Arming Ukraine

The Americans are sending

-11 Mi-17 helicopters
- 18 155mm howitzers along with 40,000 shells
- 300 Switchblade loitering munitions
- 2 AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel Air Surveillance Radars
- 10 AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder Weapon-Locating radar
- 200 M113 APCs
- 100 HMMWV IMVs
-500 Javelin
That number of 200 M113 APCs really jumps out at me; I mean, who exactly is going to be using those for the Ukrainians?

Looking back, about 20-something Czech Dana 152mm howitzers and 20 of those Czech RM 70 Vampir armored vehicles made it into Ukraine before this.

It is entirely possible that those transport vehicles have been outfitted with some rather lethal weaponry, or perhaps they are simply intended for evacuating the wounded. Then again, they could be carrying infantrymen equipped with Javelins, ready to rain hellfire on anything in their path.

wiredseal7 said:Looks like America might be shipping some of these helicopters over to Ukraine:
https://www.militaryaerospace.com/co...of-afghanistan

They’re actually pretty recent—manufactured around 2013.
The whole move feels a bit shady, though—likely a blatant breach of contract with the Russians, who were the original buyers.

Do we even have any Mi-8s left in our inventory? Not that I'm pushing for it—sending aircraft like this is a massive escalation waiting to happen.

Right, so maybe we just send over our civilian ones then? You know, those medical helicopters. Since the Rus delivered them to us originally, I guess we can just hand them right over to Ukraine.

gentlestag15 said:The Americans are sending

-11 Mi-17 helicopters
- 18 155mm howitzers along with 40,000 shells
- 300 Switchblade loitering munitions
- 2 AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel Air Surveillance Radars
- 10 AN/TPQ-36 Firefinder Weapon-Locating radar
- 200 M113 APCs
- 100 HMMWV IMVs
-500 Javelin
That number of 200 M113 APCs really jumps out at me; I mean, who exactly is going to be using those for the Ukrainians?

Looking back, about 20-something Czech Dana 152mm howitzers and 20 of those Czech RM 70 Vampir armored vehicles made it into Ukraine before this.

They certainly won't be any less effective than the Humvees.

So, the US is actually going to start sharing intelligence on occupied territories with the Ukrainians—and yeah, that includes Crimea. Or, to put it more accurately, they’re finally admitting they’re handing over data regarding Crimea. It’s all laid out pretty clearly: the whole point is so they can "improve targeting accuracy." Honestly, we're still just sitting here waiting to see how Moscow reacts to this move. Back when the conflict first kicked off, they were making all these massive threats about retaliating against anyone brave enough to step in, but looking at things now, it really feels like that was just the empty blustering of a second-tier power.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-exp...mobilewebshare

wiredseal7 said:Looks like America might be shipping some of these helicopters over to Ukraine:
https://www.militaryaerospace.com/co...of-afghanistan

They’re actually pretty recent—manufactured around 2013.
The whole move feels a bit shady, though—likely a blatant breach of contract with the Russians, who were the original buyers.

Do we even have any Mi-8s left in our inventory? Not that I'm pushing for it—sending aircraft like this is a massive escalation waiting to happen.

By that logic, was sinking Moscow considered "piracy" too?

We all know seizing the Ukrainian fleet wasn't piracy... and don't even get me started on Crimea. Seizing assets and genocide are one thing, but behaving like they can just toss out legal contracts whenever it suits them??111!!111!!

Looks like Japan is sending some aid
https://twitter.com/sentdefender/sta...76775019106307

As part of that massive $500 million aid package, there’s talk that Canada might actually step up and send over some armored vehicles, specifically those LAV 8x8s and the Rosalie Senator 4x4s

https://www.armyrecognition.com/defe...o_ukraine.html

coastalbison6 said:Looks like Japan is sending some aid
https://twitter.com/sentdefender/sta...76775019106307

Considering their constitution, that's actually a massive deal for Japan.

Christian Torres3 said:The rocket was launched from a Russian base during an exercise, FYI.

So, if the Russians shoot down their own plane, are the Americans really expected to just step up and foot the bill for the damages?

Every single one of those vessels in the Black Sea needs to be sunk; they’ve just launched another missile strike against Kyiv from the ships.

Dana Robinson4 said:So, if the Russians shoot down their own plane, are the Americans really expected to just step up and foot the bill for the damages?

Exactly.

We're back in the era of Leonid Kučma if you ask me.

CNN: We’re looking at the first shipment of that new $800 million military aid package for Ukraine heading out from the USA within the next 24 hours, I guess.

The White House announced the whole thing back on April 13th, and it’s supposed to include 11 helicopters, 18 Howitzers, and about 300 Switchblade drones, maybe.

Is the US sending more aid and weaponry?

It looks like the Poles sent over at least 20 Gvozdik units and maybe another 20 BM-21 launchers too!

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/statu...X9-NDRojg&s=19

Scholz finally gave in, so getting approval for heavy weaponry is basically just a formality now.
At the same time, Germany greenlit €2 billion in military aid for our allies, with most of it heading straight to Ukraine. With that kind of cash, they can pick up heavy artillery whenever they want.

Honestly, I’m not even surprised here—The New York Times is now reporting that SAS is in Ukraine, though they’re being careful to claim it’s strictly just for training purposes. It’s funny because just a few days ago, an intelligence source out of France was already hinting that both Delta and SAS were on the ground there.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/s...aine-32vs5bjzb

So, The Washington Post just got their hands on a formal diplomatic note from Russia, where they're basically begging the West to stop sending all this weaponry to Ukraine. Personally, I think Americans are already pretty much ignoring them and laughing it off.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...rming-ukraine/

I'm a bit behind on the news, so I wasn't sure if it's actually been confirmed that Reapers, Predators, and Switchblades are heading to Ukraine yet.
Plus, they'll probably claim the Reapers are coming from the USA since it's basically impossible to track their true origin anyway.
What a total joke.

The Switchblades are already on the ground in Ukraine, and word is they’ve already seen some serious action in combat. As for the Predators and Reapers, nothing is set in stone just yet, though we know talks are happening—apparently, there was even a meeting between the Ukrainian ambassadors and folks from General Atomics. Honestly, I doubt a meeting like that would even get off the ground without the green light from the Biden administration. It feels like such a logical next step for arming Ukraine, especially since these drones are such a complete nightmare for the Russians to deal with.
They could be operated by people sent over from the US, but my gut tells me the Ukrainians will be running them directly from within Ukraine, and I’m leaning toward them using the Predators they already have in stock rather than jumping straight to the Reapers.

Carl Lee27 said:The Switchblades are already on the ground in Ukraine, and word is they’ve already seen some serious action in combat. As for the Predators and Reapers, nothing is set in stone just yet, though we know talks are happening—apparently, there was even a meeting between the Ukrainian ambassadors and folks from General Atomics. Honestly, I doubt a meeting like that would even get off the ground without the green light from the Biden administration. It feels like such a logical next step for arming Ukraine, especially since these drones are such a complete nightmare for the Russians to deal with.
They could be operated by people sent over from the US, but my gut tells me the Ukrainians will be running them directly from within Ukraine, and I’m leaning toward them using the Predators they already have in stock rather than jumping straight to the Reapers.

I think I saw somewhere that they tried using two Switchblades against some Russian tanks, but it didn't really work out. I guess they're still just figuring things out, or whatever.