Author Topic: AIRPOWER AND INTERDICTION: OVERCOMING DEFENDER ADVANTAGES  (Read 138 times)

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Offline rangerrebew

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AIRPOWER AND INTERDICTION: OVERCOMING DEFENDER ADVANTAGES
« on: October 01, 2022, 01:40:47 pm »
AIRPOWER AND INTERDICTION: OVERCOMING DEFENDER ADVANTAGES
JOHN D. MAURERSEPTEMBER 27, 2022
 
On Oct. 8, 1973, the Israel Defense Forces launched a major counterattack on Egyptian positions in the Sinai spearheaded by three armored brigades. Israeli commanders expected to repeat their rapid 1967 victory over the Egyptians, but they were disappointed. Egyptian forces employed new tactics and weapons, especially the Soviet-made AT-3 Sagger anti-tank missile, to repel the Israeli attack with heavy losses. The struggles of Israeli armored forces against anti-tank missiles during the Yom Kippur War led many observers to conclude that the balance in war had shifted once again in favor of the defender. Rather than accept stalemate, however, the U.S. military incorporated lessons from the Yom Kippur War to reemphasize close cooperation between surface and aerial forces to overcome the defender’s advantage. The result was astounding, as the American military crushed the Iraqi military in the 1991 Gulf War, expelling Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

Debates about the future of war are as old as war itself. Yet, they persist, and too often pundits and analysts are too eager to declare a weapon system obsolete, only for the defender to devise ways to overcome weapons that had once been revolutionary and cutting edge. The debate surrounding the invasion of Ukraine is no different and has drawn renewed attention to the future of war.

Much analysis about this conflict has emphasized the supposed ascendence of defensive warfare when armed with precision-guided weapons like Javelin missiles or Bayraktar drones. Even before the conflict, T.X. Hammes predicted that new weapons would drive the ascendency of the tactical defensive in warfare. David Johnson, writing in these pages, built on Hammes’ analysis, arguing that Russia’s failure to overrun Kyiv heralds the arrival of defense-dominant military operations at the operational level. Respected commentators like Phillips O’Brien now claim that new precision weapons have rendered most previous offensive military capabilities obsolete. According to these analysts, we are seeing a seismic shift in the character of war towards a stronger defensive capability.

https://warontherocks.com/2022/09/airpower-and-interdiction-overcoming-defender-advantages/
« Last Edit: October 01, 2022, 01:43:03 pm by rangerrebew »
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