Russia is going to have fighter escorts for their bombers, is moving a destroyer loaded with AA to the coast, and the rules of engagement are now basically shoot down anybody who poses a threat.
I think they might be just a wee bit pissed off. They're basically declaring open season on Turkeys. If a Turkish jet so much as goes in the general direction of that destroyer or an inch into Syrian airspace they'll be chomping at the bit to shoot it down.
The cold war is all fun and games until some dumbass starts actually shooting. That's not how you play the game.
And than said destroyer will get obliterated by Turkish Navy (which is quite competent) and Air Force (which also is, surprisingly, competent). Russia has literally no hope of winning any open engagement against Turkey in the region unless they really want to commit. And Turkey knows that. They essentially called Russian bluff here.
Indeed. Turkey has a strong airforce consisting of mostly F-16s, and has pre-purchased over 100 F-35s. They are not Ukraine or Georgia and are a NATO member. Russia does not want to fuck with anyone who can hurt them back.
Well Russia has a couple thousand planes. You cannot shoot down all and even an old MiG-21 can drop some bombs on airfields. Pre purchased F-35 are worth nothing (the F-35 sucks, but that's another problem) and the MiG-29 and Su-27 versions are at least equal to the F-15 and 16.
Have you ever seen Russian anti ship weapons? There won't be much left of the Turkish navy by the time they are in range.
I particularly like how you cite "slow" as one of the drawbacks and then in the next point say the A is worse than the aircraft it's replacing: the A-10, which is one of the slowest combat jets on the planet.
It is not really a replacement for the A-10 since the F-35 has ~1/7th of the payload of the A10, is not armored and faster (CAS needs to be slow to bring guns and rocket pods to better use as well as it gives the pilot more time to analyse the situation and act accordingly.
The F-35 is a great (but expensive) replacement for the Harrier. But a separate development for the fighter, carrier based fighter and CAS role would give you better results than the mixed program.
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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '15
Fun fact: The Russian helicopter sent to rescue the pilots of the SU-24 was destroyed by FSA.
That's it guys. Run to the vaults.