It will be a big moral blow to Ukrainian's. So much build up about this "game changing" plane but to lose one within days by your own forces, not just friendly forces but you own............Been reading the pilot was quite high profile too eg on media, his name known. A very sad incident for Ukraine. Lets hope this war stops soon but unfortunately, the last months of war are usually the bloodiest.

This is what Ukraine faced that day....

This is what they destroyed from that barrage...

Back in the 80's our SAM's had IFF capability, Identify Friend or Foe. Aircraft had them so if the Patriot systems radar locked onto one of our planes, it would reject it as a target. We keep hearing how advanced these aircraft are so it surprises me 40 years later that this could happen and they don't have a similar setup. Perhaps EW capabilities now means the enemy could identify those sort of transponders but I'm pretty sure they were passive not active transponders ie did not emit signals. Could be wrong and technology has come a long way so I really have no idea how any IFF system works in 2024, or if it is even still in use.
Yeah i saw a story on the new drones too. 'Game changer' the headline screamed lol. Heard that one before. First it was tanks, then HIMARS, then F-16's, now drones and ballistic missiles. To me it's very similar to ' Just one more surge' in Afghanistan. This is called propaganda and I'm sure of that as you do not broadcast to the enemy what any new capabilities are.
What do you think about a MP posting this in the middle of a war? Because it tells me cracks are forming in Zelenskyy's grip on things.

@puff Your post tells me that not only are cracks forming between your ears but that you are woefully ignorant...

@Lizard_of_Ahaz Ignorant of 2024 military technology? I can accept that. Gee I'm gunna have fun paying you out when 'whatever it takes' cuts and runs.

@puff Ignorant of everything having to do with military technology and warfare in general is more like it...

@Lizard_of_Ahaz Not like the US hey? How many wars you won since WWII? Korea nope. Viet Nam nope. Iraq nope. Afghanistan nope.
How are those Houthi's going? Under control yet? Nope

@puff Wow back in the 80s weapons were that smart? Mmmm, tell me pray why the largest cause of British fatalities in the Gulf War was US friendly fire?

@273kelvin Because the yanks are fucking useless. Most of them are there to pay for higher education. This is a true story; On exercise in Hawaii we were on trucks and ours got a flat. We offloaded, were just sitting around. I walked up to the driver and asked "Aren't you going to change it?" He responded "All sorted, truck tyre changing platoon on the way". Fucking laugh.
IFF developed in WWII. Took me 2 seconds to search
[en.wikipedia.org]

@puff Gen Robert E Lee died from friendly fire wounds.

@273kelvin No idea. Was it friendly fire or was he shrapped ie one of his own got rid of him by "accident"?

@Lizard_of_Ahaz

China is supposting Russia in the Ukraine war, because it an economic war between east and west. China approach to war has been the most intelligent so far.

I thought about a full scale third world war, if it had broken out. What has war history has told us, so far.

What war has US won and benefits from since the Mexican war? That the US won with the six shooter.

What effect has bombs done accept in highest density populated areas like in Japan and Gaza? Gaza had 70,000 tons of bombs dropped on them. Thats more than world war 2 combined . And Palestinians still won't give up. The Zionist and US have about the greatest risk of causing a third world war there among the Muslims countries.

Guns have been the most effective for vast majority killings in war history. .
History has shown the country's with greater size of the miltary personal has won the vast majority of wars.

As of 2024, China had the largest armed forces in the world by active duty military personnel, with about 2 million active soldiers. India, the United States, North Korea, and Russia rounded out the top five largest armies. BRICS wins.

Then we have land mass. Ukraine would be the size of Texas with close to the same population. Canada and US combined would have close to the same land mass as Russia.

Chinese quote. The firey dragon can not defeat the snake in the grass.

@Castlepaloma War really is a very poor way to spend money. Think of the value of the things such as infrastructure and living well that could have been hadIf if you were not wasting money killing your fellow man.

@Castlepaloma My apologies for the linguistic error(s) shall we call it linguistic lisp!

@PaddyO Try convincing people like Putin of that...

@PaddyO, @Castlepaloma China is stupid they depend on the West for their economic health... and you are stupid for believing the nonsense you spew. It is NOT about an "economic war" it is a war of expansion of their influence because they wish to control more of the world population and economically influence their neighbors to eliminate economic competition that has been slowing their own economy.

@273kelvin Robert E Lee died of Pneumonia which he had contracted shortly after having a stroke. The weather was extremely bad during the time of his death due to extremely heavy rains.... Study your history before claiming nonsense please.

