Thanks Mhalblaub for the link...
via Spiegel Online...
Five Russian fighter jets arrived in Iraq, according to media reports. The government in Baghdad has purchased the aircraft to Dschihadistengruppe against the "Islamic State in Iraq and Syria" ( ISISproceed). More Jets were already on the way, it says at the BBC.And another nations falls under the Russian sphere of influence.
There is conflicting evidence as to whether it is combat aircraft of the type Sukhoi Su-25 or Su-30. The Iraqi government will pay according to the BBC about 365 million euros for the Russian military technology.
Yes.
I know that the Iraqis operate Russian equipment but this appears to be part of a larger issue, especially when you consider that the Iraqi's
UPDATE: Zebra Dunn informed that the Iraqi's were getting SU-25's and now 1Modeus has gotten us the video....
The yahoo news said it was SU-24 Fencers.
ReplyDeleteThey showed disassembled jets being unloaded from a cargo plane, couldn't ID from that.
There is a difference between this swing wing bomber and the other two mentioned.
If they are Fencers they are old and worn as dangerous to the pilots as the target but, effectively deadly.
Another Russian move, The US is gone I would bet from the middle east, we are pivoting to somewhere, internal no doubt.
Yahoo now does a correction, just checked and they are SU-25's old and worn they look like gate guards suddenly pressed into service.
ReplyDeleteFrogfoots are like handing Iraqi's A-10's almost.
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ReplyDeleteThe F-16 haven't been delivered. Delivery is scheduled for the Fall (of Baghdad?). So Iraq has turned to Russia, and reportedly is hiring ex-military pilots from Syria who are familiar with these aircraft.
ReplyDeleteThe US (with its Saudi ally) has been supporting ISIS, which is why the US hasn't helped Iraq since the ISIS "invasion" started six months ago. There are reports that the US surveillance drones are feeding info to ISIS. It's because Iraq is now an ally of Iran, and regime change in Iran is the over-riding goal of all these activities.
Came to the comments to post this (re delivery).
DeleteIraq started paying for the F-16s in fall 2011, but the delivery has been delayed until late 2014. Had ISIS waited just a few months, they would have had to contend with attack aircraft. Their timing was perfect--someone want to splain' that?
Thanks to feckless leadership we're now in a Iran situation (F-14s)... Hand over the aircraft and they could be used against us some day. So it's reasonable to assume those aircraft will not be delivered. Meanwhile, the President is trying to get $500M more funding to ISIS through FSA.
Again, try and explain this without pointing out Barack Obama has committed an overt act of treason--ISIS is a known and stated enemy of the United States of America.
Back on topic... I don't think Iraq is going to be picky about the Russian aircraft. They need air support, not an air superiority fighter. They need it now. They need a nation/alliance that will partner with them to defend what is left of Iraq and they found that in Russia/Iran.
editorial: Do you think that the idiots in government thought one millisecond about the men and women who fought and died to "liberate Iraq" in their ongoing Great Game foreign policy? In other news:
DeleteIn a scathing appraisal, a review ordered by President Barack Obama of the troubled Veterans Affairs health care system concludes that medical care for veterans is beset by "significant and chronic system failures," substantially verifying problems raised by whistleblowers and internal and congressional investigators.
news report:
DeleteA 23-year-old Texas man admitted Friday that he had been practicing military maneuvers and planned to travel to Syria to join ISIS, the terror group that has claimed thousands of lives in a violent march through Iraq in recent weeks. Michael Wolfe, a.k.a. Faruq, of Austin, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to provide support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization, according to a statement issued by the U.S. attorney's office in San Antonio. //
Barack Obama, however, has not been arrested.
This was the smoking gun of Bengazi – that none dared to publicly follow the trail of all those weapons out of Libya. Because exposing the administration's arming of terrorists would have upset the Syria plan that other groups (Neocons) had also signed on to support. They couldn't press the issue without hurting themselves.
DeleteActually they have found that many of the weapons the US provided the "moderate" anti-Syria forces ended up with -- I know it's hard to believe -- the extremist forces.
