A viral video is being circulated on russian social media which shows that at the military airport in the junction of Raznodninsky and Krasno Perekopsky in Crimea, two Russian Su-25 attack planes took off, one of the plane seemed to be out of control and suddenly crashed and exploded. The pilot did not have time to eject and open parachute and was confirmed dead.
At present, the reason for the crash of the Su-25 attack aircraft is still unclear, but from the picture, the Su-25 attack aircraft only has two S-13 rocket launch pods mounted on it, which seems to be ready to execute a single strike. For ground attack missions, there is no mount imbalance problem.
This is the second fighter plane that the Russian army has crashed in the Crimea area in recent days. Not long ago, another Su-34 fighter-bomber crashed (one said that it was accidentally hit by the Russian air defense system). Many analysts believe that the continuous attack in the “special military operation” has actually overwhelmed the Russian Aerospace Forces. Due to the lack of spare parts and the suppression of the Ukrainian air defense network, the activities of the Russian Aerospace Forces on the front line have been significantly reduced, but with the Ukrainian army’s counter-offensive, the Russian ground troops were defeated like a mountain, and the Russian Aerospace Force had to risk their lives to attack. Even the Su-35 fighter jets hung up ordinary unguided bombs and began to carry out ground attack missions, not to mention the Soviet Union made Su-25 are full-time ground attack aircraft.
It is likely that due to poor maintenance or overworked pilots, the Russian fighter planes have suffered repeated accidents. The previously crashed Su-34 fighter-bomber did not have relevant pictures or videos to confirm that many people initially speculated that it crashed after being injured by Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles, but the crash of this Su-25 attack aircraft showed that it was completely Russian mistake.
The Ukrainian air defense network, supported by NATO intelligence and other sources, has shown strong combat effectiveness. It is for this reason that some advanced fighter jets of the Russian Armed Forces, such as the Su-30SM and Su-34, were completely unable to exert their full combat effectiveness and were suppressed at low and ultra-low altitudes, and were easily attacked by Ukrainian portable air defense missiles and short-range air defenses. The attack of the Ukrainian air defense system, has made the Ka-52 and other armed helicopters vulnerable to the low-altitude air defense fire of the Ukrainian army due to problems such as slow speed.
The Su-25 is a very different aircraft. It was designed as a low-altitude attack aircraft. Although it was repeatedly hit by the Ukrainian army, with its solid armor, it was possible to escape from death in many cases. There were even cases of being hit by 2 portable air defense missiles and struggling to return to the base. After all, if you are lucky, the portable air defense high-explosive fragmentation warhead with a missile warhead of a little more than 1 kg is really not good for Su-25.
According to the information that has been revealed one after another, the Russian army has experienced serious logistical support problems in the “special military operation”. It can even be said that the logistical network of the Russian army is seriously behind the times. The supply of various parts and components is difficult and chaotic. There is also a shortage of logistics personnel and even forced to use mercenaries to drive the Su-25. In the high-intensity war of attrition, the logistics support capabilities of the Russian army have been severely tested, and accidents are inevitable.
The Russian army is also aware of this, which is also the reason why the Russian Aerospace Forces had a low dispatch intensity before. The dispatch rate in the Kherson region was even less than one-third of the Ukrainian Air Force. But the battle situation is too critical. When the ground troops of the Russian army were defeated like a mountain and lacked enough reinforcements to stabilize the front line, they could only rely on the Aerospace Forces as a firefighting team. Of course, it is hard to say whether it is effective or not, but this price in the end is very heavy for the Russian Federation.