Air Power, Insurgency and the “War on Terror” - Prof. Joel Hayward's ...

Night of <strong>the</strong> Flying Hooligans
prisoners of <strong>the</strong>ir own doctrine, Galeotti believes that <strong>the</strong>y followed a “chess mentality,
where <strong>the</strong> last thing you wanted was your pawns doing <strong>the</strong>ir own thinking”. 349 The breakup
of <strong>the</strong> Soviet Union two years after <strong>the</strong> Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan saw Russia
inheriting much of <strong>the</strong> VVS infrastructure, manpower <strong>and</strong> materiél. However, many of <strong>the</strong>
pilots who flew combat missions over Afghanistan left <strong>the</strong> service, preventing <strong>the</strong> lessons
learnt being passed to a new generation of pilots. The net effect, according to Galeotti, is
that in some ways <strong>the</strong> present-day Russian <strong>Air</strong> Force “is in an even worse position” to fight
<strong>the</strong>se kind of guerrilla wars than it was in <strong>the</strong> Soviet days. 350
Ironically, it was Soviet air power which left a lasting impression of <strong>the</strong> war at home as <strong>the</strong>
“Black Tulip” Antonovs which departed Kabul International <strong>Air</strong>port brought <strong>the</strong> bodies of
over 14,000 soldiers back to <strong>the</strong>ir families in <strong>the</strong> USSR. <strong>Air</strong> power had helped take <strong>the</strong> war
to Afghanistan, <strong>and</strong> was helping to bring it back home.
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<strong>Air</strong> <strong>Power</strong>, <strong>Insurgency</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> “War on Terror”