But why do you think they are failing at all of those things stated?
Considering their fleet, shouldn't they be able to achieve that?
If you have one thousand soldiers but 500 swords, how many swordsmen can you send to battle? Now expand that analogy to logistics, from bombs to missiles to tires to rifles and so on. After 12 days, even the most conservative of analysts, armchair generals, and real generals have been forced to the logistics path -- that the Russian military is bad at it. When I said 'conservative' I do not mean the political context but the reserves they have before speaking.
Here is the US Air Force perspective...
When Spaatz and Doolittle changed the fighter strategy, it was the beginning of the end for German air
www.airforcemag.com
In January 1944, the new commander of Eighth Air Force, Maj. Gen. James H. Doolittle, was visiting his subordinate commander, Maj. Gen. William A. Kepner, at VIII Fighter Command, when he noticed a slogan on the wall. It read: “The first duty of Eighth Air Force fighters is to bring the bombers back alive.” Kepner said the sign was there when he got there. Doolittle told him to take it down, that it was wrong.
A new sign went up: “The first duty of Eighth Air Force fighters is to destroy German fighters.”
This was considerably more than a moment of fighter pilot bravado. It marked a key change in strategy in the air war in Europe.
“As far as I’m concerned, this was the most important and far-reaching military decision I made during the war.” Doolittle said. “It was also the most controversial.”
The fighters were no longer constrained to holding close formation with bombers. Instead, they would fly ahead, look for German fighters, and attack them where they found them.
Bomber crews were dismayed at first, but the results were dramatic. Within a few months, the Allies had seized air superiority from the Germans and held it for the rest of the war. The average monthly loss rate for Eighth Air Force heavy bombers fell from 5.1 percent in 1943 to 1.9 percent in 1944.
The highlighted is more than important, it is
CRITICAL. Fighters are hunter-killers. Bombers, and everyone else, are preys. If you want everyone else to survive, you must kill the killers. Doolittle changed the mindset of the Eight Air Force from that of passivity -- protection -- to that of proactive -- hunt. That mindset never changed since WW II. It is even more noticeable that the world's air forces are filled with fighter-bombers, principally because few countries can afford diverse platforms like how the US or the Soviet Union can. That mean if you are a pilot, of any air force, and if you are not flying transports, your primary air skills must be ACM.
The Russian Air Force can reach just about all of Ukraine from inside Russia. Not only that, every air base can host other squadrons and even that of different platforms. So in theory, the VKS can have its entire fleet at Ukraine's borders which also in theory, should have achieved air superiority over Ukraine on the first day.
If I have to do this on a
LIMITED aircraft budget...
Day 1. Strike all Ukrainian air fields with most Ukrainian fighters either destroyed or damaged while grounded. I will have the pilots do hot refuel and rearm if necessary to strike as many airfields as many times as possible.
Day 2. Runway denial. Even though the MIG and Su platforms can take off from improvised runways. I would already know that and would damage associated areas that can be build up or already built as improvised runways.
Day 3. Major airspace denial. This mean combat air patrol (CAP) over areas that the army required, major cities, and critical infrastructures. I want to preserve bridges and finished roads for the army.
The longer the absence of the VKS over Ukraine, the more protracted and bloody the ground war will become for both sides because Russian artillery and ballistic missiles will replace the VKS but they are less accurate and precise. Not only that, without air suppression the Ukrainians will gain more experience with MANPADS and the Javelins which are pouring in essentially unchecked. The lower the flight altitude, the less situational awareness you have, and if you are a Russian Army helo pilot flying at treetop level, you will not have any time to avoid a MANPADS rocket as that video showed.
form Black sea access by "claiming" a russian territory from Odessa to Mariupol! Then by insurgents in Moldova to topple the government and by infiltrating more insurgents
