The Wagner Weekend hit Russia's Air Force particularly hard

[thewayne]

Russia's losses:
2 attack helicopters (Ka-52 and Mi-35)
1 armed transport helicopter (Mi-8)
3 electronic warfare helicopters (Mi-8MTPR-1)
1 Il-22M airborne command post/comms relay plane

Thirteen Russian pilots were killed in these shoot-downs.

Wagner's losses:
two 6x6 trucks
an MRAP
two machine-gun armed pickup trucks

No word on the number of people wounded or killed.

These were involved in attacking the column moving to Moscow from Rostov. Russian aviation also destroyed some bridges and other infrastructure. A fuel depot was also destroyed, though it's unclear if it was intentional or the result of a flare from a plane falling on it or possibly a missile that missed.

In all, in one day, Russia's air force (the VKS) lost more aircraft in 24 hours than they would typically lose in several days of fighting in Ukraine. The EW helicopters are particularly bad losses as Russia only had fifteen when they started the war and have lost at least one more. They were very expensive helicopters and were had been un-armored to presumably accommodate more electronic warfare (i.e. jamming) hardware. At least one of the helicopters may be recoverable, one of the others burned pretty thoroughly, and in the third case only one of the four crew was able to parachute out before it crashed.

One reason for these high losses was the VKS pilots had to get in close to the column advancing on Moscow to visually identify their targets to avoid firing on civilians and on friendly units, making them very vulnerable to machine guns and other anti-air weapons. The column had civilian cars intermixed into it, the VKS was reluctant to simply strafe and bomb the column.

There's an interesting on-going problem from this: if Wagner units join up with existing Russian forces, how eagerly will the VKS jump into the cockpit to fly air support for them after this?

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/aviation/a44348988/wagner-group-rebellion-impact-on-russia-air-force/

Comments

[disneydream06]

One reason for these high losses was the VKS pilots had to get in close to the column advancing on Moscow to visually identify their targets to avoid firing on civilians and on friendly units,
Hard to believe they cared enough. :o
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

Keep in mind we're talking pilots, and not the high command or political leaders.

[disneydream06]

Good point. :)

[warriorsavant]

Still hard to believe they cared enough. More likely, they, and their equipment, were simply not good enough to fire accurately from a distance. From what we've seen so far, their training is simply not that good when faced with any kind of real opposition.

[thewayne]

I think a bit of both.

[devilc]

I can't stop smiling at this.

"You come at the King, you best not miss" Well, Wagner missed, but gouging out the King's eyes? Yeah, that's gonna be felt.

[thewayne]

A lot of interesting stuff going on.  Two generals are missing, Ukraine has made very significant advances.  Putin found with lots of egg on face.  Yeah, good reason for smiling!

[silveradept]

That's a fair amount of damage to your capacity from a single disgruntled mercenary commander. I'm curious to see where the fallout happens, and to whom.

[silveradept]

That looks like significant losses for the air force, in addition to all the other losses, tangible and otherwise, to the Russian Federation for this incident.