Russian short-range air defense systems are reliable only if they are properly operated
According to the results of the six-week war between Armenia and Azerbaijan, military experts almost unanimously declare the end of the era of armored vehicles. The tank turned into a kind of relict dinosaur, which is mercilessly beaten by drones, "who won the new century domination in the sky." There are links to spectacular video streams showing the defeat of tanks with high-precision missiles launched by Turkish Bayraktar TB2 attack and reconnaissance UAVS. Moreover, statistics are drawn from Turkish Newspapers, which are doing their best to advertise their "Bayraktars" so that they will shift the Kalashnikov brand from the first position in the world ranking.
In other words, it is claimed that the drones destroyed almost 130 Armenian tanks. Although on the Azerbaijani side in the war took part and barrel artillery, and jet, and missile systems, and armored vehicles, and in the end, the infantry with ATGM.
"Arrow" missed the target
Yes, Armenia's losses in this war are very significant. And if not for the truce with the introduction of peacekeepers, the entire Nagorno-Karabakh could have passed to Azerbaijan. But sometimes you can hear that military equipment could have been saved if Armenia had purchased the Pantsir-S1 anti-aircraft missile and gun systems. However, this is a misconception, since the "Shell" is a tool related to the air defense Forces and designed to protect against air attacks of stationary objects. Tanks and other military equipment are protected by military anti-aircraft missile systems at their bases, on the March, and during combat operations. Their distinctive feature is the use of tracked chassis for the ability to move over very rough terrain. And SAMS on wheeled chassis are adjusted to the protected object, where they stand on combat duty.
Armenia has air defense systems that can effectively deal with any drones, even much more effective than the "average" Bayraktar. They did not participate in the war. But first, about those SAMS that fought and failed the defense, allowing Turkish and Israeli drones to smash Armenian military equipment. Although it is in contrast to Azerbaijan, for the most part Soviet, that is already far not new, and only a little Russian.
The Main burden of protecting the troops of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh was assigned to the STRELA-10 and OSA-AKM air defense systems of the late 60s. And oddly enough, the results of the summer Armenian-Russian air defense exercises gave Armenia a high readiness to repel air attacks. Special mention was made of SAM "OSA-AKM".
But in the first week of the war, Turkish drones severely thinned the batteries of both of these complexes.
Because they were not able to fight the "Bayraktars", the ceiling of which is eight thousand meters, and the EPR (that is, radar visibility) is in the region of 0.1 square meters or even lower. The maximum height of interception of air targets for Strela-10 is only three thousand meters. In the "OSA-AKM" this parameter reaches five thousand meters, but it is also unable to reach the Turkish drone.
However, when implementing the shock function, the drone, of course, has to fall below its ceiling. But even in this case, the chances of intercepting a drone from these two SAMS are small. Because both of these complexes were created before there were aircraft with reduced visibility. Such as drones, cruise missiles, and aircraft built using stealth technologies that have an ESR of 0.1 square meters or lower.
Having dealt with the military air defense systems without any problems, the drones proceeded to defeat tanks and other Armenian military equipment with impunity.
The Armenians were able to stop the Turkish drones
At the same time, Armenia has military complexes that would quickly replace the Turks, who in fact managed the "Bayraktars" while on the territory of Azerbaijan. There was also significant assistance from Turkish territory, where an AWACS plane was barraging along the border with Armenia, transmitting the coordinates of the detected targets to the Azerbaijanis.
But the military air defense systems "tor-M2KM" (short-range) and "Buk-M2E" (medium-range) were tightly tied to Yerevan and the Metsamor nuclear power plant. Of course, special attention should be paid to the protection of particularly important objects and territories. However, when planning the actions of the ground forces, deprived of effective means of repelling air attacks, it was possible to foresee the catastrophe of the fall of 2020.
