Every other day news reports arise about how the long-promised F-16 jet fighters are ‘soon’ arriving in Ukraine.
Whether or not that is indeed the case, there’s widespread worry in the pro-Ukraine MSM about how protected these ‘wonder weapons’ will be once they arrive, seen as the Russian Iskander missiles are bringing havoc to several of the air bases poised to receive them.
In the last three days, the Russians have battered the tiny Ukrainian air force to an unprecedented degree.
Orlan surveillance drones scan the air force’s front-line airfields, followed by incoming ballistic missiles to destroy precious remaining warplanes.
The only thing that can save what’s left of Ukrainian air power: more Western-made air defenses – and they better arrive fast.
Telegraph reported:
“The current wave of attacks began on July 1, when a Russian drone spotted six Ukrainian Air Force Sukhoi Su-27 fighters parked in the open in broad daylight on the tarmac at Mirgorod air base, 100 miles from Ukraine’s northern border with Russia. A Russian Iskander ballistic missile struck, destroying two of the supersonic fighters.
The next day, it happened again. A Russian drone flew circles over the Ukrainian air base in Poltava, just east of Mirgorod. After hours of surveillance, another Iskander missile struck – damaging, if not destroying, a Ukrainian army Mil Mi-24 gunship helicopter.
The attacks continued on July 3. This time the Russians targeted Dolgintsevo air base near Kryvyi Rih, 45 miles from the front line in southern Ukraine. A drone scanned the base, and as many as three Iskanders rained down, destroying what appeared to be a Ukrainian air force Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 fighter.”
If the Ukrainian forces aren’t able to shoot even the surveillance drones, they have even worse chances of taking down the incoming missiles.
The Ukrainian air force would normally protect the air bases with layers of surface-to-air missiles.
But now they have to simultaneously protect cities, front-line brigades and vulnerable bases.
There are not nearly enough air-defense systems.
“Between them, the Ukrainian army and air force began Russia’s wider war on Ukraine with around 400 surface-to-air missile systems. Twenty-eight months later, the Ukrainians have lost around 140 of those systems and acquired – mostly from their foreign allies – around a hundred as replacements.”
Ukrainian air force is believed to have fewer than 100 fighter and attack planes left, with the army having 50 or so Mi-24 gunships.
The next American aid package is said to include missiles for the Patriot batteries as and medium-range air defenses.
“But these additional Patriot batteries aren’t nearly enough. One of them could protect Mirgorod and Poltava while a second covers Dolgintsevo. But what about the other 20 or so big Ukrainian air bases? And what of the tens of major cities that still lack significant protection from air attack?”
The needs of the Ukraine’s air-defense are almost impossible to cover, as Russian attacks are getting more and more destructive.
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