In the early morning of 14th February 2022, Typhoon jets from RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus joined with a United States Air Force B-52 bomber over the Eastern Mediterranean after it deployed from RAF Fairford to conduct a presence patrol mission across Central Europe and the Middle East, say the RAF.
We covered the deployment here.
“The Royal Air Force say that the Typhoons were supported by an RAF Voyager tanker deployed in support of 903 Expeditionary Air Wing which routinely provides air-to-air refuelling for both RAF and coalition partners. As the B-52 from Minot Air Force Base, N.D.’s 5th Bomb Wing left the Eastern Mediterranean they travelled onwards through the broader Middle East with additional partner nations providing fighter escort.”
Air Commodore Farrell, 83 Expeditionary Air Group Air Component Commander, was quoted as saying:
“We always welcome the opportunity to work alongside our coalition partners and 83 Expeditionary Air Group’s participation in this multinational mission is another example of the UK’s commitment to enhance regional stability and security through a demonstration of our combined strength.”
Officer Commanding Typhoon Detachment was quoted in an RAF news release saying:
“The Typhoon Force has a long history of operating in conjunction with the United States Air Force, and this training serial was another instance of developing our partnership as part of our NATO alliance. The successful event was conducted as part of a routine Operation SHADER sortie, continuing on to operate over Iraq and Syria in our Counter-Daesh mission.”
Little and Large ? …. for those of you old enough to remember them!
‘Rock on Tommy’ Oh right that was Cannon and Ball. I’ll get my coat.
Showing your age David!😅
😄
Yep, I remember them. And Morcombe and Wise.
Morecambe and Wise were good too Daniele 😉
Don’t forget the two Ronnies? Probably the best IMHO
Oh yes! How could I? Four Candles, or is that handles? Love Porridge too.
It appears the Americans and its NATO members are going to tighten the Russian fly zones around Europe, to limit a domino fall of other Eastern block countries. We probably will witness aggressive policing as the Ukraine crisis deepens?
Biden already wrote off the poor people of Ukraine. ugh
It’s a bloody shame that nato and the coalition partners can not see their way clear to allow ukraine in as interim nato partner and help them physically defend against another genocidal maniac.what does that say about the humanity of the Democratic countries? and where are the promises of the Budapest agreement? where’s ukraine’s peace and security after giving up all their nuclear weapons?
Option one is impossible as nato has not done anything to provoke Russia into its current stance.
Option 2 is not going to happen. Are you willing to risk your family and country for putins obsession with the Ukraine. I certainly am not. Sorry Ukraine. That’s not to say support cannot be given. If anything it being outside nato makes support more flexible.
Option 3 it’s already to late for that. Nato countries have already picked the Ukraine side and have provided support.
I do not see this ending in a Russia versus nato war. Russia is trying to exert its power over Ukraine. If Russian forces move they will either be into the eastern regions or go to all the way to the capital for government change.
Currently the thinking is to make the second option very difficult and inflict maximum casualties. Russia will lose lives, equipment and while it may be able to initially avoid sanction effects due to its large currency/gold reserves amongst other things they will eventually start to have an effect.
The Russian people have already had punishing effects from government economic policies and while they can take more cuts to standards why should they. Add on top the cost of living increasing dramatically anyway and it starts to look grim.
So with all that who gets what from an invasion.
What are the perks for Russia and Russians? Not many if you ask me. From the government and military side Pride and Willy waving being top of the pile.
For ordinary Russians?
Cut off Nord Steam 1 as well if invasion occurs.
the fourth option is what they are doing now – tough sanctions and military aid as well as reinforcing the eastern flank – which could also lead to sweden/finland joining. IMO, the west is getting this broadly right so far.
Well, with the Donbass pro Russian forces mobilising & forces exercising in Belarus not withdrawing after the exercises, I think it’s time to make it very clear if Russia takes the next step & invades we’ll fully support Ukraine. Otherwise we’re saying it’s OK/just a bit naughty to bully & annex neighbors. We must not allow any more salami slicing of Ukraine(we & USA are guarantors of her security, as are Russia of course), nor salami slicing any other European nations.
PRC is watching to gauge wether they can get away invading Taiwan, as is every dictator with hostile/expansionist ambitions.
The Tories can explain away how tiny & ill equipped our forces are. I expect they’re good at it(“Nobody could have foreseen..” or something like that), but have been warned by people in the know at every stupid stage.
Put all our own ducks in a row to show we can & will strike back hard at invading forces, deploy what we can to guard against strikes to ourselves here & see if Putin backs down or has to be defeated in the field.
