bhramos
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Another F-15SA Lost to Yemeni Air Defences; Is Saudi's War Damaging the Prestige of Western Fighters?
The Royal Saudi Air Force has reportedly lost one if its heavy F-15 Eagle fighters over Yemen's Sa'da Province in the country's north west, representing the latest of a number of losses for the Arab kingdom's military. Yemen's Ansurallah Coalition forces, an insurgent group at war with Saudi Arabia since March 2015, claimed responsibility for the downing. Footage of the crashing fighter jet following a hit by a surface to air missile (SAM) was published soon afterwards. Saudi Arabia has suffered heavy losses in its war in Yemen, with several of its advanced U.S. and European made fighters having been successfully targeted by Yemeni SAMs - including elite Eurofighter Typhoon and F-15 platforms.
While the variant of F-15 downed remains unconfirmed, it was most likely an F-15SA strike fighter - an advanced derivative of the U.S. F-15E. With Saudi F-15C fighters designed primarily for air superiority, it is the F-15SA which has been tasked with carrying out the bulk of air strikes due to its advanced long range strike capabilities. The aircraft's loss to air defences which can be described as makeshift at best has significant implications not just for Saudi Arabia and its allies, which have had to operate their air wings with ever greater degrees of caution, but also for operators of the F-15 and other advanced Western fighters across the world.
If the F-15SA, arguably the most advanced and capable variant of the Eagle in service, can be downed in significant numbers by the negligible air defence systems deployed in Yemen, fighters operated by other states would likely prove ineffective if facing a modern and sophisticated multi layered air defence network as deployed by a number of modern states. The viability of some of the most advanced U.S. and European combat platforms is therefore put to serious question. Japan and South Korea for example, which rely on the F-15J and F-15K respectively to strike North Korean targets in the event of war, would likely be wholly unable to operate against the country's advanced multi layered surface to air missile network immeasurably more sophisticated than anything fielded by Yemen's insurgent forces. The ability of U.S. and European built fourth generation fighters widely deployed to Eastern Europe to have any impact whatsoever when operating against Russia's world leading surface to air missile network is similarly put to serious question.
Ultimately, much as the performance of European made armoured units in Turkish service in Iraq and Syria significantly damaged their prestige and led Ankara to look to South Korea for more capable systems, so too is the performance of Western fighters in Saudi hands set to significantly damage the prestige of these weapons systems. Indeed, a number of longstanding Western arms clients among the Arab Gulf states have since the outbreak of the war in Yemen made attempts to diversify their arms supplies - with the United Arab Emirates purchasing Chinese made attack drones and Qatar and the Emirates both seeking Russian made fighter jets. Continued failures of Western aircraft in the campaign against the Ansurallah coalition could well further this trend and lead to a loss of critical market share for Western arms exporters.
http://militarywatchmagazine.com/read.php?my_data=70440
The Royal Saudi Air Force has reportedly lost one if its heavy F-15 Eagle fighters over Yemen's Sa'da Province in the country's north west, representing the latest of a number of losses for the Arab kingdom's military. Yemen's Ansurallah Coalition forces, an insurgent group at war with Saudi Arabia since March 2015, claimed responsibility for the downing. Footage of the crashing fighter jet following a hit by a surface to air missile (SAM) was published soon afterwards. Saudi Arabia has suffered heavy losses in its war in Yemen, with several of its advanced U.S. and European made fighters having been successfully targeted by Yemeni SAMs - including elite Eurofighter Typhoon and F-15 platforms.
While the variant of F-15 downed remains unconfirmed, it was most likely an F-15SA strike fighter - an advanced derivative of the U.S. F-15E. With Saudi F-15C fighters designed primarily for air superiority, it is the F-15SA which has been tasked with carrying out the bulk of air strikes due to its advanced long range strike capabilities. The aircraft's loss to air defences which can be described as makeshift at best has significant implications not just for Saudi Arabia and its allies, which have had to operate their air wings with ever greater degrees of caution, but also for operators of the F-15 and other advanced Western fighters across the world.
If the F-15SA, arguably the most advanced and capable variant of the Eagle in service, can be downed in significant numbers by the negligible air defence systems deployed in Yemen, fighters operated by other states would likely prove ineffective if facing a modern and sophisticated multi layered air defence network as deployed by a number of modern states. The viability of some of the most advanced U.S. and European combat platforms is therefore put to serious question. Japan and South Korea for example, which rely on the F-15J and F-15K respectively to strike North Korean targets in the event of war, would likely be wholly unable to operate against the country's advanced multi layered surface to air missile network immeasurably more sophisticated than anything fielded by Yemen's insurgent forces. The ability of U.S. and European built fourth generation fighters widely deployed to Eastern Europe to have any impact whatsoever when operating against Russia's world leading surface to air missile network is similarly put to serious question.
Ultimately, much as the performance of European made armoured units in Turkish service in Iraq and Syria significantly damaged their prestige and led Ankara to look to South Korea for more capable systems, so too is the performance of Western fighters in Saudi hands set to significantly damage the prestige of these weapons systems. Indeed, a number of longstanding Western arms clients among the Arab Gulf states have since the outbreak of the war in Yemen made attempts to diversify their arms supplies - with the United Arab Emirates purchasing Chinese made attack drones and Qatar and the Emirates both seeking Russian made fighter jets. Continued failures of Western aircraft in the campaign against the Ansurallah coalition could well further this trend and lead to a loss of critical market share for Western arms exporters.
http://militarywatchmagazine.com/read.php?my_data=70440
