F/A-18E v. Su-22

Can anyone give me a quick rundown on how that's not an act of war?
Russia might or might not get excited about it, but Iran sure AF will.
 
Eh, it was a Syrian Sukhoi, not Russian or Iranian. The Turks shot down a Russian, and the balloon failed to go up. I grant you that there are probably some "high level discussions" going on the secret phone Trump had installed next to the other secret phone, but I'm not typing from the basement just yet.
 
"The strike was believed to be the U.S. military's first air-to-air kill involving manned aircraft in nearly two decades. The last known such instance was when a U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon shot down a Serbian MiG-29 in 1999 during the Kosovo campaign."

That's some serious air superiority. With as much as we fly, no one has challenged in 18 years.
 
BigZ said:
Can anyone give me a quick rundown on how that's not an act of war?
Russia might or might not get excited about it, but Iran sure AF will.
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There are agreed upon rules and warnings between all players in the region. The Syrian jet by all open source reports was across one of those recognized exclusion zones attacking Syrian Democratic Forces (I.E. the Kurds we are helping to fight ISIS in Raqqa). Nobody over here likes the Kurds except us. Iran doesn't want them getting dreams of Kurdistan, Assad doesn't want to give up territory, and Turkey refuses to accept that some Kurds aren't their enemy. We've made it clear in no uncertain terms we treat them as any other coalition partner, subject to defense of friendly forces from any actor ISIS or otherwise.

The coming close to the Mosul campaign has long been said to be the next big decision point as far as some of the wild card players in the region (Iran/Shia militia groups/etc). Now that the time for that point is approaching things are getting more squirlly as far as who is on what side since there are more than just two sides over here.


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Boris Badenov said:
Eh, it was a Syrian Sukhoi, not Russian or Iranian. The Turks shot down a Russian, and the balloon failed to go up. I grant you that there are probably some "high level discussions" going on the secret phone Trump had installed next to the other secret phone, but I'm not typing from the basement just yet.
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Supposedly there was a call on the military US-Russia line to deescalate right after the fact.

But as you said, Syrian aircraft, over Syria. Does that strike you as abnormal?
 
BigZ said:
But as you said, Syrian aircraft, over Syria. Does that strike you as abnormal?
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Myself, I'm not a fan. Don't, myself, reckon that it's any of our business. But it's hardly unique or ground-breaking. IMS, we zotted a few Iraqi aircraft over the "no-fly zone" twenty five or so years ago, even while acknowledging Hussein's government as legitimate.
 
Yeah, the Kurds do seem to the be the Charlie Brown in the football analogy as far as the cradle of civilization goes. But they've been doing this for a minute sorry millenium or two. I think they'll advance their interests quite nicely, thank you. And good on them.
 
BigZ said:
Supposedly there was a call on the military US-Russia line to deescalate right after the fact.

But as you said, Syrian aircraft, over Syria. Does that strike you as abnormal?
Click to expand...

A whole lot of Syria isn't really Syria anymore.

People gotta understand the lines on the map in whatever Atlas you're looking at don't accurately represent what is going on over here. Right now you could carve out a a huge hole in Western Syria and pretty much call it Craptastistan because nobody recognized by the UN is in control of it. Assad and the Russians are worried about the coast. Iran wants a land bridge crossing Iraq and Syria to the med. We seem to just want to annihilate those butt holes in Raqqa and stabilize the half of Iraq that isn't in Iraqi hands. After that it's anybody's guess.


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Boris Badenov said:
Yeah, the Kurds do seem to the be the Charlie Brown in the football analogy as far as the cradle of civilization goes. But they've been doing this for a minute sorry millenium or two. I think they'll advance their interests quite nicely, thank you. And good on them.
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The Kurds didn't do this without F/A-18's persistently overhead. Sorry bro. Don't get me started on the • things we had to watch happen to them before the Obama administration allowed us to start dropping. Small scale genocide. They are the toughest fighters in Iraq, but that isn't saying much. Without persistent US tacair overhead, which has been the case since 2014, they would be easily run over.
 
Lawman said:
A whole lot of Syria isn't really Syria anymore.

People gotta understand the lines on the map in whatever Atlas you're looking at don't accurately represent what is going on over here. Right now you could carve out a a huge hole in Western Syria and pretty much call it Craptastistan because nobody recognized by the UN is in control of it. Assad and the Russians are worried about the coast. Iran wants a land bridge crossing Iraq and Syria to the med. We seem to just want to annihilate those butt holes in Raqqa and stabilize the half of Iraq that isn't in Iraqi hands. After that it's anybody's guess.


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Probably the best analysis I have read on the topic yet.


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Kingairer said:
"The strike was believed to be the U.S. military's first air-to-air kill involving manned aircraft in nearly two decades. The last known such instance was when a U.S. Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon shot down a Serbian MiG-29 in 1999 during the Kosovo campaign."

That's some serious air superiority. With as much as we fly, no one has challenged in 18 years.
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A USAF Viper never bagged a Serbian MiG-29, only USAF Eagles did. A Dutch Viper bagged a 29 though. A USAF Viper bagged 3 trainers, maybe a fourth by his wing but the fighter threat was all eliminated via the Eagle. This kill helps the Hornets kill ratio though, two F-7s, an SU-22 vs a single loss to a Mig-25 in 2003. Keep bagging em boys!
 
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///AMG said:
The Kurds didn't do this without F/A-18's persistently overhead.
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Oh, I didn't mean to make an argument to the contrary. Playing the US fiddle is an integral part (AFAICT) of the Kurdish strategy. I was just saying they're doing allright for themselves, at the moment.
 
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