And these figures are fully confirmed by specific episodes. Thus, russians admitted that strike of one Tu-141 Strizh drone on the Dyagilevo airbase in Ryazan Oblast in December 2022 resulted in the loss of three Tu-22M3 strategic bombers, not to mention the visually confirmed episode of the destruction of one Tu-22M3 bomber at the Soltsy-2 air base in Novgorod Oblast August 2023.
So if specific examples exist, Western estimates look rather strange.
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For instance, Newsweek quotes the commander of United States European Command, General Christopher Cavoli, who claims that over the 25 months of the full-scale war against Ukraine, russia has lost about 10% of its aviation. It is not clear which indicator was chosen for comparison. Is it 10% of the total number of aircraft in the russian Aerospace Forces or something else?
The following is a quote from Cavoli that "Moscow's military has lost no capacity at all in some areas including its strategic forces, space capabilities and long-range aviation ".
And these words look more than a little strange because Ukraine did not strike at the objects of the space program and the "nuclear triad," but there is evidence of losses in long-range aviation. Therefore, it is difficult to understand the motive for making such an assessment.
Moreover, a senior military adviser with the U.K. government Nicholas Aucott said that in his estimates he refers to the figures used by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in its reports, and emphasizes that at the current rate of losses, russians are losing aircraft 20 times faster than they can replace.
It is also interesting that Newsweek journalists wrote that they had sent a request to the Defense Ministry of russian federation to comment on the loss of aircraft, but received no response.
Therefore, it can be concluded that Western officials do not currently have a universal estimate of russian losses in aviation, and this looks really strange on the 25th month of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier Defense Express reported that russia had boosted Su-34 fleet despite production questions.
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