Baibars_1260
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A war is not based on a single mission. Attrition will occur, several missions will fail and others will succeed. Only the force that has the depth, resources and the courage to sustain losses and continue will win a war. One battle alone doesn't matter. The real question would be how many days would PAF and IAF be able to sustain a full fledged war? It's clear which force has the greater resources at it's disposal, both of its own and national resources.
Good point!
So then the following questions are relevant:
1. India has fought full fledged wars with Pakistan before with the same asymmetry. Why did the Pakistan Air Force survive these conflicts relatively intact ?
In a true attrition war an air force is degraded over time or by an intense sustained operation over a short duration,
Examples:
Iraqi Airforce during Desert Storm ( 1991) . With initial heavy losses in 1991 and attrition over a decade by 2003 , Desert Freedom, the Iraqi Air Force had virtually ceased to exist.,
Afghan Air Force in 2001 .With attrition and lack of maintenance it had virtually ceased to exist. It was wiped out in the first attacks which also killed the Afghan Air Force chief.
In 2011, the Libyan Air Force was neutralized within a week by Operation Unified Protector, Operation Harmattan.
The assets available and deployed by the USA and coalition forces were very small in numbers.
Example : Operation Unified Protector the French deployed
18 Mirage 2000, 19 Rafale, 6 Mirage F1, 6 Super Etendard, 2 E-2 Hawkeye, 3 Eurocopter Tiger, 16 Aérospatiale Gazelle aircraft, The Belgian and Danish Airforces deployed
6 F-16s each and the Canadians deployed 6-F-18s. So with a total of around 70 combat aircraft supported by naval assets and SEAD operations the coalition was able achieve complete air supremacy over a territory double the size of Pakistan.
Just India's Su 30 inventory is more than three times the entire coalition strength fielded by the US and Nato in all the operations ( example: March 10-June 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia) .
All the above operations were conducted by air forces at extreme distances requiring extensive logistical and refueling capabilities.
Yet the Libyan, Iraqi, Yugoslavian and Afghan air forces were knocked out fairly easily.
Israel using far smaller forces has neutralized every air force in the vicinity, except perhaps Syria which is still functional somewhat.
So question to our Indian guests here:
Why hasn't India given its vastly superior air assets achieved air supremacy over Pakistan?
Why hasn't India waged an air campaign of attrition to degrade the PAF like the USA did over a decade against Iraq?
Why hasn't India conducted fighter jet air "sweeps" to lure the PAF fighters into combat and then annihilate them like the USA attempted against the NVAF ( Operation Bolo 1967 ) ?
Why is the PAF still intact after four wars, able to rebuild, re-equip, and operate freely within Pakistani air space?
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