we had not to defend ourselves but the general rights of people

Grenada-cuban backed revolution attempt. americans held hostage.peace restored

Afghanistan-assisted in the biggest attack on the western way of life…..using innocents

Serbia, what are we meant to go back to just ignoring ethnic cleansing happen unabated?

Panama- well if you think leaving a resource like the panama canal in the hands of Gen. Noriega is the right thing to do

And Iraq…. well if you think we should have left that war criminal Saddam Hussein to live…… Jesus

Iran… oh haven’t ticked that off the list yet;)

Yeah I love your 1 sided view on this – typical flag waver. :rolleyes:

Russia was also defending its people in Georgia in August. BUT NO THEY WERE WRONG RIGHT? BLA BLA BLAAA

And what good has getting rid of Hussein done? None.

Who are the US government people to decide what other countries should do? Are they special? :rolleyes:

Russian ships of course have defenses. Yet, they haven’t had the resources nor does it have nearly the numbers of the once mighty Soviet Fleet. Sorry, a hand full of old ships don’t make a fleet……..:(

Enough to defend itself in combination with the rest of armed forces from any kind of attack.

Russia has many problems of its own and is hardly a threat to NATO. Just look at the Grand Fleet Russia is sending to Venezuela. Talk about a joke….

As much of a joke as a carrier that’s been hit by even ONE SS-N-19? 😀

It would only be a waste of money if the production run stops at 180/200.

And it would be a waste of money if upgrades are not proceeding in a timely manner.

It is expensive, and there are technical shortcomings, and the programme’s biggest mistake was caused at an early stage: not to proceede with NATF. But now there are no alternatives!

I hope next congress authorizes another 120 planes min.

Yeah, so you and the fanboy brigade can have wet dreams – while the actual planes will sit around and do nothing useful?

Might want to invest that money elsewhere. I’ll take $120 million in my bank accouny any day. Hell, split an F-22 for this forum! 😀

Well, the Eagle has had no problems shooting down serveral Mig-29’s. Which, are considered elite squadrons in there respective Air Forces. With only the very best pilots……….and trained by elite Russian Instructors. Sorry, I doubt that argument holds much water.

Surely you are talking about yours?

Elite (elite meaning no spare parts) squadrons of unsupported, MiG-29A jets don’t really hold much weight, no.

Russia is more like 40-50 billion max, most likely quite a bit lower..

Clearly, your knowledge of this entire matter is lackluster.

“On September 16th, 2008, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced that in 2009, Russian defense budget will be increased to a record amount of nearly 2.4 trillion rubles or $94.23 billion.”

From wikipedia.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/232221,putin-defence-spending-will-grow-27-per-cent.html

Much to learn for you.

Now you whine “Russia will be out of money bla bla bla” —- Save it please.

I assume you realise that there arent even 400 people in the SAS at any one time right? The UK does have quite a few light infantry units that can be relatively quickly airlifted though.

Now you see why your argument failed many posts ago.

Erm……right…..very secret, it just came up with a few hundred thousand links when i googled it, that missile has been around for a long time (Kh-101)

Yeah, and now find official details of the system and when it has been used!

1) Please compare the combat strength of the russian airforce with that of Turkey, Greece, Germany, Italy etc combined. Same for Army.

Oh this again. Feeling small?

2) Russia has around 260 Transport aircraft total, the most of which would be either down for maintenance or because the aircrew don’t have enough hours up. <– UK has 59 counting the 6 C17’s but not counting the 57 BA 747’s which can carry over 17,000 people at a time if all in the air at once plus the numerous freight companies. France has 81 Transport Aircraft (most are smaller though), again not counting Air France or the aircraft of any other airlines.

Down for maintenance? No you have it the other way around, it’s the NATO aircraft that are down for maintenance! This bull**** argument again. . . :rolleyes:

What about all those Russian airline jets? :rolleyes:

3) Most of the Russian Cruise missiles are not sea skimming so plenty of warning would be given from AWACs aircraft if a missile strike from long range was attempted by russian submarines (a launch from surface forces would be suicidal). Oh, and a launch by the black sea fleet would have to fly over turkish airspace and would be a declaration of war on all of NATO, not just the UK + France.

Not sea skimming? They are terrain following with low flight. Kh-555, Kh-101, etc.

It’s a violation of the laws of land warfare for those forces to use civilians(or the other sensitive areas), as shields, whether they’re uniformed or not. The fact remains that you have to be able to have the tools to fight the enemy wherever they are. We try to minimize the effects on civilians, but in a war, it’s impossible for all adverse effects to be removed. The point is that the best way to minimize the effects, is to beat one’s opponent as quickly as possible. SDBs have many other uses, other than bombing terrorist hideouts. There are many targets that don’t require a sledgehammer, when a scalpel will suffice. The ability to carry more bombs is a good thing, as it increases the per sortie efficiency.

It can increase it, which is a whole different story as I am suggesting.