Recently, the losses of the Russian Aerospace Forces have been nothing short of significant. According to the Ukrainian side, on February 29, local time, three Su-34 fighter-bombers of the Russian Aerospace Forces were shooting down by Ukrainian forces when they were conducting ground bombardment of a defensive position of the Ukrainian Army. Shockingly, the six pilots on the three planes did not succeed in ejecting and escaping.
As the main front-line fighter-bomber of the Russian army, the Su-34 was shot down three times at one time, which not only had a serious impact on the offensive of the Russian army on the front line, but also brought a lot of damage to the morale of the Russian army.
According to relevant statistics, in the second half of February alone, in about two weeks, the Russian army lost 10 Su-34 fighter-bombers, 2 main "four-and-a-half-generation" fighters Su-35 and a precious A-50 early warning aircraft. Such losses have already exceeded the combined combat strength of the entire air force of many small and medium-sized countries! Although the Russian Aerospace Forces claim to be the world's second largest air armed force, with more than 4,000 aircraft of various types, it is obviously unsustainable to continue at this rate.
Many people can't help but ask, the Ukrainian Air Force is not outstanding in terms of the number of fighters and combat capabilities, and the air defense forces do not have particularly outstanding performance (a few Patriot missile systems were also destroyed by the Russian army), not to mention the lack of an effective reconnaissance system in Ukraine, whether it is a ground-based radar or an airborne early warning aircraft or reconnaissance aircraft. So how did Ukraine shoot down so many advanced Russian planes in a short period of time?
In fact, Ukraine has been able to do this thanks to the support of NATO, especially the United States. Earlier, Singapore's defense minister revealed that the US military forces in Europe have dispatched F-35 fighter jets to reconnoiter the Russian army and share the intelligence with the Ukrainian military. Not so long ago, "Peacemaker" and the United States (IA) openly stated that a NATO F-35 fighter jet, escorted by two F-16 fighters, took off from an airfield in Romania and entered Crimea, which is vital to Russia, and other places to conduct electronic reconnaissance. At the same time, Ukraine's ground-based air defense and radar forces are working closely with the NATO Air Force.
As the main ** fighter of the US military in active service, the F-35 can provide great help to Ukraine even if it does not launch a single missile, with its advanced reconnaissance and detection system. The F-35 fighter jets have advanced reconnaissance and detection systems that are able to obtain information on Russian targets that are vital to Ukraine, giving the Ukrainian military a head start. This is undoubtedly good for Ukraine. Therefore, we have reason to believe that in the "discovery and destruction" of modern warfare, with the support of NATO F-35, the Russian-Ukrainian battlefield today is "one-way transparent" to Ukraine. It is not difficult to understand such huge losses of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
However, such a situation is undoubtedly very tricky for Russia. Even if the Russian army discovers the traces of the F-35 fighter (which in itself is a difficult task), it will not dare to risk directly shooting down the fighter jet in service with the United States or NATO. Therefore, the situation is almost "unsolvable" for Russia.
Going forward, we will continue to watch to see if the Russian military can find a response. As for the development of the Russia-Ukraine war, we also need to continue to pay attention to and observe.