In the current Russia-Ukraine conflict, Russia is using Su-34 fighter-bombers quite intensively, but the intensive loss of Su-34 fighter-bombers is also a headache for Russia. As a special modification of the Su-27 series of fighters, the number of Su-34 fighter-bombers in the Russian army's combat sequence is already small, coupled with intensive losses on the battlefield, this once made the Su-34 a rare species. The production rate of Su-34 fighter-bombers is much slower than the number of losses on the battlefield, and now Russia's public information points out that Russia has accepted the first Su-34 fighter-bombers produced in 2024, although the Su-34 fighter-bombers have begun to be re-delivered, but this does not mean that everything is all right for Russia.
The Su-34 fighter-bomber is produced at the plant in Novosibirsk, Russia, although Russia has not disclosed the exact number of deliveries. Judging by the pictures released by Russia, at least two Su-34 fighter-bombers are parked on the tarmac. In order to complete the faster production of Su-34 fighter-bombers, the Russian side has re-recruited more than 1,000 production line employees and engineering experts, but despite this, Russia is still very slow in the production of fighters. The production speed of the fourth-generation aircraft is much faster than that of the fifth-generation aircraft, which is also because the technology of the fourth-generation aircraft is simpler than that of the fifth-generation aircraft, but at present, China and the United States are able to complete the high-speed production of the fifth-generation aircraft. Judging from some information disclosed by foreign media, China's J-20 stealth fighter is currently in a state of high-speed production, and the annual output of J-20 stealth fighter will definitely exceed the annual output of Russia's Su-34 fighter-bomber.
As a twin-engine heavy fighter J-20 stealth fighter production difficulty is obviously higher than the United States F-35 stealth fighter, although the current stage of the F-35 stealth fighter still has a numerical advantage, but according to some information obtained by the Institute of War Research, the number of J-20 stealth fighters is likely to have surpassed the United States F-22 stealth fighter. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the level of Russia's aviation industry has declined significantly, so it is impossible for Russia to surpass China in speed if it wants to produce fighters with full firepower.
At present, Russia has begun to mount glide-guided missiles for Su-34 fighter-bombers, which can complete about 60~70 kilometers of air flight, and this flight capability has helped Su-34 fighter-bombers evade the attacks of many air defense systems.
Russia includes a lot of energy facilities in the process of striking Ukrainian targets, and Ukraine will also use a large number of air defense systems to protect Ukraine's energy facilities, due to the very limited number of air defense weapons and Soviet-era air defense weapons in Ukraine's hands, once they are used to protect energy facilities, then there is a large number of air defense deficiencies on the Russian-Ukrainian front, and many Ukrainian targets will be directly exposed to the bombing of Russian fighters, in this case, Su-34 fighter-bombers are used with FABs weighing 1.5 tons- 1500 gliding guided bombs can also quickly destroy Ukrainian targets. Text/Iris