Russia lost more than 70 planes in Ukraine
Ukraine destroyed more than seventy Russian military aircraft during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. She lost less than sixty planes. This was announced at a conference in Colorado by General James Hecker, commander of the US Air Force in Europe and Africa.
According to General Hekker, the relatively low losses of Ukraine and Russia are explained by the effectiveness of the integrated anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense organized by both sides, which does not allow large-scale use of aviation. Due to the effectiveness of air defense means, a significant part of the aviation “turned out to be useless”, emphasized James Hekker. In particular, this creates significant difficulties for the implementation of air cover of counteroffensive operations planned by the Ukrainian army.
The United States provided Ukraine with AGM-88 HARM missiles used to destroy radars. In the last three weeks, as James Hecker said, Ukraine began to receive JDAM precision-guided bombs with an increased range, exceeding the range of HIMARS missile systems.
Recently, the United States and other allies of Ukraine have focused on providing Ukraine with anti-aircraft defenses to repel massive missile attacks on Ukrainian cities. However, for now, the USA refuses to supply Kyiv with ATACMS missiles, which will allow it to strike targets at a distance of more than 300 kilometers.
These data on the losses of Russian combat aircraft are lower than the estimates made by the Ministry of Defense of Great Britain, which a week ago reported the loss of almost 130 combat aircraft by Russia.
