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By Richard Fernandez

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August 10, 2008 - 7:27 pm - by Richard Fernandez
exhelodrvr
2008-08-11 17:27:54

Roy,
“The Russians do not have sophisticated air defenses in Georgia”
Their mobile systems are quite sophisticated. And they have hundreds of armored vehicles in the region now, yet you are talking about 10-12 tactical aircraft taking them out. And a handful of F-22s would not be able to handle all the interceptors/fighters that the Russians have in the area. You don’t think they have radar, at a minimum mobile radar, up in the mountains? And you are also forgetting about their naval assets in the Black Sea, for both the radar and missile capability. And they will be prepared for this.
“From the little I’ve seen all of the Russian aircraft are configured for ground attack. There would not be enough time for them to get interceptors to the area.”

No interceptors? This has obviously been planned for a long time. And even if it wasn’t, how long would it take the Russians to fly interceptors in to the region? Less than an hour.

“Forgot to mention the JSTARS. As you may remember, during OIF we took out a significant armored force in the middle of a sandstorm.”

Great. If this was the Iraqi army in Georgia, with us having local air superiority, this wouldn’t be a problem. And how many aircraft were involved in that episode? Many more than you are suggesting here.

No, you are significantly overestimating the relative ability of our forces to those of the Russians.