Ukraine Invasion - Please do not post videos showing attacks/similar
- Thread starter areksnumbr1sxylady
- Start date
- Status
I don't really know what i should have been expecting and I am by no means an expert on any of it, but the way this is playing out just seems so odd to me.
I genuinely thought the Russian air force would pummel most of what Ukraine had at the start of the war, and then they would pretty much steamroll then from then on.
The videos I have seen all look so odd. The whole thing just seems like random little skirmishes everywhere and there seems to be very little organisation.
Last edited:
That is war though, if you can't hit them hard and fast at the beginning then you basically have a permanent state of skirmish. Battles are typically lost when one side retreats / surrenders, not when everyone is dead.
Commissario
I'm willing to lose Luton. It'll be a hard loss for the country, but the value of the surrounding area will be immensely improved by having a desolate waste next to it rather than Luton (it always feels like such a depressing place to drive though).
It's like WW1, except they're not facing something completely new and unknown without existing tactics.
One of the problems there is the depletion of and lack in the first place of a high level of junior officer training/personnel, even platoon and section level 2IC, etc. is lacking so even where lessons have been learnt higher up the chain that isn't effective on the battlefield.
It seems the institutional knowledge and experience just isn't there for large scale combined arms operations involving the air force or even complex air missions stand alone - most of the focus has been either all out war (put everything in the air and hope for the best) with the West or counter-insurgency type stuff using like pairs of SU-25s with 1-2 Migs providing over watch. It seems the experience is lacking there for large scale operations where there is potentially civilian air traffic and other nations air traffic, etc. in the mix.
Their air fleet is also in poor shape with as I've said before only single digit numbers of combat operational aircraft for many of their high end stuff.
Last edited:
Yeh i guess i was just expecting them to hit Ukraine harder and faster from the get go.
It appears to me that they thought they could just saunter in, with little resistance.
Thats what happened in 2014, but since then Ukraine voted out their corrupt old Government and brought in Zelensky who has overhauled their country.
Ukraine isn't the weak pushover it was 8 years ago.
I think Putin and Russia vastly underestimated how much of a challenge it would be.
Surprised me as well - I was assuming they'd use well into the 100s of missiles and much more of their air force in the initial round of attacks but like above the thinking seems to be that they could replay 2014.
I think they were also depending quite heavily on being able to headshot the Ukrainian government in the first 24 hours between assassinations, deserting the country or having officials in their pockets. They seemed pretty convinced Zelensky would head for the US at the first sight of trouble if they didn't manage to assassinate him.
Soldato
It's a historical thing.
Basically South Africa was a British colony until the mid 1800s when it became independent, however this independence was simply a transition from being ruled by white folk in Europe to being ruled by white folk in Africa. As a result for most of the 20th century South Africa was governed by a white minority government (apartheid) who treated the majority black population like ****. Because the apartheid government was a nuclear power friendly with the UK and other western nations it was allied with (but not part of) NATO during the cold war, as a result the USSR was friendly towards the anti-apartheid groups like the ANC.
As the cold war was ending and the USSR collapsing western governments changed their stance on Apartheid but it was itself dying anyway at that point and ended soon after the USSR. As a result western nations tried to buddy up to South Africa, but the ANC remembered who was helping them under the table (Russia) and who was saying Mandela should be executed as a terrorist (western politicians). As a result they haven't been afraid to strengthern ties with Russia (and China).
The comments are predictable... I can only hope they are mostly Kremlin bots and not actual people's opinions.
As someone, maybe you, mentioned before don't confuse that account with WarMonitor3. TBH most of the OSINT accounts on Twitter are just reposting stuff that comes up elsewhere, Telegram, Discord, etc. first anyhow - a small number like Intel Crab seem to at least do a little verification first.
I don't see how it would possible. F-22 is an air superiority fighter, it's an extremely expensive bit of kit in and of itself, expensive to maintain of which it would need Americans to do directly, There are only 180 made and illegal to export for selling.
The F-35 is would be more appropriate, a versatile multi-role fighter but again very expensive needs maintaining. F-16 has been around for decades, exported to countless countries, cheap, well understood, send a **** load of them.
They just used the wrong picture, "fith-generation fighters" would mean the F-35. No other country can operate the F-22, it would take an act of congress to allow their export, it's just not realistic at all. Also doubt they give F-35's.
Utter rubbish.
If that twitter user had put any thought into it you could see this will not happen, even if you look past the expensive costs of running and training pilots you still need the bases and runways to operate such an aircraft which even Russia could find and bomb.
But ultimately America will not give Ukraine anything that will undermine its own defence and giving away any of its fifth gen aircraft is exactly that.
You need someone like F-18's or Harriers that can operate from the rougher Ukrainian airfields, I think that's why they may not get F-16's as they require a bit of ground support and good runways.
Soldato
What did the guard say?
Associate
- Joined
- 10 Sep 2008
- Posts
- 1,637
I think we were all expecting something like the Gulf wars air campaigns and with similar effect - hasn't been anything close though.
- Status