Relying on airpower works if we only bomb third world countries but that approach is dead in the water if we fight someone like Russia or China that actually has a modern air force and air defense systems.
“Relying on airpower works if we only bomb third world countries but that approach is dead in the water if we fight someone like Russia or China that actually has a modern air force and air defense systems.”
In my opinion, the Pentagon has transitioned to a position where the only potential opponents are third world countries. I don’t believe we have many tanks positioned in Europe anymore as they were all moved to the middle east for the Gulf wars. Many were given to countries there by Obama. I don’t know how many are left. I worked for GD supporting those tanks and Strykers. I was laid off with approximately 8,000 others.
About Air power, both shoulder based and land based anti air systems are much more sophisticated than they were just a few years ago. Israel is not flying over Syria because of this. Syria rebuilt their reactor, which is protected by a Russian system said to be effective even against low flying F-16’s.
Having said that, the Abrams is vulnerable from the back to the newer shoulder fired anti-tank rockets produced by
China and Iran.
Our technological advantage has been lost largely due to Clinton and Bernie Schwartz of Loral. The rest was given away by Obama. We should think long and hard about where we send our forces these days. Obama is not the CIN I’d choose.