Russia - threadbanned users in OP

Now you're just trolling. Almost 40k post in total, an active user in a "Russia" thread, and you don't know what vatnik is? Give me a break...

They've only built a few of them, including prototypes, so I doubt we'll find out any time soon.

Another wonderwaffen ,

If they have several hundred or several thousand available they could cause serious problems,you might get the odd one in a propaganda video at some stage

True be like those terminator tanks.

"I think that it is now too late..."

Your post very much implies somehow time is on putin's side. Just some of the headlines I have read today spell out how Ukraine is settling in for a long term fight against putin's forces occupying its territory. The daily address from Zelenskyy explains how he expects the indigenous war industry in Ukraine will become one of the top ten arms producers in the world. Another article pointed out how they plan to start their own mass production of 155mm artillery shells next year after already having prototypes in testing and are already producing lots of the other ammunition in use by their armed forces themselves.

The drones they home produce for the fight against putin's troops and equipment are also widely respected and proving effective on the battlefield. The game changer they need to defeat putin's army may not be one they import from another country but something they develop themselves (or more likely a number of things they develop themselves with support of their allies) and while economic aid to Ukraine may have had some recent delays, none of their allies have said anything about moving away from the long term support they have pledged to Ukraine for as long as it takes to defeat putin and his criminal empire building dreams. Only the most delusional pro putin puppet could paint what is happening to putin's forces in Ukraine as any type of victory.

Lots of speculation over the last few days of what type of weapon took down a number of putin's attack aircraft but another option is also reported to be active in Ukraine's air defense and it demonstrates why Ukraine will win. They know what putin's forces have that needs to be defeated and will find the answers:

You would think when they get them, they would do a high value target somewhere for their 1st mission. Something for moral and a look here we told you all along we could use them and use them in the best way possible. Send us more of them as we can do serious things with them.

To be a "game changer " in attack ,the f16s would need to be used in mass, to the edge of their capabilities,, and accepting large losses - Ukraine has 18 planes and newly converted pilots - they cant take losses,

They can however be successful in defence, they can keep russian jets 50 to 100km back from the front line,limiting Ru ability to use glide bombs, or to be top cover for helicopters attacks,

Target practice for the Archer.

Yeah, those yokes are just infantry support vehicles similar to the Bradley or other IFVs but the emphasis is on firepower rather than transporting and protecting troops , twin 30 mm cannons and missiles should be a pretty effective system,but like everything else in the Russian military industry over the last few years they take a concept and rather than spending the time developing platforms they jump straight to limited production runs ,they used a few of them in Syria before Ukraine,

Sounds plausible to me. The Ukrainians are ideally placed to integrate ex soviet systems with modern NATO standard equipment and I'd be very surprised to see them make public all of the ways they have been doing this.

Isn't the most plausible explanation the planes were shot down with the additional Patriot supplied by Germany. It's pretty much the same effect as the 5 planes/helicopters shot down over Bryansk in Russia back in May. It's been confirmed by Ukraine that it was a patriot system.

Ukraine would also have to upgrade their MIG/SU radars to increase the range to match the AIM-120. Unless they fired them in the general direction as fox3's, so without a radar lock and let the AIM-120 use it's own radar to search for a target. It's risky, but not like any Ukrainian planes would be in the air in front of them.

Depends on where the shootdown occurred. I don't remember reading anything about that, so that's a genuine question on my part.

Generally, Patriot is a very powerful system, but while it is vehicle-mounted, it isn't exactly mobile in the same way that for example a PzH-2000 or HIMARS would be mobile. It takes a bit of time to set it up and connect up the launchers & radar to the command post. Plus, it's a high-value system, so you wouldn't place it too close to the front. Now, if the shootdowns occurred over Ukrainian-held territory then sure, it could easily have been a Patriot, NASAMS or an IRIS-T system, but if they happened, lets say over the Black Sea or well into Russian-held Donbas, that could indicate an airborne system of some sort.

EDIT: It could also be that the Ukrainian Air Force has simply become a little less risk-averse, now that there's the promise of at least a certain level of reinforcements in the shape of the F-16 on the horizon.

True, and that's not accounting for any information they might be getting from NATO assets airborne over the Black Sea or along the borders. The flow of information must be staggering at this point, I'd hazard to say that 95-99% of what's happening in that regard is going completely under the public radar.

Truth before death in old age.