Posts by Anthony Smith7

Joseph Clark37 said:Too expensive, too complicated, and there just isn't enough training time. In my view, the only way this works is if they managed to strike a deal with the Slovaks or Bulgarians to hand over their S-300s—assuming they're actually functional and the Ukrainians have crews ready to operate them... though I doubt those countries would part with such systems so easily.

Ukraine has its own S-300 units left over from the USSR era, but they’ve clearly been trashed or are pretty much useless at this point.

Besides, we're talking about 90s tech here. It's Russian tech, specifically. We used to parade similar stuff around during local holidays back in '95 when a Super Nintendo was considered the peak of high-tech.

The Russians have likely tweaked their most advanced jets and missiles specifically to dodge or jam the S-300, after all, they're the ones who built the damn things. They probably even rigged their own systems to sniff out where those Ukrainian S-300 radars are emitting signals from, then just leveled the locations.

And obviously, nobody's selling them a modern S-400 system.

Some of those Ukrainian S-300s probably survived well enough to help take down some Russian planes and missiles, but you have to wonder to what extent.

A system that can swat aircraft and missiles out of the sky from 300 kilometers away would be worth its weight in gold for Ukraine. Maybe if the Slovak or Bulgarian versions were modernized enough to handle cutting-edge jets.
But again, that assumes those countries would even consider giving them up, which would mean the US would have to compensate them with Patriots and billions of dollars in value.

The real move here would be for the US to hand over some long-range air defense systems—specifically Patriot and THAAD. We’re talking about being able to pluck planes and missiles right out of the sky from 150 or 200 kilometers away. It would allow them to establish "no-fly zones" where Russian jets simply can't fly unless they're looking to get swatted by ground-to-air missiles.

Look, if the Russians manage to encircle cities, you're forced out into the open. If you want to break through an encirclement, deliver supplies and reinforcements, pull troops back, or mass them up for a counter-offensive, you have to go through open fields. And that is exactly what the Russians are banking on, given their dominance in open terrain.

That’s where heavy-hitting, long-range anti-air missiles could be the ultimate gamechanger. They’d give Ukrainians the breathing room to maneuver in the open without being picked off, while simultaneously shielding cities from heavy bombardment.

The million-dollar question is whether the West actually wants to—or even can—send them, considering how incredibly expensive and high-tech this gear is.

Take the Patriot: a single battery runs about $500 million. Back in 2019, Poland inked a massive $10 billion deal with the Americans to get their hands on them.

Then there's THAAD—you're looking at nearly a billion dollars per battery.

Beyond the price tag, there's the logistical nightmare. How much training time is required? Can these units actually integrate with existing Ukrainian radar networks? What kind of specialized radar is needed, and are the standard radars that come built-in with the systems enough to do the job? Maybe the US could funnel some retired specialists or veterans over via private agencies acting as contractors, or perhaps even run a covert operation to handle the training and operation directly.