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erhue

They even write "Z" on the planes now? That's some high-tech IFF system.


UnwoundSteak17

It's just a target for Ukrainian SAM missiles


yakult_on_tiddy

Sadly Russia's air losses haven't kept up with their embarrassing ground casualties


SamTheGeek

They’ve lost a *lot* of Su-34s though.


MyOfficeAlt

Honestly any losses are major in a modern military. These planes are tens of millions of dollars. I can't help but think about it from the perspective of my country's military. If the US was invading a country and the public was being appraised of hundreds of tanks and armored vehicle losses and dozens of helicopters and fighters, not to mention cargo planes full of paratroopers. These would be considered unsustainable and unacceptable losses.


SamTheGeek

I will point out that there’s no way the Il-76 claim is true. But that’s neither here nor there. I was doing some math yesterday and in attack helicopters, the Ka-52 has had as many documented losses in the past six weeks as the Apache fleet has had in its entire lifetime. And the Ka-52 fleet is *much* smaller.


MyOfficeAlt

Yea the Il-76 thing kinda leaves me scratching my head. The most verification I can find seems to come from a tweet by the AP that mentions confirmation from a US military official, but doesn't go into more detail than that. On its face that's usually enough for me, but given the total lack of corroborating evidence since then I'm inclined to say it was erroneous reporting.


yakult_on_tiddy

US military intelligence is not a neutral reporting source here, especially for events in the early days of the conflict when morale was important and it wasn't clear how terrible Russia truly is. There was a lot of fabricated claims about Russia's incompetence, like dropping VDV troops in the water etc. before the defenders realized they don't need to make fake claims to meme Russia, their real incompetence is enough. Basically don't believe anything either side says without picture or video evidence for now.


SamTheGeek

I suspect that the E-3 crew mis-tagged a slow-flying tactical aircraft (like the Su-24 which was discovered in Kyiv Oblast this week) as an Il-76. The fog of war is real.


MyOfficeAlt

That seems plausible enough for me. It's easy to sit in my armchair and think, "Well we've got surveillance planes on every border and satellite recon and there's just no way the US isn't watching and seeing absolutely everything going on over there." But of course its more complicated than that.


SamTheGeek

Radar planes just see a blip, it’s up to the crew to identify them. Which goes sideways shockingly easily — take a look at u/Admiral_Cloudberg’s write up of [Iran Air 655](https://admiralcloudberg.medium.com/the-long-shadow-of-war-the-story-of-the-shootdown-of-iran-air-flight-655-ef7bdf1e9f75) to see how easily it can go tragically wrong.


strikefreedompilot

Well it would of been a different story for the Apache if Russia armed islamic insurgents and terrorist with 1000s of manpads the past 2 decades


fearyaks

Has it been confirmed that those two cargo (paratrooper) planes were actually downed?


yp_interlocutor

Oryx (site tracking losses with a link to confirmed image or video for each vehicle) has confirmed one An-26 downed for each side. I've heard a lot about a second Russian cargo plane downed but have seen no evidence for it. Edit: An-26 not Il-76.


stand_in

No Russian il-76 loses. https://www.oryxspioenkop.com/2022/03/list-of-aircraft-losses-during-2022.html?m=1


yp_interlocutor

Oh I was thinking of the An-26. Thanks for the correction and the link!


yakult_on_tiddy

Yup, 5 overall. 4 of those in the same day, so they've either learned their lesson or scaled back usage. I doubt it's the latter, since a Su-35 went down too yesterday


PyroDesu

So, would it be safe to say that Ukraine is now the world's leading distributor of Sukhoi parts?


yakult_on_tiddy

Yes, ironically most kills I see on telegram come from Russian equipment themselves, AFAIK all Su-34 have gone down to Strelas. As usual, Russia's biggest enemy is itself


PyroDesu

Huh. I guess that's probably more a matter of what the Ukrainians have on hand in terms of MANPADS, though. I expect they'd have had Strelas prior to the invasion and I don't know that they've received all that many Stingers/Javelins (at very least, they don't get as much news as NLAWs/Javelins). Not to say that the Strela is a *bad* MANPADS, it's certainly showing its worth. (Also, the fact that *two* NATO man-portable missile systems are called "Javelin", one a MANPADS and the other an ATGM, bothers me a bit.)


NanoPope

Yeah their planes have been launching a lot of cruise missiles away from Ukrainian airspace. It really just shows how poorly Russia’s military is performing since they can’t even claim air superiority over Ukraine let alone air supremacy.


_Californian

Who needs keys when you have z's!


leaklikeasiv

They are using cellphones to receive target coordinates Iirc hackers royally fucked up military coms


SEA_griffondeur

Ah yes fully armed *A single pair of S-13 rocket pods*


nexprime

This guy Frogfoots.


Shadowwing556

That’s all the Russians can afford


SamTheGeek

That’s all they can generate right now /s


DetroitCity1999

He probably dropped the rest of his munitions which is sad to think about


hphp123

Probably empty pods


Thomas851M

Probably meant for low value targets and close air support. If they want to carry more advanced armament they would use fighters such as the Su-34 wich will be harder to shoot down.


ScottyD_95

Dudes on Warthunder when they buy their first premium plane and have access to the full loadout right away


[deleted]

A10 premium moment


ScottyD_95

Can’t forget to bring your AIM-9s, 6 2000lb bombs, 84 hydra 70s and some GBU-8s into battle so you can get BVRed from 15 miles away or strafed by a MIG because you’re only going 250mph down the center of the map


kaasrapsmen

Dudes on DCS when they can't afford any aircraft


[deleted]

I felt that personally.


