The Mage vs Maths.

Going to have to think on how we expect to 'secure' a compound using fighter-jets, though.

The A-10C / OA-10 could do it pretty swell in the daylight-hours with a... [I]one hour[/I] loiter time over the objective?

And considering it's a 2-hour round trip plus refuel for that plane, what are we going to do for the other 16-18 hours (depending on how much the A-10 pilot wants to fly at night)? Eight of which will be at night.

Sure, we could try using UAVs, and hoping our MiG-21/F-20 love-child can react to a scramble well enough ([url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BDgQwlfHII]and it can[/url], sadly not a single F-20 was sold), or even try stationing the pilots of the less-capable planes on the ground as forward-observers (I've noticed we've all got rifles... or at least firearms...).

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adYMZghZswI]The Chinese fighter situation of 1970[/url], which was being [i]very rapidly[/I] addressed after the 17-day Sino-Vietnam war (during which time more people died than the entire US-Vietnam conflict). [[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modernization_of_the_People's_Liberation_Army]Yeah[/url]]