Russia Vs Georgia..a widening crisis!

Mentioned above is Israel and a potential strike on Iran going through Georgia. The Russians agreed to not sell the S-300 to Iran, but they put it in the way of such a strike.

 

So...what I still don't get was why Russia didn't employ precision bombs during the Five Day War....as I'm sure they had at least some stored in the area.

Was there not enough warning before the shots fell?
(Not likely, as it doesn't take weeks to attach such weapons, given the pilots were used to operating them)
Was there simply a lack of precise reconnaissance?
(Sure, GLONASS might have been dodgy, so GPS-guiding was out...but TV and IR guiding?)
Simply too expensive?

From what I've read the Russians were pretty firm on only targetting military infrastructure as far as possible. With that tactic precision weapons should be the ultimate choice in weaponry, not crude dumb bombs that usually wipe out neighbourhoods.

 

Russian Airforce is in quite a bad shape.. Most of the fighting was done by Army. Funding priority all has given to Army but if nothing wrong since Russia is interlock in the main continent surrounded by many countries.

 

Even if it was in bad shape, they HAVE smart bombs in storage, most likely also in that area. And the airforce flew. It performed bombing runs (lots of them). Why would it be so hard to smack on a smart bomb instead of a dumb bomb? It's not like the wings of the aircraft would fall off...

 

Because smart weapons require that the computers onboard the aircraft be capable of communicating with the weapon itself. I remember during the Kosovo War, Canadian CF-18's had to have their stores management computers replaced and reprogrammed because they weren't capable of working with precision guided munitions. Not to mention the regular training required to ensure that the operators are familiar with their systems.

Besides that, the quality and performance of the Russian Air Force during the war was abysmal. Aircraft availability was abysmal with few flight-worthy aircraft, on top of the fact that most of the aircraft were outdated. Training was inadequate as Russian pilots only get a fraction the flight training a NATO-standard pilot might get, and the training that was available was considered to be unrealistic.