By Mark Episkopos, Managing Editor, Center for Military Modernization
Russia has allegedly lost another one of its expensive, elite Su-35 fighters to friendly fire close to the frontlines in southern Ukraine.
Russian and Ukrainian military bloggers circulated footage of a Russian Su-35 fourth-generation air superiority fighter apparently being struck by Russian air defenses near Tokmak, a Russian-occupied stronghold in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region. The incident has not been confirmed by Russian officials or any other authoritative sources, nor has the footage been independently verified. The Su-35 was purportedly shot down by an S-300 air defense system missile at night, with no other details related to the incident having been revealed as of the time of writing.
“Interesting that this appears to still be happening periodically, despite the Russian Aerospace Forces employing very rigid command and control over fighter ops, which hampers effectiveness but should make deconfliction with the ground based air defences relatively simple,” wrote defense researcher Justin Bronk on X. Neither Bronk nor most prominent western defense commentators and observers have definitively asserted that the alleged Su-35 loss in Tokmak took place. The invasion of Ukraine has been characterized a flurry of claims by both sides regarding enemy battlefield losses, a great part of which has been exceedingly difficult for outside observers to conclusively document and verify.
It is highly unusual for Russian jet fighters, especially higher-end models like the roughly $60 million Su-35 fighter, to conduct operations so close to the frontlines in Ukraine. The Russian Aerospace Forces’ (VKS) fixed-wing aircraft losses– around ninety units, according to an updated assessment by the UK Ministry of Defense (MOD)– throughout the invasion have been minor compared to ground forces personnel and equipment precisely because the top military brass in Moscow decided in the invasion’s early stages to not to conduct substantial fighter jet operations within range of Ukrainian air defense capabilities, instead using these aircraft as standoff platforms to strike Ukrainian infrastructure and assets from safe distances. If confirmed, the presence of as valuable a jet fighter as the Su-35 so close to the battle fronts may be an indication that Russian commanders have downgraded the assessed threat posed by Ukrainian surface-to-air missile systems operating in the region.
The United Aircraft Corporation (UAC), a subsidiary of Russian defense-industrial conglomerate Rostec, announced earlier this week that a batch of Su-35S and fifth-generation Su-57 jet fighters has been delivered to the Russian military. “The Komsomolsk-on-Amur Aviation Plant [in Russia’s far east] has handed over another batch of Sukhoi-57 and Sukhoi-35S aircraft to the Russian Aerospace Force. The deliveries are in progress under the state defense order,” Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov said in a statement. Another production lot of fighters is on track to be delivered to the VKS by the end of 2023, Manturov added.
Introduced into service in 2014, the Su-35S has its roots in earlier Russian efforts to design a deeply modernized version of the prolific 1980’s Soviet Su-27 air superiority fighter.
Mark Episkopos is the new Managing Editor of the Center for Military Modernization. Episkopos is a journalist, researcher, and analyst writing on national security and international relations issues. He is also a Ph.D. candidate in history at American University.
