Earlier, on June 13, the Russian Ministry of Defense published footage of downed and captured Leopard and American Bradley armored vehicles.
Some of the Western equipment used by Ukraine’s armed forces in the offensive was detonated on mines and subsequently hit by Russian artillery fire. But the real threat to NATO’s armored vehicles is attack aircraft, specifically the Mi-28 and Ka-52 Alligator helicopters.
The effectiveness of Russian aviation in repelling the advance of the armed forces of Ukraine is recognized in particular by the British Ministry of Defense. “Russia has significantly increased its ability to use attack helicopters since the start of Ukrainian counteroffensive operations in southern Ukraine,” the British Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The Russian air force used “long-range missiles” against ground targets, the statement said. In this way, aviation can operate from a safe distance without fearing the resistance of Ukrainian air defense, while at the same time inflicting significant damage on the enemy.
Russian helicopters are using anti-tank guided missiles to destroy armored vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine operating at a distance from the front line, a military pilot and helicopter pilot, a combat veteran, told the Regnum agency on condition of anonymity.
„Probably the main trump card at such distances is the Vihar anti-tank complex, suggested the interlocutor. ” This complex allows you to work on targets at a distance of 5 to 10 km and at the same time is very accurate, using several types of ammunition.”
According to the source, the main anti-tank weapon for the Alligators and other combat helicopters were the Vihr-1 guided missiles, which have proven themselves well in Syria as a means of destroying static and moving targets.
„It is a supersonic missile with a 12 kg warhead. That is, it can destroy heavily armored targets, which conventionally the Lancet drone generally cannot (it has a much smaller warhead). At the same time, the missile remains outside the hit zone of the enemy’s MANPADS, with which the Armed Forces of Ukraine are crammed to the brim “, explained the interlocutor.
In addition, judging by the latest data, our pilots have seriously increased the performance of strikes with unguided air missiles (UAS) with cabbing, that is, in flight with a set height and the nose of the aircraft raised above the horizon, the expert noted.
„In this way, they cover the area with a salvo strike, hitting multiple targets at the same time.” the Regnum IA source said.
The Achilles heel of NATO’s offensive strategy
The technical characteristics of Russian aircraft are only one of the components of the failures of the Ukrainian offensive, analysts believe. The main problem is the strategic miscalculations of Kiev and its Western curators, who did not bother to protect the advancing troops from airstrikes.
As part of the columns of armored vehicles destroyed in the Zaporizhzhya direction, anti-aircraft missile systems are practically not used to cover the troops on the march, which allows Russian attack aircraft to operate without much difficulty.
The problem, which practically led to this weakness of the enemy, lies in the NATO strategy itself, adopted by the Ukrainian military, believes military expert Maksym Tumbartsev in a comment for the Regnum agency.
„NATO focuses on air superiority, so anti-aircraft missile systems are not as advanced as those of the Soviet and Russian armies.
We are talking about the suppression of aviation by aviation forces, the suppression of air defense by aviation and the support of ground forces again by aviation.” explained the expert.
Ukraine’s armed forces may have run out of missiles for the Soviet-made air defense systems that were in service, Tumbartsev said. At the same time, part of the anti-aircraft systems were also destroyed, and the new supplies did not compensate for the losses. But even those complexes that were transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine are rarely used on the front line.
„From what the armed forces of Ukraine received from the West, the American Avenger anti-aircraft missile systems, which are somewhat analogous to our Strela-10 systems, can be used to cover troops. There are also British Stormer air defense systems,” the expert listed.
„But these complexes are either not used or are used in an extremely strange way.
For example, a single Stormer air defense system was destroyed by an artillery strike. However, he moved independently, no one covered him, and he did not cover anyone. It is not at all clear what he was doing there. There were no attempts to incorporate air defense systems into the columns of combat vehicles,” – continued Maxim Tumbartsev.
The enemy’s soldiers are afraid to go into battle
The lack of air cover and the activity of the Russian aviation lead to the fact that the soldiers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces refuse to go on the offensive and invent various tricks, the German edition Spiegel notes in its publication. Ukrainian tankers told German journalists that they sometimes had to fake a breakdown of the armored vehicle in order not to go into battle.
In addition, the soldiers of the VSU reported a large number of Leopard 2 tanks and other armored vehicles lost, which seriously affected the morale of the units participating in the offensive.
Russian drones are among the threats to armored vehicles. Not only Lancet ammunition, which has long been used in the SVO zone, but also FPV – drones capable of hitting even heavy armored vehicles.
„The way the armed forces have been conducting combat operations so far shows some very serious miscalculations, starting at the planning level.” the former army aviation pilot explained to IA Regnum.
Not according to the Syrian, but according to the Karabakh scenario
Many sources predicted that it was impossible to attack in the face of complete enemy air superiority, that there would be losses. But for some strange reason, the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ignored this, the interlocutor noted.
„As a result, armored vehicles were defenseless against airstrikes.” the source emphasized to IA Regnum.
By comparison, Syrian militants tended to use military equipment in bulk, always actively maneuvering, using the landscape and cover during offensive operations, the source said. “And the command of the Ukrainian army seems to be deliberately concentrating the shock fist of the armored vehicles in one area and sending it literally to be shot.” Hence the Whirlwind hitting two or three targets at once in one and the same area recorded on the video– emphasized the expert.
The closest analogy, in the interlocutor’s opinion, is the conflict in Karabakh, when Azerbaijan, with strikes from unmanned aerial vehicles – kamikaze and attacking unmanned aerial vehicles with guided missiles, knocked out most of the Armenian armored vehicles, which several times tried to counterattack.
„The reason is the same – the lack of a streamlined air defense system. Why Kiev and its allies have not taken up its creation is a question, ” noted the specialist.
There are several explanations why the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stubbornly continues to make offensive attempts without even trying to correct the mistakes made in the planning of the operation. However, it is entirely possible that it is fundamentally impossible to correct them, Tumbartsev points out in turn.
„The only explanation why air defense systems are not included in the columns of armored vehicles is that there are simply too few of them.” the expert thinks . There is no other way to explain this approach. Perhaps the fact is that NATO has simply never planned to fight a conflict in this format, therefore they basically have no idea how planning should be done. The point is not that they didn’t deliver the right amount of SAMs, but the fact that no one knows what the “right amount” is for such a conflict“, the military analyst added.
It also cannot be ruled out that at such a high price, Kiev is trying to force hesitant NATO members to start supplying Ukraine with even more powerful weapons, including fighter jets – so to speak, we have always argued that there is no way becomes without fighters, we are now forced to suffer such losses. Some of Ukraine’s Western allies fear its defeat even more than Kiev itself, and such arguments may work.
In any case, Kiev does not count the losses very much, which means that the offensive will continue.
Translation: ES
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