While Russia has suffered thousands of losses in its war against Ukraine, a senior US military commander in Europe told lawmakers Wednesday that they have plenty more firepower left in their arsenal.
“[T]he Russian ground force has been degenerated somewhat by this conflict, although it is bigger today than it was at the beginning of the conflict,” Gen. Christopher Cavoli, the commander of US European Command, told the House Armed Services Committee.
“The Air Force has lost very little, they’ve lost 80 planes. They have another 1,000 fighters and fighter bombers,” he said. “The Navy has lost one ship.”
“The Navy has lost one ship.”
RuZZian Flagship Moskva.
Thanks for the memories!!!
“U.S. intel helped Ukraine sink Russian flagship Moskva”
“Intelligence shared by the U.S. helped Ukraine sink the Russian cruiser Moskva, U.S. officials told NBC News, confirming an American role in perhaps the most embarrassing blow to Vladimir Putin’s troubled invasion of Ukraine.
A guided missile cruiser carrying a crew of 510, the Moskva was the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. It sank on April 14 after being struck by two Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles, U.S. officials said. Moscow said the vessel sank after a fire. The Moskva was the largest Russian warship sunk in combat since World War II. American officials said there were significant Russian casualties, but they don’t know how many.”
““The Air Force has lost very little, they’ve lost 80 planes. They have another 1,000 fighters and fighter bombers,” he said. “The Navy has lost one ship.”
In their testimony, they did make the point that some elements of the Russian Military have been largely untouched, like cyber, anti-satellite and submarine capabilities.
Russian Aerospace Force losses have been concentrated among their Close Air Support aircraft (Su-24, Su-25), among which there has been pretty significant degradation, in percentage of the fleet terms. Russian Army Aviation (helicopters) for Close Air Support have also seen significant losses. Long range bombers and air superiority fighters have seen only relatively small marginal losses, but they stay out of Ukrainian airspace.
Russian Naval Infantry (Marine) Units (like nearly all Russian ground combat units) have been pretty thoroughly chewed up in detail, and a few other warships and landing ships have been damaged, beyond the loss of the Mosckva. Both the Russian Navy and Aerospace Force (as well as the Red Army) have very significantly depleted their stocks of long range precision weapons, like Cruise Missiles, Iskanders and Tochkas.
Future phases of the war may see Russia resort to using more of those Air and Naval assets that they have preserved so far, as other options run their course.