blandy Posted February 8, 2023 Moderator Share Posted February 8, 2023 12 minutes ago, villa89 said: How long does it take to learn how to fly a NATO fighter jet? Not something you can learn in a couple of weeks I imagine. Give it 3 more years of people dying in their thousands for nothing and NATO might have finally given the Ukraine enough weapons to end this cluster of a war. To convert from knowing how to fly (being a basic trained RAF Pilot already) to flying a Typhoon takes about 6 months, normally - lots of simulator hours and around 52 hours actual flying training in a Typhoon. Plus loads of studying of technical and other stuff. There's limited capacity to train pilots, though - I think there's just the one OCU, so unless they set up another one it'll mean shifting RAF pilots out of slots, or a fairly limited throughput of UA pilots. Like with the army and Navy, successive governments have massively cut back the RAF. It's barely keeping its head above water, so to speak, as it is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 23 minutes ago, blandy said: To convert from knowing how to fly (being a basic trained RAF Pilot already) to flying a Typhoon takes about 6 months, normally - lots of simulator hours and around 52 hours actual flying training in a Typhoon. Plus loads of studying of technical and other stuff. There's limited capacity to train pilots, though - I think there's just the one OCU, so unless they set up another one it'll mean shifting RAF pilots out of slots, or a fairly limited throughput of UA pilots. Like with the army and Navy, successive governments have massively cut back the RAF. It's barely keeping its head above water, so to speak, as it is. Bloke on Sky news basically said , we can't give them planes as we don't have any to give , The Typhoon is a No and we sold all our tornados to Germany so they could use them for spare parts paraphrasing ,he said what we had was lots of simulators and know how so we could train the pilots , but the planes themselves would have to come from other nations Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandy Lifeboats Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 "Western NATO-standard fighter jets." What does that actually mean? NATO has a range of fighters including MIGs held by the ex-Warsaw Pact countries. Are Poland's MIG29 considered "NATO-Standard" if they are armed with NATO weapons? I guess this announcement is more about training Ukrainians in the relative safety of UK Airspace than specifically handing over RAF Eurofighters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefanAVFC Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 Latest right wing attack on Zelensky is that he never wears a suit on diplomatic visits. He flew from a warzone. His country is at war. He is wearing war clothing. War. 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted February 8, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted February 8, 2023 Oh my. Awkward extra long handshake with super big hammy hands King Charles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted February 8, 2023 Moderator Share Posted February 8, 2023 1 hour ago, Mandy Lifeboats said: "Western NATO-standard fighter jets." What does that actually mean? NATO has a range of fighters including MIGs held by the ex-Warsaw Pact countries. Are Poland's MIG29 considered "NATO-Standard" if they are armed with NATO weapons? I guess this announcement is more about training Ukrainians in the relative safety of UK Airspace than specifically handing over RAF Eurofighters. I believe "NATO Standard" means "of a standard which can integrate and operate with other NATO nation's forces" - or to be more specific, there are various systems on those NATO aircraft which allow them to communicate via V/UHF voice comms, datalinks, IFF/SSR transponders and so on with NATO forces and assets. However, with the way the media works and reports, and the level of knowledge of various politicians of the technicalities, I suspect in this context it just means "some aircraft from NATO nations" (which will almost certainly have some systems removed, for fear of them falling into Russian hands, or because there's no way the likes of the UK, or US or etc. will allow those systems to be exported). So they won't be getting F-35s, F22s, up to date, if any Typhoons and so on. But they might get aircraft from Eastern European NATO members, who in turn will get replacements of a more advanced standard from the US, or UK, or EuroFighter GmBH or whoever. But I don't know for sure. Or TLDR: Probably MIGs, maybe Hawks, maybe older aircraft, maybe Dassault aircraft, or Grippen - Perhaps German Tonkers, though given their dithering over tanks, perhaps not. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
il_serpente Posted February 8, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted February 8, 2023 54 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said: Latest right wing attack on Zelensky is that he never wears a suit on diplomatic visits. He flew from a warzone. His country is at war. He is wearing war clothing. War. They rolled that one out when he was in the U.S. a few weeks ago. It was either Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity, I think. "Ukraine can't possibly the right side to support in this war. He doesn't even show us enough respect to wear a suit when he comes to beg us for support." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted February 8, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted February 8, 2023 Extreme Russian nationalist Igor Mangushev, an army captain and mercenary who infamously spoke to supporters on stage last year while holding a skull, supposedly from a Ukrainian soldier, has been killed. He's been active in Ukraine since it first kicked off nearly a decade ago in East Ukraine, basically arguing Ukraine can't exist if it's not pro-Russia, and was running an anti drone team. He died quite a long way from the front line apparently, in what appears to have been an execution - shot in the head from behind and above. Odd. Either way I'm sure the world is slightly better with the word removed dead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 24 minutes ago, Chindie said: Extreme Russian nationalist Igor Mangushev, an army captain and mercenary who infamously spoke to supporters on stage last year while holding a skull, supposedly from a Ukrainian soldier, has been killed. He's been active in Ukraine since it first kicked off nearly a decade ago in East Ukraine, basically