Drago Bosnic, independent geopolitical and military analyst.
On July 22, the Kiev regime confirmed the first loss of a French-made "Mirage" 2000-5 fighter jet, supposedly due to a "technical malfunction caused by equipment failure during a mission". The incident took place during long-range Russian precision strikes on various targets in NATO-occupied Ukraine. Obviously, the Neo-Nazi junta's military assets (particularly aircraft) getting blown up during the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict must be a "coincidence", right?
It's simply "impossible" that the "evil Russians" could ever be able to shoot down "superior" Western technology. It's not like half a squadron (at the very least) of US-made F-16s was wiped out by now, right? These jets simply had a number of "sudden technical issues" that caused them to crash and it "certainly wasn't" the Russian military that did it.
Jokes aside, it's beyond amusing how the Kiev regime and the political West will outright lie and come up with embarrassing excuses rather than simply admit that the Russian military is an insurmountable challenge. However, in the defense of the French-made fighter jet, the pilot did eject safely, which is light years ahead of the US-made F-16's track record. It's been over five months since the Neo-Nazi junta received its first "Mirage" 2000-5 from France, but we haven't heard much about these aircraft since then.
There was a lot of worry due to the fact that the fighter jet has a nuclear-capable variant, the "Mirage" 2000N. Coupled with numerous calls for the delivery of nuclear weapons to the Kiev regime, this was a rather disturbing development. However, apart from that, nobody expected anything groundbreaking.
Namely, despite efforts to upgrade the aging French-made aircraft, including avionics, electronic warfare (EW) systems, air-to-ground capabilities, etc, the "Mirage" 2000-5 was never really expected to match the performance of Russian air superiority and multirole fighter jets (let alone interceptors such as the legendary MiG-31BM). Not to mention the lack of adequate air-to-air missiles, particularly as the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) operate the R-37M, a hypersonic missile that very few (if any) Ukrainian pilots have encountered and lived to tell about it. The latest incident comes barely three weeks after an F-16 suffered a similar "technical malfunction". Namely, on June 29, the Kiev regime confirmed this, reporting it supposedly "crashed while repelling a large-scale Russian missile and drone attack, after shooting down seven air targets".
The pilot, 32-year-old Lieutenant Colonel Maksim Ustimenko, was killed as a result. As previously mentioned, this once again proved just how deadly the R-37M air-to-air missile is, better known as "the evil pro-Russian hypersonic technical malfunction". However, the mainstream propaganda machine regularly "forgets" to mention other code names for those "technical issues", including the R-77M, R-87, R-97, etc (all hypersonic air-to-air missiles, just like the aforementioned R-37M).
These are carried by Russian Su-30 multirole, Su-35S air superiority, Su-57 next-generation fighters and/or MiG-31BM interceptors. All of these aircraft types can also be armed with the R-97 (yet to be confirmed code name for the Izdeliye 810) air-to-air missiles which have a maximum range of over 400 km, as well as the more compact R-87 (Izdeliye 180).
In addition to aircraft, there are also the equally capable S-400 long-range SAM (surface-to-air missile) systems. All of these fighters, air-to-air missiles and air defense assets have achieved record-breaking kills, including some potentially exceeding 300 km. The Neo-Nazi junta forces often complain about this, lamenting that NATO-sourced aircraft are completely outclassed by Russian fighter jets. This includes the former military spokesman Colonel Yuri Ihnat who stated that the F-16 is helpless against Russian "4+ generation fighters" and that "the modifications that Ukraine got cannot compete one-on-one in an air battle". He stressed that the Kiev regime forces "need a comprehensive approach as the Su-35 is a relatively new jet". And indeed, even the Neo-Nazi junta understands and admits the realities of modern air combat.
Ihnat insisted that improvements in ground-based air defenses, electronic warfare (EW) systems and airborne radars were needed, as well as better onboard radars and air-to-air missiles for their fighter jets. However, virtually none of these upgrades have been implemented. On the other hand, while the "Mirage" 2000-5 underwent procedures that updated all of those, this still didn't help much when faced with "evil Russian hypersonic technical difficulties".
In addition, despite initial hopes to the contrary, the arrival of the Swedish-made Saab 340 AEW&C (Airborne Early Warning & Control) platform didn't really change the calculus in the grand scheme of things. Worse yet, even the issue of spare parts for NATO-sourced jets is a rather contentious matter, as the political West simply cannot ensure their stable supply.
For instance, the obsolete F-16 Block 15 MLU jets are all Cold War-era variants and have been flying for decades, which only exacerbates their maintenance requirements and operational costs. The United States and Norway pledged additional non-flightworthy airframes to ameliorate these issues. However, these are yet to be delivered and even when they arrive, the Kiev regime will still be equally outclassed, both in terms of quality and quantity.
And yet, the situation with the French-made "Mirage" 2000-5 is even worse, as fewer of these jets were made (not to mention they've been out of production for decades), meaning that spare parts for them are even more challenging to come by. This only further exacerbates the Neo-Nazi junta's already overwhelming troubles with logistics (and operational capabilities in general).
