Britain accused Russia of planning to give Iran advanced military components in exchange for hundreds of drones, British defence minister Ben Wallace said on Tuesday, calling on the West to do more to expose the trade.
I guess if you had air to air missiles that could go > 1000km you no longer really need a plane! Just send those fellas up with a launcher attached to a hot air balloon!
Senior State Dept Official:
- U.S Sees “Conflicting” Views in Russia on Whether or Not to Launch a Counter Offensive in Ukraine
- There Are Those in Russia Who Want to Pursue an Offensive and Others Who Have Questions About Russia’s Capacity to Do So
- U.S. Is As Prepared As It Can Be for Any of These Contingencies Including Renewed Russian Offensive
- U.S. Is Seeing “Significant Shortages” of Ammunition in Part of Russians and That Is Increasingly a Problem for Moscow https://www.reuters.com/world/us-sa...renewed-ukraine-counter-offensive-2022-12-20/
I guess if you had air to air missiles that could go > 1000km you no longer really need a plane! Just send those fellas up with a launcher attached to a hot air balloon!
You may be joking a bit, but I can see it potentially working fairly well, a tethered dirigible with the luanchers and props or gyros to stabilise a bit during lunch, cheap, can be packed away small to move in a hurry, and able to fire at targets that are further away than a ground luanchers version, especially if paired with something that would normally be man portable or bolted onto say a hummersirry for typos etc, on phone
Britain accused Russia of planning to give Iran advanced military components in exchange for hundreds of drones, British defence minister Ben Wallace said on Tuesday, calling on the West to do more to expose the trade.
I'm assuming 1200km is talking about JASSM variants for air to surface - though the US has been trialling long range JATM variants including multi-stage which are essentially data-linked cruise missiles for air to air work.
That JASSM 158 also has an ER version with a 1900km range, not sure if the 1900km version is in testing or in service
The Americans are trialing many missiles ; the one I'm most interested in is what Lockheed was testing here just a week ago
This 1600km missile carries a multi stage boost glide warhead which reaches speeds of up to Mach 20. Apparently the actual warhead explosive isn't very big (50kg) but due to the amount of kinetic energy it hits the target with it does a lot of damage leaving a big as crater
JASSM (AGM-158) has been in US service for nearly 14 years , it has a range of 370km; the JASSM-ER (AGM-158B) with a 900km range has been in US service for nearly 9 years, and has been used operationally in 2019.
Just to clarify the F-35 1200km Air-to Air Missile (AAM) post -
Currently the longest range AAM used by any nations F-35 is the AIM-120D used solely by the US (so far, thats changing shortly) with a range over just over 100nm in perfect conditions but a more realistic range of 70-80nm. However, once the UK finishes its weapons trials it'll field the Meteor AAM on the RAF/RN F-35B, with a longer range of an estimated 150nm (no idea how accurate that range is, just the most widely quoted one) which then becomes the longest range AAM until the new US AIM-260 comes in to replace the AIM-120 series, which extends that range once again.
To clarify the Russian "Thrust Vector" stuff regarding the F-35 -
I think we can all agree that the US probably has some of the best aircraft and tactics vs most other nations, and yet in the very first Red Flag that an older version of the F-35 took part in (where it's NATO vs US), the F-35 killed 145 NATO (US/Aus/UK/European etc) 4th Gen aircraft vs just 7 losses, and all those 7 were in dogfights where the F-35 was picked up visually vs being detected electronically i.e. bad F-35 tactics (see video in spoiler) - so yeah, in a <10nm dogfight the SU-57 might win, only it'd be dead 20-30 miles before getting that close as the F-35 doesn't need its radar to see the Su-57, it's got other currently unjammable sensors that'll pick the Felon up quite a distance away.
Just to clarify the F-35 1200km Air-to Air Missile (AAM) post -
Currently the longest range AAM used by any nations F-35 is the AIM-120D used solely by the US (so far, thats changing shortly) with a range over just over 100nm in perfect conditions but a more realistic range of 70-80nm. However, once the UK finishes its weapons trials it'll field the Meteor AAM on the RAF/RN F-35B, with a longer range of an estimated 150nm (no idea how accurate that range is, just the most widely quoted one) which then becomes the longest range AAM until the new US AIM-260 comes in to replace the AIM-120 series, which extends that range once again.
To clarify the Russian "Thrust Vector" stuff regarding the F-35 -
I think we can all agree that the US probably has some of the best aircraft and tactics vs most other nations, and yet in the very first Red Flag that an older version of the F-35 took part in (where it's NATO vs US), the F-35 killed 145 NATO (US/Aus/UK/European etc) 4th Gen aircraft vs just 7 losses, and all those 7 were in dogfights where the F-35 was picked up visually vs being detected electronically i.e. bad F-35 tactics (see video in spoiler) - so yeah, in a <10nm dogfight the SU-57 might win, only it'd be dead 20-30 miles before getting that close as the F-35 doesn't need its radar to see the Su-57, it's got other currently unjammable sensors that'll pick the Felon up quite a distance away.
From CNN: U.S is sending Patriot missiles and JDAM kits to Ukraine in the new weapons package. The JDAM units will turn Ukraine's stock pile of dumb bombs into GPS guided munitions that can be launched from planes with a 28km range
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the U.S. Congress on Wednesday that aid to Ukraine is an investment in democracy, not charity, and invoked American victory over the Nazis in a key World War Two battle to press for continued assistance.
From CNN: U.S is sending Patriot missiles and JDAM kits to Ukraine in the new weapons package. The JDAM units will turn Ukraine's stock pile of dumb bombs into GPS guided munitions that can be launched from planes with a 28km range
IIrc they bolt onto standard dumb bombs of all sorts, depending on the package I think it just requires a laser designator or GPS coordinates to be preloaded. I think they've been retrofitted to loads of aircraft as it was a cheap way to updated Korean war era stuff to be more effective, both the aircraft and hundreds of thousands of bombs during Vietnam etc
It's an interesting one. Yes you can launch HAARM from Ukrainian Migs/SU-27 but that can be launched from low altitude with some stand-off range. The range of a JDAM is going to be severely limited by low altitude operation (which is all I've really seen so far from either side).
It's an interesting one. Yes you can launch HAARM from Ukrainian Migs/SU-27 but that can be launched from low altitude with some stand-off range. The range of a JDAM is going to be severely limited by low altitude operation (which is all I've really seen so far from either side).
Perhaps they're planning some sort of joint operation offensive towards Melitipol; where you have Migs firing HARMs to take out SAMs followed by Migs dropping JDAMs, HIMARS firing rockets and fast moving vehicle infantry
Or maybe it's just a defensive weapon; cause when the Russians go on the offensive they don't have much air cover when they make a breakthrough - so for example if the Russians tried to take Kyiv again and they were moving fast past the line of contact you could perhaps drop jdams on their convoys
Having just visited the front line in Bakhmut and receiving the Ukranian flag there, it's been confirmed Zelensky is going to the U.S and will present the flag to congress and deliver a speech
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