Nine Aircraft Down: Russia's Week of Aviation Blunders


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Sep 9
Nine Aircraft Down: Russia's Week of Aviation Blunders

Credit - Suchomimus.

Russia has managed to lose nine aircraft in a week that has surely prompted the Kremlin's aviation chiefs to consider careers in less stressful fields.

Not through a heroic last stand, but through a combination of Ukrainian precision and good old fashioned Russian incompetence:

  • Two Su-35S fighters: reportedly collided with each other over the jittery skies in Kursk
  • Five helicopters: three at Sochi (a Ka-52, an Mi-8 and an Mi-28) and two more at Taganrog (an Mi-8 and an Mi-35).
  • One Su-24 bomber: destroyed in Crimea. The airframe may have been a parts donor, but the strike prevents further cannibalisation of its corpse.
  • One Su-33 naval fighter: announced destroyed by Ukraine on 9th September. Video pending, but given recent form, it is probably not a false alarm.

The satellite imagery from Taganrog shows the aftermath of what happens when Ukrainian drones redecorate a hostile airbase.

Two helicopters are now interesting topography, while the S-400 radar system looks like it has been through a rather aggressive decommissioning procedure.

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