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Well, where he's right is that Air Supremacy doesn't really work when the enemy can bomb all of your air strips within a few hours flight away.

Fighter jets don't go very far on a tank of fuel, and even if you're trying to do arial refueling, it's a huge pain to try to have to fly hours to put a bomb on a target and then fly hours back again - and your refueling aircraft as also kind of sitting ducks as well.

Iran has just called into question the whole concept of air-first doctrine.
@cjd I'm a huge skeptic and critic of air power but using this war as a litmus test is ridiculous. this was supposed to be a quick little raid, not a full blown total war, and that's how it was planned and executed

relying on air power without ground forces invading simultaneously is extremely stupid and has literally never worked in the entire history of military aviation. didn't need this war to learn that
> this was supposed to be a quick little raid, not a full blown total war

Over the past couple of decades I've heard a million variants of "we weren't really fighting to win" - particularly in relation to Afghanistan. I have to admit I'm kind of jaded about it.

When you enter some kind of a conflict and you come out worse off than you started, the correct word for that is Losing.

I think we learn something in every war. What we learned this time is that if a hypersonic can get past interceptors and C-RAM, then it can deny naval access and destroy nearby bases, which completely undermines an air first strategy.

It also challenges how you would even get infantry and equipment into the area to stage a ground invasion. You can't sail too close if they can just shoot your ships.

If interceptors, C-RAM, and DEW can't be improved to the point of beating hypersonics, this might be the end of war as we know it...
@cjd it obviously WAS meant to be just a raid. the fact that it (predictably) spiraled out of control does not change that fact. and you can feel free to try to find a single example of me saying we're winning the war or are going to win the war

for people who actually know what they're talking about there are no lessons here. I'm sure it's very illuminating for all the freshly minted military experts though
Okay so basically you're saying that People Who Actually Know What They're Talking About already knew that hypersonics are alpha-dominant, C-RAM is dead, interceptors are expensive fireworks, and ships are all sitting ducks?

Because, I mean, is there any major military in the world that has stopped buying these things?

Who are these People Who Actually Know What They're Talking About? Are there more of them or is it just you?

And, did you ever announce that you think hypersonics make ships obsolete before this battle, or were you keeping it a secret?
@cjd are you fucking kidding me? people have been talking about the missile threat to carriers since the 1950s

point defense systems like CIWS and C-RAM have been known-worthless since BEFORE they came online. they're last ditch defenses. ever do the math on that yourself? engagement window, accuracy, number of rounds fired, effect on target? of course not. you trusted the brochure

the same thing applies to terminal phase interception only the problem is MUCH WORSE. you think patriot missiles worked in gulf 1? that iron dome has EVER been effective on even minor ballistic threats? do you know ANYTHING about this? the patriot missiles were known ineffective in 1992. I was reading about iron dome's shitty real world performance as early as 2015, just a few years after it went online

it has been known since the invention of ballistic missiles that boost phase interception is the only realistic way to kill them. terminal phase interception is pure fantasy. it's technologically impossible to achieve a high hit rate

the only new technology on this battlefield since WWII is guided air defense missiles (1950s technology) and that's not an exaggeration. effective military drones were operational by 1942. they sucked but the writing was on the wall

why does the US buy this shit? because 1) it's not *completely* worthless in all scenarios but mainly 2) because procurement is driven by bribes and graft, not military effectiveness. why does a military project get split up so work goes to companies in 45 states, tripling the cost and doubling the timeline? because that's what congress demands before it'll sign off on it

why are other countries developing systems similar to ours? because they can't think for themselves and just copy us

now what did iran do? did it try to go symmetric and build a bunch of stealth planes and THAAD clones and carriers and all the other trillion dollar horseshit we have? no, it didn't. iran stands alone as the one country on earth that actually built its military for effective wartime performance from first principles, instead of trying to be a worse version of the US military

The only way we'd be at least somewhat effective at getting missiles in the boost phase would be putting weapons in space. Which has a whole set of problems that go along with that, since I'm pretty sure we have treaties banning that sort of thing. Not that treaties really matter anymore.

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My initial thought regarding missiles is that what probably wins is to sneak up with a submarine and then release a drone swarm which a few minutes after release, they're too spread out to use missiles on... But it's quite a shift, boats not being that useful.

I didn't see his reply, but it confirms my question that People Who Know What They're Talking About includes him, and excludes strategists for every major military in the world, so.... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