[CurlyDave]

...The first missile was MISSED because it tricked by the upgraded Russian flares. Again, this was a Syrian plane and it took 2 shots. We didn’t know that the Russians upgraded their flares, making our ‘smart’ missiles much dumber. 20 years ago, easy kill, this time, we had to get closer, with a second type of missile...

I don't know who learned more from that encounter, us or the Russians, but both sides learned a lot.

I agree that when our first-line missiles are defeated by their old, export airplanes we are not in nearly as good a position as once thought.

I wonder how long it will take to upgrade our missiles? Is it a software change or do we need to develop new sensors and guidance?

[BobL]

The article that I referenced suspected that we were not keeping up with their upgraded flares, but instead designed our missiles too narrowly, so as to only defeat our flares.

Hopefully we did learn something and hopefully the Neocons will permit us to spend the money needed to fix that issue, before they start WW3.