Posted on 06/29/2023 10:25:30 PM PDT by Cronos
...Before the mutiny was called off, Wagner Group fighters closed in on Moscow and shot down several Russian military aircraft, including an Ilyushin Il-22M airborne command-post aircraft. Photos and videos shared to social media showed the plane engulfed in a fireball as it plummeted from the sky, before ultimately crashing into a field and leaving behind a huge pile of debris.
All 10 crewmembers aboard the aircraft were reportedly killed.
The Il-22M is a valuable special-mission aircraft that Russia's military has relied on heavily for aerial command and control during its invasion of Ukraine. Britain's defense ministry wrote in a Thursday intelligence update that Moscow operates a small fleet of 12 Il-22Ms, but they are "high-value assets" because they can fly safely within Russia's airspace and out of reach of Ukraine's air-defense network while coordinating air and ground operations.
.."The loss of this aircraft is likely to have a negative impact on Russian air and land operations. In the short term, the psychological shock of losing a large number of aircrew in this manner will almost certainly damage morale within" Russia's air force
In the longer term, there is a possibility that current tasking levels may have to be reduced to safely manage the remaining fleet," the intelligence update said. "This will likely undermine Russia's ability to command and coordinate its forces, particularly during periods of high tempo operations
"We regret that we had to hit air assets, but those assets were dropping bombs and launching missile strikes," Prigozhin said on Monday
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I’m surprised Vlad let them get away with this. The old Vlad would have turned that convoy into the road to Basra scene. Must be getting soft in his old age. Time to put him out to pasture the hard liners are probably thinking.
That plane never flew over Ukrainian held territory. US and NATO equivalent planes don’t fly over Ukraine either. How would You expect the Ukrainians to shoot it down?
This wasn't a fighter or bomber. It was a command aircraft similar in function to an AWACS or JSTARS. No, they don't fly over Ukrainian held ground. They look over the horizon. The Russians have limited numbers of these aircraft and the specialists who fly in them. All the occupants of this plane were killed. It's a really great benefit to the Ukrainians.
A massive fire fight with high casualties is EXACTLY the outcome Washington/NATO would have wanted the most.
-fJRoberts-
Because, as the article points out, the Russians kept them outside Ukrainian airspace as far as possible.
There could be multiple reasons - all speculation for now:
1. He didn’t have the available forces - the Russian air farce may be as moth-eaten as the Russian Navy
2. The troops didn’t want to
3. He was overruled
4. He didn’t want to spill Russian blood
Any one of these is plausible, or there may be another reason. We’ll probably never know for certain
Fleet of 12 where only 2-4 are operational.
Jamming isn’t eavesdropping. It also isn’t getting radar and other data on the position of enemy air and ground forces. The IL-22M hasn’t flown over Ukraine, and neither have equivalent NATO planes like the E-8 JSTARS or E-3 AWACS flown over Ukraine, Belarus, or Russia. The reason the Wagner group was able to shoot an IL-22M down is because it was within range of their surface to air missiles in Russian airspace.
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