Lmao, who is this guy ⬆️

SS-12 Sandbox (Russian name is P-500). Speed is about mach 2.5 with a range of close to 300 miles. Old design however, and the USS Halibut recovered enough missile debris from tests in the early 70’s that the US was able to reverse engineer the missile and develop very effective jamming systems. That was in the 70’s…

Turkey is a part of NATO.

Because Turkey is a NATO member perhaps?

Looks like Putin is going All-In for Assad. This campaign will burn him. The Syrian conflict involves numbers that Russian expeditionary forces can’t sustain. It is one thing to send your best men across a land border without uniforms, it is another to wage a land war across the sea in the middle east.

I’d never noticed this before, but you know what the Russian Jack looks like from a distance?

This gonna get interesting. I’ll be in my bunker eating popcorn if anyone needs me.

Just saw this today too:

I agree. Plus with Russia “taking over” the fight with ISIS and other anti-Assad forces, I’m sure Putin’s just going to tell us to suck it if we don’t drop the regime change goal.

This meshes well with everything I know (not much), and everything I’ve heard (100x more) about these aircraft.

Quick quiz... Why did Muammar Gaddafi’s “line of death” not last long when he tried to claim waters outside the internationally recognized borders?

I’m the LEAST concerned about the US and Russian Air Forces going at it, actually. They’re professionals on both sides and though there’s a possibility of an accidental entanglement, I’m much more concerned about the regional players...as noted in the article, Iranian forces, Shia forces, whomever the hell else…

Forget the Fred Thompson meme for a moment.

This could get very, very ugly very, very quickly.

Not for nothing, Russia’s been losing wars to the very same “cavemen” since the 70’s.

I don’t think you understand the difference between the lack of political will to continue with a conflict and the ability of the American military machine.

If killing Assad was the goal, he’d be dead. You could park a B-2 or F-22 30 minutes away from Damascus without anyone knowing and drop a JDAM on the first building the embedded spotters watch him go into. They could also just bomb every government building in Damascus and the military and civilian commands…

All too true RangingBulldog. Logistics has always been an American strong point. The officers and men of the quartermaster corps are the unsung heroes who have won many battles and saved countless lives.

117 stealth is old and not very similar to modern solutions. Also, that Yugoslav fuckup was due to the mission planners sending the jet on the same route repeatedly and the SAM commander pointed his launcher right at the path and waited for the jet to get within visual range before firing.