What weapons did the Armed Forces aircraft use against Russian territory: an expert's explanation

Ukrainian aircraft equipped with French or American missiles could attack military targets on Russian territory.

This opinion was expressed by Roman Svitan, a military expert, flight instructor, and retired colonel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, "Kyiv24" reports.

Svitan commented on a Sky News publication stating that Ukraine struck a Russian command post in Belgorod for the first time with a combat aircraft. He argues that this was not the first attack by Ukrainian aviation on the aggressor's territory, especially in 2022 when Russian forces were advancing in columns on all fronts. The depth of incursion was about 10 km, and the strikes were made with Ukrainian weapons.

"Now, most likely, our Su-25s have been re-equipped to operate with French Hammers – these are guided bombs with rocket boosters. From the video footage, it appears to be about a 100-kilogram warhead, similar to the 90 kg warhead of a Hammer. I believe this is the work of our Su-25s executing a combat mission on Russian territory. These could have been Hammer missiles or HARM missiles," the expert said.

According to him, a Russian command post was hit. Any command post is a source of radio frequency generation.

"And the HARM missile quite successfully follows the signal source and is also used from our aircraft – MiG-29, Su-27. These were our aircraft and foreign missiles – either French or American," the expert said.

As an alternative, Svitan suggests that guided GBU-39 bombs could have been used.

"They also have a warhead of about 90 kg. These guided bombs could have been launched from our MiG-29s or Su-27s. Their gliding range is 110 km. So, the aircraft could have approached 50-70 km from the border and executed the combat mission. We now have a lot of means of destruction, which we can use in great depth. NATO means. And I understand that some restrictions have been lifted, moreover, on a wide range of weapons," he said.

Svitan does not rule out that our aircraft could have "entered" enemy territory, especially at extremely low altitudes.

"All our pilots can now fly "a meter above the sunflowers", under the beams of Russian radars, and execute combat missions. And we saw one of these missions targeting the command post near Belgorod," the expert concluded.

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