Moar gas from Rrhoiders...
I guess 25% of the Patriots left isn’t low enough for Trump.
But I suspect it’s low enough for China, Iran, and many other countries.
and if EU declines?
Not much has changed in this dept since Biden..more of the same...
Do we even have any left?
Hopefully Trump will optimize economic sanctions against Russia and those that trade with Russia such as the BRICs nations. He will need to run a fine line to ensure that tariffs don’t produce US inflation.
Trump will need to make up any deficiencies incurred by shipping defensive weapons to Russia. But Trump as the consummate businessman will see that US doesn’t bear most of the costs.
Putin is an idiot. Russia doesn’t have the demographic or economic capability to sustain a war of long duration .
War doesn’t work. Putin doesn’t understand that.
Unless somebody has another citation, it’s still only 10 of Biden’s originally planned 30 interceptors.
Certainly not a game changer.
I thought this was supposed to end under Trump. The more time goes by, the more I’m convinced this is the just the same song and dance, just a different party.
I guess it is a “back door” kind of deal.
Lindsay and Blumenthal are “back door” kinda guys.
I guess Trump can look the camera in the eye and say Uncle Sam isn’t footing the bill.
Whatever.
I’ll repeat a comment from CTH, I didn’t vote for Lindsay Graham to be in charge of foreign policy.
I would argue that Ukraine needs drone defenses at least as much as Patriot systems. A large quantity of nimble, low cost, essentially fast armed trainer planes (such are made by several countries) would do the trick. If the plane is powered by a small jet engine, it can go after cruise missiles too.
That said, playing defensive AD in this manner is still expensive. The best bet is to enable the Ukies to go after the archers and arrow makers, so to speak. Israel has had fantastic success with that. Remember when “everyone” supporting Israel was fearful of Hezbollah’s and Iran’s vast supply of rockets and missiles laying waste to tiny Israel?
In Ukraine’s case, you do it with smart, stealthy drones. To knock out Russian AD, 20 year old US’ HARM tech would be more than sufficient.
Military Summary Channel
https://youtu.be/kIHca6rCr9k
And those missiles will last less than a month. The U.S. manufacturing capacity of Patriot missiles is only 500 a year.
Will Ukraine pay us in advance for the weaponry or will we just send them a bill?
EU will pay for them.
/
better get the cash up front or those EU welchers will stuff US.
Again.