Reply to post: Re: Old hat?

Italy, Japan, UK to jointly launch sixth-gen fighter jet by 2035

Jellied Eel Silver badge

Re: Old hat?

I guess the military establishment of the West not really into moving fast and breaking things ... oh wait!

Breaking budgets is very profitable for the defence industry. Current events should probably give a better sense of priorities though.

So how would a B-21 be used in Ukraine? Ukraine would need to spend a lot of money to buy, fly and maintain them. Not that the US would likely export them to anyone. If Ukraine did have them, the first thing Russia probably would have done is twat the airbases they operate from.

If NATO's operating them, US pilots could fly inside Polish airspace and lob stand-off missiles across the border. If it's lobbing long range missiles from outside hostile airspace, it doesn't really need to be that stealthy. Or it needs to be stealthy across it's entire mission, otherwise hostile nations can jus watch the airbases they're operating from. And if it turns out they aren't really that stealthy, then they're rather pointless.

The US released a video showing racks of cruise missiles being pushed out of a cargo plane recently. That seems a stealthier approach because an enemy wouldn't know if a cargo plane is a bomber. And it's a lot cheaper way to deliver stand-off capability.

What should be pretty obvious is we lack logistics. There's currently a peer-level war. Russia's probably going to win because it seems able to churn out artillery, rockets, missiles and drones far faster than we can. China is probably aware of this and doing the math about responses in Taiwan, if we're out of ammo.

I think the obvious response should be quantity rather than quality. Dump B-21s, build ammo factories. Perhaps make a Unibomb that can be offered in dumb, frag and smart versions. But something that can be fired out of artillery, stuck on a rocket or missile, or slap fins on it and dropped by drone or aircraft. It also looks like we could really do with our own Pantsir-style air defence system so drones or slow missiles could be engaged with guns, and save million-dollar missiles for the harder, more strategic threats.

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