Why Can't The US Establish A No Fly Zone Over Ukraine?

            From my early morning Zoom meeting with Zanny Minton Beddoes until the time I went to bed last night, many people have asked me one question: "Why can't the US establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine as President Zelenskky begs us to do?"

    Let us assume that the US was under attack by Russian aircraft. It would be perfectly legal for the US government to request that aircraft from the Royal Canadian Air Force come into US airspace and engage Russian fighters. Any Russian fighter shot down would be legal and not an act of war against Russia.

      It is lawful for President Zelenskky to request that US aircraft come into Ukraine's airspace and engage in attacking Russian aircraft. Any aircraft shot down would be a lawful act.

      I went in-depth to study the Russian Air Force. On paper, it looks impressive. If one looks deeper, it is full of obsolete aircraft with bad electronics and weapons. There is an acute shortage of highly skilled pilots.

    US Air Force and US Navy pilots would have the upper hand against the Russian Air Force. Very quickly, many US aircraft would start falling to Russian Surface to Air missiles.

   Russia has the best air defense systems in the world. I spent hours studying these systems. I came away most impressed. These systems shot down US Air Force FA-17 stealth fighter in the 90s. Russian systems in theory can detect and shoot down stealth aircraft, cruise missiles, and even nuclear warheads coming in from ballistic missiles. They only have problems with small drones.

    As impressive as these systems are, they can be knocked out. The first thing that US aircraft would have to do is knock out Russian air defense systems. The biggest problem is that the great bulk of these air defense assets sit on Russian territory and not in Ukraine.

    One afternoon after work, I spent an hour on the computer simulating an attack on these Russian air defense systems. One would be able to attack at a range between 40- and 125-miles using stand-off missiles. US planes would not have to overfly Russian territory.

     The minute an air defense site turns on its radar, a missile can ride the radar beam back to the air defense site. In the first attack, non-stealth aircraft like the F-15 Strike Eagle and the FA-18 Super Hornet were used to attack these air defense assets. They were able to destroy these sites with the loss of four very expensive aircraft and highly-trained aircrews. I substituted an attack force of five F-35 Lightning Two fighters with stealth capabilities and excellent standoff weapons.  All air defense assets were destroyed with no loss of US aircraft.

     Unfortunately, the attack on Russian air defense assets would be unlawful and an act of war against the Russians. President Putin would go on Russian national television. He would report that US aircraft had launched attacks on Russian territory and killed Russian military personnel. He would get full public support for a full-scale war including the use of tactical nuclear weapons against the US.