LeSving wrote:
What’s the purpose of having a bunch of old Migs at Ramstein?
Presumably so the Ukrainian pilots can come and fetch them from a US air base in Germany, thus distancing Poland from the deal.
As I think I said before, I’m a bit sceptical as to whether the actual military benefit is worth the perceived escalation. There must be doubts about how many are actually airworthy, whether they can get any spares/consumables, and whether Ukraine can operate them in any useful fashion that won’t result in their rapid loss.
Happy to be proved wrong of course, and indeed it may be worth just getting on with the escalation that has to come anyway. I think Poland can breathe fairly easily in any case, since what the last 12 days have demonstrated to us is that apart from nukes there isn’t a great deal to fear from the Russian military. NATO forces would wipe the floor with them if they attacked Poland.
Peter wrote:
Interestingly, I see most/all other GA sites disallow discussion of this topic, most notably certain near the “middle” of Europe Perhaps it is just too toxic for some countries.
or for some moderators? 
Drones, Migs, it’s all GA anyway, sort of.
You need to read the relevant posts about the relative volume.
thus distancing Poland from the deal
That’s the obvious reason but it’s quite funny The serious part is that Russia might do a revenge attack on Poland but won’t dare do it on America.
However: The US has rejected an offer by Poland to send all of its Mig-29 fighter jets to Ukraine via an American airbase in Germany. A Pentagon spokesman says such a prospect raises “serious concerns” for Nato, while a US military expert calls Poland’s plan “perplexing”
whether Ukraine can operate them in any useful fashion that won’t result in their rapid loss.
Some info suggests they now have adequate air defences, partly from donated hardware and partly from captured S300s. Not that that helps to suppress Russian air defences…
Peter wrote:
You need to read the relevant posts about the relative volume.
It’s ages since I have visited the Vans Airforce forum (the forum for people building and flying Vans aircraft). The owner is either a veteran himself, or at least he is very found of the US armed forces and what they do around the world. All politics is forbidden there “because” it is an international forum (according to the rules). But talk about the US armed forces is allowed, at least positive talks. A rather funny concept Think of Russia, and it’s more like state media.
Read in the news that the Americans weren’t all that found of these Migs being places at Ramstein.
Peter wrote:
However: The US has rejected an offer by Poland to send all of its Mig-29 fighter jets to Ukraine via an American airbase in Germany. A Pentagon spokesman says such a prospect raises “serious concerns” for Nato, while a US military expert calls Poland’s plan “perplexing”
Understandably. I would not see the difference between handing them over in Poland or Germany from the NATO perspective.The whole thing replenishing the Ukraine Air Force with NATO owned jets was imho a no-go from the start.
What becomes more and more clear however is that NATO has serious opposition in some former east block states. I am staggered how many people I used to know and respect now try to justify the Russian agression with quite often incidents or historical tidbits which are totally irrelevant to the act of agression we are seeing. It looks like quite some folks in the Balkans appear to have a short memory. I wonder how long the now enthusiastically proclaimed unity will hold.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
It looks like quite some folks in the Balkans appear to have a short memory.
Amnesia is very widespread disease in the Balkans. That’s why we have to re-learn from own bad experience every 40 years rather than from (own) history.
However: The US has rejected an offer by Poland to send all of its Mig-29 fighter jets to Ukraine via an American airbase in Germany. A Pentagon spokesman says such a prospect raises “serious concerns” for Nato, while a US military expert calls Poland’s plan “perplexing”
The MiG29 deal was surely done at “lower levels” on US administration side, it’s on the table though as it has not been “rejected” by OTAN
It is quite normal for sections of ex communist populations to long for the good old times when everybody was poor but life was much more predictable.
Plenty in CZ, and I’d say SK has a higher % due to the nature of their pre-1989 economy. In the Balkans there will be an even greater % due to the greater poverty, historically. Left wing regimes always favour the lazy and incompetent, because a key policy component is the cultivation of envy (a concept well cultivated in the 20th century and not just in communist regimes) which is usually implemented as wealth redistribution (the guillotine was another solution, done further back in history, albeit on a smaller scale) and this obviously favours the lazy and incompetent, and the more extreme version you implement the more it favours the lazy and incompetent
This is a key component in why left wing regimes have quite a lot of stamina. If everybody was worse off, absolutely nobody would go for it. You have to keep the following sub-populations happy:
Our defence Secretary has just announced that the UK may provide Starstreak MANPADS (made in Belfast).
Indisputably a defensive weapon, and probably more effective for creating a no-fly zone than a few superannuated MIGs.
How does Starstreak compare to Stinger?
My working assumption with such British weapons was that they tended to require more training, more setup, and were less ‘point and shoot’ than others out there.
For rapid supply to a military force unlikely to be familiar with them, ease of use would appear to be priority number one?
