Originally Posted by
GlobalNav
Isn’t the main lesson the USAF is learning from Ukraine that air cover, CAS, and interdiction are not needed to support the ground war? Isn’t that why we have delayed providing F-16s for so long? Think of the money the USAF could save by downsizing it’s fighter force.
Biting commentary the GN.
Ouch.
The take-home was it is only Ukraine that doesn't warrant the protection of CAS and better air cover, or means to interdict arty nearby.
The munitions capable UAVs from within your own (RuSSia's) lines are going to make a fashion statement for the future, wherever there is a potential 5th column, bases, particularly the big, centralised ones will become ideal targets that are worth the effort to cause some mayhem with. There are systems that are in place to counter that, but the capability of the attacker is growing fast, and it is a distributed threat, gonna cause some sleepless nights.
Singapore has had the ability to decentralise their operations to highways all around the island for years, and they practice that routinely. The concept of retaining some capability at the airbases that may be closed for cost saving seems to be too obvious to get any support from the numpties that seem to be placed by the great unwashed into the positions responsible for the security of the realm. It is too sensible to survive the gestation period in the back pocket of the pollies we have empowered in most of our lands. Estonia, Latvia, Finland, Sweden, they actually have some pollies that are worth providing oxygen to, when they are not on fire. [Brexit, thanks for nuthin']
The KA-52 is a curiosity, has it taught us that the AH-64 is worth the effort, or is not? I doubt that the Apache is more survivable than the -52, and we have seen at least one ejector seat actually function correctly out of a 'gator, seems an expensive way to get an extra set of boots into the middle of a firefight. The concern the Ukrainians indicate on the anti tank work by the 'gator suggests that it has some merit in the field, good for the AH-64, and maybe even the AH-1, but maybe, just maybe, the lowly old Loach with a bunch of TOWs is a really tiny target and able to survive by not being seen, it appears that if targeted, a parachute is a handy thing to have, so not being targeted would be ups there in the to-do list.
Am a fan of the A-10, but, the Su-25's have taken a beating, and not in a good way. The FEBA has always been a difficult place to be, but the only thing that is surviving flying over it for any period of time at present are the DGI drone drivers.
The Switchblade series were outclassed in spectacular fashion by a bunch of enthusiasts with an intent to actually save their country from criminal invasion, and while the US's 250K a pop switchblade systems were getting all packaged up neatly, a couple of $500 3D printers and a few dollars of PET filament and some 40mm grenades were clipped to $500 quad copters and actually went and messed up with the Vlads sand pit, and seem to still do so. What happened to the share price of the Switchblade OEM? DGI is not the solution for the west, but there isn't much in out that cannot be picked up from Phidgets and applied by some resourceful types. If the operators have the ability to close to a target, they make for a compelling case.
The Iranian drones are adding... nothing much new, although they do make the case that swarm attacks will require responses by defenders, it took Ukraine a couple fo days to get on top of that, and since then, Vlad continues to waste much of his effort with proving that the Ukrainians have a fair solution to his bad temper. Adaptability is the strength that Ukraine has shown, just a bit behind ingenuity. RuSSia has made it easy for Ukraine to keep up morale, Vlad finds new and inventive ways to pour more gasoline onto the reputation of the Russian
Empire Federation.
Lessons learned, most have been learnt before, and we habitually forget.