Last year's Russo-Georgian war was marked by several novel aspects, not least the success of land-based air defences to knock down firstly Georgian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and then Russian Su-25 and Tu-22M3R fast jets.rnOther contemporary operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, for example, have been notable for a paucity of opposing air elements and Western forces have had the good fortune to operate under virtually unopposed air superiority. One of the side effects of this is that land-based air defences have consequently taken less prominence in research and development funding, as well as in defence acquisitions over the last decade.
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