• The Ukrainian airforce says it shot down four Russian fighter jets this weekend.
  • On Saturday, the Ukraine airforce chief said two Su-34 and one Su-35 fighter jets were downed.
  • Another Russian Su-34 fighter-bomber was destroyed, on Sunday.
  • Flag@kbin.social
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    9 months ago

    Any single plane shot down isnt small. And they allegedly shot down 4. Not just that, pilots may also be lost, which is just as if not even worse of a loss for russia.

    • peopleproblems@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the pilots they are putting in fighters aren’t experienced fighter pilots. Using Russia’s thinking, I would be retaining my experienced pilots to train non-military pilots how to get into a fighter, fly it and attack with it. Then when they are all dead, use my experienced pilots.

      • IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Well it’s not like you can take a commercial airliner pilot, stick him in a fighter jet, and tell him to go drop bombs. While he may need less training he’d still require a significant amount of training before he could be expected to take on even relatively safe missions and return safely. It’s not like Su-34’s etc. roll off the assembly line quickly enough to regularly use them on kamikaze missions.

      • Flag@kbin.social
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        9 months ago

        I read (sorry dont have a source) that russian fighter pilots fly commercial just to get flight hours, cause they dont get enough from the military. So uh… maybe a lot of them just didnt and maybe still dont have much experience at all. Or maybe they do now… those who still survive.

    • KevonLooney@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      Last month, Business Insider’s Sinéad Baker wrote that Russia was strategically trying to bait Ukraine into using up its Patriot stocks to leave itself vulnerable.

      This is like the most idiotic strategy. It will take Ukraine a short amount of time to get more missiles. They are probably sending back every single MB of data from these Patriots to the US Army.

      The US hasn’t fought a country with actual jets in decades. This is priceless information for them and missiles are basically free.

      • quinkin@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        “You see, killbots Patriots have a preset kill limit. Knowing their weakness, I sent wave after wave of my own men planes at them until they reached their limit and shut down.” - Captain Zap Putin