Earlier quoted context omitted.
Rheinmetall has already been going absolutely bonkers on the stock market.
Wouldn't be surprised if Trump bought shares.
Some congressmen have, apparently
US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s
841–850 of 1001 posts
Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s
#842Earlier quoted context omitted.
The best explanation I've heard is that this (almost) half of the US population doesn't care if it hurts a bit, as long as it hurts the other half of the US population more.
No, that's not it. I'm writing this from rural America in deep Trump territory, and people here are already struggling and have been for years. From their perspective they've been left out of the benefits of the global economy—the big cities and the coasts might be better off, but the middle of the country wants to go back to when they had opportunities and jobs for working class Americans. They're almost certainly w…
But what is Trump saying/doing that's addressing their concerns? Cutting taxes for the rich? Tariffs? Renaming the Gulf of Mexico? Killing trans/gay rights?
The closest is his anti immigrant rhetoric but my guess is that this will largely hurt farmers (although maybe they know better than I do).
How is any of this helping fly over country?
Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s
#843And the story continues. This means that no country will want to buy F16s. If you don't get support they are useless. They are eroding really fast the US shine and trust in the world. This is going to have a massive effect on the US economy, internal consumption will not save it. This is the end of an empire while its rich kings are golfing every weekend on the taxpayer dime using federal and local resources. I am re…
> This means that no country will want to buy F16s.
This means that no country will buy any US-supplied military equipment.
Trump has destroyed the trust in the US defense sector for years to come.
Absolutely irresponsible action.
Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s
#844Earlier quoted context omitted.
How can any reasonable national leader justify building their military on American systems anymore? Especially now that the U.S. government is also talking about not living up to its NATO obligations. This is not gonna hurt the rest of the world. Defense is where the U.S. exports a lot. So cutting back on U.S. weaponry will only help other nations. The same is true of Tech. Currently the tech industry is global, but…
On tech side, personally I started to move my servers and personal infra to Europe, both physically and legally. I'll not be able to leave some companies outright, but I'll be taking backups and reducing my reliance fast.
Same here, it's a massive risk to trust any important data or services to be handled by American companies now. Thankfully I was already fairly decoupled from US big tech, so the transition took just a couple of days.
Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s
#845What’s the motivation, if the Russians have the strong cards in this upcoming peace negotiation the current administration feels the need to weaken the Ukrainian side equipment? Slice of the minerals?
Trump just wants the war to end. Ukraine doesn't want to surrender a chunk of its territory under bad terms, so they won't make a deal. Putin is more than happy to take a deal that means they win. Trump thinks that if he weakens Ukraine then they'll be more willing to take a bad deal. He also doesn't like Ukraine or Zelenskyy, so has no particular desire to do them a favour.
> Putin is more than happy to take a deal that means they win.
That is not at all evident. Russia's economy is in a terrible spot, and might collapse entirely without the war ('special military operation') effort.
Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s
#846And the story continues. This means that no country will want to buy F16s. If you don't get support they are useless. They are eroding really fast the US shine and trust in the world. This is going to have a massive effect on the US economy, internal consumption will not save it. This is the end of an empire while its rich kings are golfing every weekend on the taxpayer dime using federal and local resources. I am re…
> the US shine
Oh no! We lost our "shine" because we aren't the premier weapons dealer on the planet anymore!
> a massive effect on the US economy
You see the problem. You just ignore it. You pretend it's a secret virtue.
> end of an empire
Good. I'm absolutely tired of being a citizen of an "empire." Take your dusty imperialism and go away; please, your warmongering ways absolutely disgust me.
> a direct attack against their own personal interests
It's not. You want it to be for propaganda purposes. See what I mean about living in an empire? This is completely churlish and gross.
Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s
#847Meanwhile, Trump forgets what Aukus is, and one of his peoples is making concerned noises about whether it's a good idea ([1]).
If the point is to piss off every single one of the US' allies in an any% speedrun, the current administration seems to be doing a pretty bang-up job of this.
It's terrifying, though. The world's (current) superpower might have a big military and all, but actively signalling that you don't really need friends can only lead to a decrease in overall geopolitical stability, right?
[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/09/trump-pick-for...
Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s
#848Earlier quoted context omitted.
The F35 was an enormously expensive program only possible by increasing the production run through sales to partners/allies. It was predicated on a defense model currently burning down.
Absolutely. This isn’t just about the F16 and F35 either. It effectively ends or drastically changes the upcoming NGAD before they even get started. Any previous sales projections are irrelevant in a world where the USA has essentially remotely disabled an ally’s fighter jets without cause. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have to redesign major components of the NGAD in light of a budget that looks drastically differ…
NGAD was already being scaled back due to cost. But yeah this is probably going to get it canceled.
Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s
#849The comments in this thread freak me out. Either the world's media has brainwashed the population into believing America is failing and the 'right' is evil/dumb, or I'm totally delussioned (as an American) for seeing mostly good in what the current administration is doing. Both are terrifying.
with kindness and respect.
Ideally, "hacker news" is for people who have a hacker/engineer mindset. Look at the actual facts of the situation, not the flashy sales brochure.
Odds are that your second hypothesis is the correct one. You may wish to start by comparing what you think the current administration is doing with what it is actually doing.
You cannot count on Fox News to be accurate, they have never claimed to present "accurate" news.
You may be interested in the results of this study, where Fox viewers were paid to watch CNN for a month.
https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/fox-news-study-compari...
Re: US Ends Support For Ukrainian F-16s
#850Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think he is referring to the F-35 only here. On military discussion forums it is the consensus that the F-35 is superior to everything else out there with the only exception being that the F-22 has superior air to air combat capabilities.
Dollar for dollar is the f35 or a drone superior?
No drone can take out a CRAM (aka: RADAR aimbot shooting bullets into the sky).
Meanwhile, a helicopter with an anti-radiation missile can take out CRAM, let alone a stealth F35. F35 (and F16) are the next step after helicopters: you send F35 when enemy antiair is good enough to threaten helis.