On the night of October 17, local time, a Russian military Su34 fighter bomber crashed in a residential area of in the Krasnodar Krai region. Although the pilot parachuted and the fighter exploded in the air were photographed before the crash, it also confirmed that the Su34 was probably shot down by Ukrainian air defense missiles.
Looking back at the Russian-Ukrainian conflict over the past six months, we will find that the invincible Su-34 fighter jet , which has been shot down by more than a dozen aircraft in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in less than eight months. As a replacement for Su 24 derived from the Su 27 platform, in addition to its strong weapon plug-in capabilities, the most core thing is to tailor a 17mm thick titanium alloy protective cockpit, but why was it easily shot down by Ukraine?
1. Different positioning indeed, in terms of the protection capabilities of Su34, as a new generation of fighter bomber that replaces Su24 to perform ground-to-sea attack operations, although Su34 continues the excellent aerodynamic layout design of the Su27 platform, in order to enhance its ability to attack the sea, it has specially strengthened its weapon mounting and protection capabilities. For example, under the premise of continuing the aerodynamic layout of Su27 platform and its power system, the maximum take-off weight of the entire aircraft has been increased to 45.1 tons, which is 11 tons larger than the take-off weight of the Su27 platform's latest modified Su35 fighter.
With the greater take-off weight advantage, in addition to being able to carry more than 10 tons of various weapons and ammunition, in order to deal with ground air defense fire interception, Su34 not only has various active and passive protection systems, but also has additional titanium alloy protective armor on the most critical cockpit and fuselage abdomen. In particular, the cockpit is welded by a whole piece of titanium alloy protective armor that is 17 mm thick, which can be called a "huge bathtub" with protective ceiling.
However, as advanced fighter jets for ground-to-sea attacks, the positioning of the two-engine heavy fighters of the Su-34, our army's J-16, and the US military's F15E, are slightly different. Although the Su-34 was derived from the Su-27 air-optimal fighter platform, the additional protective armor and larger take-off weight have been installed. has already completely turned the Su-34 into a front-line fighter bomber, with air-to-air combat capability of almost zero.
In contrast, although the J-16 and F15E of China and the United States are both derived from the air-optimal fighter platform and also perform ground-to-sea attack combat missions, the J-16 and F15E are both positioned as multi-purpose fighter jets. While exerting their ground-to-sea attack combat capabilities, they still retain their original air combat combat capabilities.
2. Imperfect air system is restricted by Russia's limited national defense budget in the past 30 years and the large number of national defense budgets each year have been used for strategic development. At this stage, the number of advanced fighter jets in the Russian Aerospace Army is not large in service, but very few. According to statistics, as of 2021, the number of advanced fighter jets in the Russian Aerospace Army is only about 500 advanced Su-30SM, Su-30M2, Su-35S and Su-34 fighters with advanced performance, and most of the rest are old Su-24 and Su-27S fighters.
But among these more than 500 advanced fighter jets, the number of Su34 fighter bombers dedicated to ground-to-sea attacks was as high as more than 100, which caused Su34 not to participate in the escort and seize the air supremacy operations when performing combat missions on the front line. In addition, judging from the many problems exposed in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the ammunition mounted by the Soviet 34 dispatched by Russia is basically low-roll resistance bombs with no guidance capabilities, and almost no precision guided bombs can be seen.
Without advanced precision guided bombs, Su34 cannot destroy many air defense firepower, airport runway and other attack targets on Ukrainian ground in advance in the first wave of attacks. Then, it cannot obtain air supremacy, Su34 is mounted with an unguided low-rolling resistance bomb to carry out the bomber , and it is normal to be shot down.
3. The ground air defense force is strong
Although before the Russian fighter jets were dispatched, they basically launched missiles in advance every time to destroy the Ukrainian army's ground air defense firepower, Ukraine was an important military deployment alliance in the Soviet era after all. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine not only inherited a large number of intercontinental missiles and strategic bomber , but also inherited countless tanks, missiles and other conventional weapons . Including S200, S300, Beech , Doyle air defense missile , and Doyle air defense missile , there are everything.
For the Russian army, the ground air defense force that it launches missiles in advance is only suitable for fixed-point air defense forces such as S200 and Beech. It is impossible to completely remove field air defense systems such as S300 and Doyle, which have absolute maneuverability and concealment advantages. In addition, since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Western countries led by the United States have provided a lot of "Sthorn" portable air defense missiles to Ukraine, which has a very high interception advantage for the Su-34, which performs low-altitude coverage bombing.
So even if Su34 has installed a lot of advanced airborne equipment and has absolute protective armor advantages, it does not have long-range precision guided bombs and can only drop low-rolling and deterrent bombs at low altitude, it is normal for more than a dozen air defense missiles such as Doyle and Sprig that are launched on the ground and are fired in large quantities.
So to sum up, since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, in less than 10 months, the Russian army has more than a dozen advanced Su-34s have been shot down by Ukrainian ground air defense forces. In addition to the great changes in Ukrainian ground air defense forces compared with Syria , is also directly related to the fact that Su-34 does not have air combat capabilities and has a serious lack of precise guided bombs that can fire outside the defense zone and protect its own safety. After all, even though they know that there is a tiger in the mountain and are inclined toward the tiger mountain, the chance of being eaten by a tiger is very high.
