Buelldozer , 9 hours ago

for some considerable time now, russian close air support stays well outside of ukrainian surface to air missiles range by using glide bombs to deliver bombs to the frontline.

The F-16s can solve this. The range of even the older AIM-120C AMRAAM exceeds that of the Russian glide bombs by 30 to 60 kilometers. The D variant, and I have seen Ukrainian F-16s with this loaded, has a range of 180 kilometers. That’s enough to knock a Russian aircraft out of the sky long before they can use a glide bomb.

The US has said they will be providing Ukraine with the 120D and Raytheon is maxxing out production of them.

III. russian jets flying air defense sorties will have to be stationed at further airbases.

The JASSM will push them back hundreds of miles and that’s no small matter. Aircraft like the SU-25 only have a range of 560 miles, roughly 900 kilometers. The JASSM could push them so far back that they become unusable as they can’t carry enough fuel! The MIG-25 might be able to make it, just barely, but there will be no range left for any combat. Even the SU-34 will have to fly lots of extra distance in order to keep far enough back and all that extra flight time comes at a serious cost to tempo and aircraft availability.

The JASSM is no small thing, don’t underestimate what will happen when it shows up.