I don’t agree on that… kamikazes were literally piloted missiles!

Remotely piloted, sure 🤷‍♂️

There is a big difference between heroic self-sacrifice by individual solders in the thick of combat to save comrades; and pre-planned suicide operations by barely trained pilots as an operational tactic.

Even the Nazis ultimately rejected the latter in the guise of the Fi 103R.

That would heavily depend on context - for example, whether the young man in question had be been heavily conditioned and pressured into seeing it as his sole duty, and refusal as a great strain on his honour, despite it being a transparently futile tactic in an obviously lost war?

How about just calling them small/loitering missiles or munitions? You don’t, I assume, call a cruise missile a ‘kamikaze missile’?

PM: Deliveries of #Gripen E to Ukraine could begin in just about 3 years time.

PM also said donation of C/D still a possibility, but again, now it's full focus on F-16 and Mirage.

I didn’t say they’re near irrelevant. I said they aren’t a replacement for traditional forms of firepower, only a complement. And that we shouldn’t bet on them instead of buying decent stocks of key munitions, and that we absolutely do need to be ready and able to shoot them down in large numbers.

You asked about the MQM-172. For the linked one in your new question - as I said: “Could also be used with ADM-160 etc as decoys/chaff to help get regular missiles through to air defence targets; as Russia does with Geran/Shahed to saturate GBAD and get more Kh-101 and Iskander rounds through.”

Sadly, the TBC timeline on this looks fairly long still; more of a traditional acquisition than a donation in any immediately relevant timescale for the ongoing fight. Those of you who responded saying so; you were right!

Agree that Meteor is certainly the big differentiator at this stage (and no word on whether it will be supplied or not)

If I were Germany, I’d be looking to joint lead on UCAVs with Saab (alongside a Eurofighter EK with pods for true EA capabilities); interoperable with both GCAP and SCAF. If SCAF falls apart I honestly don’t see a credible path to what German industry wants: real co-development of a fighter… 🤷‍♂️

It could. But the costs are less of a concern than they were due to the plan to go to 3 then 3.5% of GDP. If we get even half way there by the early 2030s then the money is do-able. Issue is that IP and workshare are set so Germany joining would either be as as customer only, or blow 🇯🇵 timeframes.

Carefully choreographed footage and a clean deck, so still a significant gap with the USN in terms of deck ops proficiency of course, but the rate of improvement is rapid!