#Russia's Su-35 Fighters Keep 'Falling Out of the Sky' in #Ukraine War
👁️The National Interest
August 20, 2024
https://lnkd.in/gkR2AD7z
The #Su35 "Flanker-E," a Russian fourth-generation #fighterjet, was designed as a hybrid between older and newer #warplanes, boasting advanced #avionics, #stealth features, and #longrangecapabilities.
However, the ongoing war in #Ukraine has exposed the #aircraft's limitations, forcing it to operate in ways it wasn't designed for, such as #loweraltitude and #closerrangemissions.
“the enemy always gets a vote”
Therefore, Ukraine has managed to negate the inherent strengths of the Su-35 as an “over-the-horizon” warplane. That doesn’t mean the Su-35 is a slouch. It just means it cannot—and has not—operate to its fullest capabilities because the kind of war it is fighting is fundamentally different from the kind of war it was designed to fight.
Even the manufacturer of the Flanker-E, Komsomolsk-on-Amur has stated that the warplane is not performing as advertised in Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine. The #Ukrainians have downed multiple variants of this airplane, and they don’t appear to be abating in their aims to destroy these aircraft.
#russiaswar
Director of Quality at Leonardo DRS
2moOutstanding! Congratulations Team FWS-I. Well done.