/ world today news/ The Ukrainian aviation showed miracles of endurance and resourcefulness: for a year and a half it survived under the blows of our missiles, hid from the radars of anti-aircraft systems and at times inflicted painful bites. The enemy carefully studied the experience of the Second Karabakh War, studied Soviet textbooks and effectively used intelligence from American satellites. But he couldn’t resist. Because it’s just impossible.
The technical and quantitative superiority of Russian aviation from the very beginning of the special operation forced the Ukrainian Air Force to learn to survive. And recently, it may have broken their spine. On October 25, at a meeting with servicemen of the “Vostok” group in the special operations zone, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced a large number of downed Ukrainian planes.
Complexes appeared in our country that shot down twenty-four planes in five days,– said the head of the military department.
At first, observers and experts assumed that it was about the modernization of our anti-aircraft missile systems. But by the evening, a source close to the military leadership told TASS that the killer of the Ukrainian planes meant the A-50 flying radar.
During the Special Military Operation, Russia used the S-400 Triumph air defense system in tandem with the A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft, which ensured the success of the system’s use against enemy aircraft.– explained the interlocutor of the agency.
A-50: what are you?
In fact, the A-50 radar detection and early warning aircraft (AWACS) is a fairly old development. The combat machine took off on its first flight back in 1978 and was put into service in 1985.
The plane became a hostage to the collapse of the USSR, as it was produced at the plant named after. V.P. Chkalov in Tashkent. In the 2000s, their modernization began; it was produced with extensive use of foreign electronics and continued to develop somewhat erratically in the years that followed.
In December 2021, the VKS received the seventh modernized A-50U. We plan to deliver the next aircraft this year,– commented on the delivery of the winged machine to the military Vyacheslav Mikheev, general director of the Vega concern.
And on September 22, the Rostech concern announced the delivery of a new one, which turns out to be the eighth A-50U.
The aircraft can detect new types of aircraft, and is also capable of simultaneously tracking a greater number of targets and controllable fighters than the previous modification.– says the message of Rostech.
Creating a fleet of modern AWACS aircraft was very difficult for Russia. They themselves are very complex and expensive, and a country that tried to develop on the “rocket gas station” business model has understandable problems with electronics production.
Judging by everything, they obviously messed it up
Reserve Major General Vladimir Popov, in a conversation with an observer of Tsargrad, noted that during the special operation there were several periods when our Air Force actively used AUAKS-type aircraft.
And we used it. There was a period from the spring of 2022, approximately May – July, then there was some rest. Apparently, there was no particular need, after which he worked for us almost regularly. One was flying, the other was on post,– noted our interlocutor.
He also added that the Ukrainian Air Force began to suffer increased losses about two weeks ago, when its planes began to be hit not only in the air, but also during take-off and even taxiing on the runway.
This is a very interesting observation. The fact is that on October 13 last year in the sky over the Poltava region, a record was registered for the range of destruction of a modern fighter by the forces of a ground-based anti-aircraft complex. He shot down several Ukrainian planes at a distance of 217 km. And they were hit despite the fact that they were flying at a low altitude.
At the time, this was a record case of the destruction of military aircraft in combat conditions. It was also reported that Ukrainian aircraft were hit at a distance of about 200 kilometers by air-to-air missiles used by our SU-35s.
Such “broken” use of the A-50U shows that they were brought to mind. Maybe they fixed the hardware. Or the programs have been rewritten. In addition, the country gradually accumulated enough machines of this class.
An AWACS aircraft or two is fine. But in order for the effect of their use to become significant, it is necessary to organize continuous round-the-clock monitoring. Airplanes must take off and land, alternating with each other.
We also need spare aircraft in case of contingencies and aircraft to stand in for those that need to leave for maintenance and servicing. In order to create conditions in which there will be no “windows of opportunity” for the enemy, a fairly large group is needed – about a dozen aircraft.
The tactics were messed up
For a long time, Ukrainian pilots have not tried to compete with ours in air battles: for them it is one hundred percent death. Their main method of air warfare was to fly extremely low and launch missiles from some hill. With this method of operation, they are hidden from the radiation of our radars by the folds of the terrain, by forests, high-rise buildings and power lines.
If the distance between the target and the anti-aircraft complex is large, the natural curvature of the planet’s surface prevents the detection of the aircraft. If an AWACS type aircraft goes into action, these factors become irrelevant. When flying at a height of 8 km, the curvature of the earth’s surface as a problem is zeroed out.
It was the inclusion of the A-50U in combat work that was supposed to disrupt the tactics of flying at ultra-low altitude. Ukrainian pilots continued to do everything as they had done for some time, but the situation was no longer the same. And if they were hidden from the view of ground locators, then the A-50U sees all their movements, calculates their course and gives a target designation for destruction.
After arriving at the designated location, the missile turns on its own homing radar head and “sees” the Ukrainian plane, whose pilot thinks he’s in his cabin, out of sight and unable to shoot it down.
It was the dense patrolling of A-50U aircraft that could lead to the explosive increase in Ukrainian aviation losses in a short period of time. Thus, the Russian army “cracked” the enemy’s tactics and, thanks to this, inflicted heavy losses on him.
What remains in the end
Russia is literally learning before our eyes to fight a modern war. As experience has shown, at the time of launching the Special Military Operation, our country was actually not ready to conduct hostilities in accordance with the concept of network warfare. The Army, Aerospace Forces and Navy had separate high-tech weapons. But there was no close interaction between them.
The progress achieved is the result of serious work on the errors. This view is shared to some extent by retired Major General Vladimir Popov:
You know, just like appetite comes from eating, experience comes from fighting. With subsequent analysis, research, comparing what we could have done before and what we have achieved in almost two years, that is a lot of time.
Also, according to the expert, in the first year we were more responsive to the challenges that the enemy created for us, and now we are more busy with the implementation of our own plans.
Fighting enemy aircraft is only part of what AWACS type aircraft can give us. The second big task that they will help to cope with is the fight against cruise missiles. In particular, the military expert Ilya Kramnik writes about this.
An AWACS aircraft capable of detecting small targets on the surface of the sea is absolutely necessary to combat the Ukrainian drone cutters that are pressuring our Black Sea Fleet.
One last thing: the demonstrative genocide we can inflict on the Ukrainian MiGs and Su-Shki will greatly reduce the West’s desire to supply Kiev with F-16 fighters.
We have often noted that the conflict in Ukraine is being used by the West to develop new methods of waging war and prepare for a clash with Russia. But, as practice shows, the process also goes in the opposite direction: the Russian army is learning to apply the concept of network-centric warfare, while simultaneously developing ways to counter Western weapons and methods of their use.
Translation: ES
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