From my time in tanks, I have some ideas on how I can deal with enemy armor. While I won't turn down a gift of a few Javelins, I wouldn't give up any of my children for them either.
We had a number of exercises with A10s. While not as one-sided as you might think, I have a healthy respect for them, even more than my respect for PGMs.
Fortunately, I never had to deal with a battlefield where I had an air threat. If I did, my children better behave, or they might get traded for some MANPADS.
US is now sending MANPADS to Ukraine: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/1 ... to-ukraine
Frankly, I'm amazed that more civilian airliners haven't been shot down given the number of MANPADS that have been "lost" in Libya, Afghanistan, Syria, etc. It may be that ISIS or Taliban or whoever (rightly) recognize that they are a lot more valuable to keep in reserve for a rainy day when you have to deal with an A10 or Su25.But moving those amounts of weaponry into the largest conflict in Europe since World War II carries with it risks that some could fall into the wrong hands – a possibility the West has considered.
“Frankly, we believe that risk is worth taking right now because the Ukrainians are fighting so skillfully with the tools at their disposal and they’re using them so creatively,” a senior US defence official said on Friday when asked about that danger.
Of course, Russia says it's a bad idea:
Turnabout is fair play, so I hope Vlad remembers this when I ask him можно for a few (dozen) Verbas when our American "Mooselini" gets elected.“We warned the United States that the orchestrated pumping of weapons from a number of countries is not just a dangerous move, it is a move that turns these convoys into legitimate targets,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told state television.
He said Moscow had warned “about the consequences of the thoughtless transfer to Ukraine of weapons like man-portable air defence systems, anti-tank missile systems and so on”.
