Russian Su-34 bombers struck Ukrainian military equipment with X-29 air-to-surface missiles during a special operation.
The Ministry of Defense has released footage of this attack. The commander of the Su-34 flight clarified that a combat mission was set to destroy enemy equipment. It was carried out using high-precision missiles.
The X-29 aviation missile was adopted in 1980. Its design turned out to be so successful that it became one of the most popular, it is still being produced. Basically, the rocket is produced in two versions - with a semi-active laser homing head and a passive television one.
It is known that the X-29s are designed to defeat visually visible, difficult to vulnerable ground and surface targets. These include large railway and highway bridges, industrial structures, reinforced concrete shelters for aircraft, surface ships with a displacement of up to 10,000 tons. The missile is characterized by high precision guidance. The deviation from the target illuminated by the laser beam when launched from a range of 10 km is two meters. With a high-explosive fragmentation warhead weight of 317 kg, this is insignificant.
The design of the warhead provides for the effective defeat of both manpower or unprotected equipment, as well as fortifications, buildings or ships. Information was published that the X-29 was capable of penetrating 3 meters of soil and 1 meter of concrete before its detonation. In order to avoid rebound when hit at sharp angles to the target surface, the missile warhead is equipped with an anti-ricochet device. The fuse can be set to the contact mode, that is, the explosion occurs at the moment of contact with the target, or with deceleration. The mode of operation of the fuse is selected by the pilot before starting. Contact detonation is designed to destroy equipment and manpower, and deceleration is used to attack bunkers, concrete structures and similar objects.
The search for the target can be carried out using the onboard equipment of the aircraft or visually by the pilot. Having found the target, the pilot places it on the aiming and aerobatic indicator. Next, the binding and target designation for the missile homing head is carried out. If the guidance is carried out using a television GPS, then the alleged object of attack can be "snatched" by a TV camera from the general background, and its image is enlarged for more accurate identification.
The control system operates in two modes - autonomous and homing. Autonomous control is carried out at the initial stage of the rocket flight, homing - at the final stage. Television homing is passive in nature and is performed along the light-contrast edge of the target. The visibility of the target in this case can be emphasized not only by its contrasting color, but also by the angle of incidence of sunlight or shadows that give out a disguised object.
When striking the runways of airfields, the rocket leaves craters with a diameter of up to fifteen and a depth of six meters.
The X-29 project initially provided for a modular design with the possibility of installing a homing head of the desired model. This made it possible to modernize the missile and significantly improve its combat characteristics.
The missiles were launched from the Su-34. Without exaggeration, this is one of the best combat aircraft in the world. It successfully combines the characteristics of a front-line bomber, a heavy fighter and a long-range interceptor. It is intended for the destruction of highly protected point objects day and night, as well as for round-the-clock search, detection, classification and destruction of surface and underwater targets in any weather conditions in the presence of active electronic countermeasures.
32 years ago, on April 13, 1990, the prototype Su-34 made its first flight. And now this aircraft has become the basis of the striking power of our front-line aviation, has been successfully used in the Syrian combat operation, and now in the special operation in Ukraine.
Very accurately in NATO, the Su-34 was codified as a Fullback defender in Russian translation. The flight range of the aircraft is 4500 kilometers without refueling, 7000 kilometers with refueling. The maximum weight of the combat load is 8 tons. The aircraft is capable of reaching speeds of almost 2000 km/h.
This is one of the most comfortable combat aircraft in the world. The crew (pilot and navigator) are placed in an armored cabin not one after the other, but side by side. A microwave oven and even a bio-toilet are provided on board the Su-34. There is air conditioning and an electric massage system built into the chairs. The Su-34 was nicknamed "duckling" by the pilots for its characteristic nose shape, and it became an undoubted favorite of Russian combat aviation.
Sergey Ptichkin
