considering at the onset of the war, the VKS outgunned the UkAF 1000-something to 100-something. On the other hand, the reason the VKS was largely ineffective over Ukraine has more to do with doctrines than with technical capabilities of the aviation fleet. The losses the VKS suffered were more of that lack of effective combat doctrines than because of Ukrainian air defense. Am not making jabs at the Ukrainians because you have to exploit any and all weaknesses your opponents exposed. The issue with doctrines is that it is almost impossible to change them on the fly. You can have individual wings or even down to the squadron level that can modify specific tactics to suit unique combat situations that may continue to exist or may never be seen again. Doctrines are force wide so what is an 'issue' is now a genuine problem for Russia. The VKS war time doctrines apparently have been static since the collapse of the SU. Borders changed and with those changes came different geopolitics. Newer technologies displaced older ones. So for 30+ yrs, the VKS never changed with the world.

What the F-16 WILL do is force the UkAF to create a new way of waging an air war over its own country. Some F-16 tactics will not be applicable because those tactics requires the support of other platforms such as AWACS or ground controllers, leaving individual squadrons to innovate on their own. Now think back to WW II vis-a-vis the Flying Tigers in China against JPN. That is how the F-16 will be employed over Ukraine.

The F-16 is visually difficult to discern, even when loaded with two externals for longer distance sorties. So one usage would be for the F-16 to strike into Russia proper just over the Ukr-Rus border. With US/NATO AWACS providing 'look ahead' info, Ukr F-16s can avoid Russian ground radar systems and possible VKS intercepts.

This is one yr ago...


...Russia has surface-to-air missiles, or SAMs, in enough locations that it can shoot down Ukrainian jets in almost all parts of the country,...​

The deeper into Russia, the greater the political apprehension between the US, Russia, and the EU. The F-16 is flexible enough to strike along the borders and survive. Breadth, not (yet) depth.

Since the Ukr F-16 will not air refuel because that would require US/NATO involvement, we can eliminate complex missions so that would be points A to B then back to A, unlike Desert Storm where the US had literally mission changes while our jets were in the air. Even if Ukr F-16s have US/NATO AWACS support, Ukr F-16s will still be limited to whatever fuel each jet carries, so most of the time, it would still be A-B-A. Ukr F-16s cannot afford to fly into international airspace to air refuel because that would require constant US/NATO coordination which would increase political tensions between the US, Russia, and the EU, so it is back to A-B-A again. As long as the VKS remains doctrinally incompetent, Ukr F-16s can maintain the Flying Tigers style air guerrilla warfare to its advantage.

The four-ship is combat tested and no air force is better than US at using it. For a small jet with maximum human G tolerance like the F-16, the four-ship is practically ideal against SAM sites. The flight would break up into attacking pairs and engage from different directions at different altitudes. The SAM site has no choice but to engage at least one direction probably at or near maximum range in order to refocus to the other attacker pairs. The problem for the SAM site is precisely because the F-16 has that high-G capability at constant airspeed. It reduces the F-16's reorient time on the target, basically, a smaller turning circle. One pair evade the missiles while the other closes. The first attackers can even launch a HARM to force the SAM site to momentarily shut off its radar. Because modern technology reduces that re-engage time, coordination between the pairs is critical and training specifically for this tactic is required, but do-able against Russian SAM sites because the F-16 can data link to all attackers as to who is doing what at when. Another trick the F-16 done in Desert Storm was the EM decoy against SAM sites to increase survivability in closer engagement ranges. Two four-ship against a single SAM site pushes the odds of combat success over the 50/50 threshold. Three four-ship is practically guaranteed. The major problem for Russia remains the same -- doctrinal incompetence. Even if Russia has 100 SAM sites, the destruction of just one WILL be psychologically damaging because if one site is destroyed on Monday, who is to say Tuesday or Thursday will be any different? Ukr F-16s does not have to produce mass casualties. Just as the Flying Tigers created gaps in JPN's logistic lines, Ukr F-16s can create gaps on Russia's border radars.

Just a few thoughts on what the F-16 can do for Ukraine without US/NATO involvement. :enjoy:

The failure of the Russians is actually the story of the failure of the VKS. Among the many shockingly poor performance on display by the Russians, the VKS is the worst. What we're witnessing in Ukraine is the decay it has suffered since the collapse of the SU. Not only have they not adapted their training and doctrinal capabilities, but they haven't actually done any real R&D and develop capable new platforms. Aside from lukewarm upgraded Flanker variants, and even those largely funded by foreign deals with China and India, the Felon is too little to late. And let's not even start with the army and navy.
 
