"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (11 Viewers)

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While I do not disagree, you still have to remember the latest equipment also costs a lot more, and someone has to front that bill.

I'm willing to pay my share. I do already. It helps keep Americans employed in good, technical jobs, even as it help Ukrainians fight off despotism. I don't know if we're asking for any money back from Ukraine.

I do know this is a helluva lot cheaper than us doing the fighting ourselves ... much as I might like to see my Air Force putting the fear of God in the invaders.
 

I'm not against paying for it, and I'd rather this war be fought now, and not when my boys are of fighting age. I'm just pointing out that as the equipment gets more advanced so does the price tag, and it can't just be given away.
 
I'm not against paying for it, and I'd rather this war be fought now, and not when my boys are of fighting age. I'm just pointing out that as the equipment gets more advanced so does the price tag, and it can't just be given away.

Of course it can be given away. How many ships, planes, tanks, ammo, and so on did we simply give away in WWII? And was it given away, or was it an investment all the same?

Even a lot of the modern stuff has been paid-for. Of course it's expensive. But it's more costly to let it sit in bunkers as the rocket-motors or explosives get to end-of-life and they need to be chucked into landfills, isn't it?

If we want any paybacks from the Ukrainians, we simply strongly support their bid to join NATO and take the payback in nonmonetary alliance. We've done this before, with the Marshall Plan, and we should be good enough nowadays to do this again.

After all, it's not a very different situation.
 
I totally agree. And, in addition, Lend-lease materials weren't technically given away - they had to be accounted for. Post-war, the recipients had to return them or pay for them. As an expedient, some were dumped (including all those beautiful FAA corsairs......). Regardless, they were absolutely an investment in the future
 
Ahh...here we go, the ZhDT-3 railroad torpedo.

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I love it but it would be very difficult to deliver behind lines in Russian controlled territory.

I would think that by now the Ukrainians would be able to sneak a drone onto the tracks to do some sort of damage (or better still hidden damage) that would derail the train so that other drones could finish it off. They could certainly plant mines that way but they may be too visible.

Cutting out the rail between two sleepers on the outside of a curve would almost certainly do the job. The Ukrainians are more than smart enough to come up with other options
 
There is, and has been, considerable Ukrainian partisan activity behind Russian lines, especially in the south-east.
Wouldn't be impossible to deploy.and would be spectacular to witness.

This railway torpedo is one way the Soviets were able to defeat German armored trains.
 

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