Yah. Seems like just the “moderate” kind of people NATO tends to back

Is the black Track the Su-24? If it is, I highly doubt the crew could land in Syria while being shot down at low altitude flying away from the border,if the black trail really is supposedly the Su-24, I am going to say they falsified it

And they shot down acombat SAR helicopter...

My immediate thought is there will probably be a few pipelines into turkey getting blown up, in such a way as to be blamed on local insurgents.

IIRC they even violated Syrian airspace to shoot down an Mi-8 that had earlier violated it.

I cannot discern between the people fighting Assad and the ones that have actively worked with the other people fighting Assad. ISIS is the biggest threat, and any effort to weaken ISIS’s enemies is aiding ISIS. Additionally, according to U.S. Intelligence, there are no moderate groups left.

They didn't deny that is was downed by terrorists, they just didn't offer speculation

Agreed. I also think it is very stupid to have Turkey as part of NATO. It is a bad idea to tie ourselves to the actions of someone as unstable as Erdogan. Both the U.S. And Russia are smart enough to just let each other’s planes and ships penetrate and leave, Turkey not so much.

I think they are taking a different approach, more “total war” than anything else. Attacking their enemies, their moral, and their ability to make war.

Mostly referring to how well money is spent. I don’t have any number off the top of my head, but I have heard that the UK is on its way to having one of the smallest air forces of any developed nation, and might have a hard time actually hitting targets in Syria and having enough planes at ready at home. I can…

Yah, from what I have seen, the U.S. May have problems with budgeting its military properly, but they pale to the issues that a lot of European countries have.

Showing modern ships what a good looking ship really looks like!

And Boeing was saying that by loser definitions, the F/A-18E/F is a 5th gen as well.

Which brings to mind a though I was having. A while back, Russia said that the Su-35S would be the last Flanker. In more recent times it looks like Russia will retain the Flanker as the backbone of their Air Force. Do you think it likely that we will indeed see more advanced flanker variants in the future?

Actually, most of the retaliation strikes have been hitting ISIS held territory. He is backing Assad, but the bombers are hitting ISIS. It would be too risky for a Tu-22M3 to try to provide cover for Syrian troops by dropping dumb bombs.

Not to mention, since ISIS shares our internet, they see the daily Russian reports, and whether or not they are 100% accurate, they probably would be a blow to moral and may even dampen their ability to recruit.

Where did you get your Intel? Encyclopedia Dramatica?

Yes, and most people who don't support ISIL will probably not want to be around them to begin with

Yah, just running airliners in and out near a war zone is bound to result in loss sooner or later, resulting in the changes of policy we see now. My biggest question: did Putin plan for this to happen as a way to lift the post-Ukraine sanctions or did he get lucky? And if he did plan it, was he planning it the whole…

It's a fucking photo shoot. Go look at a car magazine. How many cars have bird shit on the hood? How many cars are dirty? How many cars haven't had their tires shined?