Does anyone know why the Ukranian air force (and to a lesser extent their anti-air capabilities) are still partially functional?
Given the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Russian air force, plus all their cruise missiles etc., plus their satellites, I expected them to begin the conflict by gaining air supremacy and using it to suppress anti-air.
Hypothesis: Normally it takes a few days to do that, even for the mighty USAF attacking a place like Iraq; The Russian air force is not as overwhelmingly numerous vs. Ukraine so it should be expected to take at least a week, and Putin didn’t want the ground forces to wait on the sidelines for a week.
I am just guessing here, but maybe it’s also about relative priorities? Like, for Americans the air force is critical, because they typically fight at distant places and their pilots are expensive; while Russians can come to Ukraine by foot or by tanks, and the lives of the poor conscripted kids are politically unimportant and their training was cheap, so just sending the footsoldiers will probably achieve the military goal (whatever it is) anyway.
Does anyone know why the Ukranian air force (and to a lesser extent their anti-air capabilities) are still partially functional?
Given the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Russian air force, plus all their cruise missiles etc., plus their satellites, I expected them to begin the conflict by gaining air supremacy and using it to suppress anti-air.
Hypothesis: Normally it takes a few days to do that, even for the mighty USAF attacking a place like Iraq; The Russian air force is not as overwhelmingly numerous vs. Ukraine so it should be expected to take at least a week, and Putin didn’t want the ground forces to wait on the sidelines for a week.
The Russians did claim that they gained air supremacy but it’s hard in war to know what’s really true.
I am just guessing here, but maybe it’s also about relative priorities? Like, for Americans the air force is critical, because they typically fight at distant places and their pilots are expensive; while Russians can come to Ukraine by foot or by tanks, and the lives of the poor conscripted kids are politically unimportant and their training was cheap, so just sending the footsoldiers will probably achieve the military goal (whatever it is) anyway.