“I think it’s time the Ruskies swallowed their pride.”

Same. The Cold War is over and Russia lacks the money to keep the reduced armed forces they have now.

“this means keeping only Su-27/ MiG-29 and MiG-31 series a/c along with Il-78 tankers (it is a big country after all) and A-50 AWACS”

They might want to take the expensive and role limited MiG-31 out of service and leave in the Su-27S/UB, MiG-29, Su-24M and Su-25. Cutting down thier fleet in terms of types and numbers would save a good deal of money.

“That would mean retiring all strategic bombers (Tu-22M/Tu-95/Tu-160) and the bulk of the Sukhoi strike fleet (Su-24/-25) and even large numbers of strategic transports such as Il-76 or An-22.”

Other then looking nice the bombers don’t do to much and just soak up money to keep in service and in the air. I would think the Su-24 and Su-25 could stay around as they still fill a need and are much cheaper to use.

“Because if that report is true, they won’t have an airforce soon anyway.”

They have been in a decline since the early 1990s and not one of thier own chose.

“But then again, I am just a dodgy University student who is arguably clueless in these matters….”

Aren’t most of us 😀

“Ballistic missiles might be enough, and are easy enough to procure. How readily will the West attack a country within ballistic missile range of them… even just with conventional warheads. Flying at 20,000ft would not protect them then.”

If Serbia even waved ballistic missiles at someone it would be bombed back into the Stone Age.

“Scud missiles are relatively cheap and an effective enough deterent for the near future. They don’t need to be armed with anything more than a HE warhead. A few dozen Scud launchers plus the ability to make missiles wouldn’t cost much. They are useless as an aggressive weapon of war… how can you invade a country with such weapons?”

I hate to tell you but a Scud is worthless even as a deterrent, it would not be able to do anything then kill women and children making it all the much easier to bomb Serbia more. Yeah Serbia fires a ballistic missile at Paris or London and the nation better be ready to be bombed without mercy.

“So the fight for freedom and liberty is for nothing.”

I don’t care what you say Serbia was not fighting for freedom or liberty.

“And it is Serbia’s fault that the USA and NATO acts the way it does?”

No it is Serbia’s fault it acted in the way it did to start the trouble in the first place. NATO and the USA stopped bombing Serbia a couple years ago. It’s over. If Serbia does something to start trouble again it would be Serbia’s fault yet again.

Grow up.

“at least 1-2 short range AAMs for self-defence and be able to carry more AAMs for helicopter hunting.
I dont think we want it to be defencesless in the air, this is also for self defence against fighters and other things around as well as from Helicopters, this would be excellent for destroying helicopters.”

Well carrying a missile would depend on where the plane is actually going. For most CAS/COIN operations prop planes go on thier is not an aerial threat. Yes its always nice to be able to shoot down a helicopter with say a R-550 Mk.2 but you would not always go up with it.