Does it look like they are deployed atop a hill to you? No doubt if this was in Russia, they could have the radars deployed in the optimal spots. But in many cases, especially in forward-deployed areas, there is no good way to compensate for the terrain.

Pretty much, but Russia just brought in a few launches and a couple of radars, not a full-blown IADS.

“it can shoot 80 decoys out of the sky at once”

It all depends on the terrain. The elevated radars help a little, but if there is any mountainous terrain around where the radar is deployed, it will be impossible to see the Tomahawk until the terrain is no longer between them. The S-400 would be a pretty stupid weapon to use against them. Point-defense is the order…

All correct except “known profile.” The beauty of the weapon is it can follow whatever convoluted path to the target they want, and come in from any direction. It can use the terrain to mask, which would be difficult for a SAM system to detect.

The flight time of SDBs, HARMs, ALARMs, etc are all less than 15 minutes. The radar needs to stay up long enough to guide their missiles to the targets. While the S-400 can outrange those systems, the further out they fire, the lower the probability of a successful intercept.

Yes and no... We can scramble fighters, they don’t need to be airborne at all times. The US maintains a nearly omniscient view of airspace over the US, and in many parts of the world. You may have heard about the satellites that saw a bomb go off on the Russian airliner, and can detect missile launches pretty much…

A tomahawk is not the most likely way this would happen. A more realistic scenario is the S-400 system lighting up a NATO fighter that is carrying HARMs or AARGMS. The frag warheads on this things could easily damage multiple components with them this close together. This would likely not be serious enough to start a…

Absolutely not. We have quite a few permanent bases. My point is you said we are the only ones. We are not. You were just speaking about things you didn’t know.

Alrighty. I’ll try to educate you a little.

Simply not true. France has about 15 bases internationally (most not in warzones). Italy has several. Russia has several, and the UK has almost as many as the US. You seem to be ill-informed.

They are ISIS supply line drivers. That’s not civilian. If we keep dropping leaflets, the drivers are more likely to keep driving different trucks. If we take them out with the trucks, the others will probably think twice before getting behind the wheel for ISIS.

Yes, the drone can lase targets or provide GPS coordinates. The A-10 can lase on its own though too.

Far more likely they are afraid Russia would use it to find FSA and other groups to bomb instead of ISIS.

Isolationism often implies pacifism as a component. Yes, Isolationism is more extensive (isn’t limited to military posture) but the end result is the same. We avoided conflicts and allowed our military to shrink and age.

Yes... because being pacifist has worked out so well in the past.... ahem (WWII). The only thing that has ever kept the peace (rather than all-out war) is being very prepared for war, and letting everyone know it.

No one would ever believe the US hit a Russian ship with a TOW. The US has much better weapons to use for anti-ship operations. Using a TOW against a ship would be like firing a sidewinder at a tank (which has been done).

But Russia IS attacking Turkmen near the border, and Turkey does not approve. They consider those Turkmen to be Turkish living in Syria (a lot like Russia considered “ethnic Russians” living in Crimea to be Russian and came to their “defense.”

No. What kind of world do you want your kids to live in? Would you like for them to get a padded cell to keep them safe? Do you want curfews and constant tracking that can be used for whatever the current administration wants and not just anti-terrorism?

I agree, I don’t think he’s crazy. You wanted a scenario so I gave an extreme one. I made it extreme to highlight the fact that none of the NATO countries likely want to step into a war with Russia, even if they did something extreme to Turkey.