DeleteThe trail started in Benghazi, and with all the Benghazi chaqtter they never address the question: Why was ambassador Chris Stevens even in Benghazi, far from the Libyan capital of Tripoli? Only Obama has ever mentioned it, and of course he lied:
President Obama at the UN General Assembly:
... Chris Stevens loved his work. He took pride in the country he served, and he saw dignity in the people that he met. And two weeks ago, he traveled to Benghazi to review plans to establish a new cultural center and modernize a hospital. That’s when America’s compound came under attack. Along with three of his colleagues, Chris was killed in the city that he helped to save. He was 52 years old.
Cultural center and hospital my ***.Of course Stevens was in Benghazi with his old terrorist friends coordinating the arms-to-Syria program. His last official act in Benghazi was a meeting with the Turkish ambassador, with Turkey being the trans-shipment point for the weapons. And then his playing-CIA agent life caught up with him.
Well i doesn't matter how they look , just in what condition are. They were probably operational within the RuAF.
ReplyDeleteNow, 365 mil euro is a lot for second hand aircraft so the deal maybe includes new aircraft after sometime.
The Su-25s obviously will be piloted by russians, wonder if they are standart modification or the upgraded Su-25SM.
Yes, Operational for Russian's is typically low maintenance, grass and weed grow, FOD littered runways and no G-suits, yet it gets the job done within their acceptable loss agenda.
DeleteI believe I saw the Ukrainian's cranking up an old WW 2 Tank the other day on video right on the pedestal it had been displayed on since the end of the war! It was a 1943 vintage IS-3 a monster!
I don't know if they got it running, expect to see it on the barricades ASAP.
Made me wonder, so I went by the VFW memorial park that has an old M-60 A3 to check it for a crank up, Nada, No engine.
Oh Well!
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon pushed back Friday on comments made by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki that the US is slow-rolling a sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters to Baghdad.
ReplyDelete“There’s been no slow-rolling,” Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters at a press briefing on Friday.
Al-Maliki in an interview with BBC Arabic said the US’s “long, very slow way” has delayed the delivery of 36 fighter aircraft. He said Iraq would purchase used fighter jets from Russia and Belarus in the interim to combat Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters, which have taken over cities in northern and western Iraq.
Kirby said the first two F-16s are scheduled for delivery in the fall as has been planned for months.
“I don’t know how one can make the case that we’re slow-rolling it when they weren’t even supposed to be delivered for another few months,” Kirby said. “We’re still committed to the program. We’re still committed to the sale. And the process continues to churn, even given the unrest in Iraq.”
Admiral John Kirby is probably next in line to run the VAMC.
DeleteSlowly.
The way thing is, in a few weeks ISIS gonna have fighter jets too (OK, old fighter jets) wonder if they have someone capable of pilot these.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that they'll vacuum up enough ex-Iraqi army pilots/crew to be a threat. Or just use their war chest to hire some mercenaries.
DeleteBarack may just send them some American pilots and advisers also, just to be fair and all, level the playing field so to speak.
DeleteA senior U.S. Defense official has confirmed to Fox News that the United States is flying armed drones over Iraq, though the aircraft are not being sent at this time to engage Sunni militant fighters. The U.S. already was flying surveillance drones over the country, and the decision to dispatch armed drones marks an escalation. But the armed drones, at this stage, still are only in place for surveillance purposes.
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ReplyDeleteSay what you like about the Russians: when they decide that something or some place is in their interest, they move fast. Remember the airport at Pristina? They didn't wait until every logistical item was in place. Somebody issued an order and they moved!
ReplyDeleteWe are masters of tactics. We win the battles, but lose the war, because we rarely consider the big picture.
DeleteThe Russians are (under Putin) masters of strategy. They always know what their best interests are as a nation, and act within that context. Even if their tactical actions are mediocre.
