For Those Who Might Be Wondering Why We Might Be In Ukraine

[ChloeTzang]

 

[ChloeTzang]

The Russian 488th MRR (at least 1 BN) fully surrendered

 

[ChloeTzang]

I so want to see Leopards rolling thru Kursk......

 

[ChloeTzang]

 

[ChloeTzang]

 

[Pad_Foot]

Why we’re MiGHT be in…

Did I miss the US putting boots on the ground?

Dipshit!

And why would we ? One day under our Air Force and the Russians a fucking TOAST

Now… what would it take to really spark WWlll? That!! Putin would create a blackened field behind him

Russian Fool!!

 

[ChloeTzang]

In Kurchatov, Russia, home to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), explosions have been reported as Ukrainian Defense Forces quickly closing in on the city. Strong blasts were heard, and air defenses are active in the area. A UAV struck a power substation near the Kursk NPP, Russian media outlet. Alexei Smirnov, the Russian governor of Kursk Oblast, said that a fire broke out at “a transformer substation” after “debris from a Ukrainian fixed-wing UAV” crashed into it. The power outage has affected the town of Kurchatov, where the Kursk NPP is located, as well as the settlements of Volokno, Vorozhnevo, and Priamitsyno. Additionally, the repost states that public transport in Kursk City has been down for over four hours, possibly due to an electricity deficit in the region.

Ukrainian forces are reportedly within a few dozen kilometers of Kurchatov and the Kursk NPP. Russia is now preparing to defend the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant as Ukrainian troops are approaching it, the independent Russian news outlet IStories reported. According to Russian media, all access roads to the nuclear plant have been urgently blocked. Everything at the nuclear power plant's units under construction has been de-energized, and construction workers have left the site, according to Bloknot. The management recommended that the plant's employees take vacations at their own expense and evacuate their children, the source told IStories. The management does not provide the personnel with any instructions on the plan of action in case of a strike on the plant, while employees work in bunkers with thick walls, IStories reported, citing one of the plant's workers.

The mayor of Kurchatov declared a state of emergency, describing the situation as "tense." Notably, evacuation of residents has not yet begun, though many are leaving voluntarily as Ukrainian Armed Forces near the city.

The Kursk NPP is a critical Russian electrical power generator, supplying electricity for railway lines and for industry. Taking the Kursk NPP offline would be a HUGE win for Ukraine, enabling them to also burn out chunks of the electrical grid and even shut down the plant itself.

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

In Kurchatov, Russia, home to the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), explosions have been reported as Ukrainian Defense Forces quickly closing in on the city. Strong blasts were heard, and air defenses are active in the area. A UAV struck a power substation near the Kursk NPP, Russian media outlet. Alexei Smirnov, the Russian governor of Kursk Oblast, said that a fire broke out at “a transformer substation” after “debris from a Ukrainian fixed-wing UAV” crashed into it. The power outage has affected the town of Kurchatov, where the Kursk NPP is located, as well as the settlements of Volokno, Vorozhnevo, and Priamitsyno. Additionally, the repost states that public transport in Kursk City has been down for over four hours, possibly due to an electricity deficit in the region.

Ukrainian forces are reportedly within a few dozen kilometers of Kurchatov and the Kursk NPP. Russia is now preparing to defend the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant as Ukrainian troops are approaching it, the independent Russian news outlet IStories reported. According to Russian media, all access roads to the nuclear plant have been urgently blocked. Everything at the nuclear power plant's units under construction has been de-energized, and construction workers have left the site, according to Bloknot. The management recommended that the plant's employees take vacations at their own expense and evacuate their children, the source told IStories. The management does not provide the personnel with any instructions on the plan of action in case of a strike on the plant, while employees work in bunkers with thick walls, IStories reported, citing one of the plant's workers.

The mayor of Kurchatov declared a state of emergency, describing the situation as "tense." Notably, evacuation of residents has not yet begun, though many are leaving voluntarily as Ukrainian Armed Forces near the city.

The Kursk NPP is a critical Russian electrical power generator, supplying electricity for railway lines and for industry. Taking the Kursk NPP offline would be a HUGE win for Ukraine, enabling them to also burn out chunks of the electrical grid and even shut down the plant itself.


