And remarkably, the air force is growing more survivable as time goes on: firing new Western rockets and missiles over greater distances, and thus avoiding the most intensive Russian air-defenses. After a year and a half of hard fighting, the air force has lost no fewer than 69 aircraft—to ground-based air-defenses, mostly—but has managed to maintain its overall front-line strength by restoring old, grounded airframes and acquiring from NATO countries 18 Su-25s and 27 MiG-29s. The shift to stand-off attacks—all Ukrainian jets except the Su-25s can fire munitions from beyond the range of most of Russia’s ground-based air-defenses—greatly has boosted the life-expectancy of Ukrainian pilots.
Author: David Axe, Forbes Staff, David Axe, Forbes Staff https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/
Published at: 2023-08-06 22:18:22
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