While Russian pilots were managing to support land operations in the south of Ukraine, they were doing so “without decisive operational effect,” the British Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence update on Monday.
To compensate, Russia was sending adapted free-fall bombs into Ukrainian territory. However, these had “yet to demonstrate consistent accuracy,” it added.
“Over the summer, Russian tactical combat aircraft have typically carried out over 100 sorties a day, but these are almost always restricted to operating over Russian-controlled territory due to the threat from Ukrainian air defenses,” the update said.
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Neither Russia nor Ukraine has been able to gain air superiority in the war so far despite Russia’s vastly larger air force. But a military expert previously told Insider that the “advantage is with defense.”
Honestly I was expecting the headline to go in a totally different direction, something like “Russia’s air force is barely able to leave its own airspace because of poor maintenence, parts and munitions shortages, and widespread alcoholism among flight crews”.
Considering they’ve resorted to lobbing glide-modified free fall bombs, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of this actually was due to stockpiles getting so low that they can’t use guided munitions for anything but very high value targets (such as maternity hospitals and residential buildings)
Actually, it’s cheaper to use empty old aircraft to bomb places than it is to shoot down said aircraft. It’s a tactic to waste the anti air defence.
a pilot is more valuable than any AA missile
Just bail out with a parachute
the missile launches a second, smaller, parachute-seeking missile
Then take off the parachute and use a bucket of water
but now you’re all wet, and which is really the worse fate here?
