Gun tape footage from Operation Desert Storm captures an AH-64D Attack Helicopter crushing Iraqi forces in February of 1991. This is what absolute air dominance looks like.

With the on-going war in Ukraine, it's easy to forget what air dominance looks like. Today, neither the Ukrainians or the Russians have managed to gain air superiority in their conflict. As a result, both sides tend to keep their air power specifically over ground that their friendly forces control. This is done because both sides are incapable of gaining air dominance, meaning they have to fly well within the range of surface-to-air threats in order to avoid being shot down by opposing aircraft.

When air dominance is gained by one side, air-to-air and surface-to-air threats are fully neutralized. During Operation Desert Storm and the subsequent Global War on Terror, the United States was able to decisively gain full control of the airspace first by eliminating air-to-air threats with superior fixed wing power, and then by eliminating surface-to-air threats through the use of highly maneuverable attack helicopters.

Once absolute control of the airspace over the entire conflict area has been established, pilots have free reign to do basically whatever they want on the battlefield. Sure, pilots in rotary wing assets still have to be cognizant of surface-to-air threats in the form of manpads and skilled heavy machine gunners who can shoot them down with direct-fire projectiles, but the threat is drastically minimized giving them far more freedom of movement to provide close air support for troops on the deck.

This video is a solid representation of what it means to have complete air dominance. At this stage in desert storm there was nothing the Iraqi military could hope to do when it came to combatting American air power.