Re: Anti air umbrella in middle east
The Israeli air force (Heyl Ha'avir) had an overwhelming air-to-air edge (five to one kills IIRC) but were effectively denied ground support flights by the Soviet-made SAMs and AAGs.
That was admittedly largely due to overwhelming quantity.
Basically they were denied higher altitudes by the SA-6, SA-4 and SA-3 systems, and had to fly so low that the ZSU-23/4 were able to take them out.
The fact that they crash-designed ground-launched ARMs tell you how desperate the situation was...
IIRC the SA-6s and ZSU23s took the heaviest toll, but basically there was nothing better on the Eastern side at the time.
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