Posted on 06/22/2007 6:49:42 AM PDT by Yo-Yo
“I think the six year ago reference is to Iraq, right?”
_____________________________________________________
Not just Iraq. We had the opportunity to take care of Iraq at the end of GW I...but we chose not to and it came back and bit us. We had the opportunity to take care of all these “...regimes implacable to peace” on Sept. 12, 2001, but again we chose not to and again we (or more precisely, our allies the Israelis) are going to get bitten.
Has the ABL been fired yet?
This is good news. I likes me a target-rich environment, I do.
TC
Move along. Nothing to see here. The cold war is over. Condi says so. /extreme sarcasm
And I’m no military historian but I don’t believe a US Jet has lost an air to air battle in over 25 years. I know there haven’t been that many but no one has been a match for the US pilots regardless of the jet they were flying.
bttt
- A Standard Operating Procedure for the US Air Force, as seen in both Gulf Wars 1 and 11, is to take out the enemies ground radar and communication systems at the very onset of conflict. US fighters, with the advantage of AWACS and mid air refueling, can then gain a positional advantage against any opposition which is coming up using only their shorter range, on board radar to guide them. With the nearly invisible Raptor in the mix, resistance would be suicidal.
I know some guys that would have been iranian pilots (they are probably retired now.) If THEY are running the Air Force now (they would be the proper age) , I wouldnt be too worried.
They couldnt pass a simple math class without looking at other guy’s papers. After one exam, I was told that the reason there was giggling in the corner of the class was that it was witnessed that i would write down an answer....and then the guy to my left would answer, and then the guy behind him, and behind him. All rag-heads. I had no idea, but it became part of the lore....
The funniest thing is that I would do great in my other classes...but math killed me. They were cheating off the wrong guy. I guess we all got D’s.
My thoughts exactly. Buying them is one thing; flying them and fighting with them entirely another....
Against the Israeli’s? Nobody.
They’ll probably try to TAXI them out of the country to keep them from being blown out of the sky by the superior Israeli birdmen.
I have heard that the AA-11/R-73 “Archer” is a better
air-to-air missile than our sidewinder. I don’t if this
is still the fact. Its not the platform, its the missile that
is the difference.
Also, Russia has been working on a huge naval base in Syria
for years....Tartus just north of the Lebanon border:
http://www.hindu.com/2006/06/05/stories/2006060504281600.htm
It is generally accepted that on the first or second night of Gulf War I an Iraqi MiG-25 brought down a Navy F/A-18.
I think that is our only air to air loss known of since the end of the Vietnam War.
Of course, we haven’t faced a real “air to air” threat in a long time. We learned so much from Vietnam on the 1973 Arab Israeli war that put us ahead of most nations on the learning curve.
Since Vietnam we have had little to challenge our air superiority in air to air action. SAM’s have been different, but still not enough to dent our ability to conduct air operations.
Since Vietnam we had Lebanon/Syria but Syria did not challenge us with her air force. Their SAM’s did bring down two Navy jets in one mission, but that was the extent of our air losses there.
Grenada/Panama - neither had any real air assets.
Lybia - The Navy dominated them in the few skirmishes over the Med.
Iraq - Not a bad Air Force generally but far behind us and the west. They mounted some resistance, bringing down 50+/- Allied aircraft, one in air to air combat, but couldn’t dent our ability to conduct devestating operations against them.
Serbia - Decent little Air Force but outclassed against NATO. Put up a little fight but more of less chose to stay hidden ... and alive.
Iraq in 2003 decided to sit out the air war.
but that’s only short range - ‘beyond visual range’ is where the music plays. If an iranian mig came to archer range to a nato figher wing it would be a small miracle.
AWACS and datalinks are the main advantages nowadays. Iranians couldn’t even tell if they where attacked by F-16, 15 or F22s (or tornados or rafalles or typhoons)
Ihr clowns gehört uns.
=
We own you clowns
What we did not know until we debriefed a defecting Soviet pilot, who flew his MiG-25 to Japan, was that the plane over Israel had all but melted it's engine, that most of the airframe was rather poorly welded stainless steel, that the mechanics were drinking the alcohol based hydraulic(?) fluid, the radio and other electronics were still using vacuum tubes, and that it was solely intended as a B-70 interceptor, by getting close enough to launch a missle. (We never actually brought the B-70 on-line...)
We doom ourselves to Patton’s curse:
“The politicians always stop to soon, leaving us with yet another war to fight.”
If you want to go out and buy a magazine, there is a nice article:
“Twisted Tale of the Sidewinder’s Development” By Mark Lardas
in Strategy & Tactics No. 242
very nice read.
Hey, I agree. If it were up to me, we would be sending the IAF everything they would need to defend against the Muzzies. B52s, B-1, F117, B-2...you name it, they would have it. The good thing about the IAF is that they have a good reason to fight, and that will make the difference.
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