View attachment 2375427

Oh boy. You ARE in denial. Face it. Tampon Tim is a lying fake gay horse semen drinking pedo who gets off on giving little boys tampons and let Minneapolis burn to try and score a few points against Trump.

 

[Lazaran]

Chloe “Chicongo” Tzang will NOT get your point.

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

Chloe “Chicongo” Tzang will NOT get your point.

My point is that she can either be a clown, or have her ideas about war taken seriously.

She can't take off her big red nose for a few posts and expect us to keep a straight face as she pontificates about Ukraine.

It's like the whole song and dance she did about pretending to write as a liberal for a day -- as though the MAGA shit she normally posts isn't what she really believes -- as though just she's just a troll pretending to be MAGA for the lulz.

Girlfriend ... please. Do we look like we just dropped out of a coconut tree?

 

[ChloeTzang]

My point is that she can either be a clown, or have her ideas about war taken seriously.
She can't take off her big red nose for a few posts and expect us to keep a straight face as she pontificates about Ukraine.

LOL. OTY. And very rarely my ideas. I take what I find, summarize and piece the pieces together as a gestalt, along with some extrapolation and speculation. Whether you keep a straight face or not is over to you. I'm more interested in the comments from the guys with solid military background and experience, as well as learning more as I go.

We very rarely get a chance to follow something epochal like this. Take me seriously or not, I don't mind either way. On Ukraine, I will (generally, not always, as is self evident) be serious altho of course my Biden is a useless POS and Sullivan is a testosterone-lacking limp dick attitude will shine through. Generally. That said, I WILL discuss anything regarding Ukraine seriously, regardless of how we interact on other threads on this board.

It's something I'm rather passionate about, and unlike a lot of people, I have put my money where my mouth is and contributed quite a few thousand $'s of my own and other peoples money to buying equipment for Ukrainian military units. Primarily Azov, of course, esp in Year One and the first winter, but also other units and to fund raisers for specific equipment purchases like drones, medical supplies, body armor, winter kit, night vision equipment and even an IFV fund raiser that bought 60 Spartan IFV's from the UK, altho my little contribution probably paid for a couple of bolts or something.

Point I'm making is, take me seriously or not, that's your call and I won't change, but on Ukraine, I am (usually) serious. Any other thread here - LOL. Guess. But yeah, NOT liberal. Genghis Khan, sorry, was a left wing fag pretty much summarizes my personal politics and I kneel in front of my painting of Saint Augustino and offer up a prayer for him daily.

It's like the whole song and dance she did about pretending to write as a liberal for a day -- as though the MAGA shit she normally posts isn't what she really believes -- as though just she's just a troll pretending to be MAGA for the lulz.

Of course. LOL. Do I ever sound for a second that I could possibly remotely ever be a liberal?

Girlfriend ... please. Do we look like we just dropped out of a coconut tree?

rotflmao. Do you really want the answer? Nooooooooo, I can't say about look, but honestly, all the left wing stuff here is inane half the time, and totalitarian the other half. You do realize the revolution always eats it's own, and socialism always goes totalitarian.....and you have to be remarkably young and indoctrinated, or old and gullible, to go that left wing route.

Anyhow, mostly off topic for this thread, but hey, valid points. And now, back to the real subject. Applying terminal violence to Russians.....

 

[Buffalogurl]

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopoliti...ow-shocking-exchange-ukraines-incursion-kursk
This article is from zerohedge.com...... also the Russians have brought in 3 kilo class diesel-electric submarines carrying the kalibr cruise missile that Flys low and fast making it a very difficult item to stop....and bringing on line a new iskander missile, iskander 1000 new heavier warhead and a new more powerful engine that exceeds 3100 m/s
https://armyrecognition.com/news/ar...-threatens-ukrainian-f-16s-and-half-of-europe .....that and Russia is air lifting weapons into Iran, missile systems, electronic warfare systems, ect.....I'll add this as well... the Ukrainian regime estimates there are 800 thousand "draft dodgers" in and around Ukraine ( 800 thousand smart people) Lindsey Graham stated in an interview the Ukraine possess 5-7 trillion dollars worth of very important minerals that the United States wants to control... Basically the United States is using the good people of Ukraine to fight and die for corporate American business.... this is all about money.....when the good folk of Ukraine figure this out ..... I hope they hunt them down to the ends of the earth......https://www.rt.com/russia/602230-ukraine-workforce-draft-avoidance/.......

