The shocking attack on Ukraine unmanned aircraft against the Russian strategic bombing fleet this week has pushed generals and analysts to re -examine the threats to the United States’ high -value aircraft on the basis of their homeland and abroad.

“It’s a surprise moment,” said General David Alvin, leader of the US Air Force Staff, at a defense conference in Washington on Tuesday, adding that The US is vulnerable to similar attacks.

“There is no refuge in the US homeland – especially as our foundations back home are essentially completely rigid,” Thomas Sigart, a senior associate at the center for a new US security (CNAS), told CNN.

By “rigid”, Sugart means that There aren’t enough shelters in which US war aircraft can parkwhich are durable enough to protect them from air raids, either from drones or from rockets.

Ukrainian military officials said that 41 Russian aircraft were hit by last Sunday’s attacks, including strategic bombers and surveillance aircraft, with some destroyed and others damaged. Later, an analysis shows that at least 12 planes were destroyed or damaged, while the evaluations of the satellite images continued.

Russian planes were uncovered on the base route, just like US fighter aircraft in installations inside and outside the US.

‘We are quite vulnerable’, The US Army’s retired General Stanley McCristal told CNN on Tuesday. “We have many high -value assets that are extremely expensive,” he said.

Sugarter signed a report on the Hudson Institute in January, which emphasized the threat of US military facilities by China in the event of any conflict between the superpowers.

“Popular Liberation Army (PLA) impact forces consisting of aircraft, ground rocket launchers, surface vessels and underwater vessels, as well as special forces, can attack US aircraft and support systems,” writer Timothy Walton.

Simulations and war game analyzes show that “the overwhelming majority of US aircraft losses will probably happen to the ground at airports (and that losses could be devastating),” they wrote.

A report by Air and Space Forces magazine last year pointed out that the Anderson Air Base on Guam island, Pacific – perhaps the most important US air installation in the Pacific has no reinforced shelters.

Alvin, leader of the USAF staff, admitted the problem on Tuesday.

“At the moment, I don’t think this is the point where we should be,” Alvin said at a CNAS conference.

McCristalt said the US should consider how to protect their bases and the aircraft in them, and how to monitor the areas around these facilities.

The cost of ‘playing defense’

But all this costs money, and Alvin said this puts the US to face one budgetary dilemma.

Does he spend defensive money on reinforced shelters and ways to stop drones and missiles from attacking US bases or using more resources in aggressive weapons that carry the battle to the enemy?

“If all we do is play defense and we can’t afford it, then this is not a good use of our money,” Alvin told the CNAS conference.

“We always knew that strengthening our bases is something we had to do,” he said, but other issues have prioritized the budget.

Enhanced aircraft shelters, however, are not fancy to draw interest as other defensive projects such as new B-21 bombers, each expected to cost about $ 700 million.

And US President Donald Trump recently said that the Air Force would build a new stealth fighter, the F-47, at an initial cost of $ 300 million per aircraft.

“The F-47 is an amazing aircraft, but it will die on the ground if we do not protect it,” Alvin said.

Meantime, A reinforced shelter costs about $ 30 millionaccording to Sigart and Walton.

Last month, Trump revealed another form of air defense for the US mainland, the Golden Dome missile shieldwhich is expected to cost at least $ 175 billion.

But despite its huge honor, it is designed to face long -range threats, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles launched by a different hemisphere.

The vastness as a weakness

In the case of Russia, its huge territory was regarded as a force in its war with Ukraine. One of the air bases affected by Ukraine’s “Spider Web” was closer to Tokyo than to Kiev.

But now the size of Russia is a weakness, writes Davin Kirichenko on the Ukraine Watch blog of the Atlantic Council.

Each border crossing can be a penetration point of each container on each motorway or rail line must be treated with suspicion.

“This is a nightmare,” Kirichenko said.

And there is an immediate proportion with the United States. US Air Force bombers are usually quite inland, but are accessible to large and small vehicles.

The Dyess Air Base in Texas, one of the seats of the US B-1 bombers, is just south of another major Eastern-West Trade Artery, 20.

“Think of all the containers and illegal incoming within our borders,” said Carl Schoster, a former business manager at the US Pacific Intelligence Center.

“This connection will trigger alarm in some US circles,” he said.

Meanwhile, in the Pacific, even the best US offensive fire power may not be enough in the event of a collision with China.

This is because the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has made a coordinated effort to protect its aircraft during its mass military rally under leader Xi Jeping, according to a report by the Hudson Institute.

China has more than 650 reinforced aircraft shelters At airports 1,150 miles from the Taiwan Strait, the report said.

But Sugart and Walton argue that the best move Washington could make would be to force Beijing to build more – improving US impact capabilities in Asia.