(02-10-2022, 02:58 PM)Teeth53 Wrote: Ukrainians’ air-defense success. A video depicted one of the Ukrainian army’s old German Gepard mobile anti-aircraft guns accompanying an Osa surface-to-air missile vehicle some-near Kharkiv.
German has pledged to Ukraine 50 1980s-vintage Gepards that the German army removed from service around 2010, wth its built-in radar can fire streams of 35-millimeter-diameter shells out to a distance of three miles.
Now the steep losses to Putin, in the 559th BAR should come as no surprise. Russia is losing Su-34s far faster than it can replace them.
The Russian air force ordered its first batch of 32 Su-34s back in 2008. A second batch of 92 followed in 2012. The Russians as of 2021 possessed around 122 Su-34s in several regiments including the 559th BAR. Now they’re down to no more than 108.
Russian air force—isn’t done bleeding yet. If anything, it’s losing more jets than ever before. The Ukrainian defense ministry on Saturday claimed its forces shot down four Russian warplanes in just 24 hours: an Su-34, two Su-30s and an Su-25.
The Russian air force was nowhere to be found in the first week or so of the Ukrainians’ twin counteroffensives in the south and east. Ukrainian units had now closer air support. Russian units ... didn’t all.
Sept. 15, a pair of Russian planes—at least one is the Su-34—bombed Ukrainian positions outside the town of Spirne in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas..
No one shot back, perhaps indicating that Ukraine’s air-defenses had lagged behind the front-line battalions advancing into Spirne.
That quickly changed. On Friday, a video appeared online depicting a Ukrainian Strela surface-to-air missile vehicle, reportedly to 25th Airborne Brigade, rolling into Yatskivka, 40 miles northwest of Spirne in Donbas. T
ext day, Putin reportedly lost two jets—an Su-25 and an Su-30—in the same area.
Two days later another video revealed one of the open secrets of the Ukrainians’ air-defense success. That video depicted one of the Ukrainian army’s new
old German Gepard mobile anti-aircraft guns accompanying an Osa surface-to-air missile vehicle somewhere near Kharkiv stoop to attack.
This month Ukrainian singled out Gepard old gun as key enablers counteroffensive. Longer-range SAMs take the first shots. Gepards fire next.
Conditions apparently are pretty good for the Gepards and other Ukrainian air-defenses right now.
Now Russian Putin army is retreating. As Russian air force is flying more sorties in an effort to cover their withdrawal.
And it’s flying them in close proximity to all those Ukrainian missiles and guns.
It’s not for no reason that the same blogger who lamented the 559th BAR’s heavy losses also anticipated more losses to come. “More will be shot down.” Putin damm mad.