• Jaysyn@kbin.social
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    11 months ago

    Just wait till the F-16 sorties start.

    You won’t be able to swing a cat in here without hitting a whining tankie symp.

    • barsoap@lemm.ee
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      11 months ago

      Those stories already started, some Russian mil-bloggers say that F16s are already in Ukraine which is probably copium. But I wouldn’t be too surprised if this isn’t accidental and Ukrainians re-doubled efforts to take down Russian planes (e.g. via smart and unexpected movements of anti-air installations) in anticipations of F16s coming, they’re a lot more useful more quickly if they don’t have to operate in contested skies. Every air-to-air missile you don’t need to have in your loadout is another air-to-ground one.

    • nekandro@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      The same F-16s that were outclassed by the J-17 in recent military exercises?

      Pakistani pilots are on record saying the F-16 is worse in basically every way compared to a design China considers to be “budget” and “outdated.”

      • popcap200@lemmy.ml
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        11 months ago

        Let’s pretend for a minute that it is actually better. Russia doesn’t field the J-17, so it doesn’t matter.

        • ours@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Also, there’s the airframe and then there are the missiles you put on it. Depending on what these F-16 load up with can make a whole lot of difference.

          I doubt they’ll be doing much dogfighting. The challenge will be to get in the air, fire off missiles, and land back without getting shot down.

          Edit: Oh and another thing that makes a lot of difference is radar assets. I bet those F-16s are going to get extended eyes and ears thanks to NATO AWACS flying high but within NATO borders.

        • nekandro@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          China recognizes that the J-17 is outclassed by the Su-34, so it sort of does matter…

        • nekandro@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          The J-17 was designed for the Pakistan Air Force. Any other operators (Myanmar, Nigeria?) are operators of convenience.

          • Dead_or_Alive@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            I see, so the Pakistani Airforce which commissioned the design and production of the J-17 reports that it is superior to the F-16…

            Whatever helps the copium taste better I suppose.

      • mlg@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Uh source?

        JF-17 is a multirole attack aircraft, F-16 is a multirole air superiority fighter.

        PAF has been very adamant that nothing they have tried compares to the F-16 in performance. Their last air skirmish was an F-16 that shot down an IAF MiG-21 in 2019. Even the J-10s they recently bought are still considered inferior.

        The real joke here is expecting an F-16 to actually reach Ukraine lmao. Pakistan had to basically play double agent to convince the USA to even open F-16 sales. There’s a 0% chance they’re going to give Ukraine F-16s for free, or even let them be leased from other countries.

      • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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        11 months ago

        The same F-16s that were outclassed by the J-17 in recent military exercises?

        I mean, even if that’s true… Is that really even a flex? The F-16 platform is 30 years older than the J-17.