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Are stingers even useful for LSCO? I get the sense Ukraine us using them as the insurgency rather than the counter-insurgency
by 8note 3y ago
Are stingers even useful for LSCO?
I get the sense Ukraine us using them as the insurgency rather than the counter-insurgency
- slt2021 3y agoturns out things like Stingers/TOW/Javelin are extremely useful in proxy wars, where NATO doesn't want to put boots/planes in the area of operations. if NATO is so loss averse and doesnt want to risk own soldiers' lives, then NATO/US doctrine should plan for proxy wars - and not blindly assume they will have air superiority everywhere
- DANmode 3y agoThey DO have air superiority - just not currently used for shorter range weapons, because they're as high in the sky as they possibly can be without being seen or hit by RUS.
- slt2021 3y agoUS did not have air superiority in proxy wars in Syria nor in Ukraine. Should the next proxy war happen in LATAM/Africa/ME - I am not sure US would rush to deploy air assets. For example - Iran/China - would US create no fly zone over these countries?
- DANmode 3y agoNATO absolutely has air superiority in Ukraine. How they choose to exercise that is an exercise for you, the reader, whoever would like - not this comment.
- slt2021 3y agoand how did it work out for NATO in Syria? for different factions of rebels backed by Pentagon/CIA/etc/etc
- DANmode 3y agoThey all still have their jobs, the companies that sell the weapons are still selling them. Seems like it went great.
- slt2021 3y agothis is very cynical view and skips the US foreign policy failure of Obama in the middle east, and is part of the reason why Trump got elected in the first place. not even talking about millions of killed/displaced refugees that are now in Europe and all over the middle east, and all the humanitarian disaster that was caused by strategic miscalculation and doctrine mismatch
- DANmode 3y agoYou're just not in touch with the incentive structures that guide these people's actions. Their claimed goals and incentives are rarely complete, sometimes not even true!
- acoard 3y agoNATO does not have air superiority in Ukraine. The skies are contested in many areas. Recently Ukraine lost a number of Bradley’s and when a Ka-52 ambushed them in Zaporizhzhia. If you’re making the point that America and NATO could join the fight sure, but that’s a hypothetical and the reality now is that the skies in Ukraine are contested.
- acoard 3y agoUkraine is holding territory. They are not fighting like an insurgency. Stringers are absolutely useful in LSCO. Soviet doctrine made heavy use of MANPADS (man portable air defense systems, of which Stinger counts) when they were planning for LSCO. Basically every army besides the US army (and its allies) makes heavy use of them, and the US army is different because they plan for the US Air Force to be able to clear the skies for them. Soviet doctrine embedded air defence at all levels of their army, from MANPADS to Pantsirs, Buks, and S-300s etc. This goes from man carrier to short/middle/long range.