Russian Iskander Missile Strike Destroys Rare Ukrainian Su-27 Fighter at Mirgorod Airbase

Footage released on August 13 has shown the destruction of one of the Ukrainian Air Force’s few remaining Su-27 air superiority fighters at Mirgorod Airbase, which was reported to have been targeted by a Russian Iskander-M ballistic missile system. The attack comes a little over a month after drone footage released on July 2 showed the destruction of two Su-27s in Russian missile strikes, and serious damage to two more possibly beyond repair. This prior attack was reportedly also carried out using Iskanders, which were particularly successful in destroying high value Ukrainian and allied targets throughout that month. Commenting on the strike, Forbes reported that it “may have been one of the costliest single days for the battered Ukrainian air arm since Russia widened its war on Ukraine in February 2022,” highlighting that “Ukrainian bloggers rushed to blame the air force officers who ordered the Su-27 crews to park their jets out in the open at a base dangerously close to the front line.” Similar criticisms are expected to be levelled at the leadership of the Ukrainian Armed Forces for again leaving its most valuable combat aircraft vulnerable. 

The Su-27 is by far the most capable fighter class fielded by the Ukrainian Air Force, with its endurance making it highly prized for cruise missile strikes on Russian forces. Efforts to use the fighters to engage Russian aircraft in air to air combat, however, have consistently ended in overwhelming losses. Although the Su-27 was considered by far the world’s most capable class of air superiority fighter in the 1980s and 1990s, the Soviet-built aircraft are today at a significant disadvantage if facing Russia’s more modern Su-27 derivatives such as the Su-30SM and Su-35. Ukrainian pilots who have flown Su-27s and the newly delivered U.S.-built F-16s have reported that the former remains an overall more capable aircraft, although as very few Su-27s are fielded by Western-aligned states there remains little possibility of combat losses being replenished. By contrast, the Su-27’s lighter and lower end counterpart the MiG-29, developed in the USSR as part of a high-low combination, has been delivered to the country in significant numbers from mid-2022, as this class was widely exported across Eastern Europe which made it readily available to NATO members in significant numbers.