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The 7500 RU launched cruise missiles haven't achieved a tenth as much as the Tomahawks the US hit Iraq with. After that, Iraq didn't have a working integrated a
by ovi256 3y ago
The 7500 RU launched cruise missiles haven't achieved a tenth as much as the Tomahawks the US hit Iraq with. After that, Iraq didn't have a working integrated air defence any more.
The RU missiles have killed plenty of civilians though.
- jopsen 3y agoTrue, but it's possibly fair to argue that its easier to scale up cheap drone production, than production of interceptors.
- ceejayoz 3y agoAt a certain point, US foreign policy tends to move from interceptors to flattening launch sites and key personnel.
- jopsen 3y agoYeah, I wouldn't be surprised.
- ethbr1 3y agoThe point is to have a deterrence gradient, so you always have (1) deescalate (lower), (2) match (proportionate), and (3) escalate (higher) responses, for any level of attack. If there's a level at which you don't have all three options, there exist political situations that can leave you vulnerable. E.g. if the US has no proportionate response to a Russian tactical nuclear strike on Ukrainian soil, it may hazard towards not escalating. Similarly, why the talking points of US response strikes for the past few decades have generally been 'this was a proportionate response.' But after the last warning to the Houthis, I expect the next ASBM or large drone that hits a civilian ship prompts a large US/UK (and maybe France and Germany) strike.
- nradov 3y agoDoes Germany actually have any significant strike capability in the region? The German military seems to have atrophied into more of a government jobs program than something which is actually combat effective. They've started rebuilding in response to Russian aggression but that process will take years.
- dragonwriter 3y agoWith actual attacks on US warships. we’re actually past the point that usually occurs.
- sudosysgen 3y agoThe point of these systems is that there's no launch site and it takes very little time to learn how to use them. The really key personnel are in Iran and very much difficult to assassinate (and easily replaced, too). The drones are relatively light, cheap, and can be launched with nothing but springs and wood. There's no value in the launch locations and in fact you can launch them from anywhere.
- cpursley 3y agoDo keep in mind that Iraq had ancient SAMs (only about 75 of them) and practically zero ISR support. US coalition forces hit them hard from the get-go. Ukraine had/has several hundred modern(ish) SAMs with the ISR support of NATO. There's a reason the Russians don't fly too far into Ukraine.
- greedo 3y agoThe Ukrainian air defense was not even close to modern. It consisted largely of older S-300s, some Tor, Buk and Tunguska systems that were leftovers from the fall of the USSR. They had some even older systems (S-75, S-125, S-200). So this is largely 30+ years old, and not very well maintained.
- cpursley 3y agoApparently the S-300s were maintained enough to spook the Russian AF. Also, there’s a variety of Western systems now.
- greedo 3y agoI wouldn't be surprised if they've completely depleted their inventory of S-300 missiles (5V55KD). The Texeira leaks seemed to indicate they would run out by Summer/Fall of 2023, though with the supply of IRIS/Patriot/NASAMs etc, they might have reserved some of them.
- sudosysgen 3y agoS-300 is not really comparable in terms of capability to S-75 and S-125. There is a quantum leap between decentralized networked mobile IADS with a combination of radar types and missile types and Iraq's S-125 systems. S-300 is still a very capable system today and 1990s' S-300 systems are only really a generation behind modern systems. They're about as recent as the systems on Ticonderogas and Arleigh Burkes that are very much still in service today.
- greedo 3y ago