Ukraine Eliminates 25% Of Russian Fighter Regiment's Crews

The Ukrainian armed forces’ aggressive counterattacks in the south and east starting in late August have chewed up several of the Russian military’s most important formations.

Photo Insert: Russia is losing Su-34s far faster than it can replace them.

The elite 1st Guards Tanks Army and its supporting 144th Guards Motor Rifle Division, to name two. Also, the essential 3rd Army Corps—the Kremlin’s main reserve formation for the Ukraine war.

“We may have to add to the list one of the Russian air force’s best fighter regiments. In seven months of intensive fighting, Ukrainian air defenses reportedly have shot down a quarter of the crews of a unit believed to be the 559th Bomber Aviation Regiment, based in Morozovsk in western Russia near the border with Ukraine,” David Axe reported for Forbes early in October 2022.

A Russian blogger on a popular aviation channel referred to the losses in an emotional post.

“There is a bomber regiment where every fourth crews has already been shot down,” they wrote. The 559th BAR is the bomber regiment that’s closest to Ukraine and the most active over the battlefield.

The unit had as many as 36 twin-engine, two-seat, supersonic Su-34 fighters in its inventory when Russia widened its war on Ukraine starting in late February.

The Ukrainians since then have shot down 14 Su-34s that independent analysts can confirm, in addition to 43 other Russian fighters and attack planes. It’s apparent most of the Su-34s Russia has lost belonged to the 559th BAR. It’s not apparent how many of the crews survived and returned to base to fly and fight again.

The Su-34 on paper is one of the most sophisticated fighters in the world. A highly-evolved variant of the Su-27 air-superiority fighter with side-by-side seating and special sensors for the ground-attack role, the Su-34 promised to usher in a new era of high-tech, precision bombing for the Russian air force. Instead, Su-34s have flown into Ukraine lugging old dumb bombs that every other Russian fighter type carries.

A lack of precision-guided munitions—and the fact that Russian doctrine conceives of aircraft as flying artillery—forces the $50-million Su-34s to fly low through the thickest Ukrainian air defenses in order to have any chance of delivering their bombs with any degree of accuracy. Thus the steep losses in the 559th BAR should come as no surprise. Russia is losing Su-34s far faster than it can replace them.

The Russian air force ordered its first batch of 32 Su-34s back in 2008. A second batch of 92 followed in 2012. The Russians as of 2021 possessed around 122 Su-34s in several regiments including the 559th BAR. Now they’re down to no more than 108.

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