Italy's 61º Stormo received enough of the new T-345A basic jet trainers to begin pilot training this June.

As everyone knows, I am all for growing European militaries and adding capabilities... but why does EVERYTHING have to be with US engines?

Europe must stop buying US
1/22 made kit, components and weapon systems.

The Italian T-345A (left) and the Czech L-39 Skyfox (right) are the only two basic jet trainers currently in production in Europe... and both use a Williams International FJ44-4M turbofan made in Ogden, Utah.

Yes, there are more
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To my American followers: it is time to plan for exile.

Doesn't mean you will have to leave, but based on experiences of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany after 1933 here are a few things to make escape and exile easier:

1) get an up to date passport (the regime might no issue you
1/12 one in the future thus stranding you)
2) if possible get a passport from another nation. It doesn't matter which; just get a passport the regime can't cancel.
3) open bank accounts in a foreign nation (I can't stress this enough! The regime will freeze your American accounts,
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This is the wing, which trains the fighter pilots of 🇧🇪Belgium, 🇩🇰 Denmark, 🇩🇪 Germany, the 🇳🇱 Netherlands, 🇳🇴 Norway and 🇷🇴 Romania.

But all those people are wearing 🇺🇸 US Air Force uniforms... well, of course - the aforementioned countries' fighter pilots are trained by
1/8 the US Air Force's 80th Flying Training Wing based at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas, which is home to the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training.

Canada, Greece, Italy (pic), Portugal, Spain, Türkiye and the United Kingdom also have the right to train pilots at Sheppard, but
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I am sorry 🇸🇪 Sweden, but I must talk about the Blekinge-class submarine procurement disaster.

Because it exemplifies what happens, when a nation guts its defence budget AND nonetheless demands from its defence industry to deliver cutting edge systems.

This never works!
1/25 Sweden built its first submarine HM Hajen (pic) in 1904.

Since then Sweden continuously built submarines at Kockums' shipyard in Malmö and at the state owned Karlskrona shipyard.

Between December 1954 and December 1988 (34 years) the two yards launched 24 newly built and
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I read the EU's ReArm Europe Plan/Readiness 2030 Plan... it's useless as it caps defence spending increases at 1.5% and lasts only for 4 years.

You can tell that the frugals (🇳🇱🇦🇹 etc.) and russian lackeys (🇭🇺) don't care about investing in European defence.

This is mad!
1/12 ReArm allows Eurozone members to request the EU Commission to activate the National Escape Clause from the Eurozone strict 3% budget deficit limit.

Then the European Council votes on it (qualified majority) and after that nations can spend up to 1.5% per year on defence and
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Those of us, who have been at Euromaidan, know that Ukrainians are fearless, fight for freedom, and never surrender.

Even if the US betrays them, they will fight on.

If you ever met a Ukrainian, you would know that.

Trump etc. have no clue, about these people.
1/9 Ukrainians stood their ground and defend their capital against these russian stormtroopers for months... in the deepest winter.

Ukrainians, like the English, Scottish, Welsh and North Irish during the Blitz 1940, never surrender. They will continue the fight even if alone.
2/9

One of the big issues for European navies is General Electric's LM2500 gas turbine... which powers an obscene number of European warships.

Only the 🇬🇧 Royal Navy continued to buy Rolls-Royce gas turbines for its carriers, destroyers and frigates, which is why now Europe
1/13 produces the most advanced gas turbine for warships, namely the Rolls-Royce MT30, which so far has been installed in these classes:

🇬🇧 Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers (2× MT30)
🇬🇧 Type 26 frigates (1× MT30)
🇮🇹 Landing Helicopter Dock "Trieste" (2× MT30)

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Please stop saying Europe should cancel weapons deals with the US.

Yes, we should not sign new weapon deals with the US; but canceling existing deals will hurt Ukraine and also Europe.

And there are 3 reasons for that. Let me explain.

1) Europe's armed forces have nearly
1/19 0 spare equipment, as almost everything taken out of service over the last 35 years was either sold off or scrapped. Europe must continue to support Ukraine and therefore Europe needs to buy whatever weapons it can get it hands on to free up equipment to donate to Ukraine.
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I have to tell you when putin will attack next:

🇬🇧 @Keir_Starmer is NOT increasing defence spending this year.

🇬🇧 @Keir_Starmer is NOT increasing defence spending next year.

🇬🇧 @Keir_Starmer is increasing defence spending FROM (!) April 2027 by 0.2%.

This means that for
1/7 the next two years the British Armed Forces get nothing. They will remain as broken as they are.

The British Army has 78,000 troops of which just 18,000 are combat capable (the remaining 60,000 (= 77%) lack the materiel, training, equipment, etc. to be useful).
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Yesterday I posted a thread about American weapons and components in fighter aircraft and how Europe has to wean itself off them.

Today let's look at transport, tanker, maritime patrol, and airborne early warning aircraft.
(Tomorrow then trainer aircraft and drones)
1/25 Transport aircraft come in two sizes: for strategic airlift or tactical airlift.
Simplified: strategic airlift transports materiel between continents and tactical airlift within a theater of operations.
For strategic airlift the choice for Europe is easy: A400M Atlas, because
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Let's talk about American weapons and how Europe has to wean itself off them.
Part 1 of a long thread; this one looking at fighter jets.

