![]() The outer layer of Ukrainian defenses consists of mobile surface-to-air missiles, dating back to the Cold War era, which cover approaches from the blue skies. As a result, Kyiv has managed to deny Russian manned aircraft freedom of movement over most of Ukraine while simultaneously operating its own, increasingly unmanned assets in the air littoral. Ukraine has successfully practiced a strategy of air denial, based on a defense-in-vertical-depth approach that employs multilayered and overlapping systems and integrates their effects across the domain, from the blue skies to the air littoral. Denying manned aircraft-from the blues skies to the air littoral The “ air littoral”-that is, the airspace between ground forces and high-end fighters and bombers-then poses the more challenging and important contest for air control. Even if high-end fighters and bombers manage to gain air superiority in the “blue skies,” the airspace below them remains contested. ![]() The air war in Ukraine is a harbinger of air wars to come, when US adversaries will increasingly employ defense in vertical depth, layering the effects of cyber disruptions, electromagnetic jamming, air defenses, drones, and missiles in increasing degrees of strength, from higher to lower altitudes. Although comforting, such confidence is misplaced. This is a comforting conclusion for Western defense analysts: If Russian failure is mainly self-inflicted, then the air war in Ukraine does not challenge existing doctrine and expensive modernization priorities. They would surely do better than the Russians in a war like Ukraine. Given that the Russians have shown themselves incapable of conducting complex air operations, it is tempting to conclude that the air war in Ukraine holds few lessons for the United States and other Western air forces. ![]() Of all the surprises Ukraine had in store for Russia’s invading forces, perhaps the biggest is Ukraine’s denial of air superiority to a larger and more technologically sophisticated Russian air force. AugAir denial: The dangerous illusion of decisive air superiorityīy Maximillian K. ![]()
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