From "The Analyst":
MILITARY UPDATE
The Russian air force has been taking hefty losses - 6 aircraft shot down in eight days.
With the air force not receiving any new fighter bombers and just 5 Su-35’s in the past year, the losses over the past 12 months are genuinely impactful.
The Russians have been taking much bigger risks with their aviation to deliver these glide bombs - more so than at any other time.
The risk/use ratio is largely due to the fact that they have thousands of old bombs and the production capacity of the kits to glide them has increased dramatically- recent factory footage shows that clearly.
So now they have plenty of ammunition to use the pressure to actually deliver it is high, hence the risk factor to the aircraft delivering them increases.
Add to that the increased air defences in use by Ukraine and losses will inevitably rise.
Another aspect to this has been that the army on the ground is in a really bad way. The capture of Avdivka is one thing, but they’re making little effort to exploit it. The state of the forces that took the city is one of heavy losses and disorganisation with deeply depleted units.
The bombing of Chasiv Yar is part of the offensive from Bakhmut aimed at this crucial town situated in high ground. Its railway was critical during the Bakhmut siege. The Russians have set their eye on the town and it’s rapidly being reduced to rubble from the air. Meanwhile Ukrainian helicopters managed to penetrate 3km behind the lines at Klieshievka to disrupt another planned attack.
Avdivka is the same story as at Bakhmut. They exhausted themselves taking it and never exploited the gain.
In some ways a quick and well planned Ukrainian withdrawal exacerbated the chaos on the ground for the occupier as they consolidate and completely eliminated any hope of exploiting the victory, they just don’t have the reserves to do it.
This of course gives Ukraine chance to regroup and prepare its next defence line.
While the Russians seem emboldened by the capture of Avdivka, the 50,000 casualties they took to take a town that had a population of 30,000 and lasted a year in bitter defence, it’s something of a Phyrric victory again. Despite their offensive behaviour all along the frontlines they haven’t moved any of them.
Another notable air war video from Russia showed the crew of an Su-34 delivering glide bombs and how risky it is.
In order to gain accuracy they need to be dropped from far closer than their maximum range and from no more than about 6,000ft (2,200m). As soon as they get to 3,000ft they are easily spotted by most ground based anti aircraft radar as are instantly a target. They drop their bombs then do a right banking downward turn to drop below radar height, but by then, if a missile is on the way its higher than they are, knows where they are and it’s coming for them. It’s hard to escape modern anti air missiles, without plenty of space and very experienced pilots.
There may also be a concern for the Russians that the days of uncontested air space are closing. F-16’s with their superior radars and missiles will be a problem for combat missions like this.
That being said, the Russians have been very restrained with their use of missiles and drones of late relative to their stockpiles. My assessment is they’re waiting to see where the F-16’s are deployed to and once they know they’ll hit those sites as hard as they can.
Ammunition wise, the North Korean shells have unquestionably had an impact on the Russians behaviour.
Their propensity to use huge amounts of ammo to make up for a lack of skill and accuracy has returned. Even so the number of duds is extraordinarily high and the quality of the shells is poor. Russia still has a barrel problem and replacing worn guns is huge headache. They seem to use them regardless until they just stop working.
Loosing Avdivka is bad, any loss like this would be. But the pice Russia paid for it is ludicrous. The withdrawal may have caused a loss of pride, but in the tenacity shown by Ukraine but they have nothing to be ashamed about.
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Continued (2/2)
Losses are painful, but they now have a shorter line, fresh defensive positions and an opportunity to fight another day.
Slava Ukraini !