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Posted (edited)
17 minutes ago, Parliament said:

How much decommissioned stuff do we have, and how good a shape is it in?

A shit ton. And we run PM on it. We have shit hidden in caves across Norway. 

Adding. Most is USMC gear. But yeah it is there. 

Edited by InkaUtexas
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Posted
12 minutes ago, Parliament said:

How much decommissioned stuff do we have, and how good a shape is it in?

We have almost a thousand F-16s sitting in the high desert, as an example, and it's very dry.  They will never be used again, except for occasional parts or to replace the occasional Air National Guard/Air Force Reserve F-16s that are lost or retired for one reason or another.  They are in far better shape than aircraft going through the shitshow of Russian aircraft storage where they go well below freezing in winter and bake in the summer, and are stripped for blackmarket parts. Most still have plenty of life in them, they were simply replaced by newer aircraft or retired as the military shrank.

We also have 3,600 Abrams tanks that are sitting in storage, many of which were retired, again, due to a shrinking or changing military, or newer models.

 We purchased over 160,000 Humvees, and I'm sure there's a few tens of thousands in storage (although they may not be in the best of shape, *ahem* a lot of us treated them like shit). We probably have a few thousand Bradleys in storage, probably some Strykers in storage.  A whole lot of M113s (although those are very old).  

Probably have a few hundred Black Hawks in storage as well.

We actually take care of our stuff, unlike the Russians.

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Posted
10 minutes ago, Parliament said:

How much decommissioned stuff do we have, and how good a shape is it in?

 

I don't think the US has been prepared for the trench warfare type stuff that Russia and Ukraine are embroiled in. We have a lot of sophisticated stuff in storage, but I bet our basic artillery shells are pretty limited and may not fit eastern european weapons.

As for advanced stuff, we only have 410 HIMARS but production is ramping up. I think we gave Ukraine 20. Another 20 HIMARS would be great but the ATACMS cost $1.5 mil so we will never be able to give Ukraine what it needs.  

Posted
1 minute ago, atomheartbevo said:

We have almost a thousand F-16s sitting in the high desert, as an example, and it's very dry.  They will never be used again, except for occasional parts or to replace the occasional Air National Guard/Air Force Reserve F-16s that are lost or retired for one reason or another.  They are in far better shape than aircraft going through the shitshow of Russian aircraft storage where they go well below freezing in winter and bake in the summer, and are stripped for blackmarket parts. Most still have plenty of life in them, they were simply replaced by newer aircraft or retired as the military shrank.

We also have 3,600 Abrams tanks that are sitting in storage, many of which were retired, again, due to a shrinking or changing military, or newer models.

 We purchased over 160,000 Humvees, and I'm sure there's a few tens of thousands in storage (although they may not be in the best of shape, *ahem* a lot of us treated them like shit). We probably have a few thousand Bradleys in storage, probably some Strykers in storage.  A whole lot of M113s (although those are very old).  

Probably have a few hundred Black Hawks in storage as well.

We actually take care of our stuff, unlike the Russians.

We have a fleet sitting at sea. The APS program. All goes through PM. Name it, it is on those boats. Then add in BEAR CAT and other shit. We can field 200K tomorrow. Rations to tanks to GenSets. If President Trump gives the order we are ready. As a Nation. 

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Posted
1 minute ago, Parliament said:

How much of that stuff could be realistically be brought up to near-current specs and sold?

 

A better question related to @atomheartbevo's post is how many Ukrainian pilots have we trained at this point? Did the training stop when we stopped supplying weapons or did it continue?

Posted (edited)
23 minutes ago, Bevo said:

 

A better question related to @atomheartbevo's post is how many Ukrainian pilots have we trained at this point? Did the training stop when we stopped supplying weapons or did it continue?

Below is a link from the NYP. I found it on a site propped by Republican money and it's dated so apply appropriate amounts of salt.

LINK On Ukrainian Pilot Training

Where I found the Article for reference

Edit - Found an interesting regional and more recent article sorry if this is a retreat. But as @atomheartbevo noted. Its an issue. Leaning to fly a new single prop takes a goodly amount of practice. The F16 is a tad more complex.

Kyiv Independent on Pilot Training

Spoiler

The Czech government has approved a plan to train up to eight Ukrainian pilots on the operation of F-16 fighter jets this year, the Czech Defense Ministry announced on July 9.

 

The approval comes two months after Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the country was prepared to provide fighter jet training to Ukrainian pilots in a joint press conference with President Volodymyr Zelensky on May 5.

 

The Czech Defense Ministry will provide 150 hours of training, worth approximately 32 million koruna (around $1.5 million), through the state-owned enterprise LOM Praha, the ministry reported. The program expects to train up to eight Ukrainian pilots this year at no charge to Kyiv.

 

While the Czech Republic does not have F-16 fighter jets in its own arsenal, the pilots will train for using simulators and L-39 training aircraft.

