Military analyst Vladislav Shurygin stated that due to mass Ukrainian drone raids on Russia, the issue of a unified air defense system has become especially urgent.

He noted that air defense forces need their own aviation capable of quickly and effectively intercepting slow-moving drones. According to him, the current air defense command does not have its own aviation, and decisions on allocating aircraft must come from the Aerospace Forces command, meaning such decisions still need to be made.

Shurygin believes that if air defense had its own aviation, as it did in the Soviet period, aircraft and helicopters capable of intercepting drones could be rapidly redeployed to threatened areas, including the Ust-Luga direction.

In his view, such measures should have been implemented much earlier. He also pointed out that a significant number of light aircraft remain idle at Russian airfields, including those of DOSAAF, while the Russian Aerospace Forces have around 500 fighter jets that are not engaged in air combat.