arguing Ukraine can't exist if it's not pro-Russia, and was running an anti drone team. He died quite a long way from the front line apparently, in what appears to have been an execution - shot in the head from behind and above. Odd. Either way I'm sure the world is slightly better with the word removed dead. Good riddance, but as you say, people seem to be implying Russian infighting rather than a Ukrainian attack. So many bizarre villains on the Russian side. You wonder what the more professional parts of the Russian military (if they still exist) think of it all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted February 8, 2023 Moderator Share Posted February 8, 2023 21 minutes ago, KentVillan said: Good riddance, but as you say, people seem to be implying Russian infighting rather than a Ukrainian attack. So many bizarre villains on the Russian side. You wonder what the more professional parts of the Russian military (if they still exist) think of it all. There is no united Russian military as such, You have the regular military or what is left of them (and even within that there are the obvious subsets or army, navy, airforce, paras), the Rosgvardia, the various PMCs like Wagner and the Kadyrovites, the separatist militias... and they all hate each other. Even the different PMCs hatte each other And even within units there is infighting. There was a video released the other day of a Wagner officer lying shot and injured, three men run to his rescue (which is odd for Russians), pick him up and carry him behind a shed and then completely stove him in with what look like shovels. It just makes no sense whatsoever Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted February 8, 2023 Moderator Share Posted February 8, 2023 Mangushev as well as being many other things, was a literal Nazi. He would often be photographed doing a Nazi salute but what has probably done for him in the infighting, in that he was a close ally of Prigozhin and was Wagner PMCs military strategist. He was also very vocally critical of the regular Russian military for being useless Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted February 8, 2023 Moderator Share Posted February 8, 2023 Why hasn't President Cosplay worn a flamin' suit? It's not like this was a surprise, he's been on a long flight, he has hotels booked - has he heard about London's crime rate and decided he needed to go with camo? It's a costume, it's ridiculous and it annoys me more than it should. Grow up you knob, you're supposed to be running a country, not pulling clothes out of your dress up box to make you look like a soldier. We don't want you hiding in the forests of Eastern Ukraine with a rifle and a load of grease on your face, your job is to face up to banks and governments and try to agree the deals that will finance the defence of your country, dress for the boardroom like any normal executive. Once an actor.... (Apologies for that rant, it really, really bugs me - which I know is inconsequential in the face of the actions of Russia and the defence of a nation, but still, it's just weird.) . 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted February 8, 2023 Moderator Share Posted February 8, 2023 3 hours ago, StefanAVFC said: He flew from a warzone. His country is at war. He is wearing war clothing. He's wearing a costume. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 (edited) 34 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said: He's wearing a costume. Everything we wear is a costume. Edit: Also a fun fact. The Swedish word for a formal suit is a “costume” (kostym) Edited February 8, 2023 by LondonLax 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 34 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said: He's wearing a costume. This is why I’m backing Putin, the man has standards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Enda Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 He’s wearing a suit to remind everyone this is not business as usual. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said: Why hasn't President Cosplay worn a flamin' suit? It's not like this was a surprise, he's been on a long flight, he has hotels booked - has he heard about London's crime rate and decided he needed to go with camo? It's a costume, it's ridiculous and it annoys me more than it should. Grow up you knob, you're supposed to be running a country, not pulling clothes out of your dress up box to make you look like a soldier. We don't want you hiding in the forests of Eastern Ukraine with a rifle and a load of grease on your face, your job is to face up to banks and governments and try to agree the deals that will finance the defence of your country, dress for the boardroom like any normal executive. Once an actor.... (Apologies for that rant, it really, really bugs me - which I know is inconsequential in the face of the actions of Russia and the defence of a nation, but still, it's just weird.) . Who decides a suit is appropriate clothing for presidents meeting other leaders? Why should anyone wear a suit at all at any time? Like many years ago people used to wear ties when they worked in an office, but that died a death a while back. Maybe green tops is the way forward for all global leaders? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitvilla Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 Fashionistas, the lot of you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 6 minutes ago, ender4 said: Who decides a suit is appropriate clothing for presidents meeting other leaders? Why should anyone wear a suit at all at any time? Like many years ago people used to wear ties when they worked in an office, but that died a death a while back. Maybe green tops is the way forward for all global leaders? Maybe he’s been reading VT and taken my view on board that people who wear suits to work are just trying to cover for their shortfalls i approve of his attire , though he loses a couple of cool points for not wearing shorts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted February 8, 2023 VT Supporter Share Posted February 8, 2023 19 minutes ago, ender4 said: Who decides a suit is appropriate clothing for presidents meeting other leaders? Why should anyone wear a suit at all at any time? Like many years ago people used to wear ties when they worked in an office, but that died a death a while back. Maybe green tops is the way forward for all global leaders? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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