UK patches air defense with 6 extra Land Ceptor missile launchers Britain's threadbare defenses are getting a small boost. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) just announced that it's purchasing six new Land Ceptor anti-aircraft missile systems. Pictured: United States Air Force F-35A Lightning II jets arrived at RAF Marham on 03 September 2024, along with airfield support equipment, for the …
How do you know so much about Russia's strategic thinking? They've been pretty quiet about their plans aside from threatening nuclear response every two weeks and setting new red lines. Did Vladdy Daddy whisper in your super secret spy radio?
The myth of Russia's military might was busted from the moment they spectacularly failed to invade Kyiv after preparing for months and using their best equipment (which is all long since destroyed)
Xi would be taking selfies in front of the Kremlin within a week if there was a non-nuclear conflict between the two.
When's the last time the US fought a war against an opponent that was a proper army wearing uniforms? The '91 Gulf War? That was over in days.
Fighting against soldiers/insurgents/terrorists who are indistinguishable from the population whom you are (at least the US policy is) trying not to kill is an almost impossible task. To "win" such a war you have to be OK with lots and lots of civilian casualties like Israel is, otherwise it is destined to end up a draw.
@Gordon10
Thats, as far as I can see, just numbers
Take tanks. It's pretty well established now that Russia's tank supplies are massively depleted, and their so so called Next gen Armata T-14 is in limited supply, and like a lot of Russian "high tech" kit is just all bluster.
The Black sea fleet has been rendered unusable by Ukraine and Turkey.
The SU-57 stealth fighter is as stealthy as a flying Transit van.
Where they do well at is throwing victims, I mean service personnel, into combat with no regard to casualties (which can actually be a benefit for them) and artillery.
This doesn't mean they are not a major force, but, let's face it, it helps the US Industrial Military Complex, to make out they are more of a threat than they are.
> France is 6th and the UK 5th.
As long as we are powerful enough to defend ourselves against being forced to eat frogs legs with garlic or whatever horrific torture they have planned for us.
If we have a better military than our mortal enemies across the channel, we can simply send them a strongly worded letter demanding that they swap out that coloured flag for the white one and they will comply as per standard french military procedure?
Hmm, well, I am also a real, actual military analyst and simply looking at how small Ukr totally destroyed the original much bigger RF army, to the point that they had to send recruits to Belarus for training, since they lost the ability to train anyone; I think your real, actual military analysts are just a wee bit off the mark. Anyhoo, the RF won the war and Ukr lost. Now the issue is getting Europe to accept that and deal with it.
Hmm, well, I am also a real, actual military analyst
Somehow, I doubt this..
.. and simply looking at how small Ukr totally destroyed the original much bigger RF army,
.. because that never happened. So the 'full scale invasion' was initially only 2-300k Russian forces vs Ukraine's 800k-1m, which had been NATO armed and trained during the Minsk pretext. But that show of force almost worked and drew Ukrainian forces away from their planned attacks on Donbas & Crimea, and to the negotiating table where the Istanbul agreement was almost signed.. Except BoJo went to Kiev and persuaded their Comedian-in-Chief to fight to the last Ukrainian.
Ukraine is now around 20% smaller. And-
"We need a just peace, a peace where our future will be decided only by us," he said, adding that Ukraine would fight back against Russia "while its calls for peace are not heard".
Which shows Zelensky is still out of touch with reality. Ukraine's future will be decided by US (and the EU).
... to the point that they had to send recruits to Belarus for training, since they lost the ability to train anyone;
Denys, is that you? So one of the first things that happened after BoJo's particpation in the 'peace' process was Ukraine calling for volunteers for their 'International Legion'. Russia welcomed them to Ukraine with some missiles, killing many of the volunteers. Or there was the much hyped 155th Separate Mechanized Brigade. They were sent to France to train, where some deserted. Then when deployed in Ukraine, a lot more deserted. Or Ukraine's severe manpower problem where they're forced to use snatch squads to recruit, and now 'recruiting' over 60s.. Which is one of the many ways this conflict mirrors WW2 and Germany's desperate tactics.
Meanwhile, Russia is recruiting around 10,000 volunteers a month, which is above their replacement rate. And Russia hasn't declared war, yet, so whilst it remains an SMO, is limited in the forces they can deploy.
But this is also a mistake a lot of 'analysts' make, ie regarding this as a 'war' for territory rather than the stated 'war' of attrition.. Which is a 'war' Russia is clearly winning, and Ukraine's helping with by sacrificing their own soldiers for PR stunts like Kursk. Once the UAF is attrited, Russia can take all the territory it wants, and the 'Monaco Battalions' aren't going to return to save the day.
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Well, join the army, travel the world, meet interesting people and, hmm… teach them a lesson. I am also an engineer and a computer scientist. Coming back to that stupid war - nothing changed on the ground for over a year - Ukraine lost. They got to accept the fact and hash out a peace agreement with the RF over a big bottle of vodka.
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But shouldn't he have accepted that he had been losing for a year and hashed out a peace deal?
But a sustainable peace deal means a lot less money for Zelensky's family and friends. Of course those family and friends aren't the ones being killed, but that's just the way the business of war tends to work.
