Yeah, say what you want, but Russian planes have amazing paintjobs. The SU-57 looks particularly stunning (the fact that they can't use it helps, of course).

NATO "Practical Grey" is also pretty boring

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

NATO "Practical Grey" is also pretty boring

The camouflage isn't very flashy -- though it is practical -- but if you're looking for flashy, are you aware of the annual NATO Tigers event? I think France started it. A number of countries send an aircraft or two, and at some point, they started putting flashy paintjobs on them for the duration of the event, often with a tiger or at least big cat theme. Someone -- Germany, I think -- had at least one year where they had someone in a tiger fursuit, and a tiger-painted support car, to go with multiple tiger-painted aircraft.

https://www.natotigers.org/tiger-gallery

EDIT: Neither the chick from the German airforce in the tiger bodysuit nor the dude in the tiger suit in that gallery is what I remember seeing pictures of, so I expect that there have been a number of occasions.

EDIT2: Some higher-resolution shots than they have on that gallery from various years and various countries:

https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/476c0247-4aa3-4df5-9150-8d2352568bd1.jpeg

I think that this one is actually a leopard or cheetah:

https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/c26c109a-87b7-41be-91b7-4620f8680178.jpeg

https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/668cd0c0-8217-45d3-8854-993a7a97af1c.jpeg

https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/ac666c7a-8200-421f-9bda-23249ee17ecd.jpeg

https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/1ae6a1e4-15f4-454c-b016-0c74d05ccc36.jpeg

https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/349eaf30-a234-456b-887d-f790fb788970.jpeg

https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/4b769e38-167a-4c1d-93b9-dc762ceab523.jpeg

https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/91e39339-fd41-4141-8adf-bccb028df846.jpeg

EDIT3: Yeah, it was France:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_Tiger_Association

[–] Tar_alcaran 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I hadn't heard of this, but it is absolutely amazing. Thank you for telling me about it!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

No problem. I just uploaded a few more images; if you hit Google Images or similar and search for "NATO Tigers", you'll get a lot more.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Japan's military has been known to do the occasional anime-themed aircraft paintjob for recruiting purposes.

https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/0f7c1af5-4a6e-4c72-bca8-d786e87cdd8a.jpeg

https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/96d4b6cc-1105-4732-9624-00f22de53cff.jpeg

https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/7d905f21-f157-4e0b-83c8-30995415ed2a.jpeg

[–] Aurenkin 8 points 1 month ago

I can confirm, it has a red cross through it so it's unlikely to be operational.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I wonder if they can sneak in some stingers further into russia now when there is no border control any more ...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

I wonder how difficult it would be to transport them and keep a low profile in the countryside and still get out safely after a strike.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

AMRAAM perhaps?