Really, Area 51 has an airstrip. I would think that would automatically preclude drones according to already-existing FAA rules.

Yes, and they thought they were doing well in the first day as they shot down a lot of decoys. Without the work of those RC-135s and other ESM/ISR aircraft during Desert Shield, the coalition could have taken some pretty serious losses. We went in knowing exactly where most of their radars were.

IMHO I am not too bothered by that deal. We share some tech and experience to improve our own anti-missile systems, and Israel gets to shoot down incoming threats rather than having civilians die and being forced to make more punitive strikes that also kill civilians.

The AESA in the F-35 is constantly getting upgraded, and they have experimented with using AESAs for high-bandwidth communications (like realtime data you mentioned).

And sadly, so many people just eat it up when we end up having to attack one of these places. They do exactly what the enemy was trying to get them to do. They are too naive to see when they are being played.

Exactly right. People assume one side will line up in a big group with rifles while Apaches mow them down. The reality would be walking down the street, or through the barracks, or down the halls of the Pentagon not being able to tell who is loyal to the government and who is a “rebel.” You can’t fight that with all…

That implies it was easy. The fact is, if we had not done things exactly the right way, things could have ended up a lot worse.

And they had even larger forces getting ready to move in. However, thanks to JSTARS’ Moving Target Indicating radar, as soon as they started moving a large group of armor toward the border we sent in the air force. They thought they could sneak over at night. They were safe as long as they were sitting still.

The B-2s aren’t to go up against their Su-24s. You need to look at their SAM, Air-denial equipment. Have a look at how well the tech worked (and how necessary it was) in Iraq when they still had an integrated air defense network.

Great idea until someone straps one on an F-22. I wonder what the RCS of a go-pro is....

Accusing others of being mentally inadequate all the while displaying such ignorance persistently on this board?

“Every Man a Tiger” by Tom Clancy/General Chuck Horner has a lot of good detail on how the air war was run. It does tend to be more “a day in the life of Chuck Horner” than details on strike packages though.

Something interesting is that the first shots “fired” in Desert Storm were not the first shots that “hit.”

They had mobile SAMs too. The idea of this raid was to take out the long-range EW radars. These operate at lower frequencies, requiring MUCH larger antennas and more power. You also want your EW radars in good locations where their view isn’t obstructed by terrain, which limits visibility. This is why EW radars were…

I am suspecting LouisTheroux is just trying to create tension between the US and European posters here. Get your enemies fighting amongst each other and all that. That is being generous, as the other possibilities involve some pretty extreme ignorance on his part.

That number is also wrong, as everyone seems to be forgetting the API (Depleted Uranium armor piercing) rounds were mixed in with HEI rounds (combat mix). They were in a 4:1 ratio of API to HEI, so you’re missing 1/5 of the rounds. It’s not a huge difference, but that gives you more BRRT time :)

We sent troops into Iraq to disrupt their supply chain, hunt SCUDS that were going to be used to attack other countries, and fight back the troops Iraq had sitting on the border of Saudi Arabia waiting to attack. It was certainly not about “punishment.” You would know this if you actually studied the strategy as it…

I am just glad you have nothing to do with national defense, because all of your conclusions are pure bunk. History has proven out again and again that if you let your defenses down, someone will take advantage of it. Animals prey on weak. Humans also prey on the weak, or those that appear weak. Just because you don’t…

Well they should hope those anti-ship missiles work better than the Silkworms they fired at US ships during Operation Praying Mantis.

Yeah, I don’t get that kind of logic. It’s right up there with the “We haven’t had that kind of war in decades, so why do we still prepare for it?”