Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: McGruff

If you don’t care about collateral damage and civilian casualties, why use the good (and expensive) stuff?

Besides not needing to use their PGMs, I’m sure protecting knowlege of their precision capabilities under real combat conditions is part of Russias decision process.


27 posted on 10/01/2015 12:13:22 PM PDT by tanknetter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies ]


To: tanknetter
If you don’t care about collateral damage and civilian casualties, why use the good (and expensive) stuff?

Because you'll miss your target? Allied bombers used to go out in 1000 aircraft formations because that's what they needed to do in order to hit their targets. A couple of dozen aircraft aren't sufficient to either terrorize enemy civilians into submission (something that 1000-aircraft* Allied firebombings were never able to do, anyway) or hit enemy military targets. If the Russians are using dumb bombs, they are delivering more airstrikes than Assad could on his own, but they are not giving him a capability he doesn't already have.

* Each B-17 might carry 8 500lb bombs, meaning that a 1000-bomber raid would result in 8,000 bombs being dropped in a matter of an hour or so, vs the dozens that can be dropped from the few Russian aircraft deployed.

38 posted on 10/01/2015 12:27:48 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson