• Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    We Soviet equipment because Ukraine knew how to use it and has the expertise to support it. Most of our current equipment is Cold War. The m16 is from the Cold War. The m1 is from the Cold War. The f16 is from the Cold War. The m4 is from the Cold War.

    The javelin and stinger are all Cold War.

    I’m not sure why you are focused on the f16. It won’t change the war. I always see non/military people acting like the f-16 is a super weapon.

    • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Ukraine knew how to use it and has the expertise to support it

      Not necessarily. There’s a reason they needed training for those old tanks. Germany having to grab some random 60 year old civvies to give the training because it was all rotting away in warehouses exemplifies that nobody wanted to use that stuff anymore and we were glad to ditch it. There’s also plenty of old British and French tanks being used in Ukraine right now.

      You are right there is stuff that the Ukrainians had before. But that’s also the problem. We didn’t want that cold war stuff ourselves, we already upgraded from it.

      But when it comes to giving Ukraine our modern new equipment we got all stingy about it. It’s not just F16’s. No Reaper Drones, No modern tanks, even the anti air missiles are often old stuff. But we have new stuff! We just don’t want to give it to Ukraine because then “we have nothing to defend ourselves”.

      Only recently have we really committed to giving Ukraine some newer weapons. But it’s likely already too late now.

      • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        The m1a1 is still a modern thank. It’s better than anything the Russians have. We gave them the patriot. Our current air defense system. What’s newer than the patriot? What’s newer than the stinger or javelin ?

        You keep saying things that aren’t true. We are not giving them garbage. We are giving them things they can use and are still better than the Russian crap they have.

        We did give them a lot of Russian gear because they didn’t need training to use it. We won’t give them certain weapons because they are restricted and only for countries we’ve vetted.

        • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          The patriot stuff is fine. But it took more than one year for Ukraine to get the first ones. Same with the M1A1 tanks

          Ukraine got some good weapons. I’m just saying that especially at the start of the war we were very much just dumping old garbage into Ukraine. If we didn’t do a bureaucratic stall for 1-2 years and didn’t allow Putin to get a war economy going but decisively sent modern weapons to Ukaine, Ukraine would have won by now. Russia did not have a good weapons arsenal at the start of the war.

          But we did not do that and turned the war into a stall fest. Just barely giving Ukraine enough equipment to hold out while bleeding manpower. Zelensky had to regularly go on trips around the world asking for some modern weaponry.

          And now we are finally getting them some new stuff but it’s getting real obvious that it’s just too little too late.

          • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            I’m not sure you understand how military equipment works. You. Can’t just hand someone an f16 and say happy hunting. Also Ukraine isn’t vetted for the technology. You act like they some trusted ally.

            Ukraine at the time didn’t have a runaway that the F-16 could even use reliably. They didn’t have trained pilots. They didn’t have trained staff to maintain it. They didn’t have the equipment to maintain an f-16.

            That’s why we gave them Soviet hardware.

            Ukraine doesn’t have the skills to maintain an m1. They didn’t know how to operate one and we didn’t want our best technology falling into Russian hands. When an m1 breaks and we can’t keep control of it. We blow them.

            Trump was the first to arm them and sent javelins. What do you think is better than the javelin in our arsenal?

            What is better than the patriot?

            It’s Zelenskyy job to ask for things but it’s our military job to give them what they can use. It’s also our job to make sure our country and countries with treaties are protected. We don’t have a treaty with Ukraine. Thei corruption in Ukraine is epic.

            I support Ukraine but I don’t support just handing over anything they want but can’t use. You need the logistics to support the equipment. You need the know how to use the equipment.

            We taught them how to use it and then they did the exact opposite in the counter offensive and made no progress. They didn’t want to use nato tactics which is how you fight with nato equipment

            • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              Can’t just hand someone an f16 and say happy hunting. Also Ukraine isn’t vetted for the technology. You act like they some trusted ally.

              Yeah that was the excuse we used to not give it to them in the past. So what has changed?

              Sure it takes training to use this equipment. But we did not start that training as soon as possible. We waited 1-2years and now then go “yeah actually you’re getting slammed maybe we can get you some F16s and Patriot missiles”.

              In any case it’s clearly too late now. Unless we start sending massive amounts of modern weaponry to Ukraine it’s basically GG and all that we’re doing now is throwing away more forcefully conscripted Ukrainian men as cannon fodder against Russia.

              • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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                7 months ago

                Yeah that was the excuse we used to not give it to them in the past. So what has changed?

                We’ve been training them.

                To be honest most people expected them to fall quickly. They didn’t.

                • Linkerbaan@lemmy.world
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                  7 months ago

                  That’s just the generic excuse politicians use. If we truly wanted it those weapons would be there in a heartbeat.

                  Just look how fast the paperwork for israel got done. Genocide Joe tapping his tiger team for that one.. Not for Ukraine as that article clearly states

                  We promised to “not let Ukraine fall”. Half assing it because “we thought they would have already lost” is the opposite of those words.

                  There are no excuses. We clearly did not do everything in our power for Ukraine which is why they are now losing.

                  • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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                    7 months ago

                    Israel is trained on the weapons and we have treaties with Israel. We do not have treaties with Ukraine

                    It isn’t our job to to save Ukraine. They are not an ally. They are someone with empathize with but they are not someone we have treaties with.