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This is a really interesting topic for debate. Possibly the most recent employment of modern air-to-air tactics we've seen in actual combat was in the early '80s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mole_Cricket_19). I hope we never have to see an actual large-scale air war between high-end, near-peer competitors, and can continue to armchair debate these kinds of scenarios.



Speaking about ECM and the Bekaa battle, a kind of similar situation has just happened in the recent months - Turkey found a way for their drones to effectively attack Russian "Pantsir-S1" anti-aircraft system (details aren't clear, seems that in addition to ECM the drone specific aspects like long loitering waiting for opportunity and simultaneous multiple drone attack from different directions played key role), and around 30 Pantsirs have just been lost in Syria and Libya. (Sidenote: Ukraine has recently got those drones from Turkey and successfully tested against Pantsir - Pantsirs are standard air defense of Russian tank battalions and was the main reason Ukraine, who has nor stealth nor high precision standoff, didn't use the air-to-ground attacks against the Russian tank forces when they ventured into Donbass back then in August 2014 and February 2015)


Turkey also lost a lot of their drones. https://lostarmour.info/libya/item.php?id=23673


Probably still cheap to replace, and an interesting proof of concept.


This is interesting! Do you have any more in-depth articles on it? The Pantsir can be a pretty beastly threat...



ECM fights happen every day. Every time a eurofighter flies near a boarder. Every time a russian bomber goes on an overseas trip. Radars are always looking and testing themselves. Jamming of things like GPS is so normal that it is expected on every flight in many areas. Jamming of military radars would be a classified event, but as with submarines, aggression does not require physical violence and so would not always make the news.


A video from one of the Isreali pilots https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PPpqzhaJIo




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