US: Ukraine has ‘significant majority’ of its military aircraft

Reuters via al Jazeera ^ | 4 Mar 2022 | Phil Stewart and Idrees Ali

[Zhang Fei]

Ukraine still has a “significant majority” of its military aircraft available nine days after Russian forces started their invasion of the country, a United States defence official told the Reuters news service on Friday.

Vastly outmatched by Russia’s military in terms of numbers and firepower, the fact that Ukraine’s own air force is still flying and its air defenses are still deemed to be viable has surprised military experts.

“The Ukrainians still have a significant majority of their air combat power available to them, both fixed-wing and rotary wing as well as unmanned systems and surface-to-air systems,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official added that Ukrainian aircraft had suffered some losses, including being destroyed by Russian forces, but did not give details. After the opening salvos of the war on February 24, analysts expected the Russian military to try to immediately destroy Ukraine’s air force and air defenses.

Russia has fired more than 500 missiles at Ukrainian targets since the start of the invasion, but is still flying through contested airspace.

Ukrainian troops with surface-to-air rockets are able to threaten Russian aircraft and create risk to Russian pilots trying to support ground forces. Ukraine’s ability to keep flying air force jets is a visible demonstration of the country’s resilience in the face of attack and has been a morale booster, both to its own military and Ukraine’s people, experts say.

No ‘no-fly’ zone

The Pentagon has established a new hotline with Russia’s ministry of defence to prevent “miscalculation, military incidents and escalation” in the region as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine advances.

The “deconfliction” hotline would be an open phone line based at the US European Command’s headquarters and would fall under Air Force General Tod Wolters, who leads all US forces on the continent.

[Zhang Fei]

While the Russians have air superiority, much as the Western Allies had it over Europe during WWII, air supremacy eludes them, for now.

[Long Jon No Silver]

Oh no. Not another ‘experts say’,’speaking on condition of anonymity’ article

[libertylover]

Ukraine still has a “significant majority” of its military aircraft available nine days after Russian forces started their invasion of the country,

Really? So why is there still a 40 mile-long Russian convoy? Apparently, it's stalled, but not destroyed.

[PGR88]

All I can say is - IF Ukraine has most of its airforce still available to them, then the puppet Zelensky should stop begging NATO to supply its air forces to fight Russia.

[Redcitizen]

Got plenty of “ experts” here on FR. They’ll let you know you are wrong right away.

[PIF]

So why is there still a 40 mile-long Russian convoy? Apparently, it’s stalled, but not destroyed.

—
There was a report earlier that the convoy had been shortened by UAF SU-24s 25s. FWIW

[Zhang Fei]

Really? So why is there still a 40 mile-long Russian convoy? Apparently, it's stalled, but not destroyed.

The Russians have mobile air defense batteries. Like this:

People keep talking about A-10's doing strafing runs. In a word, no. The Pantsir pictured above would swat A-10's out of the skies, like the low and slow flies they'd appear to be from the targeting computer's perspective. Ukrainian SU-25's are just more fragile versions of A-10's. Like A-10's, they'd be so much scrap metal against Russian AA batteries when flying low enough to accurately target the convoy.

There’s been speculation that a shortage of air-dropped smart bombs is why Russian aircraft haven’t been all over the place. (I bet the Ukrainians have none). The theory is that they have to fly within MANPADS range to accurately target Ukrainian ground forces, so they’ve mostly stayed on the ground unless necessary to ward off high-flying Ukrainian aircraft. Interesting account by a Weapons Systems Officer (e.g. Goose in Top Gun) of what bombing with unguided munitions involves - including the fact that it brings the aircraft well within the range of Stingers which can reach 12,000 ft vs the 4,500 ft needed to drop unguided munitions accurately:

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https://warontherocks.com/2017/08/taking-airpower-for-granted-a-smart-bomb-story/
Back in the early days of bombing, before fighters had computers, dropping a bomb accurately required skill, training, and a bit of luck. Pilots had to use trigonometry to create a “bombing triangle” for every delivery. A typical Vietnam-era F-4 attack was a 45-degree dive at 4,500 feet above the target, while flying at 450 knots. The pilot had to navigate mainly using visual references on the ground and canopy angular references to be exactly 6,400 feet away from the target at release.

The pilot also had to account for how the ballistics of the bomb would change its trajectory (after release, the bomb rapidly slows down, causing it to fall short of the aircraft flight path). He accounted for this by aiming long of the target and computing a depression angle (expressed in milliradians). This was known as the sight depression from flight path and was dialed in before each pass.

The pilot also needed good reflexes. Traveling at 450 knots and aiming for the 50-yard line on an NFL football field, he had to hit the pickle, or release, button within 0.2 seconds of the planned release point to ensure the bomb hit between the two end zones.