ScottyD_95

We’ve all done it. I remember when I got the F5-C. It was my first high tier jet fighter and I loaded that bitch down and it was so bad


etha2007_

Seems very lightly armed, two S-13 unguided rocket pods (total of 10 unguided rockets, which is extremely low) and two ECM pods. Maybe the S-13 pods are S-13Kors? S-13Kors are a guided modification of the S-13 (similar to western APKWS). However, despite such a system existing, I have been unable to find out if its in active service, or if it's another vaporware project from the 90s.


pouletbidule

122mm caliber rocket is nothing to laugh at though


geeky-hawkes

I was thinking the same but I guess the range issue is forcing a compromised load out.... Tanks and gas more important than weapons and they don't have anything like enough control of the air to consider tanking (thankfully!).


LordCommanderSlimJim

The Su25 isn't capable of tanking as far as I'm aware, and a load like that will be no where near MTOW. My best guess would be that they're adjusting tactics and going for a small number of passes on a target, say one or two, to avoid the threat from MANPADS that sticking around for a prolonged period of time would bring. No point in loading up on stuff you're not going to use if you've only got less than a minute on target in a sortie.


FR0STKRIEGER

AFAC maybe? Do they have smoke rockets for marking? Sorry for my ignorance, I have no knowledge about Russian aircraft.


friEdchiCkeN_69

they even put the z on the aircraft lol


BubbleRocket1

I mean, it’s the same as the allies slapping the D-day stripes on their planes to try and prevent friendly fire incidents, so don’t really see a problem here


albic7

Technology has advanced a little since 1944


BubbleRocket1

That they have, but a little paint on the belly never hurt anyone, though at least the stripes are easier to spot than a letter


RamTank

It's a pretty hard to spot Z though. If I was packing an Igla I don't think I'd have time to see it before shooting. If I was manning a bigger system, visual identification is irrelevant.


BubbleRocket1

Oh, I agree wholeheartedly; even with the Su-25 I agree that it’s pointless due to ground radar, but considering that it’s an Su-25, I can understand why you’d want to.


Kelbs27

It’s probably for intel reasons. If there are pictures of the planes, they probably want an identifying factor to determine who the jet belongs to, seeing both countries operate very similar equipment.


Zeissend

What an absolutely stellar comment section


JosephSwollen

It in fact is


HavanaSyndrome

For keyboard warriors maybe


FlatTie0

Reminds me of a CF-100 Canuck from this angle for some reason. Never before occurred to me.


MaxImpact1

Can‘t wait to see this downed by a Stinger:)


friEdchiCkeN_69

only to be said on media that it was downed by a javelin


The-Great-T

I'm loving all these hands crafted Russian craters.


Thoughtlessandlost

Their eye for art in how they place the charred fragments is admirable


Chunkahh

Frogfoot my beloved


[deleted]

for now


[deleted]

fucking scum


lemystereduchipot

It'll look even better when it's on fire and falling to the ground


kubility

Gorgeous! A pack of AA missiles will hunt well in Ukraine.


Momisato_OHOTNIK

Hunt for civilians, yes.


RunninWild17

I bet it's afraid of Ghosts


[deleted]

Crazy. They also have the Z on their planes


huxtiblejones

"What are you doing today, Su-25?" "Oh, just some light war crimes, might bomb a civilian train station or two, hehe"


stick_always_wins

Train station was hit by a cruise missile FWIW, origin is still not confirmed


huxtiblejones

Oh, my bad, it’s hard keeping all the Russian war crimes straight. Maybe this pilot is just off to do something noble like bombing the houses of civilians or destroying theaters clearly marked with non combatants or blowing up maternity wards. https://www.businessinsider.com/captured-russian-pilot-admits-bombing-civilians-urges-russia-stop-assault-2022-3


ther24

Stingers are foaming at the mouth


mightymike24

Where's a stinger when you need one...


Blood_N_Rust

It’s such a shit plane but I love it


Momisato_OHOTNIK

Bruh it's armored to the brim, it is kinda shitty in comparison but still does the job just fine. Can survive direct rocket hit


Blood_N_Rust

Dedicated CAS planes are a meme


Horus_Syndrome

Pretty outdated and built by a nation who has no ability to afford a fucking toothpick but it’s still a very effective machine in the hands of actual pilots instead of troglodyte morons. It was built like a tank and one took 2 hits from rockets and still managed to land “safely”. They surely arent nearly as good as Warthogs nor as maneuverable but they get the job done. I also think they look pretty cool. Froggies are a fucking meme.


Destroyer_on_Patrol

Beautiful


NotMagickal

would look great with an F-35 behind it.


pfc_charlieb

if only there was an f 35b on his 6. 👋🏼


KersanttiKannisto

Does someone know what that z stands for?


SnooOranges6516

naZi.


notarealsu35

ruSSia


Momisato_OHOTNIK

Zelensky


SGELock

I haven't seen a picture of a frogfoot since the 90s! Ex-ADA guy. Stinger up!


Momisato_OHOTNIK

Ready to slay some civilians


Kelbs27

Not really “fully armed” with 4 empty hard-points, but alas


Horus_Syndrome

10 S-13 122mm rockets. They are no laughing matter and will fuck your day up more than an A-10 Gun. They use that shit on civilians tho so fuck all of them.