Comments by "bighand69" (@bighands69) on "Ed Nash's Military Matters" channel.

  1. They will be perfect for operations with US special operations.
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  2.  @georgebarnes8163  Ireland has a GDP of €500 billion and could easily afford such aircraft in large numbers because it does not have a naval force.
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  3. Oh and they have invested about 80% of the military budget into pensions.
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  4. Ireland needs F35's, F16's, F17s and f18s. Ireland will need to invest about €20 billion to get it self an airforce that can protect the Island. Ireland in total will probably need to spend about €80 billion on its military.
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  5. Nations that have historically used mercenaries have not faired that well because those forces can be bought of by somebody else with more money.
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  6. Ireland is an extremely wealthy country its GDP is about €500 billion for a population of 5 million. Its government could invest and build its military with its own aircraft. There are reasons why none of this has happened.
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  7. Unless the West is willing to show Putin that it is serious it will mean nothing. The problem they have now is that they have given him the impression that they are not actually willing to do anything. SO they need to do something that really demonstrates that they are serious. The first need to flood Ukraine with weapons that can stop the advancements of tanks and fighter jets. Nothing to crazy that would give the Russians the impression that they are about to be invaded.
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  8. British military is far more powerful than people realize because it is a 300,000 professional force with top tier training. Russia is made up of a conscription army that is using extremely old equipment and has poor training. Russian forces would be great for defence or attacking small countries but would be useless in large scale conflicts.
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  9.  @Danheron2  Ireland will need to invest about 40 to 80 billion in its military because it is so poorly equipped to begin with and it then needs to spend about 2.5% per year which is about €10 billion.
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  10.  @alltypesofvideos9902  Nearly 85% of Irish government expenditure is on the Irish welfare state which covers everything from education, hospitals, welfare payments and so on. And for your information Ireland does issue welfare vouchers.
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  11. The were not jet fighters.
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  12. Ireland would be better of buying a first rate air defence system from the UK to defend its airspace in the situation of invasion. When it comes to aircraft such as fighter jets ireland should buy about 60 F-16 and then 20 F-35. That would enable Ireland to defend a naval invasion from the South, West and North. When combined with Britain it would form a formidable defense system. The dangers for Ireland would be a Russian push from either the north, south from mediterranean via the black sea and a wide arc attack from african mainland via the Atlantic.
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  13. Never use Mercenaries for home defence. Their loyalties never are with the place they work for.
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  14. What people do not understand is that the aircraft as a platform has been built from scratch. No matter what existing platform is used it would have to go through the exact same process. They did not just select a random aircraft they would have tested numerous options.
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  15. Tanks are amazing when they are part of battle groups but on their own they are useless.
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  16. A nightmare of a Russian invasion is much worse than the left dominated political nightmare of ireland.
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  17. Ireland has no military strength at all. Every single european country could conquer the Irish defence forces in 3 days or less. The reason Ireland neglects its military is due to the culture of the country valuing the existence of the welfare state more than its defence. Currently 80% of Irish government expenditure is on the welfare state.
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  18.  @ConCon75  What you think Guerilla warfare conducted against the Chinese would work while they are slaughtering the people?
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  19. That might work for Korea but not Ireland.
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  20. Nope. A drone cannot be used like a piloted aircraft. Drones have their place but they simply cannot compete with a human in the cockpit.
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  21.  @Pallanamnjavelet  It will not be the case in 20 years. A human in an environment is what they want.
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  22. Mirage 2000 would not be enough and then there would be the issue of Ireland not having the infrastructure to maintain the system.
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  23. Mercs are never a good idea for home defence. They can be used to fight in a war overseas but never to defend the homes of the Irish or any country for that matter.
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  24. Russia does not have the airforce to take on the west. The US has complete air supremacy. Two the point that its air force is twice the size of Russia and China combined.
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  25. No. The super tucano is an already developed platform. This new aircraft was built from the ground up for special operations.
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  26.  @simon8089  It is a welfare state army at the moment.
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  27.  @dustyak79  They can tell that they are Ukrainians they know the difference between Russians and Ukrainians. Europe could not tell who was from the middle east during its refugee crisis.
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  28. They have been developed from the ground up for Special Operations. That means it has to be capable of performing to their specifications.
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  29. For the price of a SAAB Gripen Ireland could have F16's.
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  30.  @bigjohn697791  F16 have a proven record and are cheaper than a Gripen. They both have a similar level of performance but price and scale win out of the F16.
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  31. No Ireland needs F35's and a series of other fighters and will need to invest about 40 to 80 billion on its air force.
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  32.  @michaellim4165  Ireland has a GDP of about $380 billion one of the world's highest per population. And 2.5 defence spending is about $10 billion per year. 40 to 80 billion is to get Ireland up to speed and then they have to spend 2.5% per year so as to ensure that Ireland can keep up its defence.
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  33.  @michaellim4165  The unit cost of an F35 is within the range of an F18. Ireland with a military budget of $10 billion per year could easily up keep a fleet of F35, F18 and other craft as need be. The initial cost I stated was for equipment buying and creating infrastructure which would be about $40 billion to 80 billion. Keeping that military running then could easily be achieved for $10 billion per year which would fall within normative budgetary requirements. Ireland has two options here either to have an air force to protect it as an island or a naval force to protect it self as an island. An air force is a much cheaper option.
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  34.  @michaellim4165  Spending $40 to $80 billion on upgrading Ireland's defence infrastructure is not 21% GDP only the year expenditure would be classified as a percentage of GDP. Ireland spending any less than $40 billion puts it at massive risk. The risk of global conflict is at an all time high and Ireland would be a prime target in such a war.
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  35. While it will not be designed for that primarily it most certainly will have a missile system that allows it to target fighter jets and other aircraft. US targeting systems will be capable of targeting up to several simultaneous enemies at the same time. Ground troops will also be able to provide targeting information.
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  36. Whatever aircraft that would be selected would then have to be designed from the ground up to be used by special operations.
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  37.  @RAFASOP  Ireland needs to spend about €50 billion on its military and then about €12 billion per year.
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  38.  @alltypesofvideos9902  Russia will destroy Ireland in a few days when they sweep through Europe and invade Ireland so they can use it as a staging ground to attack Britain from both sides. So Ireland either lets British forces in to help defence or it goes it alone but we know how that will end.
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  39. Nope. It is a complete platform that has been built from the ground up.
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  40. I am afraid Ireland needs a fully functioning air force made up of something like F15 and F16 crafts. And it then could be supplemented with Hawks.
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  41.  @EyeInTheSkypaulmcmenamin  For a country with economic state of Ireland with a €500 billion GDP it would need to spend about €50 billion building its defence force infrastructure and then spend about €12 billion per year to maintain that which equates to about 2.5% of GDP. Hungary spends €2 billion per year at present but Ireland is not even at that level and does not have the infrastructure that the hungarian defence forces have in place. As an Island Ireland has two routes it can go down to defend its Northern, Western Southern coast lines. It can either build out a naval force that can engage an invading threat or it can build an airforce that could defend out to about 400 naval miles.
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  42. Ireland current spends about 1 billion on its military and about 80% of that expenditure is on pensions. How realistic do you think these proposals are.
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  43. They are spending 3 billion on a program that will allow low speed aircraft to saturate a space with missiles. Those aircraft will be capable of taking out tanks and other vehicles and even buildings. They will also act like a recon system for ground troops. It can be taken down in parts and then transported on a cargo aircraft anywhere in the world.
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  44. Cheaper. Absolutely not. It is a platform that has been developed from the ground up specifically for special operations.
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