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Re: Nagorno-Karabagh: Military Balance Between Armenia & Azerbaijan
Yes, we spend a lot of time talking about air superiority here, but it's a (great) daydream. Our boys ran out of bullets in some of the forward posts, and apparently didn't have enough blood clotting/tourniquet equipment. And they STILL crushed the attackers.
Let's solve those problems before trying to build not only a squadron, but flight trainers, fuel, infrastructure, hangers, etc. The money and infrastructure is currently not there. Long term, Armenia is such a tiny country in terms of overflight that our training runs will constantly run the risk of traversing Turk borders, and starting their idiotic shootdown response.
We should focus on acquiring enough surface to surface missiles, Tochka and beyond, that we will keep parity or advantage in mutually assured destruction doctrine, Yerevan/Stepanakert for Baku. We have a great handle on their helos (kind of wished they had sent more over for us to destroy...), and our SAM coverage apparently kept their MiGs grounded as it was. I think the weak spot is the suicide drones and any guided missiles they have (but again, if we can return fire, we've effectively neutralized this).
In fact, I most worry about them using the Israeli drones to start a campaign of attrition against our field leaders, similar to US strategy against Taliban/ISIS, so they can sit on their sofas and claim to be winning.
Yes, we spend a lot of time talking about air superiority here, but it's a (great) daydream. Our boys ran out of bullets in some of the forward posts, and apparently didn't have enough blood clotting/tourniquet equipment. And they STILL crushed the attackers.
Let's solve those problems before trying to build not only a squadron, but flight trainers, fuel, infrastructure, hangers, etc. The money and infrastructure is currently not there. Long term, Armenia is such a tiny country in terms of overflight that our training runs will constantly run the risk of traversing Turk borders, and starting their idiotic shootdown response.
We should focus on acquiring enough surface to surface missiles, Tochka and beyond, that we will keep parity or advantage in mutually assured destruction doctrine, Yerevan/Stepanakert for Baku. We have a great handle on their helos (kind of wished they had sent more over for us to destroy...), and our SAM coverage apparently kept their MiGs grounded as it was. I think the weak spot is the suicide drones and any guided missiles they have (but again, if we can return fire, we've effectively neutralized this).
In fact, I most worry about them using the Israeli drones to start a campaign of attrition against our field leaders, similar to US strategy against Taliban/ISIS, so they can sit on their sofas and claim to be winning.
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