Quote:
Originally Posted by Frequitude
Do they need to have aircraft overhead to control the no-fly zone? (ie why the need to take out the air defenses?)
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Let me put it this way.
The SA-5 has an operational range of 200 miles and an operational attitude of I think 100,000 feet
The Sa-3 has a range of about 7 miles and an operational attitude of 35 km's
The SA-2 has a range of 45 km's and a attitude of 66,000 ft
On top of that the Libyan's have a ton of AAA which can probably reach up to at least 10,000 ft.
To enforce the no fly zone you need quick response times so you have to be overtop of the zone. You just can't wait for radar signals of aircraft and then launch from Italy.
On top of that in order to deny the skies to Libya you have to control the skies and the greater threat to allied aircraft is their sam and AAA network.
So yes, in order to effectively control the whole sky you have to kill the defense networks so that you can control the skies with impunity.