"It's easier to make a new fighter than to adapt the MiG-29 for HARM"

Colonel Khodarenok explained why the use of HARM missiles in Ukraine is impossible

Almost all week, the possible use by the Armed Forces of Ukraine of anti-radar missiles AGM-88 HARM manufactured by Raytheon against Russian air defense was discussed. Military observer of the Newspaper.En" Mikhail Khodarenok figured out what is true and what is fiction in this story.

Information began to spread in the blogosphere and a number of media outlets - Russian, Ukrainian and Western - that remnants of the American AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missile were found in the Donbas.

Moreover, a number of photographs of this product appeared, taken, as reported, somewhere in the positions of Russian troops. At the same time, it was claimed that the pictures show the remains of the AGM-88 missile, which could allegedly be used by Ukrainian aircraft on Russian air defense systems.

Indeed, the fragments of the missile in the photo have a characteristic marking on the tail unit BSU-60 A /B (the index of the surfaces of the tail unit of the HARM missile) and the CAGE code of Raytheon Corporation - 96214 (the code CAGE, Commercial and Government Entity Code is assigned to all suppliers by the Logistics Agency of the US Department of Defense).

However, there is no reliable data on who exactly found these fragments, who took the photo and where exactly, in what place the fragments of the American product were photographed. Such cases should be documented absolutely officially and with appropriate statements. So we make the first conclusion - we don't really know anything about the origin of the wreckage of AGM-88 HARM.

Presumably, we are talking about fighters sent to Ukraine by "one of the European countries." Let's pay attention - again, no specifics and absolutely no links to possible sources of information.

A number of Ukrainian experts claim that the Poles handed over to the AFU a lot of "spare parts" and "blocks" for the MiG-29, namely, these supplies make it easy to use anti-radar missiles of the AGM-88 HARM type to aircraft of the Air Defense Forces of Ukraine. Let's just say - more than lightweight estimates of the amateur plan.

To begin with, let's ask ourselves the question - is it possible to use a domestic-made fighter as a carrier of Western-made aircraft weapons? And this, we note, is not the easiest task, because, figuratively speaking, absolutely nothing fits out of rockets and bombs and nothing matches even purely in geometric dimensions, not to mention the rest of the characteristics.

Even for free-falling aircraft bombs, it will be necessary to radically alter the suspension units of weapons on any of the aircraft. The situation with guided missiles will be even more difficult.

Beam holders are designed for them, with which a mass of aggregates and equipment is additionally mounted. In other words, in order to simply hang the AGM-88 HARM under the domestic MiG-29, significant mechanical changes in the design of the aircraft are necessary. But all this, as they say, is still flowers in comparison with the required changes in the onboard electronic equipment of the fighter in general and the sighting and navigation complex in particular.

There was also such an assumption: if the AGM-88 HARM missiles were used in Ukraine, it was most likely from improvised Israeli-made ground launchers. The version is quite plausible, but military-technical cooperation between Jerusalem and Kiev has not yet reached such a level.

There is no official confirmation of such deliveries from either Israel or Ukraine.

The opinion of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.

Biography of the author:

Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for the newspaper.Ru", retired colonel.

Columnist of "Nezavisimaya Gazeta" (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Military-Industrial Courier" (2010-2015).

Mikhail Khodarenok