We shouldn't expect Russian aircraft to wear out – Air Force spokesman

Despite significant losses in the war against Ukraine, Russia still has a large fleet of aircraft and the capacity to produce about several aircraft a year, in addition to repairing old ones.

Source: Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Force of Ukraine, in an interview with the news agency Ukrinform

Quote: "We should not expect that anything of theirs will wear out. They have factories that can restore and maintain old aircraft. And the fact that some things don't reach us [a reference to missiles and bombs that sometimes fall on Russian territory – ed.] is down to their clumsiness, perhaps an error, perhaps some other factors caused the bomb to come down earlier – maybe they just don't want to fly closer and become a target for our air defence, for example?

Tu-95 bombers also launch missiles, and they often fall into the Caspian Sea. There are probably a lot of missiles floating around in the sea at this point that simply didn't work. We hope there will be more and more of these. Perhaps because of the sanctions, which do have a partial effect on them, they are not getting some spare parts and are replacing the parts they need with other components. That may be having an impact [on their military industry]."

Details: Ihnat stressed that despite significant losses in the war against Ukraine, Russia still has a lot of aircraft.

"Russia has about 1,500 combat aircraft in storage throughout its territory, plus some outdated ones that have been mothballed. They also have enough helicopters. But even if about 300 of those 1,500 are destroyed, that’s a serious percentage. You can see their aircraft being destroyed every day," Ihnat said.

In addition, the Russians produce new aircraft every year, although not in large numbers. For example, in 2023, Ihnat said, four SU-30SM fighters and several SU-34 fighter-bombers were delivered to the Russian military.

Background: Over the past five days, Ukraine’s Air Force has destroyed seven Russian aircraft on the eastern front.

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