I'll join if possible but here's my USMC $.02. As a pilot in Vietnam, what really really clenched my bung wasn't MiGs - well, maybe a little bit - but the big snap always was the various SAMs. And I wasn't even flying over Hanoi/Haiphong.
Now that Vietnam stuff is archaic as the matchlock firearm. NOW the missiles rack off at Mach Way Too High, and I'd surmise are incredibly difficult to evade, but of course we don't have any.
Back in 2006, the late Stuart Slade observed that anti-aircraft defensive technology was steadily gaining ground, and it was improving in ways which made the work of coping with these new technologies more and more time consuming and expensive.
In his opinion, unmanned combat aircraft and drones would buy us some time. But that by mid-century, the advantages that anti-aircraft defenses had over all forms of aircraft would be complete. In which case we would be back to World War I.
Not to say that manned and unmanned aircraft would be completely useless. Here in the 21st Century, aircraft are facing the same situation as we see with tanks, artillery, and infantry.
Combined arms maneuver warfare using aircraft, tanks, infantry, and artillery will work as long as you commit the mass of forces needed to overwhelm the adversary's defenses, and as long as you are willing to accept horrific losses in personnel and equipment while you are in the process of defeating that adversary.
IMHO, we are now seeing the general accuracy of Stuart Slade's 2006 predictions about the future of warfare playing themselves out in the Russia-Ukraine war.
I'll join if possible but here's my USMC $.02. As a pilot in Vietnam, what really really clenched my bung wasn't MiGs - well, maybe a little bit - but the big snap always was the various SAMs. And I wasn't even flying over Hanoi/Haiphong.
Now that Vietnam stuff is archaic as the matchlock firearm. NOW the missiles rack off at Mach Way Too High, and I'd surmise are incredibly difficult to evade, but of course we don't have any.
Back in 2006, the late Stuart Slade observed that anti-aircraft defensive technology was steadily gaining ground, and it was improving in ways which made the work of coping with these new technologies more and more time consuming and expensive.
In his opinion, unmanned combat aircraft and drones would buy us some time. But that by mid-century, the advantages that anti-aircraft defenses had over all forms of aircraft would be complete. In which case we would be back to World War I.
Not to say that manned and unmanned aircraft would be completely useless. Here in the 21st Century, aircraft are facing the same situation as we see with tanks, artillery, and infantry.
Combined arms maneuver warfare using aircraft, tanks, infantry, and artillery will work as long as you commit the mass of forces needed to overwhelm the adversary's defenses, and as long as you are willing to accept horrific losses in personnel and equipment while you are in the process of defeating that adversary.
IMHO, we are now seeing the general accuracy of Stuart Slade's 2006 predictions about the future of warfare playing themselves out in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Can we crowdfund a decent microphone for you, Sal?