Aerial Warfare

Air-to-Air Combat:
 Air-to-Air Combat (Aerial Dogfights) has declined over the last 40 years and not anticipated to
increase in the near future
 American F-15 and Russian MiG-29: last designed in 1970s and are powerful and still in use today
Possible Threats:
 Sale of Russian Sukhoi Su-30 to China
• The sale of a more powerful fighter plane
• Counteract this threat: newly designed, more powerful western warplanes like F-35 Joint Strike Fighter
 Surface-to-Air Missiles
• Have become more sophisticated, cheaper and easier to operate
• More modern missiles are being sold to other countries
• These missiles have a target range up to 23,000 ft
• Land-based/vehicle vs Hand-operated/mounted Missile Launchers
 Surface-to-Air Missile Launcher Examples
 Land-based/vehicle missile launcher examples  Hand-held/mounted missile launcher examples
• American AN/TWQ-1 Avenger • American FIM-92 Stinger
• Chinese LY-60 • British Starstreak
• Russian SA-10 • Russian SA-7 Grail

Photo of the Russian SA-10 Vehicle Surface-to-Air Missile Launcher Photo of the British Starstreak Mounted Surface-to-Air Missile Launcher
Aerial Warfare (Continued)
Counteracting these Threats:
 Jammers, radar seeking missiles and decoys
 Stealth technology (F-117 Nighthawk) to render the aircrafts nearly invisible
 Use of unmanned drones for high risk missions
Additional Aerial Technology:
 US Airforce using less warplanes and bombers
• 1000s of B-29 bombers used during WW2
• B-2 bombers currently in use with the ability of “servicing eighty aim points per sortie”
 US dependency on smart bombs and missiles
• Anti-armor Warheads with infrared and laser sensors to destroy targets in a 30-acre area
• Tactical Tomahawk missiles can receive instructions while in flight
• Aircraft tankers like the KC-10 with greater range and effectiveness
Space Warfare
US labelled as “The Master of Space”:
 In 2001, the US with 100 military satellites and 150 commercial satellites in orbit
 US spends $15B per year in space to allow surveillance of 90% of the global total
Present Threats:
 GPS system is wildly available and vulnerable to potential hacks
 Over 40 countries and multiple private firms have their own satellites
• Firms like Google
• Purchasing their satellites from private satellite industries
 Dozens of nations have ballistic and land-attack cruise missiles
• Made with chemical, biological, or nuclear warheads
• 8 countries with Nuclear Warheads Photo of the American NAVSTAR 76 Satellite
Space Warfare (Continued)
Countermeasures:
 Ground-based Patriot Advance
Capability 3
 Sea-based Standard Missile 3
Recent News:
 March 1, 2018: Vladimir Putin’s new
and improved Nuclear Missiles

Photo of Vladimir Putin’s announcement of Russia’s newest Nuclear Missiles