![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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/
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/