"Tor-M2KM" - a modification of the SAM, adopted in 2015. It is equipped with eight missiles with a range of up to 15 kilometers and an intercept height of up to 10 kilometers. Capable of detecting and shooting down targets with an EPR of 0.02–0.05 square meters. The missile maneuvers with an overload of 30 g, the maximum overload capacity of intercepted targets is 12 g. Speed – Mach 2.4. Radio command guidance. At the same time, 48 targets are detected, 10 are accompanied, and 4 are fired at.as we can see, Bayraktar has no chance of surviving if it falls within the range of this SAM.
For the creation of the BUK-M2E air defense system, the developers of the complex from the V. V. Tikhomirov research Institute of instrument engineering were awarded the prize Of the government of the Russian Federation in 2013. The maximum firing range is 45 kilometers. Interception is carried out at altitudes from 15 meters to 25 kilometers. It can shoot down aerodynamic targets with a speed of up to Mach 2.5, and ballistic targets with a speed of up to Mach 4. Simultaneously fires at up to 24 targets. The EPR of intercepted targets is 0.05-0.07.
When these two complexes are removed away from the theater of war, then there is talk that drones have opened a new era in the strategy and tactics of military operations.
Tracked MANPADS
Meanwhile, Russia continues not only to modify existing military short-range and short-range SAMS, but also to create new ones that would best solve both classic and new tasks of air and missile defense. In the summer of 2019, the Sosna short-range air defense system, developed by the A. E. Nudelman precision engineering design Bureau, was adopted. The complex was created to replace the Strela-10 air defense system, which was mentioned above. The "Arrows" has its merits. Its missile is equipped with an infrared guidance head pre-cooled with liquid nitrogen. At the time of creation of the complex, it was, one might say, revolutionary. There was no need for radio command guidance of the missile on the target, everything worked on the principle of "shot-forgot".
Obsolete air defense system "Strela-10". Photo: google.com
But the weakest point of the "Arrow-10" is a primitive fire control system, that is, determining the coordinates of the target. The gunner looks for a target in the eyepiece of the sight, points the rangefinder beam at it, and the computing device determines its coordinates by the position of the sight axis and the target range. More precisely, the area of space in which the target is located is determined. And then everything is done by the GOS, capturing the target and directing the missile at it. But this works at a small distance from the target, and when it is large, the" head " of the rocket may not detect the target. That is why the Strela-10 has a very small intercept radius, even in comparison with other short – range SAMS: the range is five kilometers, the height is three kilometers. Even MANPADS that work on the same principle, these characteristics are better. For example, the "willow" has a maximum range of six kilometers and a height of 3.5 kilometers. In this series, we should mention the American complex M1097 Avenger, created on the principle of "Cheap and angry". It is an armored army jeep, which is equipped with eight stinger MANPADS.
"Pine" to the ceiling
Sosna has significantly improved its target detection and tracking mechanism. For this purpose, an optoelectronic weapon control system is used, which has one television channel and two thermal imaging channels that differ in the working wavelength. The rocket on the final section of the route after separation of the main engine is guided by a laser beam. The probability of hitting a target is increased by using both a contact and non-contact fuse in the warhead. The complex is able to operate in automatic mode without the participation of the crew, and in semi-automatic mode, when some procedures are performed by the operator.
The zone of guaranteed interception at a range of 1.3-10 kilometers, at an altitude of 0.002-5 kilometers. The 9m340 rocket has excellent maneuverability, maintaining all its parameters at overloads up to 40 g.
The weapon control system, according to the developers, is able to work equally not only at any time of the day, but also in any weather. That is, negative atmospheric phenomena, of course, reduce its "vision", but to a small extent.
Aircraft are detected at a distance of 30 kilometers, cruise missiles and drones – 12 kilometers. "Pine" can also hit ground targets, including tanks, for which there are various types of warheads and armor-piercing. The tank is detected at a distance of up to eight kilometers.
