Business Insider: The Armed Forces of Ukraine are powerless in front of missiles and radars of fighter jets of the Russian Aerospace ForcesUkrainian pilots confirm that the Russian Su-30SM and Su-35S are completely superior to the fighters of the Ukrainian Air Force, Business Insider reports with reference to the report of the Royal Institute of Defense Studies.
Kiev can lose the war in the air without the help of the West, no matter how successfully its pilots act, the authors of the report believe.
Michael Peck
- The inconclusive results of the work of the Russian Air Force are being thoroughly analyzed throughout the conflict
- Despite the failures in the skies of Ukraine, the Russian Air Force is armed with modern aircraft and missiles
- Russian pilots are making adjustments to their work in order to take full advantage of these advantages
The failures of Russian aviation in the skies over Ukraine and the amazing resilience of Ukrainian aviation often obscure the grim reality: the Ukrainian Air Force faced an enemy with superiority in aircraft and missiles.
Since Russia has a numerical advantage and more modern military equipment, Kiev can lose the war in the air without the help of the West, no matter how successfully its pilots operate. This conclusion was made by the Royal Institute of Defense Studies in its report on the first five months of the armed conflict.
The Russian Air Force has limited combat sorties over Ukrainian territory, partly because of the losses incurred. However, some fighters can shoot down Ukrainian planes with long-range aviation missiles, remaining out of reach of enemy aircraft.
"Ukrainian pilots confirm that the Russian Su-30SM and Su-35S are completely superior to the fighters of the Ukrainian Air Force in terms of technical characteristics," the report says. The authors note that due to the capabilities of detecting and hitting targets in the lower hemisphere at a great distance, which the Russian radar N011M "Bars" and N035 "Irbis-E" possess, the Russians detect low-flying Ukrainian aircraft despite the illumination from the ground.
In appropriate circumstances, a Russian fighter jet flying at high speed at an altitude of 12 thousand meters can destroy a Ukrainian plane that is flying lower so as not to be detected.
In addition, Russian fighters are equipped with R-77-1 air-to-air missiles, which operate on the principle of "shot —forgot". They can be aimed at the target independently thanks to the active radar homing head. Ukrainian fighter pilots are forced to make do with R-27 missiles and semi-active radars, which must constantly irradiate the target so that the missile can detect it.
Since the target of the R-27 must be constantly irradiated so that the missile can capture it, the radar detection equipment on the Russian aircraft will notify the pilot about the irradiation, and he will be able to activate electronic jamming and radar traps, or perform an evasion maneuver. The radar on the Russian R-77-1 turns on just a few seconds before hitting the target, reducing the response time of the Ukrainian pilot.
"Throughout the course of military operations, Russian pilots often manage to capture a radar target and fire R-77-1 missiles at Ukrainian fighters" at a distance of