Putin & Russia

[Kandi1977]

The Ukraines have been targetting Russian SAMs for the last while including a reported couple of S-400s and S-500s destroyed in Crimea and around the Kerch bridge with the supposed aim of reducing the threat to F16s. They've also reportedly been used to launch storm shadow missiles, giving them more range.

As you say they aren't a game changer but every little helps and it's weapons used together rather than one that will change things.

Yes, they are trying to thin out the air defence, and I believe they also have received HARM missiles to take out radars, but they require them to at least pop up to high altitude to launch them, where they most likely will be engaged by SAM and Russian fighters, and then scoot away down to low level as fast as possible. Very risky with the current level of threat. F-16s will definitely help, but probably not as much as most people think.
But the biggest threat to f-16 operations, and indeed any military operations the Ukraine want to launch, is a threat they must find an answer to, that they currently haven't, and that is the Orlan-10 surveillance drones. They operate at an altitude beyond the reach of MANPADS, and are to cheap of a target to use conventional SAM's to take down. It's a bad trade to spend a missile worth $4m on a drone costing $10k.
The Russians will no doubt target bases where they find f-16s, using those drones for surveillance. They simply have to find an effective counter measure to them.

 

[Kandi1977]

From the pictures seen of the F-16s in Ukraine, it looked like they were equipped with relatively older AIM-9M/L and AMRAAM-120B air to air missiles. This suggests to me that they will initially be used mainly for air defence against Cruise missiles and Shahed attack drones.

 

[Rorschach]

Ukraine has invaded Russia now. Ha ha.

 

[Bullet]

An interesting but harrowing thread about the Russian starvation of Ukrainians in the 1930s, the Holodmor, trying to ethnically cleanse them

https://twitter.com/x/status/1823373068175130731

 

[Rorschach]

An interesting but harrowing thread about the Russian starvation of Ukrainians in the 1930s, the Holodmor, trying to ethnically cleanse them

https://twitter.com/x/status/1823373068175130731

Mr Jones is a decent flick about the Holodomor.

 

[3DSpur]

Nord Stream: German arrest warrant for sabotage blast suspect

The suspect, a Ukrainian diving instructor, had gone when Polish police tried to arrest him in July.

www.bbc.co.uk

Who cares about truth years later anyway

 

[papaspur]

In case anyone needs one, this is an excellent map that's updated regularly of the conflict:

Russo-Ukrainian War – Google My Maps

Follow the ongoing global geopolitical struggle at: https://ModernGreatGame.Watch/

www.google.com

 

[Craig_J]

In case anyone needs one, this is an excellent map that's updated regularly of the conflict:

Russo-Ukrainian War – Google My Maps

Follow the ongoing global geopolitical struggle at: https://ModernGreatGame.Watch/

www.google.com

This is helpful thanks.

I'd tried looking for a map before but they were all not very accurate or user friendly.

 

[papaspur]

This is helpful thanks.

I'd tried looking for a map before but they were all not very accurate or user friendly.

There's liveuamap as well which is decent, but I find it's sometimes too cluttered and was also very slow-loading (seems rectified now).
The guy running the google map I linked is some kind of academic or research fellow-type, not just an armchair redditor.