The missile and instrument blocks are mounted on a tracked chassis - on a multi-purpose tractor light armored MT-LB. It is able not only to move over very rough terrain, but also to swim. This version of the chassis is used for arming the Russian Ground forces. When selling abroad, the buyer can choose the right chassis. The crew is two people. The combat vehicle is armed with 12 missiles in transport and launch containers.
"Sosna" compares favorably with those complexes in which the search for targets is carried out using radar. The radar unmasks the SAM, which is fraught with the fact that an anti-radar missile will arrive from a distance inaccessible to the SAM. And not one, but several, which will not be easy to reflect. The optical location system used in Sosna does not send any waves into space. At the same time, the complex can also receive target designation from external sources.
The system is equally capable of intercepting low-flying targets that go around the terrain, maneuvering and supersonic. As well as targets with low ESR, its value does not matter for the optical location system. Due to the fact that the missile is guided by a laser beam, it is not affected by the enemy's electronic warfare equipment. It also does not respond to heat traps.
Promising complexes
Meanwhile, in the queue to infiltrate the military air defense structures, there is a promising SAM "bird Catcher". The ROC for its creation should be completed in 2022.
More precisely, there should be two" Birders". The first one is for the airborne forces, and it is being developed by the airborne landing party. It is created on the tracked chassis of the BMD-4M combat vehicle. The second is for the Ground forces. And it will be built on a tracked BMP-3 chassis.
And everything that is located on the chassis-the launcher, fire control system, missiles, will be borrowed from the Sam "Sosna". In other words, the principle of operation remains exactly the same. The precision engineering design Bureau engaged in these projects is extremely stingy in providing information about the appearance of both promising complexes. It is only known that the ammunition will be supplemented with a new missile with a longer range and intercept height. And we can only assume that in addition to this, some characteristics will be improved.
Another promising development should be completed soon. But not the SAM, but the anti-aircraft artillery complex (Zak) "Derivation-air defense". It is based on the BMP-3 tracked chassis with an uninhabited module, which houses a 57 mm cannon and a 7.62 mm machine gun paired with it. This caliber of tank guns from the Second world war in this century became again in demand, gradually replacing the 30-mm guns from circulation. It has significantly greater firepower and range, which is not available to traditional anti-aircraft and aviation caliber guns.
Moreover, this caliber was adapted to create guided missiles. For" Derivation-air defense " they were created by the design Bureau of precision engineering, and the rapid-fire automatic gun itself, along with the combat module, was developed in the Nizhny Novgorod Central research Institute "Burevestnik". These projectiles are controlled not by the flight path, but by the moment of detonation. When remotely detonated, flying fragments hit targets in a significant amount of space. Due to this, the result is closer to the indicators of anti-aircraft missiles. The probability of two guided projectiles hitting a small-sized target with a sound velocity, like a cruise missile and a drone, is 0.8.
The gun's ammunition capacity is 148 rounds. The rate of fire is 120 rounds per minute. The firing range of 8-10 kilometers, height – 4.5 kilometers.
In the "Derivation-air defense", as in the SAM "Sosna", the fire control system is opto-electronic. That is, the complex does not unmask itself with any radiation. And this and, in fact, everything else it differs from the closest "relative", more precisely – "ancestor". In 1964, the Zak "Shilka" WAS adopted, in which a radar was introduced to improve the accuracy of shooting in the sighting system. However, it didn't do much good. From four barrels, the Shilka produces 3,400 23-millimeter shells per minute. However, the firing range does not exceed 2.5 kilometers, and the height is 1.5 kilometers. With such a range in modern conditions, "Shilka" is completely useless. However, it still remains in the military.
Everyone is waiting for the arrival of "Derivation-air defense", repeating, like a spell: here it will deal with the drones. However, the Russian army has enough different complexes to deal with this fairly demonized aircraft right now.
Vladimir Tuchkov
Military-industrial courier newspaper, published in issue # 45 (858) for November 24, 2020