Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning and F-22 'Raptor' : News & Discussion
- Thread starter Nick
- Start date
S-400, no, that's for the air force and meant to protect fixed installations deep inside Russia. I was referring to the S-300V family which has been designed to protect Russian frontline troops. Anyway, that SH is not going to get close enough to drop nukes on anything worthwhile. Plus battlefield nukes are a failed concept anyway.
Not enough for anybody in Europe. But France can access EU's wealth when the time comes. UK has to work on its own.
I think Europe should be headed towards near-Cold War level of spending due to the rise of China. Especially the navy.
After the Second World War, Germany and Japan had parallel reflexes.
At the same time, they turned their economies around and rose close to the top of the powers, stripped of the powers of their defence by delegation to the last winner.
The power reference of the last winner is challenged by China with the dynamics of a tsunami.
In order to "stand up" the last winner USA must concentrate the means of its power on the shortest space between the two rival forces, that is on the North-South axis of the Pacific Ocean.
The Pacific is also on the side of Japan. Germany is promised to the orphan status of its protector, the grief and anguish of abandonment must be overcome. Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer writes love letters in vain, the page is turned.
The consequence is that Germany will now shift to France.
In first review, EU comes clean on military failings
By Robin EmmottBRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union acknowledged on Friday that it lacks the capabilities to meet its goal - pushed most strongly by its biggest members - to become a standalone military power able to help NATO or deploy troops rapidly to regional crises.
Seeking to address major shortfalls, the EU’s first annual defence review, presented to the bloc’s defence ministers on Friday, found that only 60% of the national troops and weapons nominally available to NATO are in a fit state to be deployed.
EU governments are also reluctant to deploy those troops, the report found. Formal EU military missions receive just 7% of all EU states’ military personnel committed worldwide, with problems generating troop levels, it said.
While such EU weaknesses were largely known, because the bloc has never had the military strength to match its economic might, major EU governments including France, Germany, Italy and Spain hope the detailed review and public recognition of failures will be a watershed.
“The EU does not have all the required military capabilities available in order to fulfil (its) level of ambition,” said the report. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters: “European defence suffers from fragmentation, duplication and insufficient operational engagement.”
Smaller member states including Greece, Sweden and Poland have sought to protect domestic armament industries, which leads to duplication in weapons output, thwarting coordination geared to the protection of the continent as a whole.
Meanwhile, tiny Belgium and Luxembourg are among the lowest military spenders in Europe, and Denmark has opted out of EU defence initiatives.
France and Germany also disagree on how far to develop EU military cooperation independent of the United States, by far the biggest power in NATO and Europe’s effective security guarantor since World War Two.
But after four years of hostility towards NATO from U.S. President Donald Trump, the EU says it can no longer rely solely on the United States to solve crises in its neighbourhood.
The EU has been working since December 2017 to develop more firepower independently of the United States. The effort has been led by France, the EU’s remaining major military power after Britain, which opposed such cooperation, left the bloc.
With a weapons development fund being set up, backed by 8 billion euros ($9.50 billion) from the EU budget for the first time next year, French President Emmanuel Macron has called for more “sovereignty” in the EU’s ability to defend itself.
The 27-nation EU aims to draw up a military doctrine by 2022 to define future threats and ambitions.
The report, part of an EU strategy to develop self-standing military capacity over the next decade, urged EU governments to jointly produce six areas of weaponry and end costly national duplication, including focusing on a new battle tank, a patrol class surface ship and counter-drone technology.
The only problem is I think Germany will make its decision very late, when the threat will become too big to handle. At least Japan is waking up to the Chinese threat and their defence spending matches what they require from their military, like more than 140 F-35s orders, along with converting two LHDs into carriers, adding AEGIS ships, expanding their submarine force with a new class, funding development of a next gen fighter jet, new missile program etc.
Otoh, Germany's military buildup is nothing. I remember last year they had a budget surplus of €50B. But they did nothing with all that money towards improving their security.
To buy 38 Typhoon is a begining. But the main problem is to increase efficiency of military budget. It should be possible to double this efficiency, and only after that to add more money for defense budget. There is a real reluctance among Germans to work for the armies, and they even lack candidates for maintenance positions.
They're both the same size roughly. S-300 is not going to get close enough to defend frontline troops.
It's the EU that accesses France's wealth.
Yep. Something they have been doing since the 80s, can't be done because you said so.
Having personnel problems is very different from having equipment problems. And having equipment problem can be different based on whether you are poor or rich. Germany is one of the richest countries in the world, but still can't afford to equip what they have properly. Remember that incident when the German troops used black-painted broomsticks on tanks because they didn't have machine guns?
Even with efficiency and manpower issues, if a country has such basic lack of equipment with a €50B budget surplus, then it's a policy problem. The Germans are simply a third-rate power pretending to be first rate.
Against who? Afghanistan? It will get completely rained on by PrSMs. Even the small 230mm rockets will reach 160km, and some Israeli types reach 300km. PrSM reaches 500km. It will never get setup without being taken out. Satellites will detect launchers and airborne ESM will pinpoint the radars.
Well yes and it's only going to get worse with future network ESM/SEAD drones.
This video is dedicated to you, Paddy. Given your extreme & not undue fascination ( it's your raison d'etre , as we've come to understand you better) with scat, presumably, the creator of this video didn't want you to spend nights wide awake imagining what would a pilot do in such circumstances. In short, he didn't want you to die wondering. Enjoy!!
@BMD
If you drop it from the correct altitude it will turn to ice before it reaches the ground. With some skill, this can be used to kill insurgents.
The British pick MBDA’s Spear 3 cruise missile for their F-35s
The deal should see the Spear 3 missile achieve initial operational capability on the aircraft in 2025, making it the primary air-to-ground weapon for the Lockheed Martin-built jets now coming into service with the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force.
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...ikes-with-radar-reflectors-and-aim-9xs-fitted
In fact, the F-35A is less capable in certain respects than an F-16 for strike missions against insurgents. It's targeting capabilities via its Electro-Optical Targeting System mounted under its nose inside a sapphire-glass encrusted framework is based on 15-year-old technology and pales in comparison to the image fidelity and certain key modes offered by latest Sniper and Litening targeting pods carried by 4th generation fighters. The F-35's EOTS is supposed to upgraded under the still as yet to be fully approved Block IV upgrade program that will enhance the F-35's software and some of its key components in the coming decade.
Old before beeing officially born (FOC)
In fact, the F-35A is less capable in certain respects than an F-16 for strike missions against insurgents. It's targeting capabilities via its Electro-Optical Targeting System mounted under its nose inside a sapphire-glass encrusted framework is based on 15-year-old technology and pales in comparison to the image fidelity and certain key modes offered by latest Sniper and Litening targeting pods carried by 4th generation fighters. The F-35's EOTS is supposed to upgraded under the still as yet to be fully approved Block IV upgrade program that will enhance the F-35's software and some of its key components in the coming decade.
Old before beeing officially born (FOC)