Russian air defense continued to thin out Ukrainian aviation

The secrets of success of anti-aircraft gunners and fighters have been revealed

This week, Russian air defense crews continued to increase their count of Ukrainian aircraft shot down. So, on Saturday, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on two more downed aircraft of the Ukrainian Armed Forces – the Su-25 attack aircraft and the MiG-29 fighter. One was shot down in the Kherson region, and the second in the Dnepropetrovsk region, that is, at a decent distance from the line of combat contact. Experts explained how this effect can be achieved.

In total, in October, our fighter aviation and air defense “grounded” 33 Ukrainian Armed Forces aircraft, including 21 Mig-29, 9 Su-25, a Su-24 front-line bomber, 2 L-39 combat training aircraft, as well as three Mi-8 helicopters .

The statistics are very sad for the Armed Forces of Ukraine and may have “long-lasting” consequences for Kyiv. At least with regard to the prospects for the supply of American F-16 fighters to Ukraine. As military blogger Yuri Podolyaka noted in his channel, F-16s are not air combat aircraft. “If they shoot down F-16s, this is already a reputational blow,” he noted.

The Fighterbomber channel spoke about tactical air defense techniques that made it possible to sharply increase the losses of Ukrainian Armed Forces aviation. They are associated with a more efficient use of the capabilities of the A-50 radar patrol, guidance and control aircraft to issue target designations to the S-300, S-350 and S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems.

Flying radars of the A-50 from an altitude of 7-8 kilometers see much further than the ground-based radar stations of these air defense systems. Moreover, Ukrainian planes try to “keep their heads down” and fly no higher than 1000 meters, that is, in the “dead zone” for ground-based radars..

A-50 aircraft can see any air target 600 kilometers away, calculate where the target will be after some time, and aim at it either ground-based air defense systems or air-to-air missiles with a new active homing head. Such missiles, arriving at the approximate coordinates of the target, capture the target from large distances and hit it.

The Militarist channel notes that A-50 aircraft fly 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which expands the air defense radar horizon.

Another factor in increasing the effectiveness of our air defense is the more active use of 5th generation Su-57 fighters for air patrols over and around the territory of Ukraine. Thanks to an improved version of the R-37M air-to-air missile with a range of 150 km to 400 km, these Su-57s can shoot down enemy aircraft with high accuracy and at long ranges.

As a result, Russia strengthened its dominance in the skies of Ukraine and sent an eloquent signal to NATO.