 

[Buffalogurl]

https://thepeoplesvoice.tv/us-military-laying-groundwork-to-reinstate-the-draft/
You bet'cha they/them are going to reinstate the draft.... not gonna happen this time we've learned our lessons from Vietnam, Afghanistan, Korea and Iraq....... plan accordingly.....

 

[Lazaran]

My point is that she can either be a clown, or have her ideas about war taken seriously.

She can't take off her big red nose for a few posts and expect us to keep a straight face as she pontificates about Ukraine.

It's like the whole song and dance she did about pretending to write as a liberal for a day -- as though the MAGA shit she normally posts isn't what she really believes -- as though just she's just a troll pretending to be MAGA for the lulz.

Girlfriend ... please. Do we look like we just dropped out of a coconut tree?

Yep, I knew exactly what you were "hinting" at.

LOL. OTY. And very rarel <snip>

says what???

 

[Lazaran]

Lindsey Graham stated in an interview the Ukraine possess 5-7 trillion dollars worth of very important minerals that the United States wants to control... Basically the United States is using the good people of Ukraine to fight and die for corporate American business.... this is all about money.....when the good folk of Ukraine figure this out ..... I hope they hunt them down to the ends of the earth

This ^ may be the singularly most ignorant thing ever posted on the PB.



It obviously hasn’t occurred to "Buffy" that THE RUSSIANS are the ones who are attempting to plunder Ukraine’s wealth BY FORCE, rather than engaging in trade negotiations and selling the Ukrainians on the benefits of the Russian system. (The Ukrainians have seen the Russian system and rejected it.)

And, yes, , America has an interest in not allowing the Russians OR the Chinese to corner the market on rare metals, etc, by seizing their neighbors sovereign territory through use of FORCE, or by dominating certain countries and industries through use of UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES. The United States helped establish a rules based global order after World War II, etc, and that rules based order is worth fighting for: The Ukrainians understand that, and so do decent, intelligent Americans.

Hope that ^ helps.



"Buffy"

 

[ChloeTzang]

 

[ChloeTzang]

Today, @DeptofDefense announced a new security assistance package valued at $125 million to meet Ukraine's most urgent needs.The capabilities in this package include:
* Stinger missiles;
* Ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);
* 155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition;
* Multi-mission radars;
* Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided (TOW) missiles;
* Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems;
* High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) ambulances;
* Small arms ammunition;
* Demolitions equipment and munitions;
* Equipment to protect critical national infrastructure; and
* Spare parts, ancillary equipment, services, training, and transportation.

 

[ChloeTzang]

Hearing Gerasimov talk about the goal of “reaching Russia’s state border” was never on my bingo but here we are. Putin looks thrilled. From “No need to pack provisions, we'll take Kiev in 2 days” to “with our maximum effort we've managed to slow down the enemy progress in Kursk region”.

 

[ChloeTzang]

When the russians invaded Ukraine in Feb 2022, Ukrainian civilians attacked them with molotov cocktails, hunting rifles, they tried to stop tanks with their bare hands, they put sand in their fuel tanks, broke dykes to flood the roads, a woman downed a Russian drone with a jar of pickles

In Kursk, the Russians pull over to the side of the road to let Ukrainian armored columns pass.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1821641790627168651

 

[ChloeTzang]

The Ukrainian military has begun using a robotic scout dog to assist in various tasks. This robotic device aids in reconnaissance, conducting operations, and gathering intelligence on the battlefield. This new technological tool enhances the capabilities of the military and improves safety.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1822266693093142757

 

[ChloeTzang]

A picture is worth a thousand words.....

 

[Rightguide]

How are those F-16s doing have they changed the outcome of the war yet?

 

[ll74]

How are those F-16s doing have they changed the outcome of the war yet?

Yes

 

[ChloeTzang]

How are those F-16s doing have they changed the outcome of the war yet?

Took an excerpt here from a much longer writeup that comes via email subscription so I can't post the link, but here you go. This is one take.

For the next few weeks, until the next batch of pilots arrives and doubles Ukraine’s effective strength, it is likely that Kyiv will keep its jets on a tight leash, proving a general concept of distributed operations while waiting to see how the orcs adapt. Whether you call them Falcons, Vipers, F-16s, or multirole fourth generation combat aircraft, their arrival in Ukraine is the harbinger of a tidal shift that will take a couple years to fully unfold but is set to radically alter the balance of power in the Ukraine War. I sense a big orc missile strike coming soon, and Putin is right to be afraid.

