Like many leaders before them, U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are coming face-to-face with the limits of massive airpower to achieve strategic victory.
Trump is again threatening to step up the intensity of airstrikes against Iran, even though thousands of previous attacks since late February failed to dislodge the government in Tehran, eliminate its missile threat or end its stranglehold over the Strait of Hormuz.
Ukraine offers a related lesson. In a conflict where the front lines are largely static and both sides have launched massive waves of long-range strikes with drones and missiles, whoever has the stoutest air defenses may have a decisive advantage.
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