So Snow White and the Seven Dwarves flew into Washington to talk 'peace'. Well, they were supposed to. Zelensky showed off his WW2 German inspired all-black uniform and platform shoes, but the meeting did nothing to resolve the conflict and stop the killing. It's good to see the Seven Dwarves working hard to represent their electorate. Well, 6, because Ursula was appointed rather than elected.
On which point, Ukraine also showed off their German inspired wunderwaffe-
https://www.politico.eu/article/flamingo-ukraine-3000km-cruise-missile-woman-vladimir-putin-donald-trump-volodymyr-zelenskyy-drone/
“We came up with it pretty fast. It took less than nine months to develop it from an idea to its first successful tests on the battlefield. I will not tell you about its exact speed, but I can say it’s faster than all the other missiles we currently have,” Terekh said, adding: “It is completely Ukrainian-made."
Err.. Right. It's a V-1. It's also remarkably similar to this-
https://milaniongroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Milanion-FP5-brochure.pdf
And Milanion is a remarkably British company. Which is one of those curious bits of history repeating itself. Germany & UK working with Ukraine rather than just Germany. Old allies working to destroy V-1 production facilities, but this time, the UK is supporting the old Axis partners against a previous ally. Ah, politics.
And in other news, Russia reiterated one of their demands for peace, namely recognising the Russian language, culture and religion inside Ukraine. And that Russia wasn't opposed to Ukraine joining the EU. And of course Zelensky said 'No!', only Ukrainian. And the EU said.. nothing, because neither the ECHR nor the UN UDHR apply in Ukraine apparently.
I'm sure that we could knock up a big batch for less than the price of a single Land Ceptor.
But MBDA needs you! Won't someone think of the shareholders? But I don't get this bit-
These threats exploit advantages in cost and volume, making traditional kinetic air defense solutions economically unviable and leading to the potential saturation of existing layered defense systems,
Or as wiki puts it-
"Sky Sabre is so accurate and agile that it is capable of hitting a tennis ball-sized object travelling at the speed of sound. In fact, it can control the flight of 24 missiles simultaneously whilst in flight, guiding them to intercept 24 separate targets. It is an amazing capability."
So Sky Sabre can be saturated simply by giving it >24 targets to deal with. Then as Ukraine has demonstrated, Russia can do this with a combination of drones and missiles. Then it's a question of how quickly the iLaunchers* can be reloaded, especially when some of the drones or missiles are likely to be trying to locate and then destroy those Sky Sabre systems. And then the cold equations about what to protect and where to deploy those systems..
Which is also something Ukraine's demonstrated. In the last few months Ukraine's started showing plots of where drones and missiles are being launched from. Which is pretty much everywhere along their Russian border (including Crimea / Black Sea) giving a massive area to try and defend. So then how many systems we could buy to protect our interests. Which is maybe an N+1 thing, ie if we know the size of Argentina's air force, we can have N+1 (x2) Sky Sabres defending the Falklands. Unless Argentina gets sneaky and launches drones from container ships. Ukraine recently demonstrated the effectiveness of that capability. Also might have demonstrated it again yesterday with an atttack on a oil/gas terminal outside St Petersburg.
So I think it's still a cost & production capacity for CAMM interceptors vs drones, and that's not a good equation. Unless you're an MBDA shareholder. So I think we really need an equivalent of Russia's Pantsir and guns, because 35mm ammunition is cheaper than missiles. So if something like Oerlikon/Rheinmetal's Skyranger/Skyshield could be integrated with Sky Sabre.
We have a woefully under-equipped Navy (make that all services) -
6 Type 45 Daring class Destroyers. 4 years ago, only 1 was operational. Presently, HMS Daring has been unavailable for 3000 days.
https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/defence/royal-navy-ship-hms-daring-unavailable-3000-days-5277593
@Fruit_and_Nutcase
Yup.....but you forgot the F-35 fighters that:
(1) don't have combat-ready software
(2) the jump jet type need help when in India, and...
(3) the jump jet type sometimes just falls off aircraft carriers
...which reminds me:
(4) Modern(!) aircraft carriers have propellers which just fall off. (No kidding....out of service with missing propeller!)
....oh....and more about F-35 fighters:
(5) There's worry in the the MOD about the jump jet type.....so we are buying some of the non-jump-jet type
(6) ......which CANNOT operate from aircraft carriers
(7) ......but also don't have combat-ready software
Just me......but exactly how much of the Royal Navy (or the RAF) is ACTUALLY fit for purpose????
I think we should be told!!
(2) the jump jet type need help when in India, and...
"UK F-35B Still Stranded In Japan Is Awaiting Spare Parts"
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/uk-f-35b-still-stranded-185325598.html
In a city built on the fragile promises of defense, a labyrinth of walls rises against shadows unseen. The inhabitants, bound by a myth of enemies conjured from silence and fear, divert their every effort. From crumbling bridges to abandoned schools - toward the sacred task of protection. This devotion to an imagined peril swells into an ouroboros (a snake eating its own tail), consuming the very marrow of their world.
