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Old 13th Sep 2022, 18:18
  #23 (permalink)  
tdracer
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: Everett, WA
Age: 68
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I think when this Ukraine thing is all over, the military planners are going to have a field day analyzing what worked and what didn't on what's pretty close to state-of-the-art battlefield.
Part of that will be a complete re-think of how the CAS mission is accomplished - e.g., is the A-10 type CAS model comparative suicide, or can it still be done with appropriate countermeasures?
The widespread use of drones - both for recon and actual air-ground attack - appears to be a major game changer. In contested airspace, there seems to be little reason to risk human pilots when drones can identify CAS targets that can be readily destroyed by smart weapons carried by aircraft located out of harm's way. And the high loss rate of anti-aircraft radar systems to HARM type weapons is going to require a major re-think of how to provide anti-aircraft protection (especially near the front lines). Who knows, maybe the answer will be remotely piloted A-10s.

Back when I was in college, the military planners were analyzing the results of the Yom Kipper war, determining what worked, what didn't, and how to counter that in the future. No doubt the current unpleasantry's will receive similar attention.
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