In Related News...

 ... water is wet and the fire is hot.

The jets are ready, and the flight instructors are waiting, at a new training center in Romania that was created to teach Ukraine’s pilots to fly the F-16 warplane. But there’s a catch: The Ukrainian pilots have yet to arrive, despite declarations last summer that the center would play a crucial role in getting them into the air to defend their country from increasingly deadly Russian strikes. It’s still unclear when Ukrainian pilots will begin training at the center, at the Fetesti air base in southeast Romania, which NATO allies also are using to get schooled on the fighter jets. But the delay is a window into the confusion and chaos that has confronted the military alliance’s rush to supply the F-16s. That is not to say that Ukraine’s pilots are not being prepared. Twelve pilots so far — fewer than a full squadron — are expected to be ready to fly F-16s in combat by this summer after 10 months of training in Denmark, Britain and the United States. But by the time the pilots return to Ukraine, as few as six F-16s will have been delivered out of about 45 of the fighter jets that European allies have promised.

Boy, those pesky Russian pilots are rubbing their hands in anticipation. I can almost see how pilots of Su-57s, Su-35s and Su-30SMs are pulling the sticks to have a first go at those F-16s. Well, it is pretty much the one-way ticket for whatever 404 pilots are out there. I doubt any sane NATO pilot would want to go against Russia's VKS. It is the same for all those M1 Abrams tanks which are having a very bad time in 404 and some say that already 7 have been destroyed, some say--more. Doesn't matter, the deadly truism of XXI century warfare "if you are seen, you will be hit" is, well, truism. I simply see no way how a widening gap in battlefield air defense, C2, netcentricity, the so called RUK/ROK (Recon Fire/Recon Strike Complexes) and standoff weapons can be closed by the West. There are no resources left. And then, of course this:

Russia is set to produce nearly three times as many artillery munitions as the U.S. and Europe this year, CNN reported on March 11, citing NATO intelligence estimates and unnamed sources familiar with the matter. Russia is producing close to 250,000 artillery munitions monthly, or around 3 million per year, according to NATO estimates seen by CNN and the outlet's sources. Together, the U.S. and Europe can produce approximately 1.2 million munitions annually to send to Ukraine, a senior European intelligence official told CNN.

Somebody, of course, forgot to tell CNN and their "sources" in this non-story that artillery shells are SHOT from guns and one can have 10 million shells but if the innards of your barrel wear out due to low sustainability of all NATO guns, what good will it do if you do not have guns, which also are being destroyed in industrial quantities by Russians. How many Paladins or Caesars can NATO send to 404? I thought so. But then again, those "senior European intelligence officials" probably never heard about such things as sustainability, tactical and operational rear repair plant for weapon systems, and, of course about operational depth strikes which, surprise-surprise, degraded 404 weapons repair and maintenance capability dramatically. Ah, those details of war and don't start me on operational planning--evidently NATO only now learned about such thing.