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Russia underestimated Georgian air defenses

The commander of Georgia’s air force gathered the international media in April to show a video of a Russian MiG-29 Fulcrum shooting down a Georgian unmanned drone — four months before fighting broke out between the two countries.

It was the second Georgian UAV shot down by a sophisticated fourth-generation fighter, an example of Russia’s utter air dominance over its smaller neighbor. But although Russia ruled the air during fighting, its air force didn’t emerge unscathed.

Georgian air defense systems shot down multiple Russian aircraft — even one of its most advanced bombers — although it’s unclear how many.

Russian officials said three Su-25 Frogfoot attack planes and one Tu-22 Backfire long-range bomber were shot down by the Georgian military.

Georgia, on the other hand, claims it shot down as many as 21 Russian planes.

The Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies, a Moscow-based independent research institute, published a report in the Moscow Defense Brief crediting the Georgian military with eight kills. In addition to the four confirmed by the Russians, the institute claims the Georgians also shot down a fourth Su-25, an Mi-24 Hind helicopter gunship and two Su-24 Fencer reconnaissance and ground attack aircraft.

The report concluded that the Russian air force underestimated Georgia’s air defenses and needed to strengthen its tactics and resources to suppress enemy air defenses.

The institute credited Georgia’s Russian-made SA-11 Gadfly surface-to-air missile systems with the shootdowns of the Tu-22 and the three Su-25s.

Georgia bought three batteries of the SA-11 SAM system — a low- to high-altitude mobile system capable of taking out high-performance aircraft — from Ukraine in 2007.

Col.-Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, one of Russia’s deputy chiefs of General Staff, said the Georgians effectively hid the location of their vehicle-mounted air defenses during the first days of combat. He said the loss of the first four planes led his pilots to become more cautious.

The loss of the Tu-22 was especially embarrassing for the Russians since it was piloted by three military test pilots at one of the country’s most prestigious flight test centers.

Aircraft commander Col. Igor Zinov and second pilot Maj. Vyacheslav Malkov survived and were taken prisoner; the navigator died. Photos and video of them lying in Georgian hospital beds were transmitted around the world.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin even visited Zinov and Malkov once they returned to Moscow hospitals after prisoner-of-war swaps with Georgia.

The Tu-22, which was first designed to carry nuclear weapons, was flying a reconnaissance mission, Russian officials said. Former Russian air force chief Gen. Anatoly Kornukov said this was a mistake.

“They sent the Tu-22 crew to their deaths thinking that the Georgian air defense would mount no resistance,” Kornukov told Interfax news agency.

Alexander Golts, a Moscow-based independent military analyst, agreed.

“Using the Tu-22 for a reconnaissance mission over Georgia was the same as using a microscope to drive nails,” he said.

Less than a month after fighting ended, Russian leaders have begun taking steps to fix problems by increasing the number of satellites in the country’s Global Navigation Satellite System.

Putin signed an order to increase funding to launch 30 more satellites by 2011.

The increase will allow Russia to bolster its use of precision-guided weapons and improve its aerial and land navigation — three areas in which the Russians proved to be deficient during their battle with Georgia, according to the Moscow Defense Brief report.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.