Russian aircraft losses in North Caucasus since 1999
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In October 1999, at the beginning of the invasion of Chechnya, Russia was able to deploy in the war zone only 68 transport and attack helicopters – a quarter of the number amassed for the war in Afghanistan, though the number of troops sent to Afghanistan and the second Chechen war is roughly the same. According to the Russian military expert Pavel Felgenhauer, Russian forces lost up to 50 helicopters in Chechnya between August 1999 and January 2003; the attrition rate has been appalling and especially painful for the Russian military, because there was no additional procurement during this period.[1]
According to the official data, Russian forces lost some 31 aircraft, including a number of fighter bombers, destroyed or heavily damaged over Chechnya between September 1999 and July 2001.[2]
[edit] Timeline of worst losses
- August 9, 1999 - Two Mi-8 transport helicopters were hit at Botlikh airfield in Dagestan by anti-tank guided missiles.
- December 13, 1999 - Russian Ministry of Defence has officially confirmed the loss of Mi-8 and Mi-24. Both helicopters were searching for the Su-25 plane that crashed near the village of Bachi-Yurt earlier.
- February 18, 2000 - Russian army transport helicopter was shot down in the south of Chechnya, killing 15 people aboard.
- June 14, 2001 - Two Su-25 ground attack aircraft simultaneously disappeared from radar screens while on a combat mission in the area of Shatoi. According to official report, the two aircraft crashed due to low visibility and difficult terrain.
- October 17, 2001 - A surface-to-air missile shot down a VIP Mi-8 helicopter over the Chechen capital Grozny, killing all aboard. The helicopter was carrying Major-General Anatoli Pozdnyakov, member of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Major-General Pavel Varfolomeyev, deputy director of staff of the Defence Ministry of Russia, eight colonels, and three crewmembers. According to Anna Politkovskaya, who interviewed General Pozdnyakov a hour before his death, the attack was actually work of the corrupt elements in the Russian military in Chechnya.[3]
- January 27, 2002 - A Russian Interior Ministry Mi-8 was shot down in Nadterechny District, killing eleven people including crew. Among those killed in the crash were Russian Deputy Interior Minister Lieutenant-General Mikhail Rudchenko, responsible for security in the Southern Federal District, and deputy commander of the Internal Troops Major-General Nikolai Goridov, as well as several other high-ranking officers including colonels Oriyenko, Stepanenko, and Trafimov. The chopper's downing coincided with the five-year anniversary of the election of separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov as President of Chechnya.[4]
- August 19, 2002 - A Russian-made Igla missile hit an overloaded Mi-26 helicopter, causing it to crash in a minefield at the main military base near Grozny. A total of 127 Russian troops were killed in Khankala attack, the greatest loss of life in the history of helicopter aviation.[5]
- November 3, 2002 - Chechen rebels shot down a Russian military helicopter, killing nine servicemen. The Mi-8 helicopter was struck by a portable ground-to-air missile fired from a building near Grozny shortly after its take-off from Khankala.
- March 10, 2005 - A state security helicopter carrying members of OSNAZ FSB special-purpose unit as well as the FSB officers from Khabarovsk was downed by gunfire in Urus-Martanovsky District; at least 15 died and 12 others were injured.[6]
- July 18, 2005 - A Russian air force Mi-8 helicopter carrying border guards crashed in mountainous southern Chechnya, killing eight people; one man survived.[7]
- September 11, 2006 - Three army generals, including Chief of logistics of Russia's North Caucasus Military District, Major-General Vladimir Sorokin, died in an army Mi-8 helicopter crashed in a suburb of Vladikavkaz, killing at least 12. It had a three-strong crew and was carrying a group of 11 high-ranking officers, including Gen Sorokin and a few other generals, who were taking part in a military exercise that had begun in the region of North Ossetia earlier in the day. The the local rebel group Kataib al-Khoul, who has vowed to shoot down Russian military aircraft on September 7, accepted responsibility.