And the tactics, or strategy, have moved beyond national military forces to GONGOs -- Government-Organized Non-Governmental Organizations. The US used its NGOs in Kyev to take over the government, then Russia countered with support for its NGOs in eastern Ukraine. National armies need not apply. One can read more about this modern strategy here. In Ukraine, it looks like Russia will prevail. In Iraq? Who knows. ISIS has just declared a caliphate there.
DeleteAnd who is ISIS really working for? We still don't know, and there may be more than one answer. The name itself is a bit too western-marketing friendly to be an accident, and Saudi Arabia has laundered funds for a lot of such projects in the past.
DeleteRussia is sending planes to Iraq because the US won't deliver the ones the Iraqis already bought (hmmnnn...), and the US seems to be running armed drones around without actually bombing anything. Is this some stupid Obama plan, or (more likely) two divisions within the US government working at cross purposes?
Call it US Black Ops with a cover story, coincidentally enabling the US and EU to crank up domestic security and military spending another notch.
DeleteSandWyrm: Famous liberal military tactics of, "Head and ass not working in tandem" confuses hell out of everyone and gets nothing done.
DeleteNobody but Americans die.
It's those damned Europeans that are the problem, you know, the coalition of the willing. /s
ReplyDeleteWashington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama warned that "battle-hardened" Europeans who embrace jihad in Syria and Iraq threaten the United States because their passports mean they can enter the country without a visa.
I am in absolute fear of the French!
DeleteSu-25 on 100% there is vid from Reuters how they unload it from transport plane. I try to find it on Reuters site but, weird, I can't. So link is from TVN24 a Polish news:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tvn24.pl/wiadomosci-ze-swiata,2/rosyjskie-su-25-dotarly-do-iraku-do-walki-trafia-w-ciagu-najblizszych-czterech-dni,444456.html
Here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zr3fnVXC4U
DeleteThat's one! Thanks lad.
DeleteAnd maybe also Iranian pilots probably can fly thoose SU-25s too.
ReplyDeleteIraq has operated the type before ( in fact the irania SU-25s are ex-iraqis ).
The planes c may have also come from Belarus ?
On the news I saw some Su-25 frogfoot fuselage without wings. Iraq needs this aircraft right now. I guess Russian pilots are not so well paid in Russia.
ReplyDeleteIraq is out of Hellfire missiles. Price per missile: $110,000. Price per pick-up truck destroyed: less than $10,000.
30 mm rounds are far cheaper.
Barrel Bombs, ala Syria Air Force style no doubt, filled with Propane and brutal fertilizer.
DeleteUn guided rockets work just fine if they don't care about collateral damage and they don't.
Don't forget NaPalm either.
DeleteThis makes sense actually. Saddam's Iraqi Air Force operated Su-25's. It's possible that they may still have some of the pilots and trained personnel somewhere. If not, then I'm sure the Russians would be more than willing to supply pilots and maintenance personnel.
ReplyDeleteThere was a report in Defense News that the Iraqis are trying to buy Czech Hind to replace the ones ISIS has shot down.
ReplyDeleteThey might also be interested in Czech L159 Light Attack/Trainers. I've always thought these would be great in Iraq or Afghanistan as a light attack aircraft. Decent range, good payload. The advantage they have over the KAI TA-50s is that they exist and can be purchased NOW whereas the TA-50s are yet to be built or delivered.
A good sale for the Air Tractor aircraft maybe?
DeleteYet another card masterfully played by the Russians...
ReplyDeleteEasy when the U.S. government has given up. Was never an OIF fan. However if some believe it was a good idea, best to stick with it for ...... years. Iraq looks at us and sees someone who has no interest in this. This basically says to U.S. allies, that the US can't be counted on. Another case in point? All the CHICOM lovers in DC.
ReplyDeleteIt is Su-25.It is a single-seat close-support aircraft.It is designed in such a way that to destroy small mobile and stationary ground targets.There are variations in Su-25 aircraft with Russian air force.It includes ASP-17 BTs-8 gun / bomb sight with an AKS-750s camera.For more info :
ReplyDelete