Dmitri Alperovitch talks with Justin Bronk (Senior Research Fellow for Airpower and Technology at RUSI and Professor at Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy) and Dara Massicot (Russian military analyst at RAND) about the dire implications of the dwindling stocks of Ukrainian air defense interceptors and what can be done to solve that problem.
Justin makes a strong case for how only a dozen or so Swedish Saab Gripen jets could make a huge difference for Ukrainian objective to make Russian air power irrelevant in this war and Dara proposes an asymmetric response to deny Russian military launch platforms from which they could strike Ukraine.
Also, in the podcast:
- Why F-16s are a terrible fit for Ukrainian airfields and the dilemma the US would face in providing the newest AMRAAM missiles for them (that Ukraine would need) without jeopardizing US air superiority in the potential conflict with China
- How the Russian Air Force is likely to carpet-bomb Ukrainian cities, provide increased close air support to its ground forces and target Ukrainian logistics/ammo depots/force concentrations and HIMARS launchers if they achieve air superiority over the skies in Ukraine
- The challenges with producing Soviet air defense interceptor missiles outside of Russia
- Why Western air defense systems (Patriots, NASAMS, IRIS-T, etc) are not a replacement for the large quantities of Ukrainian S-300s and Buks
- How countermeasures on Russian fighter jets have actually been effective in limiting their combat losses against MANPADS like Stingers
- Why Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) are considered the most professional and most responsive to learning units in the Russian military
- The success of Ukrainian counter-UAV battle against Iranian Shahed kamikaze drones and how a phone app is making a key difference for Ukraine in that fight
Music: "Flygkadetten Marsch" (The Aviation Cadet March) of the Swedish Air Force
