Between the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 2010s, the Western air forces, and the United States in particular, were certain that they could impose their superiority in the air on any other power, to the point of engaging major campaigns without ever needing to deploy troops on the ground, as in Kosovo in 1999 during Operation Allied Force, or in Libya in 2011 during Operation Harmattan for France and Unified Protector for the UN. But the gradual arrival of new anti-aircraft defense systems, such as the series (2007) et the S-350 (2019) in Russia, and the HQ-9B (2007) and HQ-16 (2012) in China, and the improvement of the effectiveness of integrated multilayer air defenses, have deeply eroded these certainties, to the point of now talking about denial of access, i.e. systems capable of preventing entry into airspace on their own, but also naval, protected.
The initial response to this major threat to the Western air forces, which alone today carry over 75% of Western firepower, was summed up in one characteristic, stealth, which was widely emphasized for almost 15 years. 35 years to promote the commercial success of Lockheed's FXNUMX. But the increasingly rapid arrival of detection systems designed to counter this characteristic, like low-frequency radars, passive radars, or multistatism, have largely eroded the aura of invincibility of the F35, which also faces other maintenance and budget constraints, and of which certain characteristics are evident. disabilities, like its small radius of action. At the same time, Moscow and Beijing, but also their allies, have deployed dense and effective anti-aircraft defense networks, against which the air forces in Europe or the Pacific have little solution, if not is the heavy use of electronic warfare aircraft like the EA-18G Growler.
With each Shield, its Lance
There are 75% of this article left to read, Subscribe to access it!
The Classic subscriptions provide access to
articles in their full version, and without advertising.
Meta-Defense celebrates its 5th anniversary!
- 20% on your Classic or Premium subscription, with the code Metanniv24
Offer valid from May 10 to 20 for the online subscription of a new Classic or Premium, annual or weekly subscription on the Meta-Defense website.
[…] on the other hand, drones, whatever they are, are not without weakness and vulnerability. Because if the Pentagon invests massively in directed energy weapons, jamming systems and even anti-drone drones to protect itself from this threat, it is […]