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Yes but it's a question of finding targets. Why was Ukraine able to decimate the Russian Air Force? Partly because they are all based out of big, well known bas
by dgrin91 1y ago
Yes but it's a question of finding targets. Why was Ukraine able to decimate the Russian Air Force? Partly because they are all based out of big, well known bases. Even in wartime they have to be in a big base.
A jet like the Gripen can move basically instantly to basically anywhere and then it's hard to find, especially because it can just move again
- riffraff 1y agoI don't want to sound negative, I wish all the best to Ukraine, but did they actually "decimate" the Russian air force? I was under the impression a few attacks on air bases happened, but a lot more drones were aimed at refineries and other infrastructure.
- hgomersall 1y agoGiven the original definition of decimate, to remove one in ten, perhaps so.
- jacquesm 1y agoYes. They hit a substantial fraction of the Russian long range bombers and assorted other aircraft. Quite a bit of that is at least for the moment impossible for Russia to replace.
- petre 1y agoTrue, but the Gripen is not a big strategic bomber and Sweden doesn't have nukes to threaten other countries with. They do air policing and would employ guerilla tactics in case of war, like put a gripen in a cattle shed somewhere and operate it from a road¹. It's a good strategy for a smaller country with lower population density to defend itself. Possibly not such a great option for Benelux, but for most of the EU, save for the big boys it's great. Even Germany could employ it, with the amount of sheds and the highway network that they have. Russia and the US needs aibases to operate strategic bombers from. 1. https://youtu.be/HbkScZFCgro https://youtu.be/HbkScZFCgro