Target, Kaliningrad: Air Force Puts Putin On Notice

[TomSea]

Target, Kaliningrad: Air Force Puts Putin On Notice
The threat of long-range missile launchers in the Russian enclave is driving the Air Force to develop new tactics for multi-domain attack and dispersed defense.
By   Sydney J. Freedberg Jr. on September 17, 2019 at 1:06 PM

AFA 2019: “If we have to go in there to take down, for instance, the Kaliningrad IADS [Integrated Air Defense System], let there be no doubt we have a plan to go after that,” the commander of US Air Forces in Europe assured reporters here today. “We train to that. We think through those plans all the time, and… if that would ever come to fruition, we’d be ready to execute.”

If Russian aggression out of the strategically located Kaliningrad enclave required a US response, Gen. Jeff Harrigian continued, “it would be a multi-domain, very timely and effective capability that we would bring to ensure we have the access we need in that environment.”

Unsurprisingly, the general didn’t give details on what that plan of attack would be. But the unique position of Kaliningrad, nestled between Poland and Lithuania, well away from the rest of Russia, makes it both an excellent advance base and a highly exposed target. Russian anti-aircraft, anti-ship, and surface-to-surface missiles based there can threaten much of NATO, which is forcing the Air Force in particular to figure out how to better defend its hard-to-miss mega-bases and disperse its aircraft to multiple sites. Conversely, the Russian launchers are also well within range of NATO warships in the Baltic Sea and NATO artillery ashore — and, for that matter, a relatively short drive for NATO tanks.

Read more at: https://breakingdefense.com/2019/09/target-kaliningrad-eucom-puts-putin-on-notice/

Detached from the rest of Russia: