Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
From the sounds of it, we don't think there is a realistic prospect of giving them planes until soon but we will go ahead anyway with a view that post-war Ukraine will need an army sharpish to avoid further invasions.
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There’s a rapidly developing received wisdom that we can’t give them Typhoons because they’d be vulnerable to Russian surface-air missiles, we have limited ability to send the necessary repair/logistics with them, and in any case we could only supply the oldest ‘tranche 1’ model which only has limited ground attack capability.
I am however seeing some commentators pointing out that Ukrainians flying Typhoons would be in no greater peril from Russian SAMs than those flying the Soviet era planes they’re using right now, that T1 Typhoons operated by the UK have Paveway 2 guided bombs which are still and uplift from Ukraine’s present capability (T3s and F35s can deploy Paveway 4), and that while the UK might spare 24 T1s at a push, that number could be bolstered by Germany that also has T1s it will eventually phase out, as could Italy and possibly Spain.