Did ask earlyer about the air war, and got the answer that the glide bombs are redused from the Russians. Did not get an answer to the second part of my question. Is the Ukrainian air force in the position to do more now then earlyer, and are there a reason for this?
The best explanation offered so far is that Russia likely has fewer bombs and glide kits due to attacks on storage facilities. I haven't seen any numbers regarding the production of those two items but use of UMPK remains much lower than just four months ago.
The new planes are improved and increase the size of the air force. Because of this, the Ukrainian air force is in a better position to conduct defensive operations and to conduct bombing missions that are outside the coverage of Russian air defenses. It is still too dangerous to penetrate Russian airspace with anything other than missiles and drones.
So this hits on bunkers and stuff that we see is just a result of the ability to drop this long range, air launched missils that they could not do before?
The questions aren't stupid and I am happy to answer what I know.
It all depends of the range of the weapon and the range of the Russian air defenses. Ukraine has had the AASM for a while and it has a range of 70 km. In some cases, the aircraft would approach the target at low altitude to avoid detection and then quickly climb to altitude to launch the weapon before diving low again and escaping.
The Storm Shadow has a 550 km range and they've used it in Crimea for a while but they've just recently been given permission to use it in Russia six weeks ago, so it's hitting targets deep in that country.
The source you cite for Grozny tower refusing permission to land to the tragically crashed Azerbaijan Air flight says the opposite. Says they lost GPS and could not get vectors because of no radar contact and decided themselves to return to Baku.
Happy new year Don. You continue to do excellent work 👍. The leadership stuff is of particular interest, thank you for picking that up.
Thanks Don! Hopefully a better year ahead!
I think it will be, though not without hardships.
Did ask earlyer about the air war, and got the answer that the glide bombs are redused from the Russians. Did not get an answer to the second part of my question. Is the Ukrainian air force in the position to do more now then earlyer, and are there a reason for this?
Thanks for the updates both Don and Eddy :-)
The best explanation offered so far is that Russia likely has fewer bombs and glide kits due to attacks on storage facilities. I haven't seen any numbers regarding the production of those two items but use of UMPK remains much lower than just four months ago.
The new planes are improved and increase the size of the air force. Because of this, the Ukrainian air force is in a better position to conduct defensive operations and to conduct bombing missions that are outside the coverage of Russian air defenses. It is still too dangerous to penetrate Russian airspace with anything other than missiles and drones.
So this hits on bunkers and stuff that we see is just a result of the ability to drop this long range, air launched missils that they could not do before?
Sorry to ask stupid questions :-)
The questions aren't stupid and I am happy to answer what I know.
It all depends of the range of the weapon and the range of the Russian air defenses. Ukraine has had the AASM for a while and it has a range of 70 km. In some cases, the aircraft would approach the target at low altitude to avoid detection and then quickly climb to altitude to launch the weapon before diving low again and escaping.
The Storm Shadow has a 550 km range and they've used it in Crimea for a while but they've just recently been given permission to use it in Russia six weeks ago, so it's hitting targets deep in that country.
Thank you for your report.
Спасибо за обновление и с Новым Годом! 🌲
Happy New Year!
The source you cite for Grozny tower refusing permission to land to the tragically crashed Azerbaijan Air flight says the opposite. Says they lost GPS and could not get vectors because of no radar contact and decided themselves to return to Baku.
The translation said, "The crew was not allowed to land in Grozny several times, then the GPS failed."