foreveryoung Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 So many military aircraft over Europe, anyone geeking up on Flight Radar. Do they know something we don't, training for the big one maybe?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 The UK military must be on high alert. They’ll be doing all the logistics and getting everything ready just in case. Lots of moving people, vehicles, arms, food, fuel etc. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tayls Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 1 hour ago, foreveryoung said: So many military aircraft over Europe, anyone geeking up on Flight Radar. Do they know something we don't, training for the big one maybe?? Beefing up the nato forces right across that border with Ukraine and in other nato countries in the area, just incase! What’s happening with the Kaliningrad area of Russia that’s sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania? Have they got a military presence? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC_Hitz Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 11 minutes ago, Tayls said: Beefing up the nato forces right across that border with Ukraine and in other nato countries in the area, just incase! What’s happening with the Kaliningrad area of Russia that’s sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania? Have they got a military presence? They have a naval airbase there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 1 hour ago, Tayls said: Beefing up the nato forces right across that border with Ukraine and in other nato countries in the area, just incase! What’s happening with the Kaliningrad area of Russia that’s sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania? Have they got a military presence? Nothing actually in that area, but saw an Apache and Black Hawk floating around North east Poland yesterday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panto_Villan Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 (edited) 4 hours ago, KentVillan said: If you read about the Soviet & Chinese involvement in Vietnam it was very similar. Gave loads of direct military assistance to the North Vietnamese, but was always portrayed as training / weapons / etc support. I very much doubt NATO is doing any direct military involvement at all. NATO is refusing to give Ukraine fighter jets because they're worried it might be seen as escalation (even though it's logically no different from sending other types of arms) so to think there's a secret team of NATO drone pilots seems a bit far-fetched imo. I mean, do we not think the Ukrainians are capable of operating drones themselves? Is the west particularly good at operating Turkish drones? Or are we actually secretly operating a fleet of Predator drones in the skies above Ukraine? Etc. I get the point you're making but it was rather easier to get away with that sort of thing fifty years ago. Edited March 10, 2022 by Panto_Villan 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyClarke Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 2 hours ago, foreveryoung said: So many military aircraft over Europe, anyone geeking up on Flight Radar. Do they know something we don't, training for the big one maybe?? I was at RAF Lakenheath today watching the USAF in all it's glory, plenty of action over at RAF Mildenhall (next door) with tankers going East to fly around over Poland and back. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted March 10, 2022 Moderator Share Posted March 10, 2022 1 hour ago, Tayls said: What’s happening with the Kaliningrad area of Russia that’s sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania? Have they got a military presence? In the days of the USSR, Kalingrad was KGB spook central, given it's strategic location in the modern world you'd suspect its absolutely armed to the teeth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 3 minutes ago, AndyClarke said: I was at RAF Lakenheath today watching the USAF in all it's glory, plenty of action over at RAF Mildenhall (next door) with tankers going East to fly around over Poland and back. Saw a B2 over at Mildenhall about 10 years ago, nearly creamed my pants. On another note, why so many tankers over Poland, what are they refuelling I wonder?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted March 10, 2022 Moderator Share Posted March 10, 2022 3 minutes ago, foreveryoung said: On another note, why so many tankers over Poland, what are they refuelling I wonder?? aircraft you'd imagine 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyClarke Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 1 minute ago, foreveryoung said: Saw a B2 over at Mildenhall about 10 years ago, nearly creamed my pants. On another note, why so many tankers over Poland, what are they refuelling I wonder?? Get yourself down to RAF Fairford next time they are on deployment over here (B52's at the moment). Not sure if it is part of a policing mission, just practicing or flexing muscles, maybe all 3. Lots of activity at Lakenheath and Mildenhall. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 22 minutes ago, Panto_Villan said: I very much doubt NATO is doing any direct military involvement at all. NATO is refusing to give Ukraine fighter jets because they're worried it might be seen as escalation (even though it's logically no different from sending other types of arms) so to think there's a secret team of NATO drone pilots seems a bit far-fetched imo. I mean, do we not think the Ukrainians are capable of operating drones themselves? Is the west particularly good at operating Turkish drones? Or are we actually secretly operating a fleet of Predator drones in the skies above Ukraine? Etc. I get the point you're making but it was rather easier to get away with that sort of thing fifty years ago. “Trainers”, “ex military contractors”, etc - it’s definitely happening. Unclear exactly how far the support is going, though - I agree with you that we won’t be risking anything that can be portrayed in the media as direct involvement, especially as information leaks. But anything deniable will be happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panto_Villan Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 (edited) 10 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said: Great stuff finally imposing sanctions/bans on Roman Abramovich and Chelsea. In following suit, along with everyone showing what brilliant humans they are, I'm assuming we'll now be pushing for sanctions and bans against the following, to further highlight our awakening to the atrocities of this world: ( Present and retro actively of course ) Newcastle | Saudis ( Yemen etc - bombed regularly - starving to death ) Manchester City | Abu Dhabi etc ( See above ) Wolves | Chinese - Rohingya Muslim genocide etc. Arsenal | Liverpool | Palace | Burnley | Manchester United | - Americans ( Self explanatory using any search engine ) Aston Villa | Americans/Egypt - Oh alot of history there. Any club with Israeli involvement as well. ( Also self explanatory ) To quote some of the news reports i've seen though " These are civilised