Despite having a larger air force, the Russian military has not gained air superiority. Russia has achieved air superiority in the area.
During the 1991 and 2003 invasions of Iraq, the United States and its allies were able to gain control of the skies.
The United States achieved air supremacy in the Persian Gulf War after the Iraqi Air Force was nearly destroyed. In 2003 it did the same thing.
Russia has never been able to defeat the Ukrainian Air Force.
It's likely that the Kremlin launched its attack in February, which is not an ideal time for air sorties from Russia. Russian pilots don't have the flight hours to engage in complex combat missions according to Harry Boneham.
Combat sorties require far more training than routine patrols and intercepts.
According to Boneham, the average flight time for a pilot was more than 100 hours, and for a pilot who graduated in 2017, more than 120 hours.
Russia has failed in its attempts to dominate the skies.
According to a new report from Newsweek, Russia has fired more missiles in Ukraine than any other country has in the past. Moscow's missiles have failed to achieve much success.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that 2,154 Russian missiles hit our cities and communities in a few months. The Russian bombing of Ukraine doesn't stop anytime soon.
The bombing campaign hasn't broken the resolve of the Ukrainians, but it hasn't been able to destroy key targets. The Kremlin has wasted a lot of money on bombs.
Zelensky announced in May that the Ukrainian military had destroyed its 200th Russian aircraft and that the failure to show any significant gain for all the missiles fired came as a surprise.
It should be noted that the figure of 165 Ukrainian aircraft destroyed by Moscow is almost three times the number of fighter jets that the country possessed.
Russia will likely use missiles to strike Ukrainian targets, but the Ukrainian military has shown that it can counter those. The attacks have been chaotic and have failed to achieve much.
The Kremlin is shooting its load with little to show for it.
Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines. He is the author of several books on military headgear and regularly writes about military hardware. Peter is a contributor to Forbes.
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