Reply #46: And strategically it is still highly inefficient. as in it has never worked

[nadinbrzezinski]

as advertised

The AF has pushed this for EVAH... or at least since the birth of the AF... but you still need that 18 year old to hold terrain

They know it, and any RATIONAL CHief of Staff knows that too...

So chances are that air war will become something else extremely fast

As I said bellow Curtis LeMay used to push this for EVAH when he reached the stratosphere of the service as the AF chief of Staff... and he used to be reminded that it took 18 year olds with M1-Garand to actually do the job

Of course we are talking of the current leadership, both military and civilian, who seemed to have wargamed this without taking into account the actual conditions on the ground, or how much plans go to hell as soon as you make contact with the enemy... ah that famous dictum

War plans that you wargame only work the way you plan as long as all the players follow the assumptions. They tend to go to hell in a handbasket the moment anybody breaks the assumptions... or in real life refuses to do what you expect them to do... damn pesky enemy... they rarely behave as you expect them

And the Iranians have a few anti-ship missiles that could make a mess of the US Fleet, for example