An overview of the recent losses by the Russian air force and overall situation for their readiness. Kind of a follow-up on some questions I asked on other posts here.

  • muntedcrocodile@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    These new plane loss rates indicates to me the ukraine has some new weapon. I suspect they may finally be fielding some f16s.

      • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        It could be a large rock. It works for crazy people on freeway overpasses and it can’t be fooled by chaff or flares. A rock is a rock and it will do rock things. Like nothing. You wouldn’t want nothing to happen to your flying jet do you?

          • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            I almost hope putin goes out with a rock. It could be a small one right to the head. It could be a 400lb one anywhere on the body really. Sure if the US could fucking donate an F16 with a rock delivery bay door, that would be great 😃. But otherwise, hey if rocks are available, rocks are the weapon.

            • normanwall@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              I hope Putin ends up having to go into hiding after the country and the oligarchs turn against him because the three day war hits 3 years and the money dries up.

              Then when he’s captured he has to endure a trial while one of the oligarchs goes full capitalist, becomes president to organize a treaty with Ukraine, all sanctions are removed, borders are restored, trade strengthens the region so the people can prosper and Putin has to watch his dream of conquest disappear.

              Then Putin gets shot by a firing squad. The end.

              • Colin from Edinburgh, Oklahoma@mastodon.social
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                8 months ago

                @normanwall @werefreeatlast
                Pure fantasy, but quite an appealing one. Putin’s successor has already been selected by Putin and his inner circle. He has been shadowing Putin since before the war. He is a political clone of Putin. When Putin dies the transition will be seamless.
                Putin will be remembered as a Hero of Russia.

                • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  Do you have a photo of the guy? That’s probably the first step in killing the guy. I do have to agree though, it will take more persuasion to improve capitalism in ruzzia.

      • muntedcrocodile@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        U saw har far behind the lines the latest big fuck off command plane thing was. Seems awfully long distance to be a missile.

          • NoiseColor@startrek.website
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            8 months ago

            Yes, I’m just surprised they still have those. They are really in a bad shape right now and these few downed airplanes don’t mean much.

            • machinin@lemmy.worldOP
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              8 months ago

              these few downed airplanes don’t mean much

              The article is talking about a possible death spiral of the Russian air force. I think that means something.

              • NoiseColor@startrek.website
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                8 months ago

                A lot of hopium. Same stuff we heard since the start of the war. First it was food, then equipment, then shells, troops, missiles,… And looking at the the Russian army today it’s fed, well equipped, as many shells as they need, new drones, missiles in production, planes in production. Not to mention new motivation as they see the west faltering in their resolve to help Ukraine. Russia is in war economy, unfortunately it’s not running out of anything anytime soon. They are not that stupid and will adapt if the losses become unmanageable.

                • machinin@lemmy.worldOP
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                  8 months ago

                  I guess if you just ignore the fact that Ukraine has downed 11 (+?) planes in the past 11 days, maybe you could call that sentiment hopium.

                  I do agree, things aren’t looking great with the US (not the whole West, by the way) delaying aid. But what was supposedly the second greatest military in the world is stuck in a quagmire with a neighboring country a fraction of its size. They are making only minor progress at enormous cost.

                  It’s a waiting game. Neither of us have the facts about what is actually happening with the Russian military or economy. Saying that, I don’t think you can dismiss the recent losses by Russia as insignificant.

                • crispy_kilt@feddit.de
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                  8 months ago

                  And looking at the the Russian army today it’s fed, well equipped,

                  Lol, no, it is not

                  Too many deserters showing up severely malnourished for that to be the case

                  Too many documented cases of unusable or plain fake equipment, like plastic helmets, or artillery rounds missing propellant, rusted rifles, etc

        • TheOSINTguy@sh.itjust.works
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          8 months ago

          Missle tech has come really far. for example, thaad has a flight ceiling of 93 miles, and the tomahawk land attack missle has a range of 1550 miles.

  • dutchkimble@lemy.lol
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    8 months ago

    Can someone ELI5 why Russia isn’t able to send 10 jets for every 1 that Ukraine has? (I mean it’s good they haven’t, it’s just that we’re led to believe countries like the US, Russia and China have ginormous armed forces and when it’s actually come down to it it’s been a 2 year long war instead of what was supposedly going to be an immediate annihilation with overwhelming forces flattening out ukraine)

    • rammer@sopuli.xyz
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      8 months ago

      Because modern air war has little if anything to do with dogfighting (planes fighting planes with guns). It is all about using missiles to hit targets. Both on the ground and in the air. And those missiles can also be fired from the ground. SAMs (surface-to-air-missile) are used to hit planes, drones, other missiles. Also MANPADs (portable shoulder fired missiles) pose a threat to aviation.

      In an air superiority battle overwhelming air power is used to take out the SAM batteries. This is difficult and costly. Something neither Russia nor Ukraine are currently able to do. So both are using jets in a minimal capacity.

      Recently Russia has ramped up the usage of jets to hit entrenched targets on the front line. Which has predictably resulted greater losses. And relatively meager gains.

    • wer2@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Russia has a limited supply of working jets, and limited supply of good pilots. Which they need elsewhere across their very large country and in other places (Syria).

      In addition, Russia pulled back its air operations not because of Ukraine jets, but because of ground based air defense (missile that shoot down planes). Trading pilot/plane for pilot/plane is good for Russia, but trading a pilot/plane for a missile is a bad trade for anyone.