Just wait till the F-16 sorties start.
You won’t be able to swing a cat in here without hitting a whining tankie symp.
Oh no be careful, they might start posting gifs and emojis in response to you, thus nullifying any valid argument you might have!
The latest lemmy update allows users to block entire instances.
My lemmy experience has been 100 times better with hexbear and lemmygrad blocked.
Unfortunately startrek.website is still running 18, so I’m stuck with playing whack-a-mole
…and lemmy.ml as well. It’s tanky breading season out here.
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Those stories already started, some Russian mil-bloggers say that F16s are already in Ukraine which is probably copium. But I wouldn’t be too surprised if this isn’t accidental and Ukrainians re-doubled efforts to take down Russian planes (e.g. via smart and unexpected movements of anti-air installations) in anticipations of F16s coming, they’re a lot more useful more quickly if they don’t have to operate in contested skies. Every air-to-air missile you don’t need to have in your loadout is another air-to-ground one.
The same F-16s that were outclassed by the J-17 in recent military exercises?
Pakistani pilots are on record saying the F-16 is worse in basically every way compared to a design China considers to be “budget” and “outdated.”
Let’s pretend for a minute that it is actually better. Russia doesn’t field the J-17, so it doesn’t matter.
Also, there’s the airframe and then there are the missiles you put on it. Depending on what these F-16 load up with can make a whole lot of difference.
I doubt they’ll be doing much dogfighting. The challenge will be to get in the air, fire off missiles, and land back without getting shot down.
Edit: Oh and another thing that makes a lot of difference is radar assets. I bet those F-16s are going to get extended eyes and ears thanks to NATO AWACS flying high but within NATO borders.
China recognizes that the J-17 is outclassed by the Su-34, so it sort of does matter…
Do you mean the J-17 which was jointly developed by Pakistan and China. Who have a vested interest in trying to sell the J-17 to other parts of the world… if so then yes that very same plane.
The J-17 was designed for the Pakistan Air Force. Any other operators (Myanmar, Nigeria?) are operators of convenience.
I see, so the Pakistani Airforce which commissioned the design and production of the J-17 reports that it is superior to the F-16…
Whatever helps the copium taste better I suppose.
The F-16 was already 30 years old by the time the J-17 was introduced.
And yet it would still have been cheaper to send Ukraine new J-17s than used F-16s.
Yeah that’s just a flat out lie mate lmao
Uh source?
JF-17 is a multirole attack aircraft, F-16 is a multirole air superiority fighter.
PAF has been very adamant that nothing they have tried compares to the F-16 in performance. Their last air skirmish was an F-16 that shot down an IAF MiG-21 in 2019. Even the J-10s they recently bought are still considered inferior.
The real joke here is expecting an F-16 to actually reach Ukraine lmao. Pakistan had to basically play double agent to convince the USA to even open F-16 sales. There’s a 0% chance they’re going to give Ukraine F-16s for free, or even let them be leased from other countries.
Meanwhile Ukraine unveils it’s f-16
Lol called it: https://lemmy.ml/post/10200774
New issue of Air Force Monthly lol
The F-16 was already 30 years old by the time the J-17 was introduced.
Newer doesn’t inherently mean better.
Didn’t say it did.
The same F-16s that were outclassed by the J-17 in recent military exercises?
I mean, even if that’s true… Is that really even a flex? The F-16 platform is 30 years older than the J-17.
Make that 4 as of today.
Was this the Ghost of Keeeeeeeeeeeeev?
The Sukhoi Su-34 (Russian: Сухой Су-34; NATO reporting name: Fullback)[6] is a Soviet-origin Russian twin-engine, twin-seat, all-weather supersonic medium-range fighter-bomber/strike aircraft.[7][8][9][10] It first flew in 1990, intended for the Soviet Air Forces, and it entered service in 2014 with the Russian Air Force.[11]
It’s sort of a shit design for 2023 tbh.
Sounds like Ukraine got a new air defense system… Maybe they moved a Patriot battery?
It’s pretty mid nowadays, nowhere near the levels of the F-22 or F-35. But the F-16 C, D or MLU versions are in almost every way a very modern fighter. Russia does pretty much the same thing, but while an upgrade F-16 is called a ‘block 50’, an upgraded SU-27 is called an SU-30 (or 34, or 35). They’re basically all improved versions of 1970s planes.
The SU57 and Mig-35 are basically non-existent, if not actually so.
The F-16 is absolutely not the best fighter out there anymore, but it’s hardly a pushover and at the very least on par with what Russia is fielding.
The F-16 was even outclassed by the J-17 in the recent Pakistani Operation Indus Shield 2023 exercises according to recent reports.
Like I said to the other guy, if that’s even true, it doesn’t matter because Russia doesn’t field the J-17.
I haven’t read a report on that in English. Could you share?
It’s in the new issue of Air Force Monthly.
The only reference I could find (headline skimming) is a Pakistani pilot giving the politically correct statement that their native-built fighter is better than the imported one.
Yeah, that’s the theory. Russia had been using the planes to bomb a Ukrainian beachhead from an area that would keep them out of range for the Soviet-era systems Ukraine has in that area, so Ukraine moved a patriot system there, switched off. When the Russians flew in and they got detected on long range radar, they turned on the patriot and fired.
Background: On 22 December, Ukrainian defenders shot down three Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers on the southern front.
Dude… its been three fucking days. Unless the drop in air sorties went from dozens down to zero and stay that way for weeks to a month, this means absolutely nothing.
True to you. Strikes were reported as irregular, combing in intense series whenever Russia wanted a bigger impact. Saying just a couple of days of lesser bombing means it made an impact is too optimistic. They could’ve prepared ammunition for another bigger strike. But journoes need to write news somehow?
Is the Su in Su-34 short for cyka?
Blyat
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Ukrainian Pravda is basically a propaganda outlet. Why is a mod posting this lmao
Why does every comment you make about Ukraine end up being so Pro-Russia that it feels pro-genocide?
Hmmm, I initially wanted to agree with the OP, since the whole “Pravda” thing is a naming scheme from Soviet times, but apparently it’s reasonably well regarded:
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/ukrayinska-pravda-the-ukrainian-truth/
I.e. not at all like Komsomolskaya Pravda, which is straight up Russian yellow press party line nonsense.
They can have their failings, for sensationalism’s sake, but I don’t remember them posting pure masturbatory propaganda. It’s your average news outlet, and usual country-specific biases apply, but nothing Onion-like to see. If anything, let it sit for a day before reacting if it feels too weird.
