Russia arms Libyan civil war

[caervek]

Haven't seen this mentioned yet, it appears the Libyan National Army (the force of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar that controls the vast majority of Libya) have taken delivery of some "new" unmarked MiG-29 fighter jets and Su-24 ground attack jets from a mysterious source.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/...200442656.html

Oh also the jets were seen the week before at a Russian air base in Syria lol.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...-base-in-syria

This is an important development as the LNA already had the GNA (the force that the USA/etc have been backing since defeating Gadaffi) outnumbered on the ground but now they totally outclass the GNA's air force too. This will be a difficult one to resolve as due to the LNA being the biggest player on the ground they're the ones that the USA/UK/etc are working with against IS in Libya, despite officially supporting their enemy the GNA in the civil war.

[Coolthulhu]

A proxy war that has been going on for months and now does so a tad more stealthily (but not much) because of the pandemic. No news on the geopolitical front, some progress on Hafter's part, obligatory double-faced visits from those who have interests in the situation - which are many more than just the US, UK and Russia - there's Turkey, Egypt, Italy, France, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, not to mention the various tribes whose national sport is backstabbing each other - all of this with ISIS still there despite the recent decapitation of al-Baghdadi's alleged designed successor and quaedist factuins pushing from the south and clashing with ISIS's remains, it's really a clusterfuck, being a geopolitical analyst for that area must cause the worst headaches. The only good news I can definitely see is that ISIS and quaedists seem very enthusiastic about slaughtering each other.

[Easo]

I saw a lot of funny comments on a Russian military news blog - from "those are most definitely not us, Americans are lying" to "yeah so what everyone does that, gotta oppose whatever Turkey does".

[PACOX]

Russia is all over Africa. It's basically where they go to field test new ideas.

[Foosha]

Russia is all over Africa. It's basically where they go to field test new ideas.

Russia v China proxy war in Africa when?

[Shalcker]

We even print his money, of course he buys our jets too.

- - - Updated - - -

Russia v China proxy war in Africa when?

They'll take south and we'll take north judging by current arrangements.

[d00mGuArD]

Many countries violate the weapons embargo there.

Russia and Turkey are the most blatant ones and should be sanctioned, if things are to start de-escalating

[Thekri]

I am not defending Russia here, but it really shouldn't be a huge shock to anyone when a country that is sanctioned itself violates the sanctions placed on someone else. Sanctions are a matter of perspective in the first place. For instance, the US recently made an absolutely massive arms sale to Taiwan, which China took great offense to, due to their claim that Taiwan is in open rebellion against Beijing. From China's perspective, that is far worse then giving jets to a faction in Libya.

In short, this is just how the game is played. If the US doesn't like it, they can always go destroy those jets, and there really isn't much Russia can do about it. They got the cash already, so no harm done.

[Dsonsion]

Oh, that's terrible! I wonder how Libya ended up in such a situation that foreign powers can support their own friendly groups in a bid for the rule of the land.

[Coolthulhu]

Oh, that's terrible! I wonder how Libya ended up in such a situation that foreign powers can support their own friendly groups in a bid for the rule of the land.

US paranoid short-sightedness + economic interests of France and the UAE + NATO backing the whole clusterfuck.

[Dsonsion]

US paranoid short-sightedness + economic interests of France and the UAE + NATO backing the whole clusterfuck.

Oh, gosh golly mister! This sounds highly illegal. Where were the international organisations like the UN when that happened? Aren't they supposed to stand for the preservation of human rights?

[Coolthulhu]

Oh, gosh golly mister! This sounds highly illegal. Where were the international organisations lilke the UN when that happened? Aren't they supposed to stand for the preservation of human rights?

Ignored, smothered, bought, powerless, or a combination thereof.

[Shalcker]

Ignored, smothered, bought, powerless, or a combination thereof.

Actually UN Security Council, in rare agreement, had Russia (and China) abstaining from No-Fly-Zone vote at US insistence rather then veto it, thus authorizing it.

Which US and allies promptly used to bomb Libyan army and hunt Gaddafi rather then sticking to agreed upon intervention limits, destroying any remaining trust in US words.

[Dsonsion]

Actually UN Security Council, in rare agreement, had Russia (and China) abstaining from No-Fly-Zone vote at US insistence rather then veto it, thus authorizing it.

Which US and allies promptly used to bomb Libyan army and hunt Gaddafi rather then sticking to agreed upon intervention limits, destroying any remaining trust in US words.

Darn! Who would have expected that?! And here I was thinking the UN was an organisation that had the best interests of its member countries at heart.

[Kellhound]

Haven't seen this mentioned yet, it appears the Libyan National Army (the force of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar that controls the vast majority of Libya) have taken delivery of some "new" unmarked MiG-29 fighter jets and Su-24 ground attack jets from a mysterious source.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/...200442656.html

Oh also the jets were seen the week before at a Russian air base in Syria lol.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...-base-in-syria

This is an important development as the LNA already had the GNA (the force that the USA/etc have been backing since defeating Gadaffi) outnumbered on the ground but now they totally outclass the GNA's air force too. This will be a difficult one to resolve as due to the LNA being the biggest player on the ground they're the ones that the USA/UK/etc are working with against IS in Libya, despite officially supporting their enemy the GNA in the civil war.

Interesting choice, mid-level MiG-29s. Not very useful in air-to-ground combat, but overkill for air-to-air (so long as they are armed with AA-10s) against the GNA. On the flip side, they are no match for NATO fighters in air superiority. The Su-24s make sense. Both will need decent support to be useful, and that means (at the least) Russian mercs have to be present.

[Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang]

Interesting choice, mid-level MiG-29s. Not very useful in air-to-ground combat, but overkill for air-to-air (so long as they are armed with AA-10s) against the GNA. On the flip side, they are no match for NATO fighters in air superiority. The Su-24s make sense. Both will need decent support to be useful, and that means (at the least) Russian mercs have to be present.

From what I understand the Turkish drones became quite the game changers on both the Syria and Lybia theaters, so fighters capable of obliterating those from the sky would be quite desirable.

Given the vast distances, desert terrain and lack of cover, mechanized transport is essential, be it with pick-up trucks or tanks, but those are easy preys for drones, so any offensive would ideally require the drones being shot down or interdicted before the people on the ground move, and only fighter planes have that kind of capability.

[Shalcker]

Darn! Who would have expected that?! And here I was thinking the UN was an organisation that had the best interests of its member countries at heart.

Well, as far as UN is concerned, every country is equal... but some are more equal the others.

[JohnBrown1917]

Darn! Who would have expected that?! And here I was thinking the UN was an organisation that had the best interests of its member countries at heart.

Not like the UN was ever given any power to stop any country.

[Easo]

Not like the UN was ever given any power to stop any country.

I wonder how UN could possible do that? No no, go ahead and tell me, I want to know.

[Kellhound]

From what I understand the Turkish drones became quite the game changers on both the Syria and Lybia theaters, so fighters capable of obliterating those from the sky would be quite desirable.

Given the vast distances, desert terrain and lack of cover, mechanized transport is essential, be it with pick-up trucks or tanks, but those are easy preys for drones, so any offensive would ideally require the drones being shot down or interdicted before the people on the ground move, and only fighter planes have that kind of capability.

There are much more cost effective platforms to counter drones with. The Su-24 has sufficient anti-air capability (cannon and short range IR missiles) to clear out UAVs, and a much longer loiter capability than the notoriously short legged MiG-29.