News of the NFZ, comes in light of a recent shoot down of Syrian fighter-bombers over the city of Ras Lanuf. Anti-Gaddafi rebels stated "We shot it down! And with only one barrel of our gun working too!". Stealing the rebel's thunder, Pro-Gaddafi supporters rebutted with "Big whoop, the plane only had one wing anyway."
Despite the inherent dangers of enforcing the NFZ, a detailed report was released by the State Department and the Office of Naval Intelligence that cited the following reasons that convinced them the Libyan air defenses posed no threat:
1)
2)Reports indicate that the Libyan air defense network is quote: "severely ineffective due to poor gun maintenance, and due to the fact that half of the obsolete Russian surface-to-air missiles are manned by small herds of goats".
What few aircraft Libya has are antiquated Russian hardware, no match for modern American aircraft. In-depth studies have concluded that the majority of their air force is comprised of aging MiG-21 aircraft, which were updated several decades ago to the "latest" Lego technology.3)
The average Libyan pilot has only 1/4th the training that their American counterpart does. This fact is exacerbated by the fact that the majority of Libyan pilot training comes from the use of this unsophisticated software:4)
Despite the previous success of Libyan AA against jet aircraft, the US has identified a key flaw in their AA system: Amadou's legs get tired after only 15 to 20 minutes in the "ready" position.
No word on when the NFZ enforcement will be lifted, allowing Libya (like the rest of Africa) to be returned to it's normal classification of "a war-torn hell hole where most problems are solved with automatic weapons"
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