Ukraine Invasion - Please do not post videos showing attacks/similar

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So how long until the UK announcement on sending planes to Ukraine?

Half of me expects that Rishi will take the box after going back to the commons and announce it.
 
kindai said:
So how long until the UK announcement on sending planes to Ukraine?

Half of me expects that Rishi will take the box after going back to the commons and announce it.
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The thing is, I don't think planes will help. Converting from one type of aircraft to another with completely different avionics, weapon systems, and operational rules takes a very long time. If we dumped a bunch of Eurofighters in Ukraine, it would take 6 months as a minimum to re-train and be effective in them.
 
Rilot said:
The thing is, I don't think planes will help. Converting from one type of aircraft to another with completely different avionics, weapon systems, and operational rules takes a very long time. If we dumped a bunch of Eurofighters in Ukraine, it would take 6 months as a minimum to re-train and be effective in them.
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We are going to train Ukraine pilots in the UK, I'm just not sure on what.
 
Firestar_3x said:
We got any Tornados still knocking around waiting to be decommissioned, because I can't see us offering any Eurofighters.
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Expert on sky news says no. some are gate guardians outside of RAF bases, the others sent to Germany as spares. The UK has no spare aircraft to send. What he did say is that we have world class training facilities that we can use to train on F-16 and the like. Mind you, given the delays to the RAF fighter pilot training I'm not sure we have the capacity to even do that.
 
I remember seeing an interview with Justin Bronk (of RUSI fame) and in that the comments were that planes are less useful than usual as both sides have a lot of anti-aircraft capability and hence plane are sitting ducks. To be effective the Russian SAM batteries would all need to be taken out - and Russia has a lot of them as they were always paranoid and had a defence against any possible western NATO invasion. Even with those taken out you can't account for all the hand-held stuff. Russia hasn't achieved any air dominance and even with western help, it would be very very hard for Ukraine to do it too. The summary conclusion was that the huge cost of a plane could be far better spent on larger numbers of lower cost stuff instead.
 
peterwalkley said:
I remember seeing an interview with Justin Bronk (of RUSI fame) and in that the comments were that planes are less useful than usual as both sides have a lot of anti-aircraft capability and hence plane are sitting ducks. To be effective the Russian SAM batteries would all need to be taken out - and Russia has a lot of them as they were always paranoid and had a defence against any possible western NATO invasion. Even with those taken out you can't account for all the hand-held stuff. Russia hasn't achieved any air dominance and even with western help, it would be very very hard for Ukraine to do it too. The summary conclusion was that the huge cost of a plane could be far better spent on larger numbers of lower cost stuff instead.
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That is basically my thinking - there are so many regulated and unregulated, for want of a better way of putting it, anti-air systems on and around the battlefield it is a nightmare for any aircraft both from friendly and hostile fire, hence why they fly so low and so crazy. Though ultimately in the longer run they will need modern jets if/when Russia is properly on the back foot and their own forces can be concentrated down to more professional elements.
 
I suppose there is more than one angle to the jets, there is some point in them now even if they are difficult to use close to the front line.
They arent perfect by any means for intercepting drones, but they are semi useful.

As Rroff says they will need a modern military of reasonable size once the conflict is over, plus having NATO standard kit would make that integration easier ;)
Maybe Ukraine know they will be putting that application in in a shorter period than most assume ;)
Minstadave said:
Give them a sub. That'll make things fun!
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Trident?

That would be interesting. The Ruskies love talking about using nukes, they could play a different game then ;)
 
UK PM Sunak’s Spokesperson:
- We Want to Start the Fighter Training for Ukrainian Pilots As Soon As Possible
- UK Hopes to Start Training First Ukrainian Pilots in Spring
- Britain Exploring the Right Approach on the Provision of Fighter Jets
- We Will Want to Look at Truncating the 5 Year Pilot Training Programme for Ukrainians
- Defence Minister Has Been Tasked With Investigating What Jets We May Be Able to Provide
- Government Has Not Made a Decision on Whether to Send Fighter Jets
- UK Not Looking to Send Typhoon Jets to Ukraine Right Now
- Jets to Ukraine Would Be a Long-Term Solution
 
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Outside of the Hawks not sure what our options are - I can't see us sending Typhoons, definitely won't have the US blessing to send F35s and we don't exactly maintain stocks of other stuff. Though in this day and age if you have the sensors and fire control systems in play a lot of anti-air work comes down to stand off range munitions which can be mounted on even older attack jets and they do as well as anything else for air to ground.
 
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