Ukraine War Underscores Need for Sustained Investments in U.S. Air Superiority
06/19/2024
By Richard Weitz
The Ukraine War and other recent conflicts highlight the imperative of preserving U.S. air superiority.
Ukraine demonstrates the challenges militaries face when they do not enjoy air superiority. In that conflict, advanced drones have provided the most effective combat air support for both the Russian and Ukrainian ground forces, while air and missiles defenses, along with electronic warfare (EW) tools, have degraded the effectiveness of most strike weapons.
That neither Russia nor Ukraine possesses advanced air superiority fighters explains the stalemated nature of the overall conflict.
Ukrainian leaders rightly lament how they have to execute a major counteroffensive against a larger aggressor force without air superiority—a challenge no NATO military has ever had to conduct thanks to U.S. air superiority since World War II.
Preserving this critical U.S. advantage is essential but not inevitable.
https://sldinfo.com/2024/06/ukraine-war-underscores-need-for-sustained-investments-in-us-air-superiority/
