F-15E shot down over Iran

[Inverted]

Iran isn’t Afghanistan. The mobile threats are present, and are everywhere. While they don’t have the ability to reach out and touch you such that the strat systems do, they are very lethal if you operate inside their WEZ, which easily happens.

We quickly defeated Iraq in DS, but lost a lot of aircraft downed by legacy systems, even after we’d had them mostly beaten down. Welcome to operating in a contested environment.

Ehh, this feels like a pretty handwaving way to dismiss the fact that the losses of aircraft and equipment are pretty high for this not being a war...

 

[MikeD]

Ehh, this feels like a pretty handwaving way to dismiss the fact that the losses of aircraft and equipment are pretty high for this not being a war...

Am talking the operational technicals, not the politics. There’s another thread for that. There’s shooting, it’s combat. War,

 

[Inverted]

Am talking the operational technicals, not the politics. There’s another thread for that. There’s shooting, it’s combat. War,

I am not making it political either. This is not a war, war was not declared. This conflict, operation, or whatever you want to call it, has had a serious loss of aircraft. Simply listing other wars and conflicts doesn't really excuse the current state of air superiority over the Middle East right now.

 

[MikeD]

I am not making it political either. This is not a war, war was not declared. This conflict, operation, or whatever you want to call it, has had a serious loss of aircraft. Simply listing other wars and conflicts doesn't really excuse the current state of air superiority over the Middle East right now.

War: a state of armed conflict between nations or groups, generally defined. And different than a declaration of war.
Semantics aside, it’s combat. And in near-peer combat, warfare, conflict, whatever you’d like to call it, where there’s actually an equipped and trained foe, nothing is going to be a cakewalk.

Now, if you are arguing that proactive preparations and contingencies weren’t taken into account or might have been sloppy, such as the lack of force protection at an airbase where HVAA aircraft were needlessly damaged/destroyed out in the open not once, but twice, at the exact same location; there is definitely some mail that needs to be answered on that failure.