From what I remember talking to the Canadian military, NATO destroyed a large ammount of crudely mocked up tractors, compost heaps(background radiation much like an AFV, if you're making 650 knots!) and sophisticated inflatable radiating decoys. I think the tally was aprox 100-120 AFV's a poor sortie return rate given total air superiority. In Afghanistan the collapse of the Taliban was caused by a rearming of the Northern alliance who could then exploit the damage caused by the airstrikes. Only in the Gulf with total air superiority, minimal effective SAM/AAA and a dug in conventional opponent in the desert, ideal IR sensor contrast conditions day and night could the airforce bring to bare it's real awesome potential. Looking at your other comments I'm reminded by the old definition of air superiority "a tank at the end of the runway". What havoc could a 12.7mm armed sniper cause as he targeted the AWACS radome, J-STARS sensor arrays and the front wheels of F-16's as they reached F1 speeds. Then again a terminally guided 120mm mortar bomb on the officers mess would do. Treat your enemy with less initiative, cunning and resourcefullness as yourself and rely overly on one weapon system and you're in trouble. To adapt a Soviet phrase, 'JDAM is to tube like tube is to boot'................Swede |