@273kelvin "Wow back in the 80s weapons were that smart?" no they most certainly were not that smart just like puff is not that smart... As far as I know even SM-6 block 1a missiles do NOT have IFF capability at this time that is a function of the control system which targets the threats. This is controlled by a fallible human...

@Lizard_of_Ahaz My bad, it was Stonewall Jackson.

@273kelvin He also died of Pneumonia which was common in that age. It was 8 days after he was wounded requiring the amputation of his arm. He was also never particularly healthy to begin with... Though I grant that it appear someone of his soldiers did attempt to frag him as he was careless of his men's lives as he was careless of his own.

@puff FYI this happened Tuesday the day after the F-16 was shot down which makes your OP very inaccurate indeed doesn't it?....

@Lizard_of_Ahaz Recite the infantryman's motto to me? Ever heard of it? It basically states there are only ever two reasons you wage war.

1. You absolutely hate their guts and want them all dead or
2. You want to steal their shit eg control their resources.

Otherwise you are defending.
The war that broke out in Ukraine in 2014, a civil war, was reason 1). After 12,000 dead cultural Russians and huge domestic pressure to do something to stop the slaughter of their relatives and kin. Brothers. Putin finally did. There is still anger in Russia he did not do it quickly enough.

Israel is 1) + 2)

@puff No asshole that is the Russian infantryman's code of conduct and Crimea was NOT a civil war that is Russian disinformation... Smedly Butler pretty much ended racketeering in government using the military for corporate gain... At least in our country. Now the International community has laws against genocide and looting as well as the use of chemical weapons which only countries like Russia ignores...

@puff Only Russians openly display their looting and brag about it while illegally attacking civilian populations like the IDF that you complain about... Pure hypocrisy on your part to hate on one and openly support the other...

@Lizard_of_Ahaz I don't support war, which is why I f'n hate NATO which is just the foreign arm of imperial America. War hawk tuah

@Lizard_of_Ahaz

Interesting video.

War is a racket, and solves nothing.

@Castlepaloma I wouldn't say "it solves nothing..." Ask the Carthaginians because it "solved" them rather thoroughly....

@Castlepaloma In the Australian army we were taught the infantryman's motto. learnt in 1986, I can still recite it.
"To seize and hold ground. To seek out the enemy and kill or capture him......." memory is slipping. hang on. Found it.

"The role of the Royal Australian Infantry is to seek out and close with the enemy, to kill or capture them, to seize and hold ground, and to repel attack, by day or night, regardless of season, weather or terrain."
[army.gov.au]

Why I'm telling you this is you can bomb the fuck out of somewhere but if you don't have boots on the ground, it's not yours. That was drummed into our heads. Something US forces seem to ignore. The US has always been a naval and more and more an air power, not so big land operations wise.

@puff [agnostic.com]

I, (state name of enlistee), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

Some officers (Christian zealots of course) try to bring their religion into it but that has been deemed unconstitutional....

@Lizard_of_Ahaz In the Australian Army, we don't swear any allegiance to Australia which I could never wrap my head around. Instead, I swore an oath to "Her majesty Queen Elizabeth II, her heirs and successors".
No great love for the British monarchy in my lifetime in Australia, especially after Diana died. But back in the 50's, they were very big. Still impresses our politicians unfortunately. Us Aussies are very apathetic about breaking the ties and becoming a republic, me included. Status quo seems to work is most people's attitude but it still sucks.
The Queens representative here is called the Governor General. She just got a pay rise, $700,000/ year now plus perks of which there are many. Our politicians are the highest paid in the world eg our Prime Minister gets more than your president and the UK PM and we are just a pissant country really. It's a bad joke. Not worth the money and attracts the wrong people to politics. With their sycophant kow towing to everything US, they don't act in our interest nor our countries. They treat it as a colony still to be exploited. They are really pushing massive wind farms here which nobody wants. But they push it so hard, deals already done and brown paper bag handed over already.
You have corruption but we sure as shit do too.

Russian was not strong enough to stop 9 NATO countries bordering on Russian borders. Russia in now fully prepared with BRIC to manger their own affairs. . RUSSIA has done nothing wrong to the US except slow down their one world order. Where is Russian or BRICS military base in Canada and Mexico?

@Castlepaloma You say you live in Belize right now.... I hear the average IQ there is in the low 60s' but I be it you moved that would soar into the 70s'....