Press
Ukrainian pilots are flying extremely dangerous missions against Vladimir Putin’s Russian invasion army in order to put Moscow’s troops at a disadvantage.
Kiev – In the Ukraine war, the Ukrainian air force is much smaller than that of Kremlin autocrat Vladimir Putin. The comparison shows the very different size ratios in the respective fighter jet fleet.
Losses for Russia: Ukraine’s air forces hit Putin’s troops
Like the oft-quoted one Global Firepower Index (GFP) on May 13, Ukraine had a total of 40 operational Su-27, Su-25M and MiG-29 fighter aircraft at that time. At the same time, Russia had an estimated 526 fighter jets of the same types.
Nevertheless, the Ukrainian pilots – despite being significantly outnumbered – repeatedly manage to inflict heavy losses on Putin’s Russian invasion army. According to a report, they sometimes use a highly risky tactic that went down in military history as so-called “Wild Weasel” operations and dates back to the times of the Vietnam War.
Russia’s losses: Ukraine pilots increasingly target Russian radar
The tactic, which is known in German as “wild weasel”, involves the pilots deliberately flying low and slowly approaching enemy radar positions in order to then eliminate them. Again Business Insiders (BI) writes, the fighter pilots even allow their aircraft to be detected by enemy air radar in order to then trace the radar sources back to their origin. You have to act very, very quickly before the respective radar stations pass on the coordinates to your own air defense to combat the fighter jets.
According to the report, once the Ukrainian pilots have identified a radar as such, they immediately fire American AGM-88 High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARMs) at it in order to destroy the station. Videos circulating on X (formerly Twitter) are intended to document successful “Wild Weasel” operations, which cannot be independently verified. The few Sukhoi Su-27s that the Kiev Air Force has in its effective but ultimately manageable inventory are probably suitable for these highly dangerous missions. This is not only supported by described videos on social media.
Weapons of Ukraine: Su-27 fighter jet was once developed by Moscow
Because: The Su-27, for example, has four Omsk Plant Automatika SPO-15LM radar warning sensors. In theory, such radar warning devices can register electromagnetic waves from radar systems and warn the respective pilot using a signal in the cockpit. Radar pulses are detected and traced. Furthermore, the Su-27, which was once commissioned by the communist Moscow regime in the Soviet Union, has integrated decoy launchers.
This means that the pilots can use small weapon batteries between the engines and on the tail skid to fire heat flares, known in English as “flares”. These flares are intended to use their heat radiation to attract infrared-guided air defense missiles and away from the fighter jet. This property also predestines the “Flanker”, the NATO code name, for risky use against enemy radar stations, because there is of course no guarantee that the air defense will not fire a surface-to-air missile in the direction of the attacking aircraft in defense.
Russian army losses: Putin’s troops also lose radar systems
But that’s not all: the US-made HARM missiles mentioned can also detect radar emissions from a radar. The HARM’s viewfinder detects the target independently. After being fired by the pilot, the rocket orients itself on the electromagnetic waves emitted by the radar. A GPS receiver guides the rocket, which reaches speeds of over 2,200 km/h, to the precise coordinates of the radar system.
The Ukrainians had proven, not only in the case of the highly effective cruise missiles “Storm Shadow” and “Scalp-EG”, that they can modify their carrier aircraft for Western guided missiles. This is apparently also the case with the HARM missiles. Which means that Russian losses in the Ukraine war – combined with drone attacks – are also increasing in the area of radar systems. (pm)
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