First and foremost: Europe has to get all American made components out of all weapon systems produced in Europe. If Trump can shut down a
1/24 European production line by withholding a component, then that component has to replaced... and if that is impossible, then that weapon system has no future and production has to end.
As for the F-35... Europe has nothing even close in combat capability. Best course will be
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The Gripen was designed by Sweden for Sweden's Bas 90 air base system and - truly - Sweden built the perfect fighter for Sweden's Bas 90 system... which resulted in a fighter no one but Sweden needs.

Bear with me as I explain a few things @Saab doesn't want you to know.
1/29 Bas 90 was developed in the 1970s, when the Swedish Air Force was flying the Viggen (and some upgraded Draken). Bas 90 consisted of some 30+ reserve air bases with a 2,000+ metres (6,600+ ft) long main runway and 2-3 short runways of 800 metres (2,600 ft).
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I set out to create a table showing the reduction in British Infantry units between 1989 and 2025...

After doing Scotland, Wales and Yorkshire - I gave up.

For three reason:
a) the sheer size of it! The British Army had 100 infantry battalions in 1989 (not counting the
1/8 nine battalions of the Ulster Defence Regiment).
b) the British Army's habit of reroling battalions every four years.
c) the disbanding of volunteer regiments in the early 1990s, then the merging of volunteer battalions into new volunteer regiments in the mid 1990s, and then
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I spent my evening creating this graphic to show how much the 🇬🇧 British Army's armoured forces have atrophied since 1989:

• overall from 19 cavalry regiments to 9
• and from 14 armoured (tank) regiments to 2

This is no longer a credible force for peer-to-peer conflict.
1/4 The picture is equally bad for other NATO armies, which however did not amalgamate their cavalry/armoured forces, but simply disbanded tank units.
These numbers of disbanded tank battalions for the main NATO nations are (1989 -> 2025):

🇺🇸 123 -> 31
🇩🇪 81 -> 5
🇫🇷 21 -> 4
2/4

To give you an idea how irresponsible German politicians gutted the German Army, here is a list of its brigades in 1990 and when they were disbanded:

• Panzergrenadierbrigade 1 ❌ 2007
• Panzerbrigade 2 ❌ 1993
• Panzerbrigade 3 ❌ 1994
• Panzergrenadierbrigade 4 ❌ 1993
1/8 • Panzergrenadierbrigade 5 ❌ 1996
• Panzerbrigade 6 ❌ 1993
• Panzergrenadierbrigade 7 ❌ 2004
• Panzerbrigade 8 ❌ 1993
• 🇩🇪 Panzerlehrbrigade 9
• Panzergrenadierbrigade 10 ❌ 1993
• Panzergrenadierbrigade 11 ❌ 1993
• 🇩🇪 Panzerbrigade 12
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🇮🇹 Italy will become the highest defence spender in Europe if 🇪🇺 President Ursula von der Leyen manages to activate the EU's escape clause for defence investment.

You see, Italy produces almost everything (!) what its military wants in Italy - even all of the Italian F-35.
1/19 Italian Prime Minister @GiorgiaMeloni has said for years that only countries with a robust AND a ready military will sit at the table, while everyone else will be on the menu.
So she chose defence industry manager @GuidoCrosetto as her defence minister. But the European rule
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This is a map of Canada... and if you read this thread the circles will make sense.

Canada is lies on 3 oceans:
• Atlantic Ocean to the East
• Pacific Ocean to the West
• Arctic Ocean to the North

Canada should be able to patrol and defend all of them... but it can't.
1/23 Canada's fighters are based at CFB Cold Lake and CFB Bagotville. The two circles show the combat range of Canada's current and future fighter with an air-to-air weapons load:

• red: CF-18 Hornet with three external drop tanks.
• orange: F-35A with internal fuel only.
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Immediately after becoming Prime Minister of Italy Benito Mussolini made his close ally Emilio De Bono the Chief of Police.
De Bono then turned police in a tool of fascist oppression and ordered the murder of dissidents.
1/4 Immediately after becoming Chancellor of Germany Adolf Hitler made his close ally Hermann Göring the Chief of Prussia's Police.
Göring then turned police in a tool of fascist oppression, created the Gestapo and ordered the murder of dissidents.
2/4

Let's bust some more Gripen E myths:

Of course Gripen has a fast turnaround time - due to having the fewest hardpoints of all Western fighters and the smallest fuel tank of all Western fighters.

The Gripen also has the shortest combat range at full weapons load. If you want
1/9 to extend the range, either you can't use the full weapons load or you have to mount external fuel tanks, which of course use weapon hardpoints.

The Gripen E also has less thrust than all other Western fighters and it doesn't "supercruise". That's a load of bollocks.
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The Gripen E is least capable fighter produced in Europe. Both Rafale and Eurofighter are much more capable and those two are still less capable than the F-35A.

Even the F-15EX is more capable than the Gripen E. No Air Force with access to either F-35A, Rafale or Eurofighter
1/9


will buy the Gripen E. It's just not happening.

The Gripen E carries the least amount of weapons over the shortest distance.

And stop with "Gripen E is improved for arctic conditions": where do you think Eielson Air Force Base is?
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This is the North Atlantic Ocean.

The ocean that both, the US and Europe, need to be free of hostile submarines. Chinese and russian submarines can only enter it by six routes. Three of which are impassable for them.

But the easiest & shortest open route is past Greenland.
1/25 During WWI German submarines sank 6,000+ allied ships and during WWII 3,500+ allied ships.

In both wars the allies had to deploy 100s of destroyers, corvettes, subchasers and aircraft to hunt Germany's U-Boote.

(Photo: a U-Boot is hit by a US Navy plane on 16 July 1943)
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