Destroyed Russian fighter jets in Ukraine are being found with basic GPS devices taped to them because the inbuilt navigation systems are too poor, according to UK’s defence secretary.
Ben Wallace, who serves as the British Secretary of State for Defence, spoke at the National Army Museum in London, commemorating those who died in World War II.
He says the blame for Russia's inadequate equipment and poor battle preparation should be put on Moscow’s General Staff of the Russian army.
His comments come after fighter jets were reportedly found with GPS receivers taped to their dashboards and vehicles containing paper maps from the 1980s.
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Wallace said: “Russian vehicles had not been maintained properly and immobilised many logistics vehicles, leading to cheap tyres being blown out and truck axle hub failures, all due to poor maintenance or the money for that maintenance being taken elsewhere.
“As an aside, the sheer amount of footage from Ukrainian drones suggests to me that they also lack wider air defence and counter-UAV system.”
He continued: “But it’s not just ground forces. ‘GPS’ receivers have been found taped to the dashboards of downed Russian SU-34s so the pilots knew where they were, due to the poor quality of their own systems.”
The SU-34 aircraft was first manufactured in the early 1990s by the then Soviet Union.
Wallace believes Russian military hardware was being pushed to breaking point during the invasion of Ukraine.
He added: “The result is that whilst Russia have large amounts of artillery and armour that they like parading, they are unable to leverage them for combined arms manoeuvre and just resort to mass indiscriminate barrages.”
Wallace believes Russia’s top political and military advisers should face charges for misleading their soldiers.
He said: “I know soldiers in the Russian army will not get a voice and there will be thousands of mothers and wives who do not agree with this illegal war, who will be asking themselves why these things happened.”
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army has mocked Russia’s Victory Day parade, by holding a parade of its own using captured Russian tanks.
May 9 was the Kremlin's Victory Day Parade, which commemorates Russia's 1945 victory over the Nazis.
It's also a chance for Russia to show off its impressive military arsenal and all the shiny new warfare toys it won't hesitate to use.
But Ukraine took the opportunity to troll its enemy on their highly anticipated moment.
Russia has suffered 25,350 personnel losses and lost 1,997 vehicles and fuel tanks, 1,187 tanks, and 199 aircraft according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence website.
Topics: Russia, Ukraine, Army, Technology
Jayden Collins