Spare parts from the Pentagon helped Ukraine to increase the fleet size of the Su-25s of the Ukrainian Air Force
The number of Su-25s of the Ukrainian Air Force before the war was recorded by the Russian side was only 10 but so far the size of the squadron has skyrocketed by the help of USA. According to sources, it could be either Bulgaria or Georgia the actual suppliers of aircraft
More than a month ago, on April 19, 2022, Pentagon Speaker John Kirby said that Ukraine had received “spare parts” from partner countries that had helped our country dramatically increase the number of combat aircraft in service.
In two days, on April 21, 2022, CNN, citing its sources in the Pentagon , said that “spare parts” from partners helped Ukraine increase its fleet of combat aircraft by at least 20 units. Well, now, a month later, we’ve got a clue as to what it really was.
Foreign Policy writes that over the past few weeks, Ukraine has “Su-25” attack aircraft from “Eastern European partners”, which were delivered “in disassembled form”, with the support of the European Command.
Foreign Policy journalists did not provide other details, but even that is the maximum they could say in this situation. Therefore, we will have to build assumptions on our own, based on open data sources.
In addition to Ukraine, Su-25 attack aircraft have Belarus, Bulgaria and Georgia in Eastern Europe. Here Belarusians disappear for obvious reasons, in the other two countries – we can see a paradox with the number of aircraft.
For example, at the end of 2020, it was known that Bulgaria has at its disposal 8 Su-25 aircraft – six single and two combat training. But the authors of the guide The Military Balance for 2021 claim that at the end of last year, Bulgaria had in service only three Su-25 aircraft – two single and one training and combat. And so it turns out that 5 Bulgarian Su-25s somewhere “hung in the air”.
The situation in Georgia is as follows. According to open sources, the Georgians have 12 Su-25 aircraft at their disposal, of which 3 attack aircraft have already been restored, the other 9 are waiting their turn. But the authors of the guide The Military Balance for 2021 claim that at the end of last year, the Georgian Armed Forces had in service 3 Su-25 attack aircraft, and another 6 – in storage. It is not clear where 3 more Georgian Su-25s “evaporated”.
And so we come to the “spread” that Ukraine could receive from the Allies up to 8 or up to 14 Su-25 aircraft, which were delivered as “spare parts”.