Fifty seems a little old to be flying combat missions.

Why do you suppose the Russians are using senior citizens to fly combat missions?

He’s hardly a senior citizen! A senior citizen is someone past the age of retirement. The upper age limit for the RAF when I was in was 55. In special circumstances pilots can exceed this. RAF Squadron Leader Terry Cairns was 61 when he retired in 2006. He flew Canberras over Afghanistan providing photo intelligence for the war on terror. I would expect that the upper age limit would be quite high in the Russian Air Force.

http://aviationnow.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/AIR08118.xml&headline=Georgia%20Strikes%20Back%20With%20Air%20Defenses&channel=defense

‘The pilot was Col. Igor Zinov, a 50 year-old Tu-22M3 instructor pilot
stationed at the Russian Flight Test Center at Akhtubinsk.’

TJ

“Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many aircraft of each type are in the Royal Air Force. [214383]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: The RAF management plan, for 2007-08 provides the numbers of aircraft planned to be in service with the RAF on 31 March 2009. The numbers are:”

Therefore allows for aircraft planned to be retired, or planned to be put into service, up to that date.

So therfore it provides the approximate figures for the inventory.

TJ

Getting back on topic…
If the Brits were given task of taking out Russian armor in Georgia,
might these be used?

From Wikipedia…

Length 1.8 m, Weight 48.5 kg, Range 12 km.
Fire and forget anti-tank missile.
Each launch system incorporates three rails This allows a single aircraft to carry large numbers of missiles, for example a Typhoon can carry eight launch system on eight individual pylons, which gives a payload of twenty four missiles – in addition to a useful air-air payload. In RAF service the missile will be carried by;

Tornado GR4
Eurofighter Typhoon
Harrier GR9

In addition to air launched platforms Brimstone can also be deployed from surface launchers, vehicles and helicopters.

No Coaliton forces will be taking any Russian forces on. It really is a daft proposal.

TJ

From Georgian TV. Claimed to be the wreck of the Backfire.

‘The pilot was Col. Igor Zinov, a 50 year-old Tu-22M3 instructor pilot stationed at the Russian Flight Test Center at Akhtubinsk.’

http://aviationnow.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/AIR08118.xml&headline=Georgia%20Strikes%20Back%20With%20Air%20Defenses&channel=defense

Backfire pilot in hospital

TJ

The Russians were never after re-taking the whole of Georgia. Lots of people were thinking that the ‘Evil Empire’ was back on the move again to re-take whole territories. Think of the hundreds of thousands of Russian forces it would take to occupy and control the whole of Georgia. The last thing that Russia would want.

The Russians have annexed South Ossetia and Abkhazia. All they have to do now is pull back with the option of taking out Georgian forces that come within artillery range. There is now the possibility that an international peacekeeping force will de deployed around buffer zones in order to keep the peace. If the peacekeeping force and buffer zones are established it really is game set and match for the Russians over the problem of the disuputed regions.

TJ

I’m not disputing the shooting downs, clearly given Georgia’s claims followed by Russian confirmation, a Su-25 and a Tu-22 were shot down. I was just trying to work out what part of the aircraft (would have to be Su-25 given that a single dead pilot was shown on TV) that the BBC reporter claimed was the wreckage was. Looking further up the thread (which I should have read before I posted), Teej couldn’t work it out either. And there is also that piece to the left, which while it is Su-25 “sized”, there seems to be no outer part on the Su-25 that I could identify from photographs that resembles either piece.

Airliners.net is probably the best for high-res images. It’s very difficult to immediately recognise the parts. The main part could be some panel possibly from the underside of a Russian type. For example lots of images of Su-25 angles here. You can do the same for other Russian types.

http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?aircraft_genericsearch=Sukhoi%20Su-25&distinct_entry=true

TJ

Is it Russian, Georgian? Should be a Frogfoot I guess? Any info on this image TJ?

Link already posted by Mick

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7551291.stm

Niksi,
No other details. The BBC also filmed the body of a Russian pilot. The footage on the Internet has been cut, but the longer version was shown on TV. Hard to tell what part it is. It looks like a panel of some sort. Initially it looks like an air-intake splitter plate, but I think we can rule that one out.

Slobo,
The wreckage shows remains of a jet engine. Looks like remains of compressor blades on the right of the image.

TJ

Physically, not comparable to Kosovo. The Russians were hamstrung because they could only access Serbia through or over the territory of NATO members or countries actively co-operating with NATO. The USA can access Serbia overland via Turkey, or fly in aid over international waters from Ukraine, Romania or Bulgaria, all of which are either NATO members, or have already provided weapons to Georgia.

I wasn’t meaning physically in regards to the US. I meant hamstrung by the fact that no U.S. admin is going to physically confront Russian forces in this situation.

TJ