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First Javelins. Then Himars. Now Patriot. What’s Next?
- LarsDu88 4y agoHonestly Ukraine is still largely fighting with 1970s tech and requesting the Abrams (first developed in the 1980s) and F16 (first developed in the 1970s) does not sound unreasonable. The fact that the 90s tech (javelin, himars, and patriot) basically can't be countered at all by Russian forces should demonstrate that the US and European allies would get more mileage by supplying the more advanced stuff. On top of that, once Ukraine gets these offensive weapons, they can't use it to cross the Russian border to say, outflank the extremely Russian supply lines across the border. The real unstated reason the US is not supplying these weapons is not fear of escalation with Russia. The US could supply stealth drones and newer tech with impunity and have a reasonable chance of getting that equipment back at the end of the war. The real reason is to prevent China from supplying Russia with arms. The Soviets were able to beat Germany in the 1940s with Lend-lease and devoting 90 percent of GDP to conflict. If China gave Russia a blank check, the meat grinder would drag on for much longer and cost much more lives.