Apparently there are now discussions over whether to send the F-16 as well as tanks!
This sounds like an even worse idea to me, and it probably isn't going to happen for a while even if they agree to send them, but regardless - the war has reached the point where such discussions are seriously occurring.
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
Here is the archive of important pieces of analysis from throughout the war that we've collected.
January 30th's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
January 31st's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
February 1st's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
February 3rd's update is here on the site and here in the comments.
Sorry, no update today, Xi Jinping has put me inside this giant balloon. Apparently we're testing a new kind of mass surveillance + mind control technology to turn everybody into communists? Not sure where I am right now but I heard aircraft going by yesterday. I'll be back on solid ground by Monday.
Links and Stuff
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can, thank you.
Resources For Understanding The War Beyond The Bulletins
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. I recommend their map more than the channel at this point, as an increasing subscriber count has greatly diminished their quality.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have good analysis (though also a couple bad takes here and there)
Understanding War and the Saker: neo-conservative sources but their reporting of the war (so far) seems to line up with reality better than most liberal sources. Beware of chuddery.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are fairly brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. The Duran, of which he co-hosts, is where the chuddery really begins to spill out.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent journalist reporting in the Ukrainian warzones.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ Gleb Bazov, banned from Twitter, referenced pretty heavily in what remains of pro-Russian Twitter.
https://t.me/asbmil ~ Now rebranded as Battlefield Insights, they do infrequent posts on the conflict.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/riafan_everywhere ~ Think it's a government news org or Federal News Agency? Russian language.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ Front news coverage. Russian langauge.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of the really big pro-Russian (except when they're being pessismistic, which is often) telegram channels focussing on the war. Russian language.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine
Any Western media outlet that is even vaguely liberal (and quite a few conservative ones too).
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Last week's discussion post.
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Launching from Poland or Romania also means that's those airbases, inside of NATO member countries, are legitimate targets for Russia, which is a huge escalation. UAF is already receiving training inside these counties, but officially launching military operations from them is a different thing.
Because I'm a glutton for embarrassing myself I'll say that they probably won't send F-16s and that it's some guys that haven't gotten the memo what it is that the us actually wants from this conflict. This seems like when journalists and some politicians called for a no-fly zone and then a month later for a no-sea zone. It's far more likely that the US will send all kinds of missile systems.
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The thing about the F-16 is that it is the good shit compared to the F-35. But also I keep going between 'the US gov knows what it is doing' to 'the US gov is more concerned with looking tough than doing what's smart' like they are willing sink america to own the republican libs, which is just weird.
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The F-16 is a system that was designed 40 years ago but that doesn't mean that there were no 'upgrades' done to it over that same time frame. Also I'm not saying that the F-16 can go toe to toe with an SU-57 what I am saying is that it is a better piece of weaponry than the F-35 because it is just straight up ten times more reliable than the F-35 and the US knows that and if it becomes more clear for other nations no one is going to go for their new overpriced toy.
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If a bunch of F-16s get destroyed, the US can tell everyone "See, this is why you need to buy the F-35." They will say something to the effect of that they couldn't trust the UAF with the F-35 because their pilots aren't good enough/trained well enough or that the UAF is potentially too compromised with Russian spies.
Tbh seems like a win win for US arms exporters
Name a war since WW2 where the US had an exit strategy?
That didn't stop the US from becoming the Hegemon, that's what I actually mean the US built up this elaborate network of organisations and economic tools to maintain their position that it now seemingly is tearing down the biggest one under severe threat right now is US dollar hegemony, but also it seems like their grasp over the periphery is going to go away incredibly soon, south america is slowly going away, the deindustrialization of europe is going to weaken the US' position in africa because france is not going to enforce neo-colonialism when they don't have any use for resources.
My worry is that the US is not going to go the way of the British Hegemon and are just going to wreck everything on their way out. Because that's all I can see at the moment.
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I mean technically speaking, they still aren't. They're drawing it out by so much that everyone is just gonna forget they promised to do so in the first place.
Oh cool, it's like vaccine patent waivers but with a good outcome instead :doomer:
:astronaut-2: :astronaut-1:
Yeah, I'm pretty sure the older Russian S-400 was designed specifically to chew up F-15s and F-16s too.
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"Sorry, the f35s are grounded until they're done patching. Unfortunately, the last update was to fix the firmware and that bricked them, so the techs are working overtime."
If they send F-35s it's gonna be hilarious when like 10 of them over the skies of Ukraine suddenly crash all at once, and people are gonna be like "Holy shit, what amazing weapon have the Russians developed that can do this to our planes?! We need 10 trillion dollars more in military spending, ASAP!" and it was actually just them receiving a software update midflight that blocks access to the controls
I remember that part, I'm surprised that got past the military censors.
they sure as hell were not designed to chew up soviet aircraft too
F-16s are not all operated at the same level. There are many different versions(blocks) including mid-life upgrades optional for countries. As a preamble I'd say the F-16 became ubiquitous because it is the standard multi-role fighter. The F-16 was never the superior interceptor, the US uses F-15/22 for that. The F-16 did a lot of things well and at the best operational costs(due to single engine), but it was never seen as some wonder plane like the current propaganda. The 90s was dominated by the fixation over F-22 and stealth becoming the "endgame". Then modern European figthers like the Rafale, Typhoon, Grippen are all superior and more modern.
The earlier versions the blocks A/B(used by some NATO countries) are pretty outdated fighters far and away incapable of measuring up to modern standards including the Su-30 and above family. They were initialy superior to the Mig-29s but only up to par against the Su-27. In BvR engagements(long distance missile fights) the F-16 has no advantage over the Russians, simply because the AA-12 still is a damn monster which was for decades the best AA missile in the world in terms of maneuverability + range. The "solution" to defeating it was always to turn away and run.
The "standard" versions are the block C/D 52s. These were the most popular "modern" version but it is also a package from the 90s and it works as well as any old car is supposed to work if well maintained. These only exist in Poland and Turkey. The US wont supply these since it is a key fighter for many of its allies.
The real "good" shit are the most modern versions IMO you can be absolutely sure these will never make it to Ukraine, not only they are expensive but the risk of espionage is too high. If they are concerned about Abrams tech then modern F-16s are also impossible.
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