My point wasn’t about the cost/value of human lives. The An-2s, if they are used, have to be shot down as they can carry a considerable amount of explosive. The question is how long can Ukraine keep shooting them down? I doubt that they have that many missiles on hand.
The tactic has the potential of overwhelming Ukrainian air defenses by sheer numbers alone. And the missile used to shoot down the An-2 won’t be available to shoot down far more modern aircraft.
Assuming that Ukraine has AAA the An-2s should be easy targets. Odd that a ‘superpower’ like Russia finds it necessary to resort to using biplanes against a smaller weaker nation, but I find we are living in bizarre times.
Did you watch Felton’s YouTube video on this? I thought he explained the situation pretty well.
Did you not notice they can be shot down by an AK 47? Or any modern projectile AA system ... no missiles needed.
No & why should I waste my time watching a video using a false premise: missiles.
Light attack trainer craft would decimate those An-2’s in a hurry.
For example: https://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/super_tucano/
or the S. Korean KA-1:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KAI_KT-1_Woongbi