As rumors swirl about an alleged cagey Ukrainian operation, sanctions are likely to hurt any chances at new A-50s rolling off Russian lines with enough specialists to man it, experts told Breaking Defense.
“They will have to decide what costs them more: to lose one or more of these A-50s or to continue to see their combat aircraft and S-400 units progressively degraded,” a Ukrainian expert told Breaking Defense.
Last week’s European Council meeting in Brussels ended with a pledge that Ukraine will “remain a priority,” but there are fissures, both political and logistical, in Kyiv’s support.
“When it comes to the Russian VKS all you can say sometimes is ‘thank God for shoddy maintenance,’” a NATO-nation military aviation analyst told Breaking Defense.
SOUTHCOM head Gen. Laura Richardson spelled it out clearly, saying Chinese investment in the region means Beijing is “on the 20-yard line of our homeland.”
According to Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov, the Neptune preformed “flawlessly” during the Aug. 23 attack on a Russian Almaz-Antei S-400 “Triumf” air and missile defense complex.
“No one wants the Chinese to become capable of designing and building their own jet engines,” said a retired NATO-nation intelligence officer who spoke to Breaking Defense.
Running a close second to Turkey’s presence at LIMA were a constellation of PRC firms, including large exhibits from four of the major state-owned defense firms.
Underpinning KAI’s plan is an overall goal of reducing the company’s dependence on Korean government procurement and to increase sales in the export market.
Giving the long-range missile to Ukraine “will help them to hit the command-and-control nodes, the logistics, where you have a sort of coalescence of Russian soldiers,” Rear Admiral Tim Woods told Breaking Defense.
