> We just spent 20 years using guns for close air support
In one of the most permissive airspaces possible.
Contrast that to Ukraine where we see CAS aircraft opting to lob unguided rockets from distance and bug out, lest some layer of the IADS knock them out of the sky. As near as I can tell, helicopters have more or less vanished.
We have to be careful taking too many lessons from a decades long counter insurgency effort forward and applying them to peer conflicts.
> If BVR missiles are only effective 1/3 of the time you're better off going non-BVR and using your logistical might to put 3x the number of planes in the air...
Or would you be better of launching 4 missiles from standoff than risking a much more expensive airframe and pilot in close range knife fighting?
In one of the most permissive airspaces possible.
Contrast that to Ukraine where we see CAS aircraft opting to lob unguided rockets from distance and bug out, lest some layer of the IADS knock them out of the sky. As near as I can tell, helicopters have more or less vanished.
We have to be careful taking too many lessons from a decades long counter insurgency effort forward and applying them to peer conflicts.
> If BVR missiles are only effective 1/3 of the time you're better off going non-BVR and using your logistical might to put 3x the number of planes in the air...
Or would you be better of launching 4 missiles from standoff than risking a much more expensive airframe and pilot in close range knife fighting?