Latest US assistance: Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) packages. This PDA package, which is part of our efforts to help Ukraine repel Russia’s assault near Kharkiv, has an estimated value of $275 million. It will provide Ukraine additional capabilities to meet its most urgent battlefield needs, such as additional precision strike rockets for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), artillery rounds, air-launched munitions, and anti-tank weapons.
The capabilities in this announcement include:
Ammunition for HIMARS;
155mm and 105mm artillery rounds;
60mm mortar rounds;
Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles;
Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems;
Precision aerial munitions;
Small arms and additional rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades;
Demolitions munitions;
Anti-armor mines;
Tactical vehicles to recover equipment;
Helmets, body armor, and Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear protective equipment; and
Spare parts, maintenance, and other ancillary equipment.
I seriously doubt we didn’t know these weapons could be jammed. If NATO was engaged there would be a layer of attacks including attacks on jamming systems.
Sweden’s Defense Ministry announced a fresh package of military aid for Ukraine valued at 13.3 Swedish krona ($1.3 billion) on May 29.
The package includes ASC 890 radar reconnaissance and control aircraft, the “entire Swedish stock” of Pansarbandvagn 302 infantry fighting vehicles, artillery shells, anti-air missiles, and materials to help maintain previously donated equipment, the defense ministry said.
This announcement is the Biden Administration’s fifty-ninth tranche of equipment to be provided from DoD inventories for Ukraine since August 2021. This Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) package, which has an estimated value of $225 million, will provide Ukraine additional capabilities to meet its most urgent battlefield needs, such as: air defense interceptors; artillery systems and munitions; armored vehicles; and anti-tank weapons.
The capabilities in this announcement include:
Missiles for HAWK air defense systems;
Stinger anti-aircraft missiles;
Ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);
Armchair analysis of commercial satellite images isn’t necessary. The strike has been confirmed by various Russian sources on Telegram, though they say that the aircraft can be repaired.
It’s not clear that it’s a particularly militarily significant achievement. The Su-57, NATO reporting name ‘Felon’, is Russia’s supposed 5th gen fighter, supposedly on par with the F-22 and F-35 in technological advancement. However, only a handful have been produced and it hasn’t seen any action in the war. Losing one would be embarrassing for Russia, but isn’t really relevant to the war effort.
Also, how the hell was it not in a bunker or at least a hangar? It’s not like having these Ukrainian drones toodling about and sometimes exploding next to valuable things is a new development.
The Telegram source in question is Fighterbomber, a RAF-adjacent milblogger who would never invent an incident that was this much of an embarrassment to his buddies.
Forbes
quotes a Ukrainian source that a 2nd may have also been damaged.
It’s increasingly clear a Ukrainian drone badly damaged, and possibly destroyed, a Russian air force Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighter on Russia’s Akhtubinsk State Flight Test Center in southern Russia 365 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border.
And it’s possible a second Su-57—out of around two dozen Su-57s the Russian air force has acquired since the type’s first flight in 2010—was also damaged in the raid. “There is preliminary information that there could be two Su-57 aircraft affected,” Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for the Ukrainian intelligence agency,
Not ciritzing you but here are some other factors:
The airfield attacked was 363 miles from the front (more from the drone launch point). Russia has a huge number of airfields, limited air defense systems (dropping every day), poorly trained operators, and money problems to name a few issues. There was an effort to build a shelter (looked to be fabric over metal) to shield from elements and observation but like everything else - it takes time, money and manpower. Should these aircraft have been a priority??? It’s believed to be a test aircraft - a prototype. The Russians have other priorities like their A-50 AWACS - They’ve lost a couple of those on the ground, others were non-functional due to maintenance and the most recent downing over the Sea of Azov was confirmed to be a PATRIOT missile, not an older SA-2. The A-50s are far more important than a sort-of-stealth fighter with no shown combat capability.