picked a bad time to make a thread

Really ?
Is there EVER a bad time .............

Originally posted by martin3030
Really ?
Is there EVER a bad time .............

Yes, if you make a study of it. The middle of the night or early morning is not a good time (in the US). Mid-morning seems to be better, after the "rush" has petered out. Your topic stays in the first column longer. (My 2 cents worth of observations.)

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Well, thats a bit more then "Stingers", is'nt it? I guess we can call them "Stinkers" now...-

The problem with Russian kit is that when fielded it does not work like the salesman said. Libya has (like several nations before them) invested heavily in Russian anti aircraft weaponary. Has it succeeded?

It may sound good and look the part in pleasing the generals and politicians, but will it work when actually needed? That's the question.

Regards

just because you have good equipment doesnt mean you are effective with it.
Besides manpads like these will be mostly effective against helicopters and slow moving fixed wing aircraft.

Originally posted by paraphi
The problem with Russian kit is that when fielded it does not work like the salesman said. Libya has (like several nations before them) invested heavily in Russian anti aircraft weaponary. Has it succeeded?

It may sound good and look the part in pleasing the generals and politicians, but will it work when actually needed? That's the question.

Regards

Libya is armed with 1960-70s Soviet export model SAMs, trying to defend against generation 4/4.5/and possibly 5 aircraft.

Aside from even the technical aspects between Libyan SAMs and coalition aircraft, there's also the tactics. SAMs become less effective when you use long-range AtG missiles, satallite-guided bombs, and cruise missiles to take out radar networks, ammo stockpiles and crew.

It really has little to do with the equipment being Russian. The Libyans could be using same era US SAMs and be hit even worse because the US would know their capabilities better than they do.

MANPADS are usefull because when you use one, you're not sitting in a big infrared target giving off a lot of continuous radar targeting signals. Mind you that, because of the size, range and damage of MANPADS, you're really only going to be able to use them to attack low-level aircraft like helicopters and planes taking off/ingressing. However, the advantage is that you can hide under an aircraft and then jump out, aim and fire relatively quickly, and the warning sensors blaring at the pilots should be enough to distract them long enough to turn off your targetting system and run to a new firing location.

Originally posted by tomcat ha
just because you have good equipment doesnt mean you are effective with it.
Besides manpads like these will be mostly effective against helicopters and slow moving fixed wing aircraft.

yup, good euipment doesn't mean much.