Key Points and Summary: The war in Ukraine highlights the transformative power of modern air defenses, restricting the use of combat aircraft by both sides.
-Ukraine’s layered air defense systems, bolstered by Western support, have pushed Russian jets to operate at standoff ranges, reducing their effectiveness.
-Similarly, Russian air defenses limit Ukraine’s ability to deploy its own aircraft near the front lines.
-Both nations have adapted by heavily relying on drones for reconnaissance and strikes. Russia has also targeted Ukrainian air defenses with mass missile and drone attacks, seeking to deplete interceptor stockpiles.
-The conflict underscores the growing dominance of drones in modern warfare.
How Air Defenses Are Grounding Combat Aircraft in Ukraine’s War
The ongoing war in Ukraine has underscored the decisive role air defenses play in modern warfare.
Ukraine and Russia have deployed robust air defense measures that have severely restricted the use of aircraft on both sides, with particularly significant implications for Russia’s ability to project air power even close to its borders.
Ukraine has been able to leverage the kit provided by Western allies to limit Russia’s operational use of jets and helicopters, with implications for the broader scope of the conflict as well as knock-on effects regarding the use of drones.
As a result of this high-risk aerial environment, Russian aircraft losses have been staggering. Oryx, a website that catalogs losses on both sides using open-source information, tallies Russian aircraft losses at 286. According to Oryx figures, Ukraine has lost 173 combat aircraft. The disparity between these two numbers is partly due to Russia’s considerably larger air force than the Ukrainian Air Force.
The Early Days of the Ukraine War
In the early days of the war in Ukraine, Russia deployed a large number of combat aircraft with the expectation it would rapidly establish air superiority and dominate the battlefield.
However, Ukraine’s ability to rapidly mobilize and deploy its existing Soviet-era air defenses, as well as the air defenses provided by Western allies, were, and continue to be, a significant challenge for Russian aircraft.
Ukrainian air defenses have forced Russian aircraft to operate from longer ranges outside Ukraine’s layered air defense network. This has, in effect, hindered combat aircraft’s ability to support forces on the ground and to launch munitions far from their intended targets, reducing their operational value.
For Ukraine, Russian air defenses have similarly restricted the use of its own air force, in particular in areas near the front line. Both sides have had to adapt to these constraints by relying more heavily on unmanned aerial vehicles, which are cheaper, expendable, and better suited to navigate contested airspaces.
“In Ukraine’s air war, neither side can overfly the other with impunity. Russian helicopter gunships provide some close air support to ground forces, but not enough to turn the tide,” a report by researchers at the RAND Corporation, a think tank, said. “As a result, both sides are turning more to artillery and kamikaze drones to support ground operations. Offensive operations are undercut by the absence of air superiority.”

Su-35 Fighter from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
“Air defense has pushed manned combat aircraft to standoff distances that reduce their effectiveness and lethality. Partially as a result, ground fights may contest only hundreds of meters of territory. Engagement distances of maneuver forces can be below maximum ranges of their weapons systems. Some tank-on-tank skirmishes occur within a stone’s throw of one another.”
Much of Ukraine’s public infrastructure, including energy, is under attack or the threat of attack from Russia, despite Ukraine’s robust and layered air defense umbrella. And though Ukrainian air defense does manage to down the majority of drones and missiles, Russia tries to attack them.
Some Russian munitions do manage to get through and strike critical infrastructure. Russian glide munitions, essentially dumb bombs equipped with rudimentary wings, have been increasingly used.
The Defense Ministry of Ukraine took to X to announce a big day for the air defense forces earlier last year. “Russian planes continue to fall!” the ministry said. “This morning, defenders of the sky shot down two russian planes in the eastern direction—a Su-34 fighter-bomber and a Su-35 fighter. In 3 days, Ukraine destroyed 6 russian jets.”
Abroad, but Also at Home
The effectiveness of Ukraine’s air defenses has also prompted Russia to reinforce its defensive posture even within its own borders. Ukraine has developed increasingly sophisticated and long-range attack drones, leveraging them to strike targets deep within Russia proper. These strikes have targeted energy facilities, logistical hubs, and even large urban areas and chip away at the image of a secure Russian homeland. In response to these strikes, Russia has deployed air defenses in coverage of important infrastructure and other high-value targets in hopes of mitigating the threat from Ukraine.

Su-35S fighter. Image Credit: Russian State Media.
At the same time, Russia has sought to weaken Ukraine’s air defense capabilities. Russian forces have employed mass missile and drone attacks, often featuring a mix of advanced cruise missiles and lower-cost, expendable drones. These strikes include decoy targets designed to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defense systems and force them to rapidly expend valuable interceptor missiles, with the goal of exhausting Ukraine’s stockpiled air defense munitions.
The success of air defenses in Ukraine in pushing manned platforms outside of contested airspace has highlighted the importance of drones, both as a cheap, expendable offensive weapon and as part of a layered defensive network in an informational gathering role.
In Ukraine, air defenses on both sides have proven very effective at limiting the usefulness of combat aircraft and, in effect, are partly responsible for the virtual stalemate on the battlefield today. The experience in Ukraine underscores what will undoubtedly be a significant factor in the next war: the increasing usefulness of unmanned, attritable aircraft rather than the legacy manned platforms flown today.
About the Author: Caleb Larson
Caleb Larson is an American multiformat journalist based in Berlin, Germany. His work covers the intersection of conflict and society, focusing on American foreign policy and European security. He has reported from Germany, Russia, and the United States. Most recently, he covered the war in Ukraine, reporting extensively on the war’s shifting battle lines from Donbas and writing on the war’s civilian and humanitarian toll. Previously, he worked as a Defense Reporter for POLITICO Europe. You can follow his latest work on X.

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January 25, 2025 at 8:19 pm
Reason is….benjamin netanyahu isn’t involved in prosecuting the ukraine War.
Netanyahu’s the curtis Lemay of modern 21st century combat.
Netanyahu, or bibi, has absolutely no hesitation in always bombing his adversary back to the flinstone period.
But what about those people in the ukraine conflict.
All those people are just sissies and effeminates or ersatz DEIs and poodles.
Of course bibi has an eternal sponsor with unlimited deep pockets. Makes his job easier.
For other people without sponsors, they need to learn from the annals of history.
In ancient battles in history, the winner of battles was the one able to hurl the final javelin, the final spear, the final stone and the last clump of noxious dung.
Battles started evenly at first, with the opposing sides hurling and throwing everything they had, until one side exhausted its reserves of projectiles.
Thus to win your battle, one needs to make sure one’s arsenal is always infinite.