In the early stages of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the performance of the Russian Air Force was very average. With the offensive blocked, some people wonder, why doesn't Russia send out a large number of fighter planes? It is inevitable that some people will say in a serious way: Russia is playing a big game of chess.
At that time, I made statistics and used data to provide answers.
The Russian Air Force is known as the second in the world, but it is only the second in the world.
The Russian Air Force has a total of 4,000 aircraft of various types. Many media directly compared the number of 4,000 aircraft and ranked it second in the world. Anyone with a little brain can understand that such a comparison is definitely nonsense.
Of the 4,000 aircraft in Russia, 2,000 are helicopters. Most of them are m8 and m17 transport helicopter . The total number of relatively new Ka-52, -meter 28 armed helicopters is less than 200. There are more than 100 old -meter 24-meter armed helicopters . I won’t break down the military branches in detail, but include those that can fly in the Russian Army and Air Force.
Of the 2,000 helicopters, more than 300 are capable of combat.
The other 2,000 are fixed-wing aircraft , most of which are transport aircraft .
Before the war, Russia had 50 Su-27s, 100 Su-30s, 100 Su-35s, and 100 MiG-31s. There are less than 300 Su-34, Su-25, and Su-24 frontline bombers/attack aircraft. Picture 95, picture 160 bomber total 60 aircraft.
There are more than 700 fixed-wing aircraft that can fight.
The MiG-31 is a high-altitude, high-speed interceptor aircraft used for homeland defense. Several Dagger missiles were thrown at Ukraine during the war. Russia and Ukraine are next to each other, and the battlefield is within dozens of kilometers of the border. Russia's Tu95, , Tu160 launched several cruise missiles with a range of 2,500 kilometers towards Ukraine... The three brothers' participation in the war was just for fun, and there was no practical value in testing the weapons.
What actually participated in the war in Ukraine were Su-27, Su-30, Su-35, Su-34, Su-25, and Su-24. Russia had a total of 550 aircraft. But not all of them can be sent to Ukraine, at least half must be left to look after the country. Russia has 17 million square kilometers of territory to defend against the United States and NATO. It has 225 fighter planes left, which is close to streaking. Theoretically, 225 aircraft can be sent to Ukraine!
No country’s aircraft can be 100% operational, and all have a dispatch rate. Some planes exist on paper and account for a few, but in fact they can no longer fly. 80% of the aircraft can be dispatched, which is already very high. Therefore, the number of fighters that can actually be sent to Ukraine to fight should be 180.
180, can each one go out and fight every day? Not yet. Fighters need to fight for one day and repair for two days. Dispatched once every 3 days. The number of Russian aircraft that can perform combat missions in Ukraine every day is: 60.
Weapons are maintained most of the time, and there is very little time for combat. The aircraft carrier is on duty for half a year and repairs for half a year. tanks , tanks, and artillery are repaired every day. Rifles, machine guns, and can be shot in a few seconds and require half a day of maintenance.
previously said that the fighter jet can fly in one day and repair in two days. Some people protested, saying that the Russian Su-35 is a new aircraft, how could it be possible to fly in one day and repair in two days. In fact, flying in one day and repairing in two days refers to a new aircraft, an aircraft in the best condition. For old aircraft like the Su-34, it is normal for them to be repaired for a week at a time. A slightly larger component was damaged, so I took it apart and repaired it, which took half a month.
And even if it is a new aircraft, it takes one day to repair it and two days to repair it. This cannot be done for a long time.
The lifespan of a Russian-made fighter jet is only 3,000 hours. It has to serve for 20 years. If one flight takes three hours, it has to fly once a week. Two days of repair and one day of fighting are already in a state of war, and the work intensity is doubled.
Russian-made fighter jets require more than 300 hours of overhaul and are returned to the factory for overhaul. But this refers to peacetime, flying once a week. The Russian-made fighter plane looks rough, but is actually very weak. If the work intensity is doubled, the loss of fighter aircraft will also be doubled, and the overhaul time will be shortened. Russia's new fighter jets took one day to build and two days to repair. Now it takes more than 100 days and more than four months to undergo major repairs. After two months of repairing and another four months of fighting, it’s time to reach my birthday.
The Su-30 made in India once had to be returned to the factory for overhaul within 20 hours.
The Russians believe that in the event of a real war, fighter jets will be shot down after being dispatched a few times and flying for dozens of hours. There is no need to make them too strong.It can fly for dozens of hours, carry out ten or eight sorties, and shoot down two or three enemy planes, which is completely sufficient. The lifespan of 3,000 hours is just right if you save it during normal times and train for more than ten years and fight for a few days. The service life of
is directly related to the intensity of use. Only light use can achieve a lifespan of 3,000 hours. When used in a war, the intensity of use is high. If it is doubled, the service life will be shortened sharply, to more than 1,000 hours or hundreds of hours.
repairing 2 days and flying 1 day is high-intensity use. It lasted for more than 100 days, which is enough for a new aircraft.
Among the Russian military’s aircraft, only the Su-35 is a new aircraft, while the Su-30 is not new at all. Su-27, Su-34, Su-25, and Su-24 are all old aircraft. They have been in service for more than ten or twenty years. If they fight more than 100 days of intense combat, they will be on the verge of being scrapped.
A part of the Russian military aircraft was shot down, but the biggest impact on him was the loss. After more than 100 days of fighting, many more aircraft were rendered unusable due to wear and tear than were shot down.
Two days before the war started, the Russian army was well prepared and the fighter planes were in a well-maintained state. One to two hundred were dispatched at the same time, and there was a bit of a scene. After three or two days, you will have to fly for one day and repair for two days, and there will be fifty or sixty battles every day. After several months of attrition, plus the ones that were shot down, it is now rare to see Russian fighter planes. Think about it carefully, is this true? A month ago, I could see videos and news about Su 30 and Su 35 every day. Being shot down today and being shot down tomorrow is quite intense. Now it is almost impossible to see it. Occasionally, you can see three or two Russian fixed-wing fighter planes and a few helicopters.
The number of Russian fixed-wing aircraft that can still operate every day is in the single digits.
Why doesn’t Russia use a lot of air power? Because he only has so much power. In the first two months, fifty or sixty fighter planes were dispatched every day, and now three to five fighter planes are dispatched every day. For Russia, this is already doing its best. His army and navy are all on the battlefield, and his entire country and army have used their full strength.
People often discuss the situation between Russia and Ukraine. The Russian army has air control, but the Ukrainian army does not have air control... Russia and Ukraine's air control is a fake air control and has no value for discussion. The Russian army has three to five fighter jets departing every day, while the Ukrainian army has two fighter jets flying out every ten days. The Russian army is stronger than the Ukrainian army, and its "air superiority" is in the hands of the Russian army. But this kind of air superiority had little impact on the outcome of the war. Those planes are too weak.
The US military dispatched more than a thousand aircraft, covering the sky above Kuwait , destroying all airports, radar stations, command centers, bridges, railways, highways, and television stations on the ground, crushing hundreds of thousands of infantrymen unable to lift their heads. This is called air superiority. Russia dispatched three to five planes a day and destroyed two tanks and three machine gun positions. What kind of air supremacy is that?
Russia’s old aircraft, Su-27, Su-34, Su-25, and Su-24, including those left at home to look after them, will be rotated over in two months, and all of them will reach their end of life. The relatively new Su-30 and Su-35 now have half of their life left. After overhaul, they can still last for another three months. Excluding those shot down, if this battle continues for another three months, the Russian air force will be exhausted.
During the war, airplanes were expendable. The wear and tear is severe and rapid.
Going back to the beginning, the Russian Air Force’s aircraft that can purely engage in air combat are 50 Su-27s and 100 Su-35s. The Su-30 is a multi-purpose fighter , half air combat and half ground attack, 100 aircraft. The MiG-31 is a interceptor aircraft . It flies fast, but it is difficult to turn, has almost no maneuverability, and is also difficult to fight in air combat. 100 aircraft. There are a total of 350 aircraft, all of which are fourth-generation aircraft that are not stealthy. The fifth-generation stealth aircraft has a crushing advantage over the fourth-generation aircraft, with an advantage of dozens to one. Can these 350 fourth-generation aircraft defeat 50 F35?
can’t beat it!
In addition to the United States, the F35s of the United Kingdom, Israel, Japan, and South Korea are now developing into hundreds. There are dozens of F35s in Italy, the Netherlands, and Norway. Can Russia's 350 fully-staffed fourth-generation aircraft on paper defeat them? Besides, in addition to F35, these countries also have F16 and F15. Definitely can't beat it.
China now has hundreds of and J-20 aircraft. Can they fight against Russia's 350 fourth-generation aircraft? China also has 歼16, 歼11, 歼10.
350 aircraft with air combat capabilities cannot defeat others. The remaining Su-34, Su-25, Su-24, Tu-95, and Tu-160 have no air combat capabilities and are all targets in front of fighter jets. Even if this war hadn't happened, Russia's aircraft would still be far from ranked second in the world if its aircraft were fully occupied. Ranking tenth would be very difficult. You can’t just look at the quantity but also the quality. 4,000 Xiali is better than 400 Ferrari . Isn’t that nonsense?
As long as a country has 50 stealth aircraft, its air force is guaranteed to be stronger than the Russian Air Force.
Fight for a few days first, dispatch several times, and eliminate the fourth-generation aircraft that can fight in air combat but are not stealthy. The remaining more than 3,000 transport aircraft, bombers , attack aircraft, and helicopters cannot fight against fighter jets. Is there any use in large numbers?
Yes, he still has three to five Su-57s... which can be converted into three F35s for him.
After this war, if we fight for another two months, the Russian army will run out of old aircraft, and it will be difficult to make up for it. In another three months, the 200 relatively new Su-30s and Su-35s will all be exhausted. By then it will be very difficult to rank among the top 20 air forces in the world.
Not only the Russian Air Force, but also its Army is now almost exhausted and has begun to buy tanks and artillery from 50 years ago.
