The retired Marine Corps AH-1W Super Cobras are currently sitting in a desert boneyard wrapped in plastic. Can they be brought to life and supplied to Ukraine? They are able to carry Hellfire and even Sidewinder missiles, and also have a 20 mm gun. If it would take too much to make them flyable another option is the Army has over 800 AH-64D/E Apaches and could spare a couple of squadrons.
Seems like in this war helicopters have been doing poorly, since MANPADS are prolific enough to pose a big risk to any helicopters that stray even a little too close to the front line, besides, Ukraine would probably get much more mileage out of more humvees or M2 bradleys
no, those Cobras are apart of the strategic resurve. also ukraine has plenty of Helicopters in the form of MI-2s,MI-8s, MI-24s and etc. so it has no reason to need to ask for more. also many former soviet nations, even the NATO ones still feild and operate these aircraft in abundance.
so more likely for them to get more MI-24s before a cobra. there is also the issue of learning to maintain the equipment. so since many of these helicopters have already been modified to use NATO equipment, it really isn't a good choice.
Soviet helicopters aren't very good and were being used to spam dumb rockets. With Hellfires they could actually hit stuff.
True, Euros don't have many attack helicopters.
>Soviet helicopters aren't very good and were being used to spam dumb rockets.
that was the Russians and only the Russians. ukrianian pilots knew better than to do that.
>hellfire
doesn't really fit into the current doctrine, also there are special rigs that can turn a MI-8 into an attack helicopter as much as a black hawk. militarizes just don't like using their utility helicopters like that because they need them for utility. however since ukraine is getting donated equipment, they can turn the MI-8 into attack helicopters, which the Russians already have.
https://verticalmag.com/news/bell-developing-drop-in-military-capability-for-civil-fleet/
>hellfire drop in.
here is an article talking about that.
>that was the Russians and only the Russians. ukrianian pilots knew better than to do that.
holy /k/ope, we have footage of ukrainians using the helicopter rocket lob technoque
It'd be more useful to just retrofit Ukrainian helos (which they are already trained on) to fire hellfires.
https://www.defensenews.com/global/europe/2022/04/28/ukraine-weapon-switcheroos-are-flushing-soviet-arms-out-of-europe/
I think that has been my point.>58560166>58560187
Why is it always American equipment people are thirsting to give away. It's a European war. Use their shit.
we have so much shit we can afford to give it away, europoors cant
>why die for danzig?
>Comparing the incompetent buffoon Putin to Hitler in June 2023
Need to rewrite your script. Nobody is buying it anymore.
What happened to Polish independence in 1945?
>Why is it always American equipment people are thirsting to give away. It's a European war. Use their shit.
lol what european equipment?
Because Europe still uses all its 80s shit and it costs money to decommission all the US’s old stuff
Every war is an American War, you need permission these days.
All this shit in the boneyard was made for killing Russians. This the the only chance they will have to fulfill the purpose they were built for, their only other fate is to be sold for pennies to the scrapyard.
>US arms Ukraine, starts war
>It's a European war!
Why are they like this?
AC-130 for Ukraine
Bad use of funds, especially for a long lead item.
It would likely take at least until 2024 to provide this, for that timeframe the money that would be better spent invested into ammo production, surface to air systems production, the fighter jet effort.
Problem with all these Western aircraft is they're complicated to pilot and maintain. Unless there's a plan to recruit ex-NATO volunteers.
no, it is just any complex equipment, any fighter jet outside of the ones Ukraine is already trained on will require more training, to a lesser extent helios and tanks, which is why they are rolling out faster than a jet could.
>it could be a jet from kekistan and still no one could field them if they didn't have about 6-12 months of training.
>the F-16 has an advanced avionics suit, so learning to control it is different than a civilian trainer
>most modern fighter jets handle like a flying brick. only reason they are more maneuverable is a combination of a rocket-like exhaust and computer auto-correcting faster than an IBM super computer.
>Ukraine is only using soviet fighters, because they have soviet fighters and pilots trained on soviet fighters.
Normally the USAF F-16 training course is 7 months.
>pilot training
how about the maintainers?
I have a cousin who failed his Oklahoma driver's test thirteen times and now he maintains a B-1 in Japan, it can't be that complicated.
>is his name tom sawyer?
some things that appear difficult to some, are easy to others. and some are just good out of doing what they perceive as work.
sounds like the kind of guy in charge of tightening the bolts
I mean he must know that if the bolts aren't properly tightened then the propeller will fall off and then it will be a very stealthy glider.
It would be kino seeing footage of Cobras dogfight other helicopters.
Why don't they just spraylat the things instead of using fricking duct tape which will dry out in a few years in the desert heat?
I was an UH-1Y/AH-1Z avionics tech until last October when I got out. OP's picrel makes me miss it. And the homies.
🙁
go to the reserves
None of the kinds of my unit are near here. I'd have to latmove and I'm balls deep in college rn.
meant for
, im kinda fricked up
Bahrain is buying them