INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
As the sun set in the Siberian city of Irkutsk on Sunday, an Su-30 Russian military fighter jet nose-dived into a two-story house, exploding
both crashes on technical failure and pilot error, two such visible accidents within a week of each other highlight the challenges facing
modernized fleet as well as the differing Russian approach to the use of air power in combat."After suffering heavy losses in the first 10
days of March, Russia was forced to revise its approach and has remained risk averse in Ukraine," said Guy Plopsky, an independent Israeli
been used in Ukraine as an extension of frontline power.This has meant taking off from airbases in southern Russia and Belarus to fly
target area at low altitude, maybe 50 meters or less, and then lob the rockets and bank left or right and return back to base," he
Su-25s flying at low altitudes to avoid enemy air defenses dropped bombs on a target while narrowly evading a Ukrainian surface-to-air
of Russian operations in Ukraine, Russia has flown a total of 34,000 combat sorties in Ukraine since Feb
Morozovsk, Millerovo and Taganrog air bases in the Rostov region, Baltimor air base in the southern Russian region of Voronezh, as well as
estimate that they have also impacted the level of air support its jets can offer
Without the intricate multi-aircraft sorties required for intelligence gathering, Russian pilots are often reliant on ground troops to
provide them with target coordinates."We send them the coordinates where Nazis are located and we are very pleased when [those places] are
helicopter Mi-35 shot down by Ukrainian forces.armyinform.com.ua (CC BY 4.0)Dubious intelligence and the use of unguided munitions means
strikes by jets are often ineffective, Plopsky said
"Far from all of the targets Russian jets have struck are of military value
Civilian targets are also known to be deliberately attacked, though in some cases a pilot might not even be told what exactly he's
bombing," he added.The Russian Air Force has become the subject of much scrutiny since the war in Ukraine began, despite Moscow investing
vast sums of money to build one of the world's largest air forces.Technology onboard its aircraft has been shown to lag behind that used
Services Institute, a British defense and security think tank
"The Russian Air Force is viewed quite differently [in Russia] to air forces in the West
They are mostly an extension of the artillery and designed just to add a lot of firepower to frontline operations," Cranny-Evans
leaning heavily on drones to launch aerial attacks on Ukrainian positions.According to Surovikin, Russian Forces have flown 8,000 unmanned
sorties since the beginning of the conflict, relying on the Air Force's domestically-produced Forpost-R and Inokhodets drones, as well as
a recent tranche of Shahed-136 drones believed to have been provided by Iran.These tactics have enabled the Russian Air Force to continue
striking enemy targets and degrading Ukrainian air defenses, while minimizing its own exposure to risk."When Russia tries to conduct strikes
