It's not only suspect but absolutely dumbfounding that they didn't know they had been shot at until they were hit. Are you telling me that the Su-24 doesn't have a missile lock warning? If it's this easy to shoot down Russian aircraft, we might as well turn this war hot now and be done by Christmas.

I can’t tell if you are a white supremacist, a radical Islamist, or paid by the Kremlin.

It is if the shooters are registered with the military of a nation state that’s signed the Geneva Convention. It’s just murder if they are rebels without uniforms or government representation. Of course it doesn’t look good if we’re tossing them weapons but it’s not like this exact scenario didn’t play out constantly…

Wouldn’t be an issue if they used guided bombs. Or if they were targeting ISIS instead of Assad’s enemies.

Re the SAR helicopter, I can only imagine how pissed off Russia is right now.

And our fears that Russia has a half-decent English-learning program are assuaged.

You’d think Putin’s internet propagandists would have a better command of the English language so as not to be so obvious.

You telling me to read Clausewitz and then not allowing the concept of the Fog of War to color your perception of what happened in Afghanistan is really great. People were given info, that info was wrong, someone made a bad call. That’s it. It wasn’t some multi-national geopolitical power play as it seems like you…

Cares? Maybe not on a wholesale “save the puppies” level of care, the military is literally employed to kill people and I’m not a naive idiot. However, the US military makes a point of establishing clear ROE, they regularly radio up for approval before strikes if situations change that involve higher risk to…

That would be “Swabbing” those decks...shipmate. ;)

Found on ebay:

2015 USAF Ghostrider Gunship
One of a kind
Babied...never tracked or raced...never wintered.
New wings and recently replaced OEM flight crew buckets.
$50 million OBO.
No tire kickers, no mavericks.

Tyler, thank you for your sensible, not sensationalist, reporting!

Zero. Next question.

What the fuck is wrong with you, Dude? People are HOPING it was shot down? 224 people are dead. Doesn’t matter if they are Russians, Martians, or what have you. Those people likely had nothing to do with what Putin is doing.

Nope, not hoping for a senseless act of terrorism against innocent civilians. Accidents happen, and they suck. If it’s from from poor maintenence, hopefully something can learned from it.

Shut up.

We should retaliate with bears of our own...

Around the risk of cost overruns and F-35 comparisons, the main advantage this program has is it’s singular focus IMHO. It’s not trying to be 4 different aircraft and fulfill a dozen different roles - it’s just focused on a specific set of capabilities, and doing them to a certain level.
Keeping that scope will be the…

What are these, helicopters for ants?