It’s worth bearing in mind the new aircraft coming in, like the Rafale, are not like-for-like or one-for-one replacements, but instead are qualitatively better as MadRat says, as they are multi-role.

For example, in a strike mission, the Rafales are self-escorting and can more than look after themselves unlike, say the Jaguars…..they can also be used in other roles such as air-to-ground (not just at stand-off ranges)….or even as part of the nuclear triad like the Mirage-2000s.

Older aircraft being replaced, say like MiG-21s, simply do not have that versatile capability. Even if squadron numbers are kept the same as now (as older aircraft retire), their replacements are so much more potent.

Levsha,

Why not let TEEJ reply to my post….after all he was the one who, when I pressed him, categorically said there were no UK assets there ;- )

My point was a Reaper drone would be live streaming footage of the action and the Syrian positions on the heights were identifiable having been there for at a couple of years.

Anyway this bombing of Syrian government troops operating in their own sovereign country by people from outside who have not been invited by the UN recognised Syrian government is a distraction from the main point of outside forces pumping weapons and jihadist foot soldiers from all over the world to change the regime for their own dastardly and dishonest purposes…..sounds familiar?

In Iraq, they asked Madeline Albright if the death of half a million Iraqi children was worth it? She said it is was. (have a look at her saying it on YouTube).

Do you think these people give a **** about the hundreds of thousands of innocent people dying so they can bring “freedom” to them?

What about the Saudis and Qataris who have no democracy at home sponsoring and paying for terrorists to take over another country? Do you think they are doing all this for democracy when they don’t have democracy at home? There are other reasons, for example the Israelis are in a tacit alliance with the Gulf monarchies because it suits the present government to stir up the pot and keep it boiling (you will remember it was the ex-head of Mossad and ex-Israel Defence Force generals who were actually against the proposed strike on Iran pushed for by Sheldon Adelson’s bought-man Bibi, and who publically spoke out against the proposed strike on Iran a couple of years ago ).

Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction….he was armed by the West to take down the mullahs in Iran….a pretty horrible person, but much better than ISIS/Al Nusra/Al Qaeda.

Remember Libya? Gaddafi said you will regret taking me down because you’ll have millions of refugees trying to get to Europe through Libya if I am gone and can’t control them. What happened? Million of refugees at the borders….ask the Italians, the Greeks etc. who is paying for this, other than taxpayers here, is Hilary paying the cost for these refugees after she pushed for intervention in Libya? (in her distasteful video about the killing of Gaddafi sodomised by a knife, she said “we came We saw him and he died *her weird smile*…see it on YouTube).

Hilary knew about the CIA operation to transfer arms from the Libyan stocks (tanks, grad rockets) to Syria via Turkey and Jordan and that’s why those crazy bearded jihadis were in Benghazi….you can read about it in the Wikileaks emails….look at Libya now: full of crazy jihadists and ISIS….another fine mess to sort out (again).

Syria….rinse and repeat….why are we intervening in another’s country’s Sovereign affairs? How would you like other countries sailing up the Thames or Washington (don’t recommend that by the way 😉 because they don’t like the UK or US governments and want to “regime” change? Who gave authority to give weapons and equipment to a bunch of crazy jihadist loonies to launch an illegal war in Syria to subvert the UN recognised government? Is this not a criminal act that should be prosecuted in the International Criminal Court?

The so-called “White Helmets” is a front organisation (not connected to the official government Civil Defence) and who been carrying out fake and staged “rescues”

They are funded to the tune of millions of dollars by terror and ISIS sponsors Qatar, the US and other EU (including rich individuals and other governments trying to take down Assad).

Why are they trying to take down Assad? Well other than the Neo-con agenda of keeping the pot boiling and stirring things up (this will come back and bite Israel by following this “my enemy’s enemy is my friend even if they are jihadi terrorists”), it’s so that liquefied gas from the giant Pars gas field in Qatar (one of the biggest gas reserves in the world) can cross Syria and make tons of money for them.

