2024-03-02 19:36:00
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Clipped wings: A Russian Air Force SU-35 fighter jet soars; However, Ukraine now seems to have found a way to outsmart the security systems of Russian planes and is taking several of them out of the sky. (Archive photo) © SNA / Sputnik / Imago Images
The war is raging as intensely over Ukraine as it is on the ground. Russia’s air force has woken up in the third year of the war; and immediately suffers a severe setback.
Moscow – Military experts rubbed their eyes at the flawless sky: no plane was to be seen – in any case, at the beginning of the Ukraine war, Russia had no ambitions for air sovereignty over Ukraine. Now they seem to have them; and also to lose once more if the Kyiv Post It is believed that the defenders want to have found a way to lull Vladimir Putin’s pilots into safety while their air defense fires in and knocks them out of the sky. Debris is said to have provided evidence of the Russian Air Force’s Achilles heel.
Sea Kyiv Post After more than a year of research, Ukrainian and allied international technicians are said to have discovered how to crack the avionics and electronic defense systems of the Russian fighter jets from the remains of several captured Russian aircraft parts. The term avionics is a construct of aviation (from the Latin avis = bird) and electronics and describes the entirety of the electrical and electronic devices on board an aircraft, including the electronic flight instruments.
However, the Ukrainian military remains silent regarding how exactly their air defense has managed to shoot down at least 13 of Russia’s most advanced fighter jets so far. Russia’s air force may have had doubts from the start regarding its ability to safely link large-scale operations with the ground-based missile activity of its own ground troops Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies (RUSI). And now they seem to have to bow to the power of the Ukrainian air defense.
Frightening for both war opponents: the air battle costs the last resources
Incidents involving friendly fire from ground-based missiles alone have been a problem for Western and Russian air forces in numerous conflicts for more than 30 years, it claims RUSSIAN – what according to the Kyiv Post probably confirmed once more. Between February 17th and 29th, the Russian Air Force suddenly and rapidly began losing aircraft and pilots to rockets in battles on the front – it is difficult to verify whether the crashes were exclusively caused by Ukrainian rockets or by fire from its own batteries . According to the Ukrainian military, the number of kills in Kiev as of March 1 amounted to 11 Su-34 attack aircraft as well as two Su-35 air superiority aircraft, which alone cost $85 million each.
A frightening situation for both war opponents: According to the magazine Forbes This represents a major blow to the Russian armed forces as they struggle to keep up with production due to foreign sanctions and can only complete a few dozen new fighter jets per year. Forbes: The Russians are losing their fighter jets 20 times faster than they can replace them. Various media outlets believe that one of the reasons for the Ukrainian successes in the air is that the defenders are said to have succeeded in shooting down an A-50U radar aircraft at the end of February, following the first aircraft had already been taken out of the sky to coordinate air strikes; This, in turn, significantly limited the Russian Air Force’s surveillance capabilities, making them virtually blind once morest Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles.
Scary for the world: Ukraine is running out of missiles
“The Ukrainian Air Force apparently wants to use its last few US Patriot and NASAMS (Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System) missiles to decimate the Russian Air Force and deter future bombing raids,” added Forbes added. The situation with surface-to-air missiles is similar to the situation with rifle ammunition or artillery shells: every deployment reduces stocks – regardless of success or failure. Both sides are also engaged in a merciless war of attrition in the air.
Despite this, Ukrainian military officials ultimately suspect that Moscow’s front-line ground attack aircraft were sometimes completely unaware that they were being targeted in the first place – they were flying through a blind spot of their own reconnaissance. The Austrian aviation journalist Tom Cooper believes it is likely that the recent series of downings of Russian Sukhoi aircraft is due to Ukrainian and US technicians disabling the Russian aircraft’s defense electronics and therefore effectively destroying the Ukrainian air defense systems might have attacked out of nowhere. The situation is fatal for Russia because the Kremlin had apparently just begun to use its air forces more offensively.
Scary for Ukraine: Putin’s air force is flying more missions
Yurii Ihnat suspects that the increase in Russian losses is partly due to Moscow’s attempts to push its troops westward following the capture of Avdiivka and to have them supported by Russian attack aircraft; according to the Ukrainian Air Force spokesman to the Kyiv Post These offensive efforts would have repeatedly brought Russian airmen into air ambushes from Ukraine, whereas previously they would have tried by hook or by crook to stay out of the reach of Ukrainian air defenses. The British scientists suspect that this would once once more reveal the weaknesses of the Russian leadership RUSSIAN.
To date, the Russian armed forces have demonstrated extremely poor coordination in everything from basic logistics tasks to coordinating air strikes with ground force activities to providing air defense cover for the marching columns. In this context, a change in tactics might have taken place: i.e. the increased involvement of the air force in activities on the ground. In any case, Russia’s initial behavior gave Western military officials some cause for guesswork The New Zurich Times writes.
Their expectation was that the Russian air force would have had to play a central role in the first phase of the war. Typically, the purpose of using your own air force is to eliminate the enemy’s aircraft and anti-aircraft defenses as much as possible. Once air sovereignty has been achieved, ground troops can then advance without danger. In addition, fighter jets, bombers and drones can then be used unhindered to combat opposing forces. Apparently Russia only decided to do this at the beginning of the third year of the war – and immediately suffered a massive setback in its bid for air sovereignty.
Frightening for Russia’s pilots: missile strikes practically out of nowhere
The strength of the Russian Air Force around Ukraine is said to have initially been 300 aircraft; the American secret service agents had actually carried out around 200 missions per day, but hardly any of them were said to have involved direct combat operations with Ukrainian troops: “This tactic suggests that that the Russian Air Force, despite its superior strength, exercises great caution. According to the Pentagon’s assessment, the Ukrainians still have powerful anti-aircraft defenses, at least in parts of the country. The defense from the ground is much more important than the defense by the Ukrainian Air Force. According to American estimates, 80 percent of Ukrainian fighter jets are intact, but they are rarely used because of the risk of being shot down,” writes the NZZ.
Tanks, drones, air defense: weapons for Ukraine
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In addition to their radar for identifying targets in the air and on the ground, both the Su-34 and the Su-35 have electronic warfare means that are intended to make the jets invisible to enemy radar and a jammer. The pilot is informed acoustically and visually when these systems fail or when an actual threat such as a radar beam or an enemy missile has targeted his aircraft. The Austrian journalist Tom Cooper now suspects that the Ukrainians have manipulated the frequencies of the Russian jets in such a way that there are no warnings and the pilots falsely believe they are free of any danger.
Apart from entire aircraft, the Ukrainian armed forces have probably been in possession of such security-relevant aircraft components for a long time, which serve as a basis for research into and development of countermeasures. Among the most commonly reported loot was the recovery by Ukrainian troops of an RTU 518-PSM self-protection jamming pod, a defense system on a downed Su-30 fighter jet, in September 2022. Both the Su-34 and Su-35 normally carry the Capsule.
The sky over Ukraine does not yet belong to either warring party. But Yurii Ihnat is convinced that in the future Russian pilots will have strong doubts like he did Kyiv Post from now on, Russian pilots approaching Ukrainian positions should “think twice.”
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