They’re testing their latest weaponry on us in Syria:
“All of a sudden your communications won’t work, or you can’t call for fire, or you can’t warn of incoming fires because your radars have been jammed and they can’t detect anything,” said Laurie Moe Buckhout, a retired Army colonel who specializes in electronic warfare.
“[It] can be far more deadly than kinetics simply because it can negate one’s ability to defend one’s self,” she said.
But we’re also learning from it. Great story from Lara Seligman.
Everyone has been testing their new weaponry there. The Russians air defense system hasn’t been much of a problem for people who wish to penetrate it.
I think for the Russians, the benefit isn’t in testing equipment but in training their military in combined arms. It isn’t often that a country gets to train like this and we have seen Russia use cruise missiles and other weapons systems in new ways (for them). The same is true for Iran.
We have also benefited from this type of training. Even during the Clinton years we were flying a lot of missions over Iraq, which helped keep out pilots top notch. It would be best to get a decisive win in Afghanistan but the war has produced a lot of experienced officers. It has to be something that worries Iran, China, Russia, and North Korea.
Out = our