"Military Sub-Plane" by Ivan the Great
At sunset yesterday (March 7) local time, the Russian army allegedly took control of the small city of Ijum, located more than fifty kilometers south of Kupiyansk, after fierce fighting.
The Iyyum Police Station was destroyed and is also the headquarters of the local Territorial Defence Forces
On February 28, local time, when the Russian army had taken control of Kupiyansk, it took seven days to attack Iyum, and it has to be said that the Russian army should have made hard efforts in this direction. At the same time, the Kharkiv region began at the beginning of the month, and the continuous snowfall weather also caused great obstacles to the Russian army's forward attack.
In addition to the direction of Iyyum, the Russian army on the southern front, after about a week of silence, had reached Gulepoli, 100 kilometers east of Zaporizia, on the afternoon of March 7. This was the old lair of the Makhno bandits in southeastern Ukraine during the Revolutionary War in Soviet Russia, and it is said that the resistance of the Ukrainian army in this line was relatively high. But in any case, with the Adjustment of the Russian Army to continue to penetrate deeply, the distance between the Russian troops on the southern and northern lines of Eastern Ukraine has been further shortened, and the width between the two is currently only about 250 kilometers.
Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 (infographic)
Of course, the most striking thing at present is not only the speed of the Russian military in the eastern part of Ukraine, but also the air battle between the Russian Air force and the Ukrainian Air Force over the Zhytomyr Oblast on March 5 and March 6.
Allegedly, on March 5, the Ukrainian Air Force appeared to have cobbled together four Su-27 fighter jets from the Ozenon Air Base near Zhytomyr and lifted off to implement defensive air superiority. As a result, they were all shot down by the Russian Air and Space Forces, and one MiG-29 fighter was also shot down; on March 6, the Ukrainian Air Force attacked again, but the Russians shot down a Su-27, and in two days, two Su-25s were also shot down by the Russians.
Ukrainian Zhytomyr tank factory after russian air raids
According to russian war reports, in 2 days, the Russian army destroyed a total of 11 fighters of the Ukrainian Air Force, the Ukrainian Air Force over Zhytomyr was completely lost, and the Russian army immediately carried out air raids, blowing up the Ukrainian tank factory in Zhytomyr.
A basic overview of air combat
So, how should we evaluate this achievement of the Russian Air and Space Force? Ivan the Great believes that from the location of the air battle between the two sides, the Russian Air and Space Force's statement should be more in line with the facts. The Ozenorn Air Base on the southeastern outskirts of Zhytomyr was the battlefield of the 831st Tactical Aviation Brigade of the Ukrainian Air Force before the war. As the only two combat units of the Ukrainian Air Force equipped with Su-27 fighters, the brigade was supposed to be the unit that was deployed on the day of the outbreak of the conflict and feared the battle after the take-off of the fighter, and as a result, fled to Romania with air-to-air missiles.
Odzennow Air Force Base
Of course, the brigade is not without tough guys, and in the early morning of February 25, the Russian Air and Space Force appeared to have launched an air raid on Kiev, and the 831st Tactical Aviation Brigade dispatched fighters to intercept it. During the air battle, the Su-27 fighter jet pilot of the Ukrainian Air Force and a frequent flyer of the world's major air shows, Colonel Alexander Oksanchenko, was hit and his person was unfortunately killed.
The Russian Presidential Decree awarded Major Victor Dukin the title of "Hero of Russia".
He is described as shooting down one Su-27 of the Ukrainian Air Force in the first battle on 24 February; two days later, at an altitude of 400 meters, he used missiles to hit the "beech" -M1 air defense system of the Ukrainian Armed Forces; on 28 February, he intercepted two Klang Air Force Su-27 fighter jets, at an altitude of 10,000 meters, the first missile hit the other side; on March 1, he shot down another Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 fighter.
This downfall record has not been claimed so far, some people say that it is the result of the Russian S-400 air defense missile system deployed in Belarus, and some people say that the Ukrainian air defense force 9M38M "beech-M1" missile accidentally hit their brothers. However, based on the situation announced by all parties, Ivan the Great believes that it is not excluded that Colonel Oksanchenko may have been shot down by Major Dukin of the Russian army, after all, only Major Dukin had the results of the battle during that period.
Russian 9M723 Iskander tactical missile
After Colonel Oksanchenko was shot down, the Russians seemed to be aware of the threat of Zhytomyr Air Base, and on February 26, the Russian Army Rocket Force launched an attack on Zhytomyr Air Base, an estimated 6 Tactical Missiles of the Type 9M723, intending to wipe out the base in one fell swoop. Unfortunately, the attack ended in failure.
According to photos released by Western commercial satellites the next day, the 6 Iskander missiles, except for 2 of which hit the tarmac and did not hit any targets, the remaining 4 missiles deviated from the runway and tarmac. But coincidentally, the 4 missiles are still very evil, if their impact point is moved to the north by ten meters, then they will all hit the target, it should be the Russian army in the missile fire control binding has a deviation.