Only problem was that Assad was not playing ball and rejected the Qatar and Saudi offer of their pipeline across his country and soon afterwards they set up and paid for the fake “Free Syrian Army”….there is a separate issue that Assad’s father set up a minority Baathist, secular, regime on a ruthless basis….Bashar is a medical eye doctor trained in the UK (pictured one day out dining with his wife and Kerry and his wife and next day suddenly he is a monster….all made up to justify taking down his regime).

Assad has to protect a once bustling and secular state from this hell, created and paid for by outside forces, including protecting minority Christians, Yazidis, etc. whose homes have been destroyed and millions have had to flee as refugees….who is footing the bill for these refugees? Taxpayers in the West…..it should be the sponsors of the “moderate” terrorist paying for the refugees resulting from their intervention, not to mention hundreds of thousands of innocent people dying just at the whim of these horrible people. Assad, while not perfect is a million times better than ISIS and the jihadists (you can keep changing your names but you are still AlQaeda/Al Nusra/ISIS….a rose by any other name! 😀 ).

“White Helmets” operate mainly in Al Nusra/ Al Qaeda controlled areas and have members who are jihadists filmed beheading children and killing prisoners…unfortunately for them have been caught on camera in their fake videos….unfreaking believable is that these thugs were nominated for the Nobel Peace prize!

That’s almost as believable as Saudi Arabia being re-elected to the UN Human rights Council after their deliberate starving and bombing of civilians in Yemen (their dirty war is still going on now but not a pip anywhere about this ;-).

George Orwell, writer of “1984”, would recognise the irony of these head-choppers in Saudi and Qatar asking for democracy in Syria while being non-democratic in their own countries!:D

Here’s more evidence of fake “White Helmet” rescues…..including the little boy covered in dust and fake blood…all designed to blacked the Syrian government and justify an intervention.

Here unbelievably is a report actually on the BBC exposing the White Helmets….how did they let him in to speak the truth and expose these fakers ! 😀

Hello TEEJ old chap,

Usual practice of all air forces is to deny you’ve made a mistake….and then admit it quietly a few months later and hope people won’t remember! ;- )

In this case, the strike called by forward air controllers (operating illegally on Syrian soil) on Syrian Government forces (operating in their own sovereign country) led to ISIS taking strategic heights and gains for the “moderate” terrorists.

Let’s face it, the “moderate” terrorists are not very nice people and most of these jihadists are not even Syrian but foreign imported cannon fodder paid $200 a month by their controllers in the intelligence services of the Saudi and Qatari governments (and not paid by rich bystanders as “spinned” by their PR bods) ….Hilary knew all about this in the recently released Wikileaks emails 😀

For those making a Shia-Sunni sectarian thing of this, much of the Syrian government army is Sunni! After being under the yoke of the bearded jihadist loonies and having tasted what life is really like under Wahhabi/ISIS rule, many Sunnis would rather live under Assad, who while not perfect, is a million times better than the head-choppers

The ISIS forces were concentrated waiting for the assault which took place an hour after the strike…..the strike was not a one-off mistake but went on for an hour or so and it was only called off after the strike objectives were achieved.

I said at the time the whole scene would have been lit up and be visible on screen for a UK drone operating there….I asked there were any UK assets there and you said at the time in reply to my specific question that there were none…..but today it was confirmed UK assets were there….were these Reapers TEEJ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38149963

The US has admitted carrying out an attack in eastern Syria that killed dozens of Syrian forces fighting so-called Islamic State (IS).

The US-led coalition said the “mistake” on 17 September was intended to target IS positions.

Coalition aircraft from the UK, US, Denmark and Australia were involved in the attack.

The airstrikes were halted when Russia informed the US they were hitting Syrian forces.

Thanks for reminder! It’s VKS from August 2015.

Everything you wanted to know about Syria but were afraid to ask…..the whole story in video all conveniently in one place…

This includes the framing of the Syrian government for the Sarin gas attack (many of the victims were Syrian government troops) that was confirmed by the UN team investigating to have been actually launched by the rebels (actually supplied by the Saudi “intelligence” (if that’s not an oxymoron) General Intelligence Directorate or GID)

Great song Baz, I remember it!

Don’t know why but it reminded me of Radar Love by Golden Earring!

A great rock tune….(it’s filmed in a club called disco but it’s not a disco song 😉