>PRAGUE, Aug 19 (Reuters) - The United States will give the Czech Republic eight Bell military helicopters for free, the U.S. embassy in Prague said, in what the Czech defence minister said was recognition of the NATO country's aid to Ukraine.
https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-give-czechs-eight-attack-utility-helicopters-2022-08-19/?taid=62ff511cdc7d670001a4d874&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
The Czech Republic now has 8 more attack helicopters than the entire nation of Canada. Maybe if Canada sends the last of it's towed artillery the US will send them some new duffle bags and other such basic shit the CAF currently lacks.
didn't czechs already own some AH-1Ys?
Not delivered yet
So what anon, free helicopters are free.
They ordered eight UH-1Ys, and four AH-1Z. But thanks to the recent procurement of 24 F-35s, and Czechs donating their Mi-24 to Ukraine, they will be getting four more UH-1Ys and 6 AH-1Z as a gift.
*two more
So they will have ten of each
Czech here
What i read in news it is quite a smart move
Army is forwarding most of our old soviet tech to the ukraine so it at least gets used once, everything from shitloads of ammo, howizers, tanks and the helis
It is good because most of that stuff needs maintenance and reolacement parts over time and these were mostly imported from russia these past years, so the army was semi-dependent and they didnt like that
Now all the stuff is given to ukies where they have basically the same stuff and can use it fast without retraining
For the same reason czech army got rid of Migs back in 1990s
So a deal was made that old soviet stuff gets sent east and czech army gets stuff from the west being part of NATO and all
There are supposed to be Leopards 2 coming here from germany, helis from US and in 2027 army is supposed to get new jet fighters and instead of Gripens (that we have now) there are serious talks about F35s being ordered
This way america indirectly supplies tech to ukraine without ivans having to learn operate something so different
>there are serious talks about F35s being ordered
Can they afford this?
supposedly yes, their main argumen is that the F35s will be used until the year 2040, so it's a long term investment
also the army is moving from 12 Gripens to 24 F35, so the air bases will have a major overhaul also, from runways to whole hangars and maintenance equipment but that was about to happen anyway
but then again, it is not final and if they decide to back down, swedes are offering a much better deal about new Gripens
CZ army is trying to have the technological edge if not the numbers to support it's weight for quite a small country among giants
i perosnally think it's stupid and unbelievably expensive, but then again i'm not economy expert and our Minister of Deffence (she's in charge of the talks) is really good in what she's doing and i believe she really helps the army to get what they want
Considering what Poland is doing right now, 24 F-35s is not that much of nonsense, if Czechs combine it with 32 of theirs, 48 of their F-16s, and 14 Slovakian ones. Hungary is minding their own business, so once again Czechs would benefit more from relying on Romania, and their 48 F-16s.
that is the whole point tho
for example NATO operation in baltic, the "keeping vigil" works that i thing 6 countries always have stationed 3 jets yeach and some 2 specialised companies and they rotate every 6 months
it is not that much for each country, but together it is quite a garrison
it does not draw that much on resources and provides good deterrent
some people are b***hing about NATO and their operations, but the truth is something like that would not be possible otherwise.
If a base of similar size should be run, it'd have to be USA, germany, france or the UK. Any other country would have to significantly compromise their owd home defence. While this operation just acts as a really good way to keep personel in shape and actual combat (not life fire tho) experience
they are actually rather affordable
JAS-39 E is ~$80M
F-16V ~$80M
Eurofighter ~$130M
Rafale ~$200M
F-35 is ~$100M and has all the bells and whistles like stealth
>Rafale ~$200M
>F-35 ~$100M
What am i missing?
economy of scale
>There are supposed to be Leopards 2 coming here from germany,
You poor sorry bastards.
i guess it's an improvement over T72s that are running out of shelf life
These are tanks, not bread
I wouldn't worry about it. Depends who will be modernising these 2A4s
based burgers. though we don't have them yet but the order
aren't the f35s already confirmed? also the recent acquisitions make a bit too much sense and reason, idk wtf happened to defense ministry. except the leopards, germans were a mistake.
it's 2022, what makes you think anyone cares about spending? but it's way better deal than the gripens as those we have are old ones with different frames, f35 is actually new platform, better compatibility with neighboring countries. it's a good choice and long term it will likely be even cheaper as the gripens would have to be replaced a lot sooner, especially the current ones that we have leased.
yep, that's the one thing that sucks regarding what are we getting. (which is the f35s, the helicopters in OP and cv90s to replace/modernize pandurs
>aren't the f35s already confirmed?
no, i think they keep both options still possible, but all the talks are about F35s because that is the interesting option
i think Gripens are just a backup option if the other deal fails spectacularly
yea, the market gets dominated by the F35 in the last years but i get there is a reason for it. They are top of the line after all and while other euro fighters are quite good, their production is not really that high to supply that many other countries. Saab is the only one focused on export and they always played the "economy option" after all. Why market the fact your 4,5 gen jet fighter can land and take off on an ordinary road when all modern militaries have pretty good airports and the travel times are not really that long
that proce is really just a small part
you have to account for maintenance that is much higher over time. For every hour Gripen is flying, you have to do around 12k dollars worth of maintenance, while for every hour F35 flies it is almost 30k dollars.
it account to stuff like "after 200 flight hours you have to change this thing and replacement costs 2 milion dollars", fluel and ammo is not accounted in this
and the lifetime expectancy of F35 is around 4000 flight hours i think
it gets into a high numbers and you can't just store the thing and leave it lest it degrades rapidly
>Why market the fact your 4,5 gen jet fighter can land and take off on an ordinary road when all modern militaries have pretty good airports
Maybe because airports are high value targets to the enemy? Gripen is meant for guerilla warfare.
