The Last Wunderwaffe
F-16s, Romanian bases, and NATO pilots
I shall return yet again to the prospect of “Made in the USA” F-16s sallying forth boldly into eastern Ukraine to "teach the cabbage heads what Airpower (capitalized) really means."
From what information I've been able to glean in recent weeks, it does in fact look as though the US is aggressively setting up air ops housekeeping in Romania, very near the Black Sea coast — ostensibly to serve as the base of F-16 operations against Russia.
I submit that the preparation of this base is implicit proof that they have long-since assembled and, likely for many months, have been honing the skills and teamwork of a few squadrons of "NATO-affiliated contractor pilots" — and the plan must be to use them.
You see, if the “true plan” were to put a dozen woefully undertrained Ukrainian apprentice kamikazes behind the wheel of 1980s vintage F-16s, and then wave them off on a glorious one-way mission into the wild blue yonder ... well, you don't need much of a logistical hub for that operation.
So, if they're really working to prepare what is reputed to be the "largest NATO base in Europe", the logical conclusion is that it is intended to house, maintain, and sustain at least a couple squadrons of NATO "volunteer" pilots flying much later F-16 models than the European boneyard relics Ukraine has long been promised.
Hey, I say field five full squadrons, and outfit at least a couple of them with the latest model F-16 Vipers.
Go big or go home.
Make it the last “all in” roll of the wunderwaffe dice.
Never mind that literally no one in the US air fleet, at any level, has any experience whatsoever in high-intensity air combat operations against an enemy that:
- can match or exceed you with high numbers of superior air frames
- will be flying from interior lines, with well-established logistical infrastructure
- backed by high numbers of the finest layered air defenses on the planet
- with far superior magazine depth
- and will significantly outrange NATO platforms in almost every plausible scenario.
Oh, yeah. And I almost forgot: anyone (including the perpetually catastrophist Russian murmurers) who believes for a moment that Russia will not act to obliterate a NATO base in Romania under such circumstances ... well, that's just silly talk.
Of course they will. They'll hit it hard. Really hard — with a strike package that exceeds anything ever thrown at a Ukrainian target over the course of this war.
It could well become the most intensely pressure-packed moment in modern times — a situation exceptionally fraught with the possibility of catastrophic miscalculation.
Every time I stop to think about these things, I just shake my head at the obvious stupidity of it all.
If the Imperial Masters of War actually attempt such an air campaign against Russia, not only will the entire operation almost certainly end up being a logistical debacle of truly epic proportions, but the combat results will be shockingly one-sided — disastrous to the point the US will very likely feel compelled to cease operations after just a few days, and try to spin it into some sort of "bold statement” that "achieved its purposes".
But it will be ugly. Exceedingly ugly. And everybody that is anybody of consequence in power structures around the world will know the score and understand exactly what it means.
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— Will Schryver
TwitterX: @imetatronink