The West is learning from the war in Ukraine

The Ukraine conflict offers the West many lessons that may be useful when war breaks out between the world's military powers.

Ukrainian F-16 fighters on April 8, 2024

Retired US Air Force Colonel John Venable, a former F-16 fighter pilot and military expert at the Mitchell Institute, told Business Insider that one of the lessons from Ukraine is that it may be time for the West to revive its old aircraft control techniques, including low-altitude flying.

During the Cold War in Europe, “we were always flying low,” Venable said, adding that the US had to train for high-altitude threats, specifically surface-to-air missiles.

Venable retired in 2007 after 25 years of service in the US Air Force, flying F-16s in the US, Europe, the Pacific and the Middle East. He logged more than 300 hours of combat flight time in Kuwait, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ukrainian pilot flies F-16 and shoots down 6 Russian missiles

The veteran pilot said flying low to avoid surface-to-air missiles is a particularly challenging technique.

“The ability to fly extremely low until you reveal yourself to drop bombs or shoot down other aircraft is not something that is easy to master,” he said. “It takes a while to acquire that skill. And in the process, you lose a lot of aircraft; pilots because of collisions with the ground,” said the retired US colonel.

The US Air Force continued low-altitude flying until Operation Desert Storm in 1991. The US lost a number of aircraft in the early days, so the Air Force switched to medium-altitude flying.

US Air Force F-35 fighters

However, Ukrainian F-16 pilots now have to apply aircraft control techniques that the West has excluded since the Cold War to fight more effectively in Russia's special military campaign.

Western powers have not had to deploy fourth-generation fighters in contested airspace for decades. And modern equipment like the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter allows pilots to operate at altitudes beyond the range of surface-to-air missiles. But that ability may erode in the future.

“In the not-too-distant future, there will come a time when even stealth assets will have to incorporate low-altitude tactics into combat,” Venable warned, and the US could learn a challenging skill from the war in Ukraine.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/phuong-tay-dang-hoc-hoi-tu-chien-su-ukraine-18525012410040266.htm