Even with perfect reflexes, small variations in attack parameters had drastic consequences. Being just one degree shallow could result in the bomb hitting 60 feet short of the target. To score a direct hit (called a “shack”), the pilot had to aim at the right target, correctly calculate the attack parameters, hit the pickle button exactly on time, and calculate the correct sight depression.

In Vietnam, fighter pilots often released their bombs from higher altitudes to avoid an additional issue: anti-aircraft fire. This increased what is referred to as the circular error probable — a circle around a desired impact point whose radius represents the statistical distribution of the bombs that will hit within the circle. This was overcome by simply dropping multiple bombs on each pass (to increase the chance of getting a bomb or two on target). As a result, aircraft were typically assigned on a formation-per-target basis (and occasionally a jet-per-target basis). For example, to hit a half-dozen targets, aircraft packages were generally built around 16 strike aircraft (escorted by other fighters performing escort and suppression of enemy air defenses).]

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[sockmonkey]

https://twitter.com/i/status/1500226320898445318

Well, I was going to post pics of the abandoned UKR base at Kherson, but this vid of UKR police who are allowing the Wealthier to go to the head of the line to cross the border while waving guns at ordinary schmucks and threatening them for complaining.

[Zhang Fei]

[There was a report earlier that the convoy had been shortened by UAF SU-24s 25s. FWIW]

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Ukies would presumably need to map out gaps in Pantsir coverage, and maybe mount diversionary attacks on the ground to keep Russian heads down while Ukie flyboys are screaming overhead.

[Pez149]

Why anyone would report information of what the Ukrainian forces have or don’t have left in their arsenal makes no sense...
Enough Already...

[Georgia Girl 2]

Yeh, they just don’t have any radar or fuel.

[McGruff]

[immadashell]

Not another ‘experts say’,’speaking on condition of anonymity’ article

Yup, those articles are meaningless.

[M Kehoe]

Someone just got a bounty put on his head.

5.56mm

[Zhang Fei]

[https://twitter.com/i/status/1500226320898445318

Well, I was going to post pics of the abandoned UKR base at Kherson, but this vid of UKR police who are allowing the Wealthier to go to the head of the line to cross the border while waving guns at ordinary schmucks and threatening them for complaining.]

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Can’t beat the Russian ruler with $200b in personal savings:

https://nypost.com/2015/02/16/investor-putin-could-be-worlds-richest-man-with-stolen-200b-fortune/

Probably had a hot hand in cattle futures. Might have picked up the skills from Hillary. Heck, Putin certainly colluded with the Democrats to ruin Trump’s first term:

---

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/03/12/documents-link-putins-favorite-oligarch-obama-official-aided-anti-trump-dossier/
[NEW YORK — Jonathan M. Winer, the Obama State Department official who acknowledged regularly interfacing and exchanging information with the author of the largely discredited 35-page anti-Trump dossier, signed disclosure forms for his former firm to represent a Russian billionaire known as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s favorite oligarch.

The detail, being brought to light herein, may raise immediate questions about the origins of the dossier. The oligarch, Oleg Deripaska, had a reported business dispute with former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, is closely tied to Putin and has long been viewed as pushing Russian national interests.

Already, there have been questions about Deripaska’s possible relationship with dossier author Christopher Steele amid reports that the billionaire may have served as a source for the dossier itself.

Also, recently leaked text messages show extensive communication between a Russia-connected lawyer and Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. The attorney, Adam Waldman, was a paid lobbyist for Deripaska. The messages show Warner attempted to arrange a meeting with Steele through Waldman.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley recently sent a letter to an attorney believed to be working for Deripaska asking whether the lawyer had hired Steele’s private firm, Orbis Business Intelligence Limited, to do work on behalf of Deripaska. A recent New Yorker article profiling Steele also raised the possibility that Deripaska was one of Steele’s private clients.

At a hearing last month, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) asked FBI Director Christopher Wray whether there was information that Steele was working with Deripaska when he compiled the dossier. Wray responded that he could not answer the question at a public hearing.]

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[cgbg]

“Why anyone would report information of what the Ukrainian forces have or don’t have left in their arsenal makes no sense...
Enough Already...”

Relax.

The Pentagon is lying their &^%$% off—just garbage for the duped brain dead suckers out there.

[Zhang Fei]

[Why anyone would report information of what the Ukrainian forces have or don’t have left in their arsenal makes no sense...
Enough Already...]

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It’s a morale thing. No one wants to be the last man to die for a lost cause.

[mvonfr]

There is something scarier than the Ghost now:

Ukrainian hybrid warfare expert presents their newest Wunderwaffe:

https://twitter.com/TsybulskaLiubov/status/1500075457798189057

[Zhang Fei]

[All I can say is - IF Ukraine has most of its airforce still available to them, then the puppet Zelensky should stop begging NATO to supply its air forces to fight Russia.]

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China’s Russian puppet is begging China for assistance despite its allegedly massive currency reserves. And Russia isn’t getting bombed.

[McGruff]

Pilot never saw it coming.