A Su-27 rushed off the runway during a forced landing on 27 February (Source: Irkutsk Aviation Plant)
After the failed missile attack on February 26, satellite photos show that the 831st Tactical Aviation Brigade still has at least 10 available Su-27 fighter jets, and another aircraft appear to be lying outside the runway, presumably rushing out of the runway after landing. At present, the situation of the Ukrainian Air Force, the aircraft should not be able to repair, can only be left in place. If the 831st Tactical Aviation Brigade of the Ukrainian Air Force can continue like this and basically preserve its strength, then it should be able to hold out for a while longer.
There are 10 Su-27s available (Source: Irkutsk Aviation Plant)
However, it is not excluded that two factors led to the basic collapse of the brigade:
First, on March 4, the Ukrainian General Staff's order of inexplicably "the whole army to turn into a strategic counteroffensive" can be seen by clear-eyed people that at present the Ukrainian army simply cannot grasp the initiative on the battlefield, and the most typical is that even the high-level tactical corps that can be maneuvered cannot be taken out, so why turn to the strategic counteroffensive;
Second, the Russian Air and Space Force began on March 4, and the depth of the activities in the Ukrainian campaign increased, and the targets of the attack were also increased from the original front tactical units of the main attack on Ukraine to the elimination of Ukraine's war potential; the largest tank repair and manufacturing plant in Ukraine (which can produce/improve BMP-1UM infantry fighting vehicles and BTR series wheeled armored vehicles) in Zhytomyr naturally became the air and space force's highest priority target.
Netizens filmed the Ukrainian Su-27 full of weapons and lifted off
The combination of "requiring ukrainian troops to turn to a strategic counter-offensive" under completely inappropriate conditions, and the Russian Air and Space Forces also intending to bomb the tank factory in Zhytomyr, is really terrible for Ukraine. On March 5, the 4 Su-27s and 1 MiG-29 produced by the Ukrainian army were not clear whether the Ukrainian Air Force strictly followed the order of the Ukrainian General Staff to "counterattack the whole army", or whether they found the incoming air and space army front-line bombers and sent out to intercept them. The only thing that can be determined is that these Ukrainian Air Force aircraft have a high probability of becoming the best target for the Russian Air-Space Force Su-35S fighters, and the air-space army units that take these Su-27 fighters.
Judging from the information released during the interview with the Russian side, there is a relatively high probability that the 105th Mixed Aviation Division of the Air Force of the Western Military Region may come from two units:
The first is the 790th Regiment of Fighter Aviation in Tver, which began to equip Su-35S fighters in 2019, and once made the famous Su-35S accidentally hit its own Su-30M2 fighter jet in air combat training on September 22, 2020;
The second is the famous 159th Regiment of the Guards Red Flag Tallinn in Karelia, which began to equip Su-35S fighters in 2016, one of the few regiments of the Air and Space Force equipped with 30 Su-35S fighters. Judging from the models that appeared in addition to the Su-35S and MiG-31BM, Ivan the Great believed that it was probably the 790th Regiment that fought against the Ukrainian army over Zhytomyr.
Details of the air battle in the video footage
On the air battle video released by the Russian side, that is, the flat screen of the Su-35S fighter, the Su-35S fighter obviously used two tactical missiles in air combat and ground attack:
In the air-to-air strike, the missile model in the lower right of Ping Xian is displayed as "77-1", which is obviously an R-77-1 air-to-air missile, which is a technically improved model of the Russian R-77 active radar-guided air-to-air missile, and it is said that the new 9B1103M seeker is used, replaced by a new solid rocket engine, and there is a relatively large improvement in the maximum launch far boundary.
On the data displayed by the flat display, the Su-35S seems to have implemented the first round of medium-range interception at a distance of more than 80 kilometers for the Soviet-27 fighter of the Ukrainian army, which is close to the maximum launch distance of the bomb, and this technical and tactical data can only be said to be of a medium-level level on the medium-range radar-guided air-to-air missiles actively operated by the major military powers.
In addition to the R-77-1 that carried out air-to-air interception, the Su-35S fighter seems to have also undertaken the task of striking ground radar, the so-called SEAD air defense suppression task, in the video interviewed by the 790 Regiment, the regiment's Su-35S fighter more than once carried the Kh-31P anti-radiation missile, and even the lens of the missile launch, which more clearly showed the number of "31PM". This means that the Su-35S fighter carries an improved version of the Kh-31P Kh-31PM.
Compared with the earliest Kh-31P type, the Kh-31PM type was replaced by a new multi-band seeker, and the target did not require the ordnance officer to bind the parameters on the ground. At the same time, in terms of firing range, the range of the Kh-31PM is said to have increased from only more than 70 kilometers of Kh-31P to about 150 kilometers. It is estimated that in the past few days, the Russian army has suppressed the Ukrainian army's "beech" missile fire control radar on the Ukrainian front, most of which are the works of Su-35S fighters, and the original air combat model has now actually begun to engage in air defense suppression, which is beyond our inherent impression.
In short, in any case, after a few days of air battles, if the results announced by the Russian army are basically true, then the 831st Tactical Aviation Brigade of the Ukrainian Army, the current Su-27 fighters, should be only 5, basically losing the ability to dispatch on a large scale; and the Su-35S fighter, in the air battles in these days, fully proved its performance and value.
However, these performances are reflected in the battle against its "brothers" and even "predecessors", and we can only say that this is also very ironic.