Originally Posted by
ThumbsUp
Just for clarity, the US has an incredible, nearly inexhaustible supply of PGMs. I think you are referring to specific more exquisite weapons that weren’t in large quantities to start, but JDAMs are aplenty, not that you need everything to be that level of precision for acceptable CDE.
Yes.
The exquisite munitions are for kicking the door in, cleaning up enemy IADS, and getting after high value, mobile targets whose location will likely become harder to pin down after hostilities commence.
Once air superiority (air supremacy in this case) is achieved, then the ATO basically starts to function like an airline operations schedule, with reusable planes and drones servicing predefined targets with cheap iron bombs (typically with cheap guidance kits), returning to refuel, re-arm, line mx, maybe change crews, and go again. That's sustainable for a *very* long time.
We have vast stockpiles of iron bombs and various bolt-on guidance kits, all very affordable as such things go. We even still have the ability to deploy unguided iron bombs the old fashioned way (I'll let current fighter attack guys weigh in on the current level of proficiency).
We really no longer need the expensive munitions for this conflict, except maybe for an occasional niche application.
The legit concern is that we expended a lot of the high-end stuff, which reduces deterrence in the Pacific until inventories are restored (which will take time due to limited production capacity, even if funded). But the flip side is that we demonstrated to PRC that our chit still works really well, that in and of itself has a deterrent effect. Also demonstrated that the current regime at least isn't afraid of engaging, additional deterrent effect.