Refugees will stream from Ukraine possibly making previous influxes seem minor. Let’s hope we treat them kinder than many have been.
Appeasment or inaction now will just lead to more aggression in the future. Heavy sanctions can just make aggressors decide they have to be more aggressive to secure what they need to survive, like Japan did in WW2.
You’ve got to have a strong constitution to fly in these bombers for almost 24 hours at a time. Hats off to the crews.
Out of curiosity Dan, I wonder if they operate with two crews?
Definitely
The crews are outstandingly hard working. It’s a hard job. Not many creature comforts on the B-52. I do wonder how effective the crew are during the later stages of these very long missions.
They do seem like a big vulnerable aircraft next to a euro fighter. Planning will keep them out of harms way hopefully though
Without question.
It’s too late for Ukraine.
Ok I think anyone who doesn’t normally go on Twitter needs to get on their now. It looks like tomorrow is going to be a very big news day.
Further to Davids post:
and what Moscow has sent in:
Meanwhile in the Donbass region:
and what is happening next door in Russia:
https://twitter.com/Joyce_Karam/status/1495181345596837890?s=20&t=2evgMQqiXrMXqycJ_sa15g
A little more infor (Ukraine news-site in English) regarrds those ships in the Sea of Azov:
As usual great stuff. 👍
Never mind the BBC. farouk updates are top notch.
Always.
It does have a capable “Harpoonski” type Anti Ship Missile. Anything within 200km of the coast where the mobile shore batteries operate would be fair game.
Neptune Analyzing Ukraine’s Anti-Ship Missile – Overt Defense
Ive been reading up on that, it would be nice to know a little more on what improvements they have made to the basic KH-35 and if the Russians decide to land an army between the Crimea and the Donbass (looks at Inchon and Anzio) in which to land behind the Ukrainians , will we see similar to what happened to the Germans when they attacked Oslo in 1940 and the Norwegians sank the heavy cruiser Blücher
No one despises The Russian government much more than I. But there is another option. Persuade the Ukraine forces to flee to Poland and fight a guerilla war against the Puppet government no doubt Putin will install. History teaches us that leaders and invaders come and go, is it worth 10000s of deaths to defend against overwhelming force ? This way more Russian s will perish than Ukrainians. We must learn from the Taliban.It’s right we gave Ukraine equipment etc as it’s their choice if they stand and fight or not. If Russia does not invade the West must help the Ukraine economy because it could be that Russia is trying to strangle the Ukraine economy
West considers support for Ukrainian resistance if Russia invades | Financial Times (ft.com)
Or exploite it’s massive natural resources.
If ever there was a perfect example of the power of Nuclear Insurance then Ukraine is it. If they had retained their Nukes, this would not be happening.
Simple!!
Really upsets the neighbours detonating nukes on them, so I hear. Funny how Russia demands solid treaties & agreements for us to bend over & let him do whatever he wants, yet he’s ripped up his treaty responsability to ensure the territorial integrety of Ukraine.
If you want your neighbours back under Russian control, try stop being a control-freak bully so they don’t feel the need for protection against you.
Wise words Frank.MAD really seems to work as several nations have come to the brink-China,India,Pakistan among them, and stepped back. If the Ukraine had kept it’s nukes I think even Putin would have wavered. If Ukraine was devastated by a huge Russian invasion then they would have nothing to lose by launching a couple of Nukes on Russia. Only a madman would risk such a scenario, which makes me think….!!!!
One would have to hope that every NATO cyber warfare unit is targetting Russian mothers with pictures of their sons and husbands in coffins ready for funeral; that would set the cat amongst the pigeons because Russian mums get a tad annoyed with anything dangerous happening to their sons.
Meanwhile, ex CDS Carter says NATO has to go onto virtual “war footing” to face up to Putin over the next decade!
Well, you laid the ground work for that didn’t you!!!😡
He wasn’t on the FSB’s payroll but if he had been they’d have been very happy with him.
Ukraine would need a lot of outside assistance to develop nuclear weapons as they never developed them in the first place.
The UK, France and the US certainly are not going to have over nuclear secrets to the Ukraine which im fairly sure would have the intelligence leakage of a colander.
Other than approaching other nuclear capable states in order to get assistance which would all take a lot of time which they really dont currently have.
Ukraine has 4 nuclear power plants, so certainly has nuclear engineers and scientists. So could develop nukes.
Using nuclear power then turning that into small enough warheads to use as a weapon is not a 5 minute job.
Plus all of the nuclear power plants are of Soviet design and not developed by Ukraine itself.