(17-06-2025, 06:22 PM)Tee tiong huat Wrote: June 17, 2025 / JNS) Israel announced that it had gained aerial superiority over western Iran, including Tehran, 48 hours after the start of “Operation Rising Lion,” something Russia hasn’t been able to do in three-and-a-half years of war in Ukraine. Why one succeeded while the other failed was the subject of a report by The Wall Street Journal on Monday. The most obvious reason is that the Israel Air Force is more capable than the Russian Air Force. British Air Marshal (ret.) Edward Stringer, who oversaw the air campaign in Libya in 2011 and headed operations for the British Ministry of Defense, told the WSJ that the key reason the IAF succeeded is that it surpasses Russia’s in culture, training and innovation, while combining intelligence and cyber capabilities.
“All the Russians have is pilots. They grow these pilots to drive flying artillery, and that’s it,” he said.
Israel ticked off several more successes on Monday. The military said it had destroyed a third of Iran’s total missile launchers. Key Iranian intelligence figures were also eliminated.
Control of the skies: Israel achieves in 48 hours what Russia couldn’t in 3.5 years confirm what military planners l said for decades about the importance of air superiority. Israeli Air Force practicing aerial refueling of fighter jets in Israeli airspace exercise simulated long-range flight deep behind enemy lines, they practicing aerial refueling of fighter jets in Israeli airspace
(June 17, 2025 / JNS)
Israelk gained aerial superiority over western Iran, including Tehran, 48 hours start “Operation Rising Lion,”
the Russia hasn’t been able to do in 3-and-a-half years of war in Ukraine.
one succeeded while the other failed was the subject of a report by The Wall Street Journal on Monday. The most obvious reason is the Israel Air Force is more capable than Russian Air Force.
British Air Marshal (ret.) Edward Stringer, who oversaw the air campaign in Libya in 2011 and headed operations for the British Ministry of Defense, told the WSJ that the key reason the IAF succeeded is that it surpasses Russia’s in culture, training and innovation, while combining intelligence and cyber capabilities. “All the Russians have is pilots. They grow these pilots to drive flying artillery, and that’s it,” he said. Israel ticked off several more successes on Monday. The military said it had destroyed a third of Iran’s total missile launchers. Key Iranian intelligence figures were also eliminated.
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“At this time, we can say that we have achieved full aerial superiority over Tehran’s skies,” IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin announced at a press briefing.
It is an achievement that Russia has tried but failed to realize since the start of its war against Ukraine in February 2022. Its inability to do so is one reason Moscow’s military has been “bogged down in grinding trench warfare, sustaining staggering losses,” the Journal reported. Despite the differences in the two wars, “the experience of these two conflicts, closely observed by militaries around the world, reinforces what war planners have known for decades: Control over air is everything, if you can get it,” the paper reported.
“The two campaigns showing the fundamental importance of air superiority. U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. (ret.) David Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, who oversaw allied air operations against the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan in 2001, told the Journal. “In the case of the Russia-Ukraine war, you see what happens when neither side can achieve air superiority: stalemate and devolution to attrition-based warfare,” he said. “In the case of the Israel-Iran war, it allows Israel unhindered freedom to attack where it possesses air superiority over segments of Iran.”
Israel has already capitalized on its control of the skies started the campaign with its most advanced fighter, the F-35, which has stealth capabilities, but now also uses older F-15s and F-16s. With Iranian air defenses eroded, it also started using inexpensive and abundant short-range bombs vs. more expensive and less numerous long-range missiles. “Israeli warplanes began dropping bombs from within Iranian skies,” the Journal reported. “That is a feat that the giant Russian air force has been unable to achieve in Ukraine in 3½ years of war.”
Now have “ability to use whole suite of their offensive weapons—in greater mass, more efficiently, spreading them out,” British Air Marshal (ret.) Martin Sampson, who supervised British air ops against Islamic State in Syria & Iraq, told the Journal.