The Russian Air Force Is Losing Its Best Jets Over Ukraine

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The Sukhoi Su-34 was supposed to change the Russian air force. The twin-engine, twin-seat, supersonic fighter-bomber—a highly-evolved variant of the Su-27 air-superiority fighter—promised to usher in a new era of high-tech, precision bombing.

Instead, the Su-34s have flown into Ukraine lugging the same old dumb bombs. A lack of precision-guided munitions—not to mention Russian doctrine that conceives of aircraft essentially as flying artillery—forces the $50-million warplanes to fly low through the thickest Ukrainian air-defenses in order to have any chance of delivering their bombs with any degree of accuracy.

As a result, Su-34s are falling from the sky in numbers that must be startling for air force commanders. Their newest planes are suffering the same fate as their oldest planes.

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. Even taking into account losses, by 2030 the air force could operate nearly 200 Su-34s.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/the-russian-air-force-is-losing-its-best-jets-over-ukraine/ar-AAVCJJN

Heckuva job Pooty Poot.

[uponit7771]

1. K&R, looks like RA has ran out of SU-25s if the SU-34 thing is shot down low altitude

[WarGamer]

2. Was this written by a 12 year old playing Call of Duty?

While loosely based on the Su-27 it is NOT an air superiority fighter.

It's a ground attack plane. It has an armored cockpit like an A10. It seats 2 wide.

It is relatively new... but it is NOT a cutting edge air superiority fighter like the SU-35

They're getting their asses shot down because they're flying them in low altitude attacks.

[Generic Brad]

3. Their best just isn't good enough

Too bad, so sad.

[lpbk2713]

4. And skilled pilots as well.

It takes a lot of training to qualify a pilot for one of these.

[yagotme]

5. I'm really wondering if the "skill" of the pilots

is really up to the task. Their training may be as low quality as everything else the Russians seem to be presenting.