Ukraine Loses Two of its Last Su-27 Fighters and a MiG-29 in New Air Battles
Eastern Europe and Central Asia , Aircraft and Anti-Aircraft
Air battles on September 15, and possibly in the late hours of the previous day, have seen the Ukrainian Air Force lose three of its few remaining fighter aircraft to Russian forces.
The Russian Defence Ministry reported that two Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 Flanker fighter aircraft were destroyed by Russian aviation assets, while ground based air defences shot down a Ukrainian MiG-29. The Su-27 heavyweight fighter and MiG-29 medium weight fighter were developed in parallel in the Soviet Union to form part of a high-low combination, mirroring the development of the F-15 and F-16 in the United States.
The larger Su-27 has a much longer range, carries a larger radar, and is overall a far better performing air superiority fighter. When tested in the West in the 1990s, the Su-27 and MiG-29 were consistently found to be capable of comfortably outperforming the respective F-15 and F-16, with the Su-27 generally considered to be the world’s premier fighter for air to air missions to enter service in the 20th century.
Ukraine inherited both fighter classes in considerable numbers when the USSR disintegrated, and has received large numbers of MiG-29s from across Eastern Europe since 2022, as the class had been widely exported to Warsaw Pact states in the 1980s and early 1990s. With the Soviet Union having never exported Su-27s other than to China, the aircraft is not available from Western aligned states to resupply Ukraine.
The Su-27’s standing as an air superiority fighter has diminished considerably since the turn of the century, with the aircraft today considered effectively obsolete.
The fighters have taken heavy losses in multiple engagements with Russian forces since the outbreak of full scale hostilities in February 2022, with the class’ largest known air battle to date reported on March 5, 2022 to have seen four of the fighters lost in air to air combat near the city of Zhytomir.
The remainder of the fleet has recently taken significant losses to Russian missile strikes on their air bases. Footage released on August 13 showed the destruction of one of the aircraft at Mirgorod Airbase. Drone footage released on July 2 subsequently showed the destruction of two Su-27s in Russian missile strikes, and serious damage to two more possibly beyond repair, at the same facility.
Most recently, a Russian BuK-M3 medium range surface to air missile system shot down a Ukrainian operated Su-27 at 18:12 local time on August 21, after the pilot attempted to drop guided glide bombs on Russian forces in the Kursk region.
Ukraine is unlikely for the foreseeable future to receive a fighter with a similarly impressive flight performance or high endurance, with the second hand F-16s and Mirage 2000s being supplied by European states being close to half the Su-27’s size, having well under half its range, and carrying radars less than one third the size of the Soviet jet’s own. Losses among Ukraine’s Su-27s are thus truly irreplaceable for the Eastern European state.
Ex-Soviet Su-27 (left) and MiG-29 Fighters
F-16 and Su-27s Scale Comparison
Ukrainian Air Force F-16
Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29 with R-73 and R-27 Missiles
Ukrainian Air Force Su-27
MiG-29 (top) and Su-27 Fighters
Ex-Soviet Su-27 (left) and MiG-29 Fighters
F-16 and Su-27s Scale Comparison
Ukrainian Air Force F-16
Ukrainian Air Force MiG-29 with R-73 and R-27 Missiles
Ukrainian Air Force Su-27
MiG-29 (top) and Su-27 Fighters
Ex-Soviet Su-27 (left) and MiG-29 Fighters
Russia claimed to have destroyed the entire Ukrainian Air Force more than 2 years ago.
ReplyDeleteMilitary Watch is counting on Russia supporters swallowing any shit that it publishes.
Ooop… u have conveniently ignored all those mothballed & expired fighters supplied to Ukraine by those ex Comicon countries!
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