They should revolutionize aviation and allow the military to get the most out of them. there Russia has always thought of them as enviable jesters, but the Ukraine conflict has shown their limitations Sukhoi Su34the infamous $50 million Russian jets.
The limits of the Su34
Despite clear at least on paper military superiority, the Russian army has not yet managed to seal off the skies over Ukraine. Moscow’s planes have shown to fly at too low altitudes, exposing themselves to Ukrainian fire, due to old problems that have never been resolved and have returned to the fore. Il Messaggero explained it in detail and shed light on two major issues.
The first relates to the chronic Russian shortage of precision commanded ammunition, necessary to turn the Su34 into a deadly weapon. The other obstacle relates to the instead Russian teaching, which regards airplanes as a kind of flying artillery. If we combine the two points, we get a rather depressing scenario for those who, like the Russian Federation, have the second most powerful army in the world behind the United States.
In any case, the first Su34 models were delivered in 2008. First there were 32, then 92 in 2012 and 122 in 2021. An important leap, also because these jets have in fact replaced the old ones. Su24. And also because Moscow is expected to station around 200 of them by 2030.
Wasted Jokers
In short, the Su34, which are equipped with a twoperson cockpit and can hit targets up to 60 miles away and carry 12 tons bombs and rockets, they promised fire and flames. On paper we are talking about a technically advanced model. It is a pity that in connection with the sanctions, the Russians do not have enough commanded ammunition in stock and have not bought them for years.
Justin Bronk illustrated the result well in a recent analysis: “Most of the 300 Russian Air Force fixedwing fighter jets around Ukraine only have unguided bombs and missiles that they can fall back on for ground attacks.” They are certainly not useless jets, but in this way they lose theirs main qualities. Further thwarted by the aforementioned Russian doctrine that airplanes are nothing more than flying artillery. In other words, Moscow does not release its aviation; on the contrary, it must cooperate with the ground forces.
By now they would amount to 17,700 le losses in the Russian ranks since the day Moscow attacked Ukraine. This was announced by the daily bulletin of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. According to the Ukrainian military report, Russian losses to date would be about 17,700 men, 625 tanks, 1751 armored vehicles, 316 artillery systems, 96 multiple rocket launchers, 54 antiaircraft systems. According to the bulletin, Russian forces also lost 143 planes, 131 helicopters, 1,220 cars, 7 naval units, 76 fuel tanks and 85 drones.