Same applies to Biden and his woke comrades!

Seriously, they get to elect between Trump, Hilary, Biden, Kamala!
Im not american. What matters internally is really not of my business. But someone like Biden (out of the few they had to chose from) was preferable for the US allies.
 
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Europe is fked
Can anyone explain this video ?
 
Im not american. What matters internally is really not of my business. But someone like Biden (out of the few they had to chose from) was preferable for the US allies.
What's preferable to EU is secondary or may not be on list of priorities for people of USA.
Democracy in USA and most of Europe (specially UK) is a joke.
 
Apparently it was Russian volunteers, not Ukrainian military that crossed into Russian territory.

Anyway, Russian red lines are a joke.
They went to hold a referendum. Did the russians actually ever mention any red lines? I think they are mostly mentioned by western media.
 
Me thinks Putin would have refrained from invading Ukraine while Trump remained in office. 4 more years of delay would have changed the whole dynamic. If Putin did invade it would have resulted in quick yet cr@ppy peace deal but very few casualties and Ukraine intact.
 
Biden may is a vegetable!
What's was wrong with military brass? They could have planned proper and orderly exit. They knew the target exit date, why were they waiting till last minute and screw up things?

Taliban, trump he negotiated a power sharing govt, biden did not like the fact Trump sorted it out and changed the dates showing the taliban he could not be trusted and all hell broke loose then, resulting in biden calling for the first retreat in American history.
 
I agree with you that you need someone to be tough given the status the US enjoy around the globe, but this person also need to be rational. Had Trump had a second term chances are the NATO alliance wouldve crumbled, and we would all be back to isolationism while every authoritarian state would thrive in this chaos. Like it or not, but the US chose to garantee security to Europe for its own benefit. Nothing really prevents european countries from becomming a combined military power house as such, just without a purpose other than telling Russia to back off. I have my doubts the US really would want a Europe not depending on the US nuclear umbrella.
Fair points and good discussion. Personally I think trump was using the power of negotiation with putting nato membership in question.
Look at what he was able to do with kim, they at least had dialogue and if you want to prevent what’s happening in Ukraine you have to start with dialogue.
I can also tell you a minority of Americans under 50 don’t see much value in nato, America is broke and honestly we can’t afford to be the world police and trump wanted us to step back from that role. We can debate the outcome of such a move but those against wars should love trump.

Im not american. What matters internally is really not of my business. But someone like Biden (out of the few they had to chose from) was preferable for the US allies.
Spot on! Allies love him because they can juice him for all he’s got and if that doesn’t work they’ll just pay hunter or another family member. Maybe Z should post some of the FACTS about the Biden family corruption
 
The US has a stockpile of 3M cluster munitions, none of which have been given to Ukraine. Those would be very useful in opening salvoes on Russian fortifications for the offensive.

It’s a shame the US holds so much back.
 
Fair points and good discussion. Personally I think trump was using the power of negotiation with putting nato membership in question.
Look at what he was able to do with kim, they at least had dialogue and if you want to prevent what’s happening in Ukraine you have to start with dialogue.
I can also tell you a minority of Americans under 50 don’t see much value in nato, America is broke and honestly we can’t afford to be the world police and trump wanted us to step back from that role. We can debate the outcome of such a move but those against wars should love trump.


Spot on! Allies love him because they can juice him for all he’s got and if that doesn’t work they’ll just pay hunter or another family member. Maybe Z should post some of the FACTS about the Biden family corruption
I dont agree with the last one. Biden is an old school polite politician versus Trump behaving as if a meeting amoung allies was a business meeting where he had to come out on top - everytime. He clearly had an issue with Europe, and politicians here seemed to prefere he stayed away.
 
The US has a stockpile of 3M cluster munitions, none of which have been given to Ukraine. Those would be very useful in opening salvoes on Russian fortifications for the offensive.

It’s a shame the US holds so much back.
Usa can shove it up their arrse all those cluster bombs
 
I dont agree with the last one. Biden is an old school polite politician versus Trump behaving as if a meeting amoung allies was a business meeting where he had to come out on top - everytime. He clearly had an issue with Europe, and politicians here seemed to prefere he stayed away.

I agree Trump will jeopardize US overseas security in a big way.. even on a local level example he almost caused a civil war in the US who had to deploy the army into DC

The deep state won't allow him to return
 
I agree Trump will jeopardize US overseas security in a big way.. even on a local level example he almost caused a civil war in the US who had to deploy the army into DC

The deep state won't allow him to return
On contrary he was the on who resolved (almost) most of ongoing issue USA was struggling!
 
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