Zelensky's address was powerful, as was the video he presented as he made the case for a no-fly zone. I hope this changes some minds and we all do more for them, it's flat out genocide at this point and we have all have a responsibility to stop it.
I think it was a great speech, very likely to be historic. I’m always impressed with how Zelenskyy tailors his speeches to his audience- talking about MLK, 9/11, Pearl Harbor with the Americans, talking about WWII, quoting Churchill, etc with the British.
Emotionally I totally support a no fly zone. In an ideal world I think everyone on the side of peace and freedom would as well. I’d love to see a bunch of F-35s and F-22s and F-15’s sweep in obliterate the Russian forces.
Every USAF or Navy airwing person I’ve spoken to and heard in the media says that a no-fly zone is feasible, not without likely starting the next world war. To have a no fly zone means it has to be enforced. That means NATO pilots vs Russian pilots. It also may mean having to take out Russian air defenses stationed in Russia or Belarus. It’s also possible NATO jets could be fired upon by Russian aircraft loitering in Russian territory. There are a lot of complications with that. When it comes to rules of engagement, that could potentially be worked out, but evidently Russia’s pilots have such little experience and the way they are flying their sorties indicates they are probably already afraid of Russian jets taking out other Russian jets. They apparently are having issues deconflicting their own aircraft as is.
One of the better insights I have heard that is if NATO starts patrolling Ukrainian Airspace and especially if NATO pilots start taking down Russian planes is that it feeds right into the Russian Propaganda of NATO being this existential evil force and consequently justifies the invasion to Russian people who already support the war *special military operation* or don’t know what to believe.
I’m thrilled to see the US via NATO allies will be transferring (Soviet) S-300 air defense systems and similar. Stinger missiles are very short range and really only useful against cruise helicopters and low flying planes- maybe very large drones too. The S-300 has much longer range and can take out high flying planes as well as cruise missiles. It’s also mobile to keep the Russians on their toes. If we can’t “close the skies” with NATO jets, the next best thing is flooding Ukraine; especially cities, with air defense systems. We need to make flying into Ukraine as dangerous as possible. In effect this might “close the skies” entirely, but make flying into Ukrainian held territory extremely risky.
Some S-300 variants also can handle ballistic missiles, which would also be very helpful. That said the Russian’s Iskander BM’s are very capable, with the ability for some maneuvering unlike typical BM’s and just recently have been found to have up to 6 decoys, something not known to exist in any other short range BM system. I would assume it’s best to destroy these before they are launched. Which I suppose is where drones might come in.
The Turkish TB2 drones have been extremely successful for the Ukrainians, as well as Azerbaijan in their war with Armenia. I’m happy to see the US will be supplying Switchblade “kamikaze” drones, which are pretty interesting- they’re almost like controlled artillery and amazingly cheap. They’re range isn’t particularly far so hopefully they will be provided with something more substantial as well.
If we’re supplying armed/Kamikaze drones I’m not sure why supplying Mig-29’s is that different. Evidently these Polish Migs have been fitted with NATO communications equipment that would have to be removed and replaced with something compatible with Ukrainians systems before transferring, which could take some time. Perhaps things are happening behind the scenes we aren’t aware of.
Apparently Mig 29’s have notoriously poor fuel consumption and no drop tanks, and to fly at an altitude below Russian’s radar obviously kills your fight time, so realistically they’re only capable of 30 min of flight time in such conditions… granted they’re cruising around at Mach 1.2 or so. So I’m not sure how useful these planes would be, but I think at the very least it would be a huge moral booster.
One thing I have heard nothing about are land based anti-ship missiles. I’m not sure what NATO has, but I believe the US’s system is still in development. This seems like an important capability when it comes to amphibious invasions and ships sitting in the Black Sea blasting cruise missiles into cities.
