Russia’s MiG-31 Crews Are Shooting At Ukrainian Pilots From A Hundred Miles Away—And The Ukrainians Can’t Shoot Back

The VKS’s defensive patrols “have proven highly effective against Ukrainian attack aircraft and fighters, with the MiG-31BM and R-37M long-range air-to-air missile being especially problematic,” Justin Bronk, Nick Reynolds and Jack Watling wrote in a new study for the Royal United Services Institute in London. ...It’s unclear how many of those kills the MiG-31 crews can claim. Probably several. “The VKS has been firing up to six R-37Ms per day during October,” Bronk, Reynolds and Watling wrote, “and the extremely high speed of the weapon, coupled with very long effective range and a seeker designed for engaging low-altitude targets, makes it particularly difficult to evade.”