Quote:
Originally Posted by Vespers War
Naval Hellfire is relatively short-ranged (~10 kilometers). Sisu, Scania, and Tatra have all made truck-based launchers for the RBS 15 missile (300+ kilometers depending on variant). "Both" might be acceptable here, since it layers defenses with different ranges for different purposes, although I believe Naval Hellfire is adapted from Longbow Hellfire, the newest examples of which date to 2005 and are going to age out of their certified lifespan soon.
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The US Navy has more than a few Penguin Missiles. Give those to the Ukrainians.
What NATO should be doing is gathering up all of their older PACT equipment and giving it to both Ukraine AND Moldova. The US, Germany, and the UK could then transfer older equipment to the NATO allies who transferred equipment to "toughen up" their defensive posture. For instance, give Poland 250 M1 Abrams for her T72s and upgraded Twardy MBTs and have her transfer those PACT tanks to Russia (so they can abandon them in Ukraine?) & Moldova. Have her transfer her nearly 200 Leopard 2A4s to Slovakia, the Czechs, and Slovenia along with Canada's leopards and surplus from Germany's mothballed tanks so each one of those countries can have a mechanized division or two with COMMON EQUIPMENT. Give Poland an additional 200 M1s for those Leopards. This would bring Poland up to 450 M1s immediately with the 250 M1a3 SLEPS she already bought coming in as soon as they were ready. That would give Poland a STRONG Mechanized presence along the border. Having all those countries mentioned above transfer their T72s to Ukraine and Moldova would give them around 500 T72s and 130 upgraded Polish Twardy Tanks.
The US should give the Baltic States her old M60A3s in mothballs as well as M114 [155mm] Towed Howitzers and M102 [105mm] Towed Howitzers. Give them M113s as well. We will not deploy the M60s again and they are at least a match for a T72. We should have enough running surplus left to give the Baltic States each THREE Mechanized Brigades plus spares and training tanks. These NATO members currently have ZERO armor.
I'd give Romania the remaining M48A3s from the Marines as other NATO countries in the Balkans also operate that tank and resupply could then be regionalized in the event of a conflict. The Marine M48A3s also have wider tracks (for sand) and would be a better "fit" for Romania's mountainous terrain. Romania could then give her T55s to the African Union (the largest user of T55s) in exchange for BM-21 Rocket Launchers, which Ukraine could use more of. We can then give Romania M109s to bring her artillery power up.
For aircraft, give Poland's Migs to Ukraine NOW, and give her F16s in exchange. Joe has this wrong, the US has more than 800 F16s. Let's get Poland "upgraded" NOW, using this event to get everyone flying similar equipment. She can even give her Helos to Ukraine and we will replace them with Blackhawks, Chinooks, and Apaches since the US is planning to upgrade those forces anyway.
In fact, we should go father...
We have roughly 120 flight-worthy F4s that we convert to drones and Germany and England have almost the same number of Tornadoes between them. Let's get these out to the Baltic States (which have no functional air forces). Forty F4s and Forty Tornadoes aren't that impressive a force, but they are SOMETHING. Alternately, we could sell those aircraft to Africa or Asia and put F16s into the Baltic States' hands. We should buff up the Baltic States so they can at least make the Russians pay for any ground taken.
Let's upgrade our NATO members to send a message to Russia that the US is willing to go all-in on supporting ANY NATO member who is threatened.