Comment by cyberax
10 hours ago
Neither Ukraine nor Russia are using manned aircraft in any significant ways. They are at most used to lob gliding bombs from far behind the front lines.
> And naturally F-35s on that theatre would have been a game changer making mass strikes on Moscow possible.
And then what? Kyiv has been under relentless strikes from drones and missiles for 5 years. And Moscow was hit by Ukrainian drones several times.
You'll need to suppress all the anti-air defenses first, and it will likely be too costly.
> They are at most used to lob gliding bombs from far behind the front lines.
You write that, and literally quote my point about F-35 making deep strikes against dense air defense possible in the very next sentence.
It remains to be seen how well F-35s actually perform in that role against an adversary with modern anti-air defense and with modern drone-based tactics.
Both Russia and Ukraine learned to avoid concentrating forces, so what are you going to strike? Use an F-35 to attack a single Jeep with a mounted machine gun? F-35 has limited range and carries very limited armament, so you can't just carpet-bomb everything. At some point, you'll need to use much less survivable heavy bombers.
Oh I love shopping lists, let's see. The FSB HQ, SVR HQ, Rosgvardiya HQ, the tens of Army offices across the city. Roscosmos HQ, listening stations for the satellite network. Precision mechanics, optics and electronic foundries manufacturing sites in Khimki, Lubertsy, Krasnogorsk and Zelenograd. Kosmos concert hall on Militia Day. Am sure there's more good spots along Rublevskoye highway too.
And if there are still some GBUs left after all that, the Kremlin and even the bloody Mausoleum.
F-35s have done pretty well in both Israeli and US hands against the Russian supplied SAM systems.
And if these vaunted Russian IADs can't stop Ukrainian drones with a RCS the size of a barn, they stand little chance against a stealth fighter.
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Strike the stuff that can't move: government offices, factories, bridges, dams, power plants, ports, logistics hubs. The heavy B-2 bombers are themselves quite survivable, and were in fact used in the initial strikes.
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It's like watching salami slicing happen in real time. It also forces a dilemma on Russia. Every move of GBAD to Moscow to defend against drone leaves an airfield uncovered. Move some to airfields and it leaves a refinery open. And on and on.