The West is Learning the Wrong Lessons about Airpower in Ukraine

▪️Western experts continuously make inappropriate comparisons between Russia’s air campaign in Ukraine to the US air campaign in Iraq in the 1990s and against in 2003;

▪️Such experts ignore the primary difference where Iraq lacked modern integrated air defenses while Ukraine began in 2022 with significant defenses;

▪️These same experts ignore the significant losses US military aviation suffered in contested airspace such as over Vietnam where the US lost over 10,000 aircraft or the necessity of US military aviation to use stand-off strikes in Syria because of the presence of modern air defense capabilities;

▪️While Western experts laud the performance of the US-made Patriot missile system, the fact that interceptors cannot be made in large enough quantities detracts from its overall efficacy;

▪️Russia’s use of military aviation in Ukraine reflects the realities both on and above the battlefield, realities that would effect Western air forces were they in Russia’s place;

Mirrored - The New Atlas