They're wearing us out? — Lt General David Krumm's observation

© 2021 Peter Free

 

15 June 2021

 

 

This is Sun Tzu funny, if you think about it

 

Russia is taking advantage of the United States' self-defeating combativeness:

 

 

Speaking from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson Lieutenant General David Krumm [see here] emphasised in March that there was a significant increase in Russian activity near Alaska, with Russian incursions into the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone being conducted at the highest rates since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

 

He highlighted that operating F-22s to intercept Russian aircraft was costly, and that there was “a strain on our units” from Russian activities.

 

On March 31, the North American Aerospace Defense Command reported that not only were Russian incursions increasing, but that Russian aircraft were loitering in the identification zone for hours at a time.

 

As the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone was International airspace, Russian aircraft could legally maintain a continuous presence in it - but the U.S. need to intercept such aircraft and its reliance on F-22s to do so imposed significant costs.

 

Russian aircraft such as the Tu-95 bomber, by contrast, had low operational costs, were ideal for loitering for long periods, and could not not be ignored due to their ability to deploy radar evading nuclear tipped cruise missiles in significant numbers. The cost of keeping maintenance-intensive F-22s in the air for such a length of time was very considerably higher.

 

© 2021 Military Watch Magazine, Russia is Wearing Out America’s High Maintenance F-22s by Loitering Bombers Around Alaska, militarywatchmagazine.com (13 June 2021)

 

 

Ask yourself this . . .

 

Exactly why is it necessary to intercept slow Russian Tu-95 turboprops in international airspace?

 

Is it because they might launch their cruise missiles without warning?

 

But how likely is that, given the immediate prospect of a full-scale nuclear war afterward?

 

Furthermore, and statistically speaking, what are the chances that these slow turboprops would not release their cruise missiles before we intercept the Russian bombers — if the Russians' intent were truly evil?

 

And how probable is it that we are proactively intercepting every one of the Russian 'sorties', while those are quasi-peacefully "loitering" — (don't you love that provocatively slanted word?) — in international air space — on a consistent enough basis to give those potentially pesky Russians, significant pause?

 

Are we beginning to see some holes in this (apparently never-before-examined) US 'defense' plan?

 

 

The moral? — Is this just (seemingly obligatory) American strategic stupidity at play?

 

Historically speaking, Russians (and their Soviet predecessors) emphasized building reasonably inexpensive, relatively reliable, and comparatively easy to maintain armaments.

 

In contrast — and exactly like the Nazis, whom the Red Army eventually crushed — we Americans build expensive, often unreliable and frequently hard to maintain (but allegedly sophisticated, zing-your-nasty-ass) weaponry.

 

You may note — if you are of historically tuned mind — that, even recently, Americans had to piggyback on Russian flights to the International Space Station because we could not maintain our own Space Shuttle program.

 

One would, therefore, think that a Sun Tzu-like mind would have paid attention to these indicative trends, while trying to dredge up some sensible strategic direction (for the United States) therefrom.

 

But no. Such a combination of history, mission-analysis and laudable foresight would (we can infer) be un-American.

 

Instead, we're trying to zoom out into international airspace. To meet up with some slow 1950s era Russian propeller-driven bombers. So as to keep the roughly one-half of our expensive, fragile, and pain-in-the-ass (but still operational!) F-22s flying.

 

All this, for no good tactical, strategic or even economic reasons. Except, of course, benefiting the American Military Industrial Complex's oligopoly.

 

It is no wonder that the Russians are figuratively smiling, while they tweak the United States' characteristically Combative Stupidity's much too prominent nose.