On the way

I believe in our tank, the armour in the belly was the same thickness as the side armour. But the escape hatch is also located in the belly, and that is a thinner armour. U got to pop it quick and get out, so it can't weigh 300lbs or whatever.

I know they have. But Mercenary pilots for their F-16?

Since last year and maybe even since the start of the war between Russia and UKR, the West has been talking about sending F-16s, Mirage 2000, and what not to the UKR Air Force. Obviously, the logistics are not as easy as that. UKR pilots have to be trained, techs have to be trained to maintain the planes, and a logistic tail has to be build to support that. why didn't the UKR just hire already trained or recently retired F-16 and Mirage drivers and the ground tech to service and fly the planes in UKR? After all, the Russians use Syrian, North Koreans, etc mercenaries to fight in the front line. Couldn't the UKR offer a good salary and compensation package with life insurance, for trained F-16 pilots from European countries, US, Pakistan, etc to fly for them? At the very least, they can lob stand off weapons from within UKR into Russian territory or in Donbass Oblast. And do point air defence over cities and vital installations to shoot down drones and cruise missiles. It would have expedited the introduction of western planes into the UKR inventory if already qualified pilots and ground crew were available. Why wasn't this done?

I saw on the news that protesters against the war, were arrested and the tried and send to the frontline. I think this was sometime last year when Russian anti war protests were still a thing. So hard to say the Russains are not gangbeating their own citizens into joining the Army

Ok, got it.

But if the US wants to, they could install Patriot batteries all over Iraq, no? Right now they got a couple of US destroyers of the coast of Israel shooting at Iranian missiles, but that coverage has to be limited in area. I would think if they can thin out the Iranian missiles over Iraq before they get to Israel, it would be better.

I mean by and large, the missiles fired by the Iranians have to overfly the entire country of Iraq, which is still controlled by the US, with heavy US military presence in the form of advisors, and other units. Knowing that the Iranians will likely use rockets or missiles from Iran into Israel, and knowing that they have to fly over Iraq, why haven't the US stationed anti missile batteries in Iraq to shoo them down before they get to Israel? I know the Israel missile defence is formidable, but isn't it better to intercept the missiles as far away from the borders of Israel as possible. What are the Iraqis going to say? No? They hate the Iranians as much as the Israelis. Is it because the parabola of the missile flight is too high over Iraq to intercept and that it's better to shoot at them when they are in the terminal phase nearer to the ground? This is a mystery to my untrained ballistic missile mind. LOL

Arguably the best tank gun of WW2, and far superior in performance to the M4 Sherman 75mm short barrel and the Russian T-34 76mm and 85mm tank guns. And able to penetrate the frontal armor of their own Tigers and Panthers and Panzer IVs with AP. They must have captured examples of these guns in North Africa, and know how much better this gun is to anything in their inventory. How hard would it be to reverse engineer it? The M4 Sherman turret has shown ability to be upgunned. The French CN75 75mm gun from the AMX-13 was installed into the M4 by the IDF, so it should take the KwK40. I am sure the same thing could be done with the T-34. If they can go from a 76mm to an 85mm, they should be able to fit the KwK40. From what I understand, even the M4E8 76mm M1 having similar AP abilities to the KwK40, but inferior HE ability to the German gun, still making the German gun superior. And the part about logistics is a non starter. The supply chain set up for 75mm ammo is still the same chain you use for 75mm ammo for the German guns. And you give all Shermans in the field the ability to fight enemy tanks effectively versus having to wait for a tank destroyer to show up to kill a Panther, Tiger, or something else.

That 30mm Aden is something else. I have seen Hunters come in firing all 4 at ground target during Live Fire Exercises. They really tore up the hill. Can't imagine what that would do to a convoy.

and how do you know this? Have the Ukrainians done a study on this?

What is the alternative? If you don't want to get drafted against your will, and you lose the war because of a less then maximum effort from all citizens, then they are going to end up being comfort women for Russian soldiers.

Time for some company to develop a fully automatic belt fed weapon firing shot gun shells?

The Russians will have better AD then Hezbollah, and Hamas. But still, the fact they are willing to try it is interesting.

Even with MANPADS, most modern CAS have flares that can decoy them, as well, they are a lot more manoevrable then jets

Wow, that's enough to equip post war Norwegian army.