[Goose]

 We fight under the AO, and Ukraine wants to as well.

What is "AO"? It's probably in the context of your comments, but I must have overlooked it. Thanks.

Aluminum Overcast. This is an "old saying" regarding the philosophy of the US army. That army has never had to fight for any significant period where it was effectively threatened by any enemy air attack. It has always operated under US air supremacy. The sky is "overcast" because there are so many USAF aircraft occupying it :-).

Every so often there will be a paroxysm of concern that this air supremacy isn't guaranteed by mother nature (gasp!) and the army will "do something" to address the issue. This has lead to programs such as the Vulcan (the US version of the ZSU-23/Gepard family), Sgt. York, (Literally never worked),  Chaparral, Linebacker, and Avenger systems. The latter three "worked" to some lesser(mostly) or greater extent, but it didn't really matter. We never needed them. The Army did have a "winner" in the Red Eye (and successors) MANPADS that has been used successfully by other countries, but it is obviously a "limited" weapons class. If you are being bombed by B-52s, your Stinger isn't going to help you much.

[Goose]

 We fight under the AO, and Ukraine wants to as well.

What is "AO"? It's probably in the context of your comments, but I must have overlooked it. Thanks.

Aluminum Overcast. This is an "old saying" regarding the philosophy of the US army. That army has never had to fight for any significant period where it was effectively threatened by any enemy air attack. It has always operated under US air supremacy. The sky is "overcast" because there are so many USAF aircraft occupying it :-).

Every so often there will be a paroxysm of concern that this air supremacy isn't guaranteed by mother nature (gasp!) and the army will "do something" to address the issue. This has lead to programs such as the Vulcan (the US version of the ZSU-23/Gepard family), Sgt. York, (Literally never worked),  Chaparral, Linebacker, and Avenger systems. The latter three "worked" to some lesser(mostly) or greater extent, but it didn't really matter. We never needed them. The Army did have a "winner" in the Red Eye (and successors) MANPADS that has been used successfully by other countries, but it is obviously a "limited" weapons class. If you are being bombed by B-52s, your Stinger isn't going to help you much.