Russia and Ukraine

[Thumpalumpacus]

There are a number of things about this invasion that baffle me, mainly doctrinal. Why didn't they seize control of the air the first day? They have the air force to do it. Why are they sending armor into urban areas without an infantry screen to safeguard the tanks? What has happened to their Army's institutional knowledge such that they're ignoring logistical issues?

By all accounts they didn't have the airforce to do the job.  They have no planes specialised for SEAD or DEAD which are essential to controlling the skies early on.  And far more importantly, they don't train their pilots in the necessary tactics to carry out SEAD or DEAD, and generally not enough (Russian pilots typically get 60 flight hours per year as opposed to 200 for Western pilots, who also get specialised training in the roles they're deployed for).  This can be seen in what type of missions being flown in Ukraine, they're almost all two plane missions, and not full wing missions or similar which are what's actually needed to take out the oppositional air force and ground air defence capabilities.

A number of people who comment generally on military aviation generally have said that it looks like Russian pilots were trained in demonstration tricks to hawk their goodies to foreign buyers, and not trained as combat effective pilots.

Furthermore, the Russian arms manufacturers are incapable of mass building modern planes, and quite a few of what they do build are for foreign buyers, so what we're finding (as with their ground units) once the first few modern planes get hit, what Russia has left is old stuff from the USSR days.

PS Welcome back Thumpalumpacus, the site's much better with you around.

You're too kind, thanks.

I get your point about SEAD, though I think that would be very difficult anyway given that most Ukrainian AD is in the form of MANPADs. For this reason, I was thinking more along the lines of attacking Ukrainian airfields harboring combat planes or repair facilities with stand-off missiles in the opening minutes of the war.

They may well be husbanding their more advanced aircraft in order to address any potential NATO intervention, too.