I thought the US’s RAH-66 Comanche was supposedly a ‘5th gen’ helicopter. Or at least, low observable.

Nothing will change in Ukraine. It’ll be like it is now and how it has been the last few years. It will just last 25 years longer.

The Oranges are a minority now. They’re an extreme just like the pro-Russians are the opposite extreme. This is a pro-Russian decision, but if one looks at Ukraine’s economy and especially the well being of Crimea, this is in the best interest of the nation. I don’t expect Ukraine to make giant concessions to Russia (or the EU). Especially if Yanukovich wants to retain power.

To be honest, I think Yanukovich will opt for a middle of the road stance with regards to Russia or the EU. Just because they move toward Russia and away from the EU doesn’t mean they’re abandoning relations.

SMTssssssssssssssssssssss:

:eek::eek::eek:

WOW!

Those SMTs are stationed at Kursk now, aren’t they?

Sorry, I’m confused. I think that, unless the Russian’s use IRF or redeploy fighters to more remote air strips, there absolutely is nothing covering that open space (save a few patches of SAMs)

Isn’t that exactly who they are supposed to be defending against? US has bases in Alaska, adjacent to the NE gap shown.

This deployment pattern is largely inherited from the Soviet era, so it seems it always was like this.

Sorry about the first thing you quoted. It was late last night and I wasn’t making sense. :p
I meant to say that there isn’t anything in the non-covered area worth covering.

And yes, the historical threat was the US, but as of now, that threat is no longer viable. So for the Soviets it might have been a hole in their defenses, but now it is not.

And I think someone else said that it would take a lot of IFR and time and distance to actually get to a target if you went through the uncovered area. So the large space itself is a deterrent.