Free helicopter rides? That being said. They operated Mi-24's, sure some or most of those have been donated to Ukraine, they already had more attack helicopters than Canada to begin with. I'm going to assume these helicopters are from disbanded 'muhreen squadrons that went away with their doctrine and force structure reform.
Canada bought 88 F35s and were the OG members in the development programs.
They’ll be fine.
Fricking cope canadagay. All you have is a small order. Your most capable equipment you can actually deploy right now is 40 fricking year old hornets and second hand dutch leopards.
You know when you'll get your first f-35s gay. The 2030s.
>Swedes were going to let them keep the leased Gripens if they would please only order Gripen-Es
>order F-35s anyway
Poor fricking Saab. It seems like Western fighter procurement is F-35s if you're allowed, Rafaels if you aren't, and maybe Typhoons if you don't like the French. And then Gripen.
the ones we have leased are Cs which don't even have same frame as the modern gripens. and they are 20 years old already. it was a terrible deal and we'd end up having to buy entirely new planes in 20 years again while f35s will last long time. it would be even worse deal than the 2a4 leos.
The JAS 39 is a great plane. The problem is that it's a great plane for today trying to compete against the F-35, which is a great plane for today and the years to come. The Gripen just isn't just isn't as intrinsically future proof in the way that the F-35 is and that damages it's prospects when so many countries are looking for a small, long lasting fleet.
It's a great plane but '90s were three decades ago
They can still sell them to south america though.
UMA DELICIA
Unless your name is Argentina.
>mogs canada
Its not hard, that shithole has nothing, people don't even have basic kit.
t. canadian
how do canadians cope?
By owning guns and constantly reminding myself that our courts have upheld the right to armed self-defence (in the home, anyway), even if our homosexual government rejects it.
>the right to bear arms in self defense is embeded in the czech constitution
no it isn't
there are however several laws stating that basically you can do whatever if you are defending your: life, health, possessions, rights (incl. freedom) or respect (public image). and you really can do whatever if it isn't over the top
also you can protect somebody elses rights or on a line of work (security guard mostly)
but the law about gun ownership is only guaranteed only by the "statute about firearms" but tbh, that is a really good state and states that if you can do these things (age, health, criminal record, knowledge of the law, basic firearm manipulation), you can own a gun and noone can deny you that
the only way our constitution protects firearm ownership is maybe throu heritage because it states that "no one can be denied their lawful heritage", so if your grandpa had a fricking i dunno, bunker in a backyard full of guns and you do your gun certification, no one can take these from you
No one cares Amerifat, you are our security. You literally do it for free.
Leaf taxpayer here and I'm glad we have no attack choppers. The're lame and useless. When would we ever use them? What can they do a cf-18 or soon a f-35 can't do? What can it carry better then a CH-146? Even if we planned on offensive operations the war in Ukraine has shown how useless they are against a competent enemy. No flying tanks in the RCAF pls
Canada has as many attack helictopters as the USA has. It's not fair, but leafs don't need a full range of warfighting capabilities when we're right beside the largest military superpower on earth. Our land being compromised is an unacceptable security risk to the States, so we can literally do nothing and benefit from the full strength of the US military.
I love how Canadians try to turn freeriding on US taxpayers into a virtue, when the reality is all their israelite level defence expenditure does is make the whole anglosphere collectively weaker, including Canada.
You think the international order you benefit from is forever because you don't read history and you're unaware that the US is a declining power. All your actually doing is guaranteeing your inability to fight during a conflict. You don't even have the assets to run logistics in the back end of a conflict, and that's fricking scary.
So feel free to laugh at the fact that your weaker than the Czech republic but your laughing at your own demise.
>Canadians try to turn freeriding on US taxpayers into a virtue
Basically isreal
Hey, frick off c**t. We sent the Ukrops like 12 M777s, which was 2/3rds of our entire field artillery.
Canada doesn't need a military because it doesn't conduct imperialistic and suicidal foreign policy like our moronic neighbors to the south. While the US dies for Ukraine and Taiwan, Canada shall become a global power.
>Canada shall become a global power
Of course once you reach the 500 thousand per year indian immigrant you will reach super power status in 10 years time
>nation of Canada
Why do burgers always word it this way? Why not just call it Canada, we all know its a nation