Ukraine war
“Tapeed into the cockpit”: Shot down Russian fighter jets rely on conventional navigation systems
A SU-34 shot down by Ukrainian forces
© Picture Alliance
Russian military technology has long been considered one of the best in the world. In the Ukraine war, however, more and more blatant weaknesses are becoming apparent. In a speech, the British Defense Secretary highlighted some of the most glaring backlogs.
Actually, Russia had expected to have defeated Ukraine in a few days. Now the war that resulted from the attack has been going on for two and a half months. And reveals more and more that a large part of the perception of Russia as a great military power was based on misjudgments. In a speech this week, the British Defense Secretary analyzed why the Russian invasion was anything but smooth. And provided surprising examples of Russian abuses.
Russian troops have a glaring lack of equipment and support, Minister Ben Wallace said in a speech at London’s Army Museum. He rates the fact that Russia’s troops have hardly any modern means of assessing the situation and tactical analysis as particularly important. While the USA is stuffing its tanks with high-tech, this is hardly ever the case with the Russian troops. “We regularly find paper maps from the 1980s in the tanks,” said the minister.
Tactical Disadvantages in the Ukraine War
“But it’s not just the ground forces,” he adds. “We discovered conventional GPS receivers taped to the cockpits of downed SU-34s so the pilots would know where they were instead of having to rely on their paltry in-house systems.” With “Glonass” Russia actually operates its own satellite system for positioning. But the pilots distrust the appearance.
The consequences of these modernization deficiencies are serious, explains the minister. “Despite the large numbers of artillery and tanks they display in parades, they are unable to use them together in combined maneuvers, and must therefore rely on untargeted mass fire.”
In other ways, too, Wallace believes Russia is behind the times. “The sheer number of Ukrainian drone footage shows that there are no modern countermeasures and effective systems to shoot down drones,” he said. Skillful use of civilian drones is considered one of the most skillful moves of the Ukrainian side. If Russia had effective means against these drones, the chances would probably be significantly worse.
part of a larger problem
Ultimately, however, the lack of truly modern combat technology is just the tip of the iceberg of Russia’s problems in attacking Ukraine, Wallace explains. The country simply planned the attack too badly, even the troops on the border did not know what to expect until shortly before the invasion began. Another major problem was that many of the weapons and supplies were not properly maintained. Because they retired because of cheap tires or broken axles, they then missed the fight. Not to mention the insufficiently protected tanks.
For Wallace there is no doubt: the Russian generals “under their gold ribbons and glittering medals” have failed – and moreover, for fear of the consequences, have kept silent about the true extent of the disastrous state of their armed forces. “There will be no victory day for them and for Putin,” he believes accordingly. “Only shame and certain defeat in Ukraine.”
Source: Minister’s Speech