Europeans here, they drive cars like me and you, I've seen kids with blonde hair and blue eyes evacuating, it is heart breaking " ( Actual quotes FYI ) Feel free to get VERY upset if you want to. I don't care. lol Facts don't give a f*ck about your feelings. The world is absolutely bizarre. This seems like a really weird take. While all of the things you listed are bad to some degree, they are very obviously not equal in severity. Clearly Russia launching a full scale invasion of Ukraine is a much more significant event than the Chinese government offering indirect support to another government (Myanmar) carrying out the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingyas. Can you not see how one might lead to severe sanctions but the other might not? Or are you meant to be talking about the Chinese Uighurs here? Even so, repressing your own citizens is generally considered much less serious than invading your neighbours and threatening to start a nuclear war. As such, Wolves would probably find themselves in a similar situation if China launched an invasion of Taiwan. Similarly If Egypt launched a major invasion of Israel or Jordan, Villa might well find ourselves under sanctions too. But they haven't. There's obviously an element of western bias here because Israel or America would have to go completely off the rails the UK would start sanctioning them - but that's because they're significant UK allies and their world view often overlaps with ours. It's not a simple question of racism, as Taiwan or Japan would also be considered a significant ally, but I'm sure the fact they are full of white people probably does play some part too. It's not the main factor here though. Even the Yemen war (which I do think warrants serious consideration about whether Saudi ownership of a football club is appropriate) is a way less clear-cut situation than events in Russia / Ukraine. Edited March 10, 2022 by Panto_Villan 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panto_Villan Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 4 minutes ago, KentVillan said: “Trainers”, “ex military contractors”, etc - it’s definitely happening. Unclear exactly how far the support is going, though - I agree with you that we won’t be risking anything that can be portrayed in the media as direct involvement, especially as information leaks. But anything deniable will be happening. Hmmm. The UK and US actually pulled all their trainers out of Ukraine in early Feb for the specific reason that they didn't want to risk NATO escalation if they got killed (and because losing troops would look bad). I know it's fairly standard for NATO to have special forces troops on the ground even if we're not meant to - e.g. in Libya helping to enforce our "no fly zones" - but I just wonder if this time is different. I feel like the stakes are too high. And we've been training the Ukrainians for years and they seem to have pretty capable special forces of their own that might negate the need for us to do it. Personal opinion though, obviously. I'm just a guy sitting at a keyboard who has never been in the military! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avfc1982am Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 8 minutes ago, Panto_Villan said: Hmmm. The UK and US actually pulled all their trainers out of Ukraine in early Feb for the specific reason that they didn't want to risk NATO escalation if they got killed (and because losing troops would look bad). I know it's fairly standard for NATO to have special forces troops on the ground even if we're not meant to - e.g. in Libya helping to enforce our "no fly zones" - but I just wonder if this time is different. I feel like the stakes are too high. And we've been training the Ukrainians for years and they seem to have pretty capable special forces of their own that might negate the need for us to do it. Personal opinion though, obviously. I'm just a guy sitting at a keyboard who has never been in the military! No they haven't. I mentioned last week that one of my pals mates who was training had stayed out there, he is active. I don't believe he is the only one either but I have no idea in what capacity. It could be observational I really don't know. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panto_Villan Posted March 10, 2022 Share Posted March 10, 2022 23 minutes ago, avfc1982am said: No they haven't. I mentioned last week that one of my pals mates who was training had stayed out there, he is active. I don't believe he is the only one either but I have no idea in what capacity. It could be observational I really don't know. That's interesting. He's an active duty soldier? All the news reports I read said they'd all been pulled out, but that could have been referring to the Americans specifically I guess. I might well be wrong on this count. Just seems odd to me that NATO would tread so gingerly with regards to sending jet fighters but be willing to run operations that if discovered would probably be viewed as a much more serious escalation. But who knows what's really going on behind the scenes? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avfc1982am Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 19 minutes ago, Panto_Villan said: That's interesting. He's an active duty soldier? All the news reports I read said they'd all been pulled out, but that could have been referring to the Americans specifically I guess. I might well be wrong on this count. Just seems odd to me that NATO would tread so gingerly with regards to sending jet fighters but be willing to run operations that if discovered would probably be viewed as a much more serious escalation. But who knows what's really going on behind the scenes? Yes. Other than that I know very little only that he has been out there a while and decided to stay. It's not my friend tbh so I have no clue how it's all come about or in what capacity he's out there currently. I would also bet my house that the US and UK have SF operatives out there in some capacity even if in just observational roles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KentVillan Posted March 11, 2022 Share Posted March 11, 2022 Hard to believe this guy is surrounded by incompetent yes men 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAuthority Posted March 11, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted March 11, 2022 2 hours ago, KentVillan said: Hard to believe this guy is surrounded by incompetent yes men Looks like he was playing Leeds. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheAuthority Posted March 11, 2022 VT Supporter Share Posted March 11, 2022 4 hours ago, AndyClarke said: Get yourself down to RAF Fairford next time they are on deployment over here (B52's at the moment). Not sure if it is part of a policing mission, just practicing or flexing muscles, maybe all 3. Lots of activity at Lakenheath and Mildenhall. My mom lives near Fairford. My sis's bloke is also on the base (fireman.) They say it's been nuts with the USAF planes flying over non-stop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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