On March 13 the Russian Defence Ministry reported {that a} Ukrainian Air Pressure Su-24 strike fighter was shot down over the nation, with 11 Ukrainian drones additionally neutralised that day. The variable swept wing plane is one among simply 14 regarded as in service when hostilities between Russia and Ukraine started on February 24, and represents by far the nation’s most succesful plane for air to floor operations. Two Su-24s had been reportedly shot down over Jap Ukraine close to Russia’s borders inside the battle’s first day beneath unclear circumstances. The reported Su-24 shootdown follows a string of losses within the Ukrainian fleet, principally of drones and Su-27 heavyweight fighters, most notably the lack of 4 Su-27s over the town of Zhytomir in western Ukraine on March 5 in what was doubtless the most important air battle of the twenty first century. Whereas a Russian S-400 missile system based mostly in Belarus was liable for at the very least one Su-27 shootdown over Kiev, and Su-35 fighters doubtless additionally based mostly in Belarus had been regarded as liable for victories over Zhytomir, the character of the Su-24 shootdown or the current losses of Ukrainian drones stays unsure.
The Su-24 shootdown comes 4 days after a Russian report that 90 p.c of Ukraine’s navy airports had been neutralised, with prior footage exhibiting Ukrainian MiG-29 fighters destroyed on their runway by a Russian cruise missile strike. Remaining Ukrainian air property are strongly concentrated within the nation’s far western areas, and prevailing traits point out that the Su-24 was very doubtless additionally shot down over western Ukraine probably additionally by an S-400 or in air to air fight. It stays unsure how lengthy Ukrainian air property will proceed to function or how depleted its fight fleet has grow to be, however there’s a important chance that the Su-24 often is the final Ukrainian manned fight plane misplaced within the air throughout the battle as prospects for a complete grounding of the fleet proceed to develop. The age of Ukraine’s air property, counting on a Eighties stock inherited from the Soviet Union and receiving little modernisation since, has resulted in a really one sided stability of energy within the air with Ukrainian forces relying closely on handheld quick ranged floor to air missiles to counter Russian plane asymmetrically consequently.
