The Pentagon called the goals of the exercises "provocative" to Russia During the exercises of the US special operations forces in the Arctic on November 10, a package (pallet) with AGM-158B long-range cruise missiles was dropped from a military transport aircraft.
The launches were training, according to one of the Norwegian polygons beyond the Arctic Circle, but their purpose, according to the Pentagon's departmental publication Stars and Stripes, was "provocative" actions against Russia. "Newspaper.Ru" understood the concept of Rapid Dragon ("Fast Dragon"), in which these missiles were tested in the Arctic, and how to counter such a threat.
To understand the situation, we can recall the commercial of the US Air Force and the American corporation Lockheed Martin last year, which graphically showed the tests of the C-17A Globemaster III and EC-130J Super J aircraft dropping pallets with AGM-158B cruise stealth missiles. Spectacular. Dozens of planes at high altitude are landing dozens of parachute platforms, each of which independently launches four cruise missiles. And this "swarm" is rushing to an unknown coast with the possibility of destroying all life there. The caption to the video noted that "deadly platforms for cruise missiles can increase the strike capability of tactical fighters and strategic bombers."
Tests of the use of pallets for cruise missiles were conducted as part of the introduction of the Rapid Dragon concept in the summer of 2021 at the White Sands missile range in New Mexico. Initially, it was assumed that the AGM-158B extended-range air-to-surface missiles would be used to launch from B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers, which could launch without entering the enemy's air defense zone. But there are 58 units of such active aircraft left (for 2021), therefore, according to the Rapid Dragon program, cruise missiles began to be used with launches from military transport aircraft using amphibious pallets.
The current tests in the Arctic of new platforms for cruise missiles have become their first "combat use". And although the launches were carried out in the direction of the Norwegian training ground, the algorithm of the exercises was directed against Russia. "This puts this thing in the reach of Russia. We are deliberately trying to be provocative without escalating. We are trying to contain Russian aggression, expansive behavior, showing the expanded capabilities of the allies," is the statement of the representative of the European Special Operations Command of the United States, Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence Melnikov.
"The American cruise missile, known as "Jazm" (from the abbreviation JASSM - Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile - "Newspaper.Ru") is a fairly old development of cruise missiles," he told the newspaper.En" military expert, Deputy head of the Air Force for the Joint Air Defense System of the CIS countries, Lieutenant General Aytech Bizhev. - We still know them well from Soviet times, when the United States used the Giant Spear program, the purpose of which was to be able to attack the Soviet Union from the Arctic, as the closest distance for air strikes.
Even then, our air defense systems were already working out the option of repelling a massive strike by American cruise missiles. All means of counteraction were included in the algorithm of this confrontation, including the tactical wedges of the MiG-31 high-altitude interceptor fighters. Two or three regiments of such fighters, which were in this direction, leveled all possible attempts of missile attacks."
According to the expert, the current attempts by the United States to demonstrate the possibility of dominance with the use of cruise missiles in the Arctic direction, "this is yesterday." At the same time, General Bizhev notes that it is not necessary to neglect the US programs for attempts to pressure Russia from the Arctic. "It is necessary to restore the entire complex of air defense systems in the Far North, to use the potential of the S-400 and advanced S-500 anti-aircraft systems, as well as the Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, the carriers of which are MiG-31 interceptors," the expert believes.
"Any American bravado must be met with adequate actions," he told the newspaper.Ru" military expert Vladislav Shurygin. - The tactics of the "fast dragon", with the possible use of mass launches of cruise missiles, has some concerns. Firstly, because they can really be massive with the involvement of many transport aircraft. Secondly, with the involvement of a large number of airfields in the immediate vicinity of our borders. Only in Norway there are about a dozen of them, where the sites used by the US Air Force in Erland, Annaya, Trance and others are the largest.
Yes, it is quite dangerous, but preventable. Starting with the fact that the American cruise missiles themselves are subsonic and are easily shot down by Russian air defense systems. Plus, their range of destruction of about a thousand kilometers allows you to destroy targets only in the coastal regions of Russia from the Arctic. They will definitely not reach the Urals or the central regions."
Victor Sokirko