 

"If Ukraine is to continue to effectively defend itself against Russian aggression, it needs not only military equipment, but also well-trained armed forces, including air forces," Defense Minister Jana Cernochova said.

 

"As an active member of the so-called coalition of the willing, the Czech Republic is aware of its responsibility, and continued support for wartime Ukraine is also in its strategic interest."

 

In 2023, Ukraine and its allies created an aviation coalition to provide Ukraine with F-16 combat aircraft. European nations have agreed to supply aircraft to help modernize the Ukrainian Air Force as they themselves transition to more advanced F-35 fighter jets.

 

The first shipments of F-16s were delivered to Ukraine in 2024 by the Netherlands and Denmark. Ukraine has also been promised F-16s by Belgium and Norway.

 

Other members of the coalition, including the U.S. and the U.K., have provided training for Ukrainian pilots and maintenance personnel.

 

Edited by BurntEyes
Posted (edited)
26 minutes ago, Bevo said:

 

A better question related to @atomheartbevo's post is how many Ukrainian pilots have we trained at this point? Did the training stop when we stopped supplying weapons or did it continue?

If I were Ukraine, I would have an open offer to any former F-16 pilot. We will pay you $1,000,000 per mission to fight on our behalf. We will make sure your family receives the money, if you are killed. I mean, at least your family is guaranteed a million dollars. Brave men have died for a lot less.

CHIEF

Edited by CHIEF
drunk and high
Posted
2 minutes ago, CHIEF said:

If I were Ukraine, I would have an open offer to any former F-16 pilot. We will pay you $1,000,000 per mission to fight on our behalf. We will make sure your family receives the money, if you are killed. I mean, at least your family is guaranteed a million dollars. Brave men have died for a lot less.

CHIEF

$1m per flight could add up really quickly. Drones arent cheap.

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Posted
Just now, CHIEF said:

If I were Ukraine, I would have an open offer to any former F-16 pilot. We will pay you $1,000,000 per mission to fight on our behalf. If you get killed, we will make sure your family receives the money, if you are killed. I mean, at least your family is guaranteed a million dollars. Brave men have died for a lot less.

CHIEF

The pilots are not the issue. It is the E-5 who maintains. 

Ukraine's AF is USSR focused. We don't use the same tools. 

 

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Posted (edited)
2 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

The pilots are not the issue. It is the E-5 who maintains. 

Ukraine's AF is USSR focused. We don't use the same tools. 

 

Gotcha. Not people to fly them, but people to maintain them. Wow. I just assumed it was a Harbor Freight ratchet with metric sockets, who new. And that isn't said with sarcasm, just good knowledge  

CHIEF

Edited by CHIEF
Drunk and high
Posted
34 minutes ago, BurntEyes said:

$1m per flight could add up really quickly. Drones arent cheap.

Drones are very cheap, comparatively. I would expect a decent chunk of money to go into drone development and production. @CHIEF If I'm the Europeans, I would put my money on indigenous production first. Only what I couldn't produce, or couldn't produce fast enough, would I order from the Americans.

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Posted
Drones are very cheap, comparatively. I would expect a decent chunk of money to go into drone development and production. [mention=1385]CHIEF[/mention] If I'm the Europeans, I would put my money on indigenous production first. Only what I couldn't produce, or couldn't produce fast enough, would I order from the Americans.

Those Americans were pretty good partners for a long while. About 80 years. Then they went crazy and became…unreliable.
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Posted
21 minutes ago, Schulz2.0 said:

Drones are very cheap, comparatively. I would expect a decent chunk of money to go into drone development and production. @CHIEF If I'm the Europeans, I would put my money on indigenous production first. Only what I couldn't produce, or couldn't produce fast enough, would I order from the Americans.

Eventually the Europeans will be able to produce in the numbers Ukraine needs, but it will take years. And since 2022, those numbers have not increased much. 

Posted
26 minutes ago, Schulz2.0 said:

Drones are very cheap, comparatively. I would expect a decent chunk of money to go into drone development and production. @CHIEF If I'm the Europeans, I would put my money on indigenous production first. Only what I couldn't produce, or couldn't produce fast enough, would I order from the Americans.

Oh I completely agree they are relatively cheap. My point was putting $1m into paying a pilot for a single flight is just bad ROI regarding war funding efforts.

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Posted
3 minutes ago, BurntEyes said:

Oh I completely agree they are relatively cheap. My point was putting $1m into paying a pilot for a single flight is just bad ROI regarding war funding efforts.

Not if the pilot is Maverick.

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Posted
28 minutes ago, Schulz2.0 said:

Drones are very cheap, comparatively. I would expect a decent chunk of money to go into drone development and production. @CHIEF If I'm the Europeans, I would put my money on indigenous production first. Only what I couldn't produce, or couldn't produce fast enough, would I order from the Americans.

I agree. A country needs to be the point of origin for most of their country's "top secret" innovations, and present that on the markets. There are about to be some rich Ukrainians. 

CHIEF

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