EkErilaz wrote:d_taddei2 wrote:Yugo90 wrote:Are Stinger AA missiles any danger for Russian aircraft? Or just for helicopters...
Aircraft will easily fly above the height of a stinger, and a stinger can't shoot down iskander, smerch, Grad, TOS, or artillery shells. It might force Helis out of the way but nothing else. Let me hope Helis are equipped with president S etc etc
It is true that airplanes easily operate above 3000 to 3500 meters. But at that altitude they are not very efficient in current circumstances. Russia still lags a bit behind in deploying FLIR pods or similar in large numbers, and even if they had large numbers the weather have not been good for operations at that altitude. Even a FLIRpod can't see thru clouds, and if you need to get below a +-2000 feet cloud cover or partial cloud cover you will be in threat of stingers. This is why we have been able to see the ukrainian drones working at such low level, but i also suspect russia AD is a major reason. Another reason for not operating at medium altitude is that you are vulnerable to still alive ukrainian medium to long range SAMs. if i had to guess how they are currently used and deployed it would be something like this: The few BUKs, OSAs, and maybe even S-300 that are still alive are kept hidden and turned off at all times. US/NATO AWACS at polish border keep track of russian planes, and share the intel with Ukrainian AD headquarters via secure coms established before the conflict. As russian planes cross into engagement envelope the awacs deliver bering range and altitude, the radars go on, acquire targets, shoot, turn off radar as soon as hit or miss is confirmed, and immediately relocate to next prepared hide before russian kalibers, arrive.
GPS guided munitions are not impacted by cloud cover, also Laser guided munitions guided by spetznaz won't be impacted either. Stingers and other AD systems will most likely be around cities and key areas so Russia should be able to predict where they will be located so will understand how to avoid and protect themselves. And the use of anti radiation missiles should make using S-300 redundant.