Pentagon will send more than 50
F-35s to Europe to deter Russia
Fox News *,
by
Kris Osborn
Original Article
Posted By: Pluperfect,
10/23/2019 12:55:14 PM
The Pentagon is sending more than 50 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to Europe over the next few years to deter Russia and help NATO prepare for an entirely new kind of warfare.
“By the time our planes get there, there will be 100-plus F-35s there with our European partners,” Air Force Gen. James Holmes told reporters at a recent Air Force Association Conference at Maryland’s National Harbor. “We will be falling in on our European partners who already have their F-35s.”
Although the full number of just over 50 combat aircraft won’t arrive until the early 2020s, preparations are already underway. The Air Force didn’t specify
Reply 1 - Posted by:
chance_232 10/23/2019 1:07:23 PM (No. 215446)
I dont think that 50 F35s will deter a determined Russia. 50 F22 Raptors on the other hand......
0 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
GO3 10/23/2019 1:28:47 PM (No. 215463)
So, bombing the heck out of the enemy is an entirely new form of warfare?
1 person likes this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Gruntmedic 10/23/2019 1:46:14 PM (No. 215475)
How are they going to stop nucks.
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Reply 4 - Posted by:
Vesicant 10/23/2019 2:03:23 PM (No. 215489)
So the Pentagon thinks it never rains in Europe?
2 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
DVC 10/23/2019 2:25:27 PM (No. 215504)
#4, that tired, foolish, untruth is ......tired.
1 person likes this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
toddh 10/23/2019 2:26:16 PM (No. 215505)
#1 - The 50 will bring the total to over 100. At that time, Russia is scheduled to have 2 (two!) Su-57 allegedly stealthy spawn-of-Flankers from the production line. F-22s would not be as good at SEAD as F-35s, not even close. Sure, send a squadron of F-22s, they can escort the F-35s when Lightnings strike S-400 emplacements.
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Reply 7 - Posted by:
DVC 10/23/2019 2:39:58 PM (No. 215516)
Re: F-22s or F-35s, yes, the F-22 is an extremely capable air-to-air platform, no doubt - but-
I have spent some time discussing missions and capability with my nephew who flies F-35Bs for the Marines. They are not only a bomber, they are quite capable in the air-to-air role have missiles and do training in that role, although that is considered somewhat less of their primary role, the F-35B has much more air-to-air capability than the previous USMC aircraft, the AV-8B Harrier. They can fight their way in and out on a bombing mission if they run into fighters. And they can run a mix of weapons, too, some aircraft with mostly or all bombs, some with mostly or all air-to-air missiles, same airframes, different weapon loads and therefore different roles on a particular mission.
The USN versions should be extremely capable in the air-to-air role due to the much larger wing than either the USMC (F-35B) or USAF (F-35A) versions, 40% larger wing area, IIRC. The larger wing will mean much greater turning capability, and much better range for the USN F-35Cs.
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Reply 8 - Posted by:
stablemoney 10/23/2019 3:10:03 PM (No. 215559)
Why not sell some F-35's to Europe and they can defend themselves from Russia? That instead of us paying for it all.
3 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
DVC 10/23/2019 3:55:45 PM (No. 215620)
We are selling them to Europe, #8 but the Euroweenies don't spend much on weapons so they don't have many, and the production is slow, so we don't even have all that we have ordered yet. My nephew's squadron should soon be getting their last bird, but it has taken a long time to get them, about one bird a month or less for his squadron. UK is scheduled to get well over 100, Netherlands 30 something, Denmark similar numbers, Belgium similar numbers, and even Poland is trying to buy them, but not scheduled for any time soon.
Currently, I think the UK has maybe 10 or 15 in hand, not sure that Belgium, Netherlands, Denmark have any at all yet. We have sold some to Turkey, technically they own four but they are on US soil, and since Turkey has been kicked out of the F-35 program (had planned on buying 100) for buying the Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile system, they may never get any in reality. Frankly, after our foolishness of selling F-14s to Iran, we should NOT sell F-35s to Turkey, EVER. They are headed down the same Islamist path as Iran took.
3 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
MDConservative 10/23/2019 4:49:52 PM (No. 215678)
I invite anyone to visit Europe these days and come back to answer one simple question: If the USA wasn't there, who would be defending Europe? The Europeans certainly wouldn't. No more planes to Europe. No more soldiers, airmen or marines. No more pre-positioned equipment. NOTHING. It is well past time to go home. We won in '45. We won in '92. It's all over over there.
0 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
DVC 10/23/2019 5:12:06 PM (No. 215695)
I have given the numbers here several times, #10. Even though there are some paper militaries in Europe, when you did deeper you find that Germany has say (not a real number) 150 Tornados....but you find that only 40 of them can fly, the rest are down for parts, obsolete avionics, never upgraded, etc. On the books, but never on the flight line.
Same with their navies, and their armies. Lots of their military vehicles are down due to no money spent on spare parts or maintenance. It appears to me that the paper European military power is probably 4 or 5 times what they could actually put up in an emergency.
The good news is that Russia is in a similar situation. They have announced and demonstrated all sorts of "advanced aircraft".....but check and see how many they actually have. The numbers are in the low tens for most of them. Thirty of these, fifty of that, 25 of those. And those are the CLAIMS. How many are really up and functional? Russia is economically struggling, nobody buys their stuff, their primary exports are oil, gas, iron/steel, and some precious metals. A bit of military equipment still sells, even after their client states getting pounded flat very quickly in every war, partially because of their shoddy equipment. When Russia was doing their flying in the middle east, they had something like 15 total aircraft from what I have been able to gather from public sources. They brought their one and only creaky, slow, smokey, tiny antique aircraft carrier and it's tug (it breaks down so often that a tug accompanies it everywhere) off shore of Syria and launched a couple of aircraft. I think it holds like 10 fixed wing aircraft or so. Then they cranked it up, trailing a huge black cloud and headed home.
1 person likes this.
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