3 ms·
Gulf war against 90s Iraq with 20m people and ~800 1960s missiles (scud Bs) required 5 carrier groups + regional air basing for air campaign, completely comprom
by maxglute 2y ago
Gulf war against 90s Iraq with 20m people and ~800 1960s missiles (scud Bs) required 5 carrier groups + regional air basing for air campaign, completely compromised Anti Air (by french who designed Iraq IADS and gave schematics to US). Relative to modern Iran with 80m people and 4x more missiles with 2000s rocketry tech, much more favourable geography (facing water), 1990s Iraq/Gulf War would not even measure up as a medium power / major war. One (1) carrier with 150/270 (short term surge) sorties per day is not remotely enough against a medium power. Can US surge 6-7 carriers + forward deploy air force with advanced notice to tackle Iran, yeah, but it wouldn't leave much left for anything else. CVN69 isn't exactly defeating the houthis right now. That's the numbers behind why US doctorine downgraded to 1 major war + 1 holding war (with medium/small adverary), while near/peer war with PRC is currently a toss up.