"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (7 Viewers)

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I can't remember where I read it, but there was a report that a deal was struck recently that if Turkey OK'd Sweden's membership in NATO, and agreed to donate the S-400's to a "Needy" country, the US would approve the sale of F-35's to Turkey. But I can't seem to find the artical at the moment.
 
Unlike the F-22, with F-35s ending up all across the globe it's only a matter of time before China gets one for a tear down.
 
I remember reading about analysts thinking that was the deal.
 
VILNIUS, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Russia is preparing for a military confrontation with the West within the next decade and could be deterred by a counter build-up of armed forces, Estonia's Foreign Intelligence Service said on Tuesday.

A growing number of Western officials have warned of a military threat from Russia to countries along the eastern flank of NATO, calling for Europe to get prepared by rearming.
The chief of the intelligence service said the assessment was based on Russian plans to double the number of forces stationed along its border with NATO members Finland and the Baltic States of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia.

"Russia has chosen a path which is a long-term confrontation ... and the Kremlin is probably anticipating a possible conflict with NATO within the next decade or so," Kaupo Rosin told reporters at the release of Estonia's national security threats report.

A military attack by Russia is "highly unlikely" in the short term, he said, partly because Russia has to keep troops in Ukraine, and would remain unlikely if Russian buildup of forces was matched in Europe.

"If we are not prepared, the likelihood (of a military Russian attack) would be much higher than without any preparation," Rosin added.

 
Unable to comment.
 
re

The recent agreement is for the sale of one of the latest Marks of F-16 aircraft (along with various upgrade kits for existing airframes) to Turkey, not for the F-35. The sale of the F-35 to Turkey was blocked as of July 2019.

"Turkey officially kicked out of F-35 program, costing US half a billion dollars"

If you check out the links I posted upthread re Turkey's military and equipment, you will see that Turkey already has over 200x F-16 of various Marks (mostly C and D) in service. The Turks want to bring their fleet upto F-16V standard (or later?). The F-16 is not the F-35, but it is suitable for Turkey's budget and area of responsibility. Note that the F-16 can reach anywhere in the Black Sea from Turkish bases, with the maximum range from Turkey to anywhere in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov being less than 500 miles.

Info on the F-16V from Wiki:
' On 15 February 2012, Lockheed Martin unveiled a new version of their F-16 at the 2012 Singapore Airshow. The F-16V will feature enhancements including an AN/APG-83 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, an upgraded mission computer and architecture, and improvements to the cockpit – all capabilities identified by the U.S. Air Force and several international customers for future improvements. The new variant is dubbed the "Viper", which is intended to better operate with fifth-generation fighters, and should not be confused with Lockheed's F-16IN Block 70/72 "Super Viper", which was offered to India for the Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft competition and showcased at the 2009 Aero India Air Show. "The new F-16V will become the new F-16 baseline," said George Standridge, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics' vice president of business development. On 16 October 2015, the F-16V flew for the first time with an APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar AESA, a new Center Pedestal Display, a modernized mission computer, Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System, and many other upgrades. This can be fitted on new production F-16s or retrofitted on existing ones. The first of these were for Republic of China Air Force (Taiwan) F-16A/B Block 20s. The upgrade of its 144 aircraft fleet started in January 2017 and is expected to complete by 2023. In 2019, Taiwan and the United States signed an $8 billion deal that would deliver 66 new-build Block 70 aircraft. '
 
Last edited:
ThomasP said:
Interesting anti-drone ADS being procured by the US Army:

"RTX to supply 600 Coyote drone interceptors to Army"
Click to expand...
The next version is not to destroy the drone but to hack it while being in the air.

Speed hacking will be the next dark weapon.

I can see a drone summiting a electric power burst near the enemy target either frying or deleting parts or all memory aboard.
Those chinese bits are not that resistant.

I call it the Electric Vampire Ale. EVA for friends.
Anything captured will be returned to sender
 
If you believe half of the things you read you would believe that Russia is on the point of making a break through. Whilst I think that this might be true as Russia are doing all they can to throw everything they have at Ukraine.
Ukraine must be running out of nearly everything, but if the stalemate in support can be broken and Ukraine can hold on until supplies arrive, then Russia might be in trouble. Todays UK MOD update has some interesting points.

Russia is proposing a draft legislation to raise the age of military contract personnel, including those that were recruited before June 2023, to age 65 and age 70 for officers,' a statement released by Britain's Ministry of Defense (MoD) said today. 'This would substantially raise the current age limit of 51 for non officers and would likely extend the contract length.
The MOD's statement continued to say: 'the pre-war 2021 life expectancy for Russian males was 64.2 years old (according to the World Data Site). Therefore, this measure confers on these service personnel, in effect, a lifetime contact.' Many Russian soldiers throughout the war have fled, refusing to fight, decreasing military numbers on the Russian side, something the age increase will help mitigate.
The MoD says Putin's plan will be 'unlikely' to increase the country's military capability, however, as increasing an age limit by nature has a gradual, not an immediate effect. It would mean that as the war continues to rage, every day, more aging Russian troops who would have otherwise been retiring from the military will instead be expected to continue fighting, increasing the army's numbers continuously

These are not the actions of a military where things are going well. Personally it reminds me a bit of Hitler's stomach battalions.
 
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