Israel is basically our battlefield laboratory. The 1973 war was basically won by US Vietnam veteran pilots.
I have mixed feelings FWIW. I dont like the state aid but this appears effective and could even more than pay for itself
“The 1973 war was basically won by US Vietnam veteran pilots”
Thats a bit of a bold statement / a stretch.
Do you have some reliable sources/backup for that. Thats the first I’ve heard of that.
The Israeli Egyptian/Syrian War of Attrition between 1967 and and 1973 was literally a live-fire testing ground between American and Russian military equipment and systems.
Too bad these pilots couldn't win in Vietnam.
Wars are won in the field, and lost in Washington...
True that. Iron Dome is basically an array of different types of US Patriot interceptors. Israel does a few tweaks to some of them. Successes and failures in Israel represent knowledge to improve our own missile defenses.
By the way, they're designed in Huntsville, Sweet Home Alabama. When I think about that, I think about all the egg-heads at MIT saying Regan's missile defense ides was stupid. They said "you can't hit a bullet with another bullet". What MIT said was impossible, geeks in Huntsville said was a challenge that could be done.
If so, we have learned nothing. They have Iron Dome we have no effective air defenses here in the continental US. We are totally vulnerable to this type of attack.