Generations of popular historians have distorted the record of air power in military conflicts. Americans are taught that the atomic bombs forced Japan to surrender when in reality the Soviet conquest of Manchuria and the destruction of the Imperial Japanese Army’s colonial fiefdom forced Tokyo to seek terms. Americans are also wrongly taught that the destruction of German cities was morally and strategically justified despite it being attacks on the Nazi transportation network that finally brought Hitler’s war machine grinding to a halt. It doesn’t matter how many tanks my enemy builds if they can’t transport them, or the fuel they require, to the front. Similarly, having all the fighter jets in the world doesn’t matter if you can’t protect their bases. Even small but routine attacks can make high intensity operations almost impossible, and the more complicated the aircraft the more it will rely on centralized and inherently vulnerable facilities.

Frustrating a NATO-style air power led military campaign isn’t hard if you’ve got the resources and space. Putin attempted his own version in the early days of the all-out invasion. Employing tactics used by the Vietnamese, Iranians, and Serbians, Ukraine recovered from initial setbacks and made flying crewed aircraft over free Ukraine too costly for the orcs to continue. Unable to neutralize every Ukrainian SAM site, Russian jets have to either stay on their own side of the lines or put together a massive package capable of suppressing all air defenses near where their jets aim to fly. This is why NATO air planners require a massive SEAD/DEAD - Suppression/Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses - effort before attempting to control the skies over enemy-held territory. Good luck trying that against an enemy like China, friends. Whenever I read some U.S. Air Force general or civilian enthusiast wax on about flying stealth bombers over China in a future war, I cringe. It’s the 21st century equivalent of thinking that future wars will be decided by lines of battleships dueling at sea.

Air power is essential, and crewed aircraft aren’t going away any time soon. But it’s only one domain. That, paradoxically, is why the arrival of modern jets in Ukraine will actually have more of an impact on the conflict than many analysts claim. They obviously won’t win the war alone, but they represent the addition of an essential capability that can be used to bleed out a source of Russian combat power. In the near future, F-16 pairs will begin launching aerial ambushes of Russian jets and helicopters operating close to the front line. Sometimes, they’ll even bag a couple Sukhoi bombers coming in to release glide bombs. Probably not even one a day, at least at first, but the losses will mount. And when they do, fewer glide bombs will strike. Ukrainian lives on the ground will be saved.

Though Putin’s available air assets badly outnumber Ukraine’s, fewer than a dozen Su-34 bombers - the primary platform for delivering glide bombs - are produced each year. Moscow has only 100 or so in service. They deliver a hundred or more glide bombs every day, each jet releasing two or four from about 65km behind the front lines. If they could come all the way up to the front they’d be able to hit Ukrainian targets deep in the rear. Fortunately the threat of wandering Patriot systems keeps them back. However, ever since losing one of these detachments to an Iskander ballistic missile strike after it got spotted by a drone while parked for too long, Ukraine appears to have decided to keep Patriot launchers at least 60km from the front and their radars even further back. (Chloe - although they may have moved a Patriot system up near the border at Sumy to support the Kursk attack as they've taken out a couple of aircraft and at least 4 Russian attack helicopters there)

Although Russian jets carrying glide bombs fly at high altitude and are easy to spot, a 120km+ shot from a Patriot puts the weapon at the outer edge of its effective range. The enemy jets approach their release point at something like 1,200 km/h, so spend a few minutes at most inside the Patriot’s engagement envelope. Since launchers have to be in the open to fire and can’t sit in one place for long, a Russia jet at high altitude can likely survive if it turns and runs away before coming closer than 60km to front. Aircraft approaching at lower altitudes, where Russian Su-25 close support jets fly, can get within 5km of the front line as long as they fire their rockets and quickly turn away. Even though they fly slower and spend more time inside the Patriot’s theoretical engagement zone, the horizon limits the ability of a ground-based radar to track low flying targets.

Incidentally, a European country recently gave Ukraine a model of short-range SAM, the French Mistral, that can hit targets twice as far out as most in its class - 8km. That has resulted in several Russian Su-25s being taken down by Ukrainian troops from the 110th Mechanized Brigade in recent months. Even if limited to using mid-range AIM-120 AMRAAM series missiles, which have a maximum official range of 105-120km, Ukraine’s Viper jocks now have the technical means of intercepting both the low-flying Su-25 and high altitude Su-34 jets.

The true power of the F-16 or any equivalent NATO-standard jet lies not in its own weapons, but in a secure network link to the rest of the Ukrainian air defense net. Thanks to encrypted and robust communications networks like Link-16, a pilot can receive information about the battlefield while flying at treetop level to avoid being detected by enemy radar and keeping its own radar turned off. If a Patriot radar or one of the Saab AWACS aircraft Ukraine will receive spots a group of Russian jets approaching the front, it can pass on all the necessary targeting information to a missile carried by the nearest F-16. All the pilot has to do is act like a glorified delivery driver, setting up the link then getting to a launch point and away without being shot down.

(cont...)

 

[ChloeTzang]

Recently, Syrskyi made an interesting comment about Vipers keeping at least 40km behind the front lines. That’s actually much closer than I would have expected them to come. I’ve been hoping to learn that an ally has given Ukraine at least a few dozen long-range AIM-120D model AMRAAMs with a range of 160-180km, which can take town enemy jets from 100km inside Ukrainian airspace. Even using an older model of AMRAAM, an F-16 that can survive 40km from the front line is capable of hitting a Sukhoi as it releases glide bombs from 65km on its own side of the front. It’s a long shot, but there are thousands of old AMRAAMs in circulation, so if two F-16s fire eight missiles for one hit, that’s a fair exchange. The big challenge, of course, is doing this without getting whacked by an S-400 or R-37 missile in the process. Moscow has Ukraine ringed with long range SAM batteries and maintains a couple dozen interceptors in the sky armed with air to air missiles with a 200km range. S-400 missiles can theoretically hit targets out to 400km, though in practice 200km appears to be the true max, and then only when supported by AWACS.

On the plus side, neither MiG-31 or Su-35 interceptors are keen on coming closer than about 100km to the front, since to shoot their R-37s to maximum range they’ve got to fly high and fast. They’re not small aircraft and use powerful radars to guide their missiles when AWACS support isn’t available, so a wandering Patriot that dares to hang out 50km from the front is positively lethal. As far as AWACS coverage goes, thanks to reducing Moscow’s effective fleet by three this past year, once by using an updated Soviet-era S-200 very long range SAM with a 300km range, Moscow doesn’t seem to risk bringing its remaining AWACS within 300km of the front. That puts Ukrainian jets flying low right on their side of the front lines at the outer edge of an A-50’s effective tracking range. Without AWACS support, the S-400 complex is having trouble dealing with Ukrainian MiG-29s coming just fifteen kilometers from the Kharkiv front to toss glide bombs at orc positions. An F-16 is smaller than a Mig-29, and though a Viper pilot will likely need to fly higher before releasing their weapons, they have much more modern missile defense systems to fall back on.

Moscow long ago began keeping its long range SAM batteries at least 65km from the front line thanks to the threat of HIMARS attacks. Now that ATACMS is in the field, nowhere in occupied Ukraine. Unfortunately Moscow has upwards of a hundred of the things, though only a fraction are the newer S-400 and ten to twenty have been destroyed during the war. Still, having them pushed back so far has resulted in a lot more breathing room for Ukrainian pilots. This has been ably exploited in recent weeks by MiG-29, Su-27, and Su-25 sorties to deliver their own glide bombs.

A flight profile that involves F-16s popping up to launch attacks 40km behind the front line against orc glide bombers looks viable even without the D model AMRAAMS. Whether this is truly the case depends on the quality of the missile defense systems they use. Open source analysis has already revealed a couple very interesting details. First, Ukraine’s Falcons are equipped with a European missile defense system that looks to be state of the art. Aside from incorporating missile warning and decoys, it’s also one of those neat bits of electromagnetic warfare kit that can degrade the performance of hostile radars. Guiding a missile to a target is a classic cybernetic relationship where signals received and interpreted by a machine allow it to self-correct. A thermostat works on the same principles. So does any AI. Human brains aren’t any different, just infinitely more complex.

At the heart of all radar-guided missiles is a little computer that aims to bring itself as close as possible to whatever radio wave signal pattern it is locked on to. As long as this blob of radar returns is getting more intense, the missile is happy. If it declines or shifts position, the computer alters the position of fins on the missile’s body to make the signal return back to the middle of its detection field. Evading a shot is a matter of making the signal the missile has been told to chase escape its field of view too quickly for the computer to adjust. Having a decoy signal appear where the missile was expecting to see yours is always helpful too. A problem arises when a target is far away. Signal strength declines with the square of distance, and the bigger the guidance package on the missile the heavier the entire thing has to be to reach a target.

It’s kind of a waste to put millions of dollars into a computer that gets used once. The solution is to have a companion platform with more energy and space allocated to a high quality radar tell the missile where to go until it is close enough for a smaller seeker to handle the terminal intercept. In Vietnam, US jets constantly got into trouble because they had to keep their noses pointed at hostile aircraft until their radar guided Sparrow missiles got close. But between their rules of engagement requiring visual target identification and glitchy technology, that often meant that they never got a second shot off before being caught in a dogfight. Thanks to Link-16 and similar networks, all that targeting data can be sent to the AMRAAM direct from an AWACS or Patriot battery. All the F-16 pilot has to do is get into launch position, tell the missile what target to get data for, then send it off to the rendezvous. The missile will fly high into the atmosphere then dive down towards wherever the distant control radar says the target should be. Once close it flips on its own radar, acquires the signal, and races in at many times the speed of sound.

Messing with the control signal that gets a missile to its target at the various phases of its flight is the job of defensive electromagnetic warfare. Generating junk signals can have a variety of different impacts, from creating destructive interference to generating radar ghosts. The goal is simple: make the missile chase a phantom or prevent it from spotting the signal it’s looking for in the first place. If an enemy targeting radar loses track of an F-16 racing away from the front at 2,000km/h for even a few seconds, the missile is unlikely to have enough energy in its final moments to close the gap. Simply put, modern missile defense systems are capable of substantially reducing the effective range of enemy weapons. Further, Moscow’s missiles have all been so heavily used these past two and a half years that the initial impact of the pods Ukraine’s Vipers are using is likely to be very strong.

If Ukraine is able to score even a few kills each week for a sustained period, within a few months the Russian glide bomb campaign will rendered unsustainable. Stop the glide bombs, and Moscow’s offensive potential is exhausted for the foreseeable future. Even defending positions it holds will become far more difficult. Neuter the glide bomb threat, and Moscow is in deep trouble. The orcs will make every effort to destroy Ukraine’s F-16s. The recent trend of Russian drones appearing over Ukrainian air bases 100km or even 150km behind the front is extremely concerning. Moscow has the technical ability to deliver a missile anywhere in Ukraine in about five minutes, meaning that if it can observe an F-16 land and park to refuel it will likely be able to launch an attack in short order. Ukraine is eventually going to lose some F-16s, both to attacks while aircraft are on the ground and accidents. Sometimes Moscow will pull off a trick that lets it hit F-16s flying close to the front lines, too. Electromagnetic warfare tends to become less effective the more the enemy has a chance to seek workarounds. What matters is that pilots and ground crew survive. Ukraine has been promised over 80 F-16s. Pilots and ground crew are the bottleneck it needs to clear to fully utilize what’s already been pledged. The biggest challenge that Ukraine faces in operating F-16s isn’t combat itself but maintaining a high tempo of operations that keeps the jets airborne as much as possible.

Unfortunately for Ukraine, all of its major cities, the places it has to commit Patriot batteries to protect, are within drone range of Russian territory. Kyiv likely has two long-range SAM systems and several mid-range ones protecting it, making it the safest place in the country - though not invulnerable, obviously. Kyiv is also over 500km from the front lines, which creates its own challenges. I expect that Ukraine will use one base in Kyiv as a central deployment and maintenance hub, with several in the very center of the country acting as distributed bases for aircraft that need to refuel, rearm, and swap pilots before taking to the skies again. Being at least 200km from any ruscist territory - occupied Moldova doesn’t count, lacking long-range SAMS - will reduce the drone threat substantially. There will also have to be designated diversion bases close to the front lines in case of damage, malfunction, or low fuel, ideally near Patriot batteries that are now or hopefully soon will be protecting Kharkiv and Dnipro.

(cont...)