Vol. 50, July 2024
Key Points
The key lesson to date from the Russian-Ukraine
war is the absolute necessity of air superiority to
achieve a decisive advantage.
Limitations on Ukraine to employ U.S.-provided
weapons in Russia have ceded a sanctuary for
Russian forces to operate and have yielded
them a significant advantage. As a result, Russia
possesses air superiority over its own territory
and some portions of the battlespace in Ukraine.
To secure air superiority in the times and places of
its choosing, Ukraine must modify its historical
doctrine and design and conduct an integrated
air-ground campaign. Only with the kind of
integration that creates a synergy between
surface and air operations can Ukraine further
its military’s momentum on the battlefield.
Uninhabited aerial vehicles have emerged as
a significant capability in the battlespace and
present the opportunity for new concepts of
operation, one of which is to contribute to
achieving air superiority.
Air superiority can provide Ukrainian ground
forces the freedom from attack and the
freedom to attack that is necessary for them
to achieve advantages relative to the larger
and stronger Russian forces.
Ukraine requires weapon systems and munitions
in numbers sufficient to achieve strategic gains in
the battlespace—inhabited, uninhabited aircraft,
precision surface-to-surface weapons, cyber
operations, electronic warfare, intelligence, and
special operations can all play a significant role if
coordinated in an integrated campaign.
e conduct of the war in Ukraine to date has been a lesson in two
distinct parts on the importance of air superiority. e first is the failure of
the Russian Air Force to establish air superiority and overwhelm Ukrainian
forces to achieve a decisive victory at the start of the conflict. e second part
concerns the difficulty of establishing air superiority with insufficient resources
and capabilities—a situation the Ukrainian Air Force has lived with for over
three years as Ukraine has endured costly attacks on its territory. e lethal air
defenses on both sides are denying each air force the ability to penetrate the
opposing battlespace—a condition in which no force has control of the air.
Unfortunately, without the advantages that air superiority ensures—namely
freedom from attack and freedom to attack—this attrition-based conflict will
be won by the side with the most warfighting personnel and material—Russia.
is paper focuses on how Ukraine could conduct an integrated air-ground
campaign to secure air superiority in the times and places of its choosing, and
thus further its military’s momentum on the battlefield and begin reversing the
territorial gains the Russian army has achieved up to this point. is approach
has high potential to overcome the size disadvantage that Ukraine has relative
to the Russian military, and it requires Ukraine to plan and execute operations
that integrate their long-range surface-to-surface weapons with combat aircraft,
drones, cyber operations, electronic warfare, and special operations. Achieving air
superiority could provide Ukraine with the edge it needs to gain an advantage over
the Russians, break through their front lines, and change the course of the war.
Abstract
The Significance of Air Superiority:
The Ukraine-Russia War
by Lt Gen David A. Deptula, USAF (Ret.)
Dean, the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies
and Dr. Christopher J. Bowie
Non-resident Fellow, the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments
MITCHELL INSTITUTE
Policy Paper
Figure 1: The Danish Air Force training Ukrainian fighter pilots to
fly the F-16 at an airbase in Denmark.
Source: NATO courtesy video
