A Russian Grad rocket-launcher almost accidentally shot down a Russian Sukhoi Su-25 attack jet as it streaked toward the front line at low altitude recently.
The near-miss, depicted in a shocking video that circulated on social media, elicited an angry reaction from the pilots in the Sukhoi flight.
“This is so wrong,” one pilot barked into his radio.
Friendly-fire incidents like nearly happened between the Grad and the Sukhoi are a major risk on chaotic battlefields. Perhaps even more so in Russia’s 22-month wider war on Ukraine, as the air-defense threat has driven pilots on both sides into the weeds, so to speak. They fly so low to avoid getting shot down by the enemy that they risk getting shot down by friendly artillery.
The Sukhoi pilots knew they were flying over active multiple-launch rocket system batteries that day. “MLRS is operating,” one intoned to another.
“I fucking see it,” was the reply.
The pilots could see the rocket-launcher, but the rocket crew apparently couldn’t see the fast-flying Sukhois, speeding just 100 feet or so over the terrain. The Grad fired its 122-millimeter rockets a second before the Su-25 presumably with the nose number eight flew right under the rockets.
“Let them know the Grad fired right before the eight [plane],” a pilot growled into his radio.
Keeping friendly aircraft and artillery safe from each other requires constant vigilance. The U.S. and allied armed forces “deconflict” battlefields by drawing an imaginary line—a “fire support coordination line”—ahead of ground forces, past which the ground troops aren’t supposed to fire their rockets and howitzers.
Any aircraft operating inside that line—close-air-support attack jets, in particular—must coordinate with ground forces, often via a front-line controller on the ground, in order to ensure the artillery stops firing when the planes are overhead.
It’s a dangerous dance. And it’s not for no reason that U.S. and allied forces set up elaborate air operations centers and train specialist air-control parties to direct the air-ground tango.
Russian forces aren’t nearly as good at this. “One area where the [air force] has almost completely failed to be effective throughout the war … is in providing dynamic close air support to Russian units on the battlefield,” analyst Justin Bronk concluded in a study for CNA in Virginia.
Bronk wrote that back in the spring. It’s possible the Russians have improved their air-ground coordination since then. But not if that Grad-Sukhoi near-miss is any indication.
Emily Foster is a globe-trotting journalist based in the UK. Her articles offer readers a global perspective on international events, exploring complex geopolitical issues and providing a nuanced view of the world’s most pressing challenges.
