Beamr,

The tank sinking was in a book that I lent out to a Finn mountain guide a decade or so ago; so perforce unable to provide more details.

He was visiting the Romanian Mihail Kogalniceanu base, on the Black Sea coast and around 200 miles from the most intense fighting in southern Ukraine. Just general blah, nothing of note, except, for me, this:

"Ahead of a visit to the base, Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston said some of the British pilots were in their early 20s and "just out of training". They now face having to make critical judgments in the skies to avoid a potentially catastrophic confrontation with Russia."

It astonishes me that he underlines their youth and lack of experience: not what I would expect him to do in such a media-heavy and diplomatically tense environment. That's a fail for the ACM from me.

Thankyou TF. I was surprised the DT article locked, I checked the link after posting and it worked for me without logging in and I had cleaned cookies to.

An alternate interpretation could be "Join the RAF, and within a few years it could be you doing stuff like this."

Never hurts to keep the recruitment spin going if you want the best candidates to apply.

Early 20s. Yeah, right.

CG

OK, but on balance, I would still give it -10 on the diplomatic front ( imagine if there were an incident and the Russians requote his words about young, inexperienced pilots ) and +1 on the recruitment side;

Too enigmatic , CG. How about using those well-honed didactic skills and enlightening those of us not on your high-frequency wavelength.

Rus airforce helps annihilate russian unit.
 

I understand and don’t disagree, but at this point I’m not especially interested in what Putin’s perverted mind thinks and I doubt it’s even possible to send him a message (that he would consider).

Let’s do what will save Ukrainian lives. I’m more concerned about what we do for them and what message it sends to them. And for those who are interested, there would be something of military aviation interest in that.

Glad for both the loss of the aircraft and safety of the flight crew.

​​​​​​I can enlighten you! There is no way on earth that FJ pilots recently out of the training system are in their early twenties. Even if they joined at 18, I'd estimate them to be in their mid-twenties at best. And for most, probably early-thirties.

Having read some of the other articles on that TASS site I wouldn't believe anything they say.

here's kommersant on the same subject with a picture of a smoking hole claimed to be something that used to be a mig31. Did the crew survive? Dunno, that's what they claim.
But you have a point there: if a news agency works in Russia, it's stories are officially approved so they publish the Kremlin truth. Need for a grain of salt.
https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5303556

Why worry about that? Oops, sorry about that. At least it’s not targeting civilians

Has MFTS jumped to warp speed a few years back? I think not.

So why would he say it - completely uninformed ? As I wrote, it is ( for me ) a stunningly stupid, witless comment from the most senior officer. I give no credence to the previous comment about being for recruitment.

Better if he kept to the wokery ........... at least he understands that load of old cobblers.

As long ago as the late 1960s at Gutersloh, the men who I Met-briefed to fly Hunters and Lightnings were more-or-less my peer group for age, and I was just into my thirties. All of my pilot neighbours on the patch were my age or older, and their wives [so I was informed, you understand] were sort-of-30. Big drama as 'er-next-door hit that mark!

Does anyone know what the “ precision munitions capable of lingering in the sky until directed to a target” that the PM has promised to Ukraine are?

As to CAS and Typhoon pilots in early 20s? - Completely out of touch.

Strange thing to get so exercised about. What does it matter?

So why would he say it - completely uninformed ? As I wrote, it is ( for me ) a stunningly stupid, witless comment from the most senior officer. I give no credence to the previous comment about being for recruitment.