Why America’s Mighty Military Doesn't Always Dominate the Battlefield
A truth in modern warfare: Weapons do not always work as advertised.
Dave Majumdar [2]
The United States Navy’s recent shoot down of a Syrian Arab Air Force Sukhoi Su-22 Fitter near the town of Tabqah over Syria is illustrative of a truth in modern warfare: Weapons do not always work as advertised.
During the engagement between a pair of Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornets—flying off the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN-77)—and the Fitter, advanced U.S. air-to-air missiles were decoyed at short-range. Indeed, as was reported by CNN [3], the Super Hornets first attacked the antiquated early-1970s vintage Su-22 strike aircraft with an infrared-guided Raytheon AIM-9 Sidewinder.
Source URL (retrieved on June 27, 2017):
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/why-americas-mighty-military-dont-always-dominate-the-21315
