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1. The air force is (one of the reasons) why the US has only been going to war with vastly inferior nations. 2. Go ask Ukraine about fighting rebels with AK-47

1. The air force is (one of the reasons) why the US has only been going to war with vastly inferior nations. 2. Go ask Ukraine about fighting rebels with AK-47s... who might occasionally get Buk missiles from a friendly slav on vacation. That's not to say anything about F-35, or F-16; just about the reason why keeping the birds up to date makes sense.

throwaway4good 5y ago
The west is explicitly not going to war in/over Ukraine. Because as you implied it would be a war with Russia and that would be too much. And Ukraine does not have F-35s and will never have.
- paganel 5y ago
  Not the OP, but it would have been interesting to see how well a plane like the F-35 handles ground-to-air missiles. My bet would be on the missiles, but maybe that's just a subjective take on my part (certainly not based on any concrete facts as I'm not an expert in this domain), but I'm thinking that if the Serbs of the 1990s managed to bring down a F-117 then the Russian technology of today (in theory much better up-to-date compared to what the Serbs had) should be quite a match for this plane.
  - LegitShady 5y ago
    It depends what missiles. Israel handily destroys syrian pantsir systems with f-16s or loitering munitions, and turkish made drones 'damaged' two pantsir systems in the 2020 nagorno karabakh war. I don't think we've seen the results for longer range systems like the S-300 but I'm not sure russia wants to see the results either.
- romwell 5y ago
  Sigh My point about Ukraine was that the "non-advanced” militaries can mysteriously acquire very hi-tech anti-aircraft systems. Like the Donbass "rebels" who shot down MH-17 out of the sky with a Buk missile which they weren't "supposed to" have (and have no capacity to produce, obviously). On the other hand, Russia's "vacationing" tank drivers are going to be dodging US-made Javelins should they decide to make a detour through Ukraine. The point being, if a weapon exists, you might as well assume your opponent on the battlefield has it, no matter how much they are tech-wise.

throwaway4good 5y ago

The west is explicitly not going to war in/over Ukraine. Because as you implied it would be a war with Russia and that would be too much. And Ukraine does not have F-35s and will never have.

paganel 5y ago
Not the OP, but it would have been interesting to see how well a plane like the F-35 handles ground-to-air missiles. My bet would be on the missiles, but maybe that's just a subjective take on my part (certainly not based on any concrete facts as I'm not an expert in this domain), but I'm thinking that if the Serbs of the 1990s managed to bring down a F-117 then the Russian technology of today (in theory much better up-to-date compared to what the Serbs had) should be quite a match for this plane.
- LegitShady 5y ago
  It depends what missiles. Israel handily destroys syrian pantsir systems with f-16s or loitering munitions, and turkish made drones 'damaged' two pantsir systems in the 2020 nagorno karabakh war. I don't think we've seen the results for longer range systems like the S-300 but I'm not sure russia wants to see the results either.
romwell 5y ago
Sigh My point about Ukraine was that the "non-advanced” militaries can mysteriously acquire very hi-tech anti-aircraft systems. Like the Donbass "rebels" who shot down MH-17 out of the sky with a Buk missile which they weren't "supposed to" have (and have no capacity to produce, obviously). On the other hand, Russia's "vacationing" tank drivers are going to be dodging US-made Javelins should they decide to make a detour through Ukraine. The point being, if a weapon exists, you might as well assume your opponent on the battlefield has it, no matter how much they are tech-wise.