Recently, Russian warplanes have been shot down with an alarming frequency of one per day, a situation that has sparked widespread speculation about the sudden increase in Ukraine's air defenses. Did the Ukrainian Air Force really get some kind of secret **? Some people even speculate whether NATO's F-35 fighters have secretly entered the war, making Russian fighters so vulnerable.
According to the Kyiv Independent, Ukraine was able to shoot down 13-14 of Russia's most advanced fighters in just a few days, and the reason behind this lies in their long-term research with allied technicians. Over the course of more than a year, they carefully analyzed the wreckage and debris of several Russian planes and finally found a way to crack Russia's avionics and electronic defense systems. This breakthrough discovery undoubtedly gave the Ukrainian Air Force an unprecedented advantage.
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force said that the losses of Russian warplanes have intensified, in part because they continue to advance westward in search of greater results after taking Avdiivka. As a result, Russian planes had to fly into airspace that they were not familiar with before, and the Ukrainian army was more familiar with these areas and more prepared, so Russian fighters could easily fall into an ambush of the Ukrainian army.
Despite reports of the mobile deployment of advanced air defenses such as NASAMS or Patriot systems** in Ukraine, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force denied this. They explained that these powerful air defense systems, once deployed, do not move easily, so they cannot be the main reason for shooting down many Russian warplanes.
Tom Cooper, an Australian expert on air combat, has come up with an unconfirmed explanation. He believes that the reason why Ukraine managed to shoot down so many Russian planes may be because they, together with American engineers, obtained the secret of the electronic defense system used on Russian fighters. Using this information, Ukraine has adjusted its air defense tactics and specifically targeted the blind spots of Russian fighters, thus achieving remarkable results.
In general, the Ukrainian Air Force was able to shoot down so many Russian warplanes not only by some kind of secret ** or external assistance. Through in-depth research and technological innovation, they have successfully found a way to crack the Russian avionics and electronic defense system, which is the key to their brilliant achievements. The U.S. National Center for Aerospace Intelligence, formerly known as the U.S. Air Force's Division of Foreign Technologies, is likely to be the central institution for in-depth research and strategic development of the Su-34 fighter. The United States' attention to this focuses on several key points: first, how Russian pilots detect incoming Ukrainian missiles, second, how the Su-34 electronic warfare pod accurately identifies Ukrainian missiles, and third, how the Russian radar effectively misleads Ukrainian missiles. Further, the U.S. research is dedicated to analyzing the frequency of the Russian military's radar early warning equipment to search for threats, with the intention of guiding the Ukrainian army to use other frequency bands to launch attacks on Russian aircraft.
Considering the performance of the A-50U AWACS aircraft, as well as the fact that there are more than six electronic defense systems equipped on the Russian aircraft, the threat of any one system can trigger the overall warning system. This means that even if Russian pilots are alerted, they may still think the surrounding airspace is safe, when in fact they may be locked in. Ukrainian fighter pilots often jokingly call Russian pilots in this state "blindly optimistic fat boys in the air", waiting for their end, usually being ruthlessly shot down.
Cooper's explanation provides us with a new perspective: in the absence of conclusive evidence that the F-16 or F-35 was involved in the battle, Ukraine may have discovered the system flaws of the Russian fighter and successfully exploited it, which put the Russian fighter in an extremely disadvantageous position in the battle, which led to the result of being shot down.