Russia may expand its air force to eight divisions by 2024 – Zaluzhnyi
Photo: facebook com GeneralStaff ua
Russia may increase the number of its aviation divisions to eight.
This could happen by the end of 2023, Rubryka reports, referring to the article of Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valerii Zaluzhnyi in The Economist.
He said that since the beginning of the large-scale war, Russia lost many planes, roughly reaching the number of aircraft of one air army and many helicopters — about 13 regiments (brigades) of army aviation. The losses of Russian air defense exceeded 550 systems.
"Despite such losses, today, the enemy continues to maintain significant air superiority, which complicates the advance of our troops and is one of the key factors that transforms the nature of hostilities into a positional form," said Zaluzhnyi.
The commander-in-chief believes that Russia may increase the number of divisions of its air force. In his opinion, even despite the overwhelming number of planes and helicopters, Russians do not feel at ease in the Ukrainian sky.
"According to various assessments, at the end of 2023, the enemy may augment the number of aircraft by building new attack aviation squadrons, so special attention should be paid to this circumstance," he explained. "But, despite the significant quantitative and qualitative superiority of the enemy in aviation and air defense, it cannot convert it into complete dominance in the air due to the successful work of our elements of direct air defense cover of troops, which constantly increase the number of the engaged enemy air attack weapons."
Zaluzhnyi added that the occupiers focused on drones, which have taken over a significant share of aviation's tasks, particularly with reconnaissance and air strikes.
Background
An aviation division is the main aviation grouping, which consists of a command post, several aviation regiments, and support units. In the Soviet Union, an aviation division consisted of three regiments, numbering 98 aircraft (bombers) or 124 aircraft (fighters and attack aircraft).
The Russian leadership hides the losses of its troops in the war of aggression against Ukraine. Losses of equipment, aircraft, and other means of war are also not revealed.
The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reports that more than 302,000 occupiers have already been eliminated in Ukraine. Only in the past day, Ukrainian fighters destroyed 930 Russian soldiers, as well as a plane.
The Commander-in-Chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said that Russia's war against Ukraine was entering a new stage and becoming "positional," as in the First World War, which will benefit Russia. But there is a way out of this situation.
