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The Russians don't rely as much combat air support - they do not care about the cluster munition bans at all making the US seem positively humanitarian. They'l

by cmdkeen 11y ago

The Russians don't rely as much combat air support - they do not care about the cluster munition bans at all making the US seem positively humanitarian. They'll remove entire map grid squares with artillery. The Russian army has always been an artillery force that happens to also have lots of tanks, planes and infantry. Combine that with the disparity in willingness to take casualties and you can see why perhaps the West isn't that interested in risking a conflict with Russia or China over regional aggression. The really interesting part will come if Putin decides to test NATO over a small Baltic member state...

cptskippy 11y ago
That doesn't at all explain why you think the US strategy of CAS is inferior to the Russian approach.
- yeukhon 11y ago
  In fairness, manned aricarft is superior if the pilot is capable of attacking and defending at the same time. But mannfed aircarft is expensive because a good pilot takes many years to train and many hours to fly, and many hours of real combat to gain real experience. But modern days you don't really have wars soldiers and pilots are trained through simulation (but virtual and real life). unmanned drones are expensive because the technology to develop a good one takes forever. R&D is expensive (naturally, and commercially). So both sides have pros and cons. Except, to be real fair, if you can mass produce unmanned military drones at an affordable cost, unmanned drones are the superiors.
  - cptskippy 11y ago
    > In fairness, manned aricarft is superior if the pilot is capable of attacking and defending at the same time. I'm not sure what you're driving at. I'm assuming by your "attacking and defending" remark that you're referring to fighter aircraft, there are not currently drones to fulfill the roles of a typical fighter aircraft. Like any aircraft, drones are best suited for a particular role.
    - yeukhon 11y ago
      I am not. When you are flying to do drone attack, you still have to defend yourself against enemy aircraft and anti-aircraft units like AA, and this means you are doing both attack (destroying your target) and defending your mission and your aircraft from getting shot. I am not familiar with how air battle works, but my understanding is, there are fighter jets to protect bombers and drones. But still, you need to kind of defend yourself. Bombers have machine guns equipped for example so bomber can still defend itself.
      - cptskippy 11y ago
        There really hasn't been a situation like that since the Korean War. Modern warfare relies heavily on radar and ballistic missiles. Fighter jets usually operate far ahead of any ground forces or bombers eliminating threats before they even pose a risk. Drones are quickly replacing aircraft like the A-10 because the primary threat to these aircraft comes from ground fire, drones however operate out of visual range.
chokolad 11y ago
> The Russians don't rely as much combat air support - Russia is not using aircraft in Ukraine because regular Russian military is not "technically" there. It's kinda hard to deny your presence if your planes are bombing the country. Most of Ukraine's meager air fleet was grounded in the beginning of conflict so that whole thing turned into artillery war. On another hand take a look at Syria. Pretty much everything Russia does there is air support.

by cmdkeen 11y ago

cptskippy 11y ago

That doesn't at all explain why you think the US strategy of CAS is inferior to the Russian approach.

yeukhon 11y ago
In fairness, manned aricarft is superior if the pilot is capable of attacking and defending at the same time. But mannfed aircarft is expensive because a good pilot takes many years to train and many hours to fly, and many hours of real combat to gain real experience. But modern days you don't really have wars soldiers and pilots are trained through simulation (but virtual and real life). unmanned drones are expensive because the technology to develop a good one takes forever. R&D is expensive (naturally, and commercially). So both sides have pros and cons. Except, to be real fair, if you can mass produce unmanned military drones at an affordable cost, unmanned drones are the superiors.
- cptskippy 11y ago
  > In fairness, manned aricarft is superior if the pilot is capable of attacking and defending at the same time. I'm not sure what you're driving at. I'm assuming by your "attacking and defending" remark that you're referring to fighter aircraft, there are not currently drones to fulfill the roles of a typical fighter aircraft. Like any aircraft, drones are best suited for a particular role.
  - yeukhon 11y ago
    I am not. When you are flying to do drone attack, you still have to defend yourself against enemy aircraft and anti-aircraft units like AA, and this means you are doing both attack (destroying your target) and defending your mission and your aircraft from getting shot. I am not familiar with how air battle works, but my understanding is, there are fighter jets to protect bombers and drones. But still, you need to kind of defend yourself. Bombers have machine guns equipped for example so bomber can still defend itself.
    - cptskippy 11y ago
      There really hasn't been a situation like that since the Korean War. Modern warfare relies heavily on radar and ballistic missiles. Fighter jets usually operate far ahead of any ground forces or bombers eliminating threats before they even pose a risk. Drones are quickly replacing aircraft like the A-10 because the primary threat to these aircraft comes from ground fire, drones however operate out of visual range.

chokolad 11y ago

> The Russians don't rely as much combat air support - Russia is not using aircraft in Ukraine because regular Russian military is not "technically" there. It's kinda hard to deny your presence if your planes are bombing the country. Most of Ukraine's meager air fleet was grounded in the beginning of conflict so that whole thing turned into artillery war. On another hand take a look at Syria. Pretty much everything Russia does there is air support.