They died the most: the instructor pilot said which pilots Russia lacks

Ukraine, while effectively shooting down enemy planes, also eliminates Russian pilots. If at the beginning of the war lieutenant colonels, majors, and captains sat at the helm. At the same time, Russian planes are now flown by lieutenants. The Russians are also returning pilots who were retired.

Military expert, instructor pilot and reserve colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Roman Svitan told 24 Channel that the enemy does not currently have a critical situation with the pilots. However, in the future, the level of Russian pilots will degrade.

The next step towards a flight disaster

He explained that the average level of Russian pilots – more or less intelligent professionals – was eliminated in 2022.

They died the most. Then the enemy had to return pilots who had already retired, but had a large number of flights – up to 2 thousand hours. A pilot with such experience, even after a long break, can restore his skills in about 2 weeks, the military expert noted.

However, such pilots also ended, and the Russians took the next step towards a flight disaster – began to graduate inexperienced pilots who had just received clearance to perform combat missions at the flight training course.

They can, in principle, fly, but are not yet professionals. In order to become one, you need to study for about 8 years. About 4 years of study at a flight school, then over another 4 years you need to fly hundreds of hours to reach the level of a first-class pilot, explained the instructor pilot.

Now, according to According to him, senior lieutenants fly – this is practically third class, or even without class. The next step will be accelerated graduation from flight schools after not four years of training, but three years. Then they will graduate BC pilots (without class), who will be more or less able to at least fly the plane and perform light tasks. For example, dropping KABS. , due to his professional unsuitability,” emphasized Roman Svitan.

Enemy losses in aviation

• Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia was left without more than 340 aircraft. A large number of Russian pilots were also killed, the training of which takes several years. crew. In total, in recent weeks, Ukrainian forces have destroyed 15 Russian aircraft.
• Also, aviation expert Konstantin Krivolap, noted that about 150 pilots graduate from Russian military educational institutions per year. They do not have enough experience, so they cannot fully replace the dead professional pilots.
• However, even if, due to the large number of dead pilots, the Russians decide to increase enrollment in educational institutions, at the front these pilots will be able to work no earlier than in 5–6 years. That is why the occupiers do not have the resources to significantly increase the number of pilots.