Kateryna Girnyk08:28, 07/02/24

During the attack on the Myrhorod airfield, Russia destroyed two Ukrainian Su-27s, writes Forbes.

On July 1, Russia reported an Iskander attack on the Ukrainian Myrhorod airfield , located about 150 kilometers from the front line. As Forbes writes , the Ukrainian Air Force deployed six Su-27 fighter jets in the open air, and a Russian missile destroyed two of them.

“A Russian drone spotted at least six Ukrainian Su-27 supersonic fighter jets parked in the open in broad daylight. A Russian Iskander missile fired at them destroyed two precious Su-27s and damaged the other four,” the newspaper writes.

As Forbes points out, this may have been one of the most expensive days for the Ukrainian Air Force since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation.

At the same time, the publication writes, the raid on Myrhorod is only the latest in a series of Russian attacks on vulnerable Ukrainian air bases.

“The first two strikes last fall caught the Ukrainian Air Force off guard and blew up a pair of MiG-29 fighters. The third strike in November appeared to have hit a stealthy Su-25 stealth attack aircraft. But then a fourth drone strike shot down the Su-25. The two Su-27s that “Iskander” destroyed in Myrhorod bring the number of Ukrainian military aircraft that the Russians have blown up on the ground in the last nine months to at least five. These losses the Ukrainians cannot afford,” Forbes notes .

According to the publication, the Ukrainian Air Force of Ukraine entered the war armed with about 125 Su-27, Su-25, MiG-29 and other aircraft. At the same time, during 28 months of fierce fighting, the Ukrainians lost about 90 aircraft, according to Oryx analysts.

At the same time, the European F-16 and Mirage, whose arrival is expected by Ukraine, will also be vulnerable to Russian drones and missile strikes while they are parked in the open in broad daylight, Forbes notes.

How Ukraine can protect its planes

There are obvious steps that Ukrainian commanders could take to protect their planes, Forbes writes, and to begin with, move them away from bases located closest to Russia.

“Ukrainian forces have access to approximately 20 large airbases, dozens of small airfields and even airstrips scattered throughout the country. Each domestically fueled Ukrainian aircraft covers hundreds of kilometers. There is no reason why a Su-27 with a range of 700 miles spent time at an airfield a hundred miles from the front line,” the newspaper writes.

However, this will not be enough, as Russia has ballistic and cruise missiles capable of striking all over Ukraine. Therefore, the Ukrainian command must constantly move its planes and crews, writes Forbes.

Ukrainian fighter teams usually emphasize unpredictability – all in order to complicate Russian targeting. Their pilots “almost never take off from an airfield and land at the same airfield,” says Gen. James Hecker, commander of US Air Force Europe and Africa.

Russian strikes on parked aircraft should make the Ukrainians even more unpredictable. At the same time, they can build reinforced shelters to protect parked aircraft, as well as place more dummy targets. But whatever the Ukrainians decide to do to protect their planes, they need to act quickly in the face of continuous Russian attacks, the publication notes.

The attack on the Myrhorod airfield – what is known

Russian pro-Kremlin publics shared a video of the attack on the Myrhorod airfield. They claimed an Iskander-M OTRK strike with a cluster warhead, which allegedly destroyed and damaged a number of Su-27 aircraft.

It should be emphasized that there is no official information about the attack on the airfield in Myrhorod from the Ukrainian military command yet.

The former spokesman of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Yuriy Ignat, commenting on the information about the attack, said that there was an attack on the airfield , there were losses, but “not such as the enemy claims.”

(C)UNIAN 2024