While Russian pilots were managing to support land operations in the south of Ukraine, they were doing so “without decisive operational effect,” the British Ministry of Defense said in its daily intelligence update on Monday.
To compensate, Russia was sending adapted free-fall bombs into Ukrainian territory. However, these had “yet to demonstrate consistent accuracy,” it added.
“Over the summer, Russian tactical combat aircraft have typically carried out over 100 sorties a day, but these are almost always restricted to operating over Russian-controlled territory due to the threat from Ukrainian air defenses,” the update said.
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Neither Russia nor Ukraine has been able to gain air superiority in the war so far despite Russia’s vastly larger air force. But a military expert previously told Insider that the “advantage is with defense.”
soviet union was preparing for war against NATO. as such, they have seen how important air assets were in vietnam war and especially later in desert storm, so they made sure they have loads of SAMs to negate this advantage. both Ukraine and russia draw from these stockpiles making air dominance impossible for either side, airspace is simply denied in all important sectors