Sobering if true but...I have a little trouble with giving credibility to any GAO Assessment of the Gulf War during the Clintoon administration.
I have equal trouble giving the Russians and Chinese credibility in regard to assessments on the effectiveness of their own weapons.
WHAT!! New military technology that isn’t perfect, out of the box? This has never happened before. It must be Bush’s fault.
This guy blows himself out of the water with this:
“Yet all U.S. and EU conventional cruise missiles — many capable of being air-, ground-, ship-, or sub-launched against land targets or ships — share this significant deficiency: Powered by small jet engines, they fly at a slow Mach 0.8. On one test flight, JASSM took 22 minutes to cover 210 miles. Stealth-enhancing composite airframes help delay radar detection, but during such 22-minute flights over enemy territory, how would JASSM and any similarly subsonic cruise missiles fare against layered, networked, multi-sensor air defense systems employing Russian-made S-300PMU — SA-10D — surface-to-air missiles — or their SA-N-6 ship-based counterparts — intercepting at a blistering 4,500 miles per hour? Russia claims they are effective against attacking aircraft, cruise missiles and theater ballistic missiles at ranges of more than 100 miles and altitudes from 30,000 to 80,000 feet.”
Um... he doesn’t think the sonic boom from a missile breaking the sound barrier would give away its position?
Subsonic stealth cruise missiles are the next best thing to invisible.
I remember watching Patriot missiles shooting down Scuds on TV during the Gulf War and a couple years later the GAO said they didn’t actually hit anything. I didn’t believe that report either.
Yes, those Russian anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems sure did a number against U.S. aircraft over Iraq in 1991 and 2003 and against Israeli aircraft over Syria on September 6...
...Rolls eyes...
In contrast, U.S., Israeli, and Japanese missile defenses are intercepting ICBM's (e.g. North Korea's latest long range attempt) and SCUDs on a somewhat predictable basis...so the much slower mach 2.5 Waraw-Pact era cruise missiles would hardly seem to challenge AEGIS, Arrow, and PAC-3 defenses.
The Russian and Chinese/North Korean anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems are going to have to show better performance if the adults on our side are going to take them seriously.
Bkmarked for later. Thanks.