HISTORY

Text: Miro Barič

The air war

over Ukraine

4th month

A Ukrainian Mi-8NSB-V named Orc Hunter.

Peace has not arrived in Ukraine yet between May 16 and June

16. The ground operations were conducted in Donbas in the east

and in Kherson in the south. The air operations on both sides

corresponded to these activities.

On Monday May 16 the defenders of Azovstal

steelworks in Mariupol received the order

to cease the armed resistance. Till May 20

gradually all of them surrendered. It meant

that Tu-22M3 strategic bombers, which for

a month were carpeting the steelworks with

the heavy bombs, were released for other

missions – to launch the old (and vastly

inaccurate) Kh-22 rockets on the Ukrainian

cities. During these missions the bombers

enjoyed the safety of their own airspace.

Other aircraft did not cross the frontlines

neither – on both sides. In the second part

of this series, we mentioned the video capturing Mi-28 and Ka-52 helicopters operating as the airborne rocket launchers for the

carpet bombing by the unguided missiles.

Both Russian and Ukrainian Su-25s operate

in the same manner. The employment of the

fighter-bombers by both sides was captured

in videos. Su-25s are equipped either with

four B-8M1 rocket launchers for S-8 80 mm

caliber rocket or two B-13L rocket launchers for S-13 122 mm caliber rockets. With

this ordnance load out they arrived at the

12

INFO Eduard

the intended target. On Thursday June 2 this

was clearly demonstrated by a formation of

the Russian Su-25s which launched their

S-8 unguided missiles during the fighting

for the village of Komyshuvakha near the

city of Popasna. They hit their own infantry

column resulting in 50 dead and wounded

Russian soldiers. Now let’s make a little detour from the air war to the fighting on the

ground. Ukraine obviously possesses more

ammunition than aircraft which can use it.

The videos appeared that feature B-8M1 rocket launchers mounted on pickups or SUVs

at an approximately 45 degrees angle. In this

manner the Ukrainians use them as the ordinary ground rocket launchers.

maximum airspeed close to the ground then

they start climbing and during this maneuver

they launch salvos of the unguided missiles

towards the enemy’s positions on a ballistic

curve to maximize their range. At the same

time, they released chaff flares and right after launching the rockets they turned around

to fly back home. S-8 rockets deployed

in this manner can reach as far as 5 km.

Tom Cooper, author of many publications

on the modern

air

warfare,

used the name

“spray and pay”

for this tactic.

The pilots spray

a target area

and pray that

they hit something. The slightest deviation

in the course

and the climbing

angle and the

The B-8M1 air-launched rocket launcher in the role of an 80 mm caliber afterburner.

The Ukrainian inscription on the side of the trailer stands for bees.

rockets

miss

July 2022