while russian military leaders have shown little to no hesitation when it comes to
escalating their attacks on ukraine there are a number of reasons why president vladimir putin
and his military leaders will think twice before directly confronting nato
one key reason may be the russian air force's apparent inferiority visa vis-nato
a cursory comparison between the russian air force and nato force sizes and capabilities
suggests that russia could not compete with the united states and nato in the air
not only does russia reportedly operate a very small number of fifth generation su-57s stealth
fighters when compared with the hundreds of f-35 joint strike fighters operated by the west
but russia's force of advanced su-34 and
su-34th generation fighters is not likely to pose an extremely credible threat to nato
therefore u.s and nato air assets forward position to russia's west may well be
succeeding in the core mission of deterring against any possible russian attack on nato
that's why you have seen the deployments of f-35 f-16s b-52s to a variety of different nato nations
there's a very strong interaction and unified set of command and control
architectures that are in place to deter any thought from putin or his russian military
from expanding this conflict outside of ukraine that might take on nato while russia continues
to pose a substantial threat to the united states and nato perceptions about russia's true combat
prowess had shifted in response to the russian military's poor showing in ukraine putin doesn't
want to take on nato because given the incredibly poor performance of his military forces so far
evident in ukraine his military forces wouldn't last very long in a nato engagement yet there
is another factor of potential concern for russia the f-35 russia's effective
road mobile s-400 air defenses have reportedly succeeded in shutting off potentially vulnerable
russian targets to air attacks from ukraine while the relative sophistication of upgraded russian
s-400s continues to get a lot of attention it certainly seems quite possible that these
advanced russian systems could be destroyed by u.s stealth aircraft such as f-35s or b-2 bombers
one of the most noted authorities on the f-35 has some interesting things to say about the jet
including how it would fit in with european air forces and how suitable the fighter is for
the air war over ukraine billy flynn a former lockheed martin test pilot
also talked about how the jet represents a massive leap forward from older soviet designed fighter
jets noting that the pilots who train them would be unable to learn how to fly the f-35 flynn
also believes the f-35 is the only jet that can survive in the lethal air environment over ukraine
the f-35 is only the second fighter jet in history developed with stealth technology
from the ground up and specifically with the s-400 missile system in mind
furthermore flynn believes the jet's network of sensors and ability to share data with
other aircraft and ground assets would make it an efficient air defense killer identifying
s-400s and similar platforms and then killing them with ruthless efficiency flynn asserts that while
nobody wants nato dragged into the war if it was it would completely destroy the russian forces
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