[sukhoi-30mki]

Russia left the swarming business after the fall of the Soviet Union. They don’t have enough SU-27s and its derivatives for that kind of role.

The main advantage of the SU-27 was that its large size and range made it useful for operations over Russia.

[nathanbedford]

You bring up the issue of range.

I have been given to understand that American assets, especially carrier-based planes, are suffering increasingly from decreased range which poses a problem of making the carriers vulnerable because they must draw in closer. Do you have any insight?

Am I correct in my original presumption that we should be able to destroy the Soviet planes from afar and need not worry about being swarmed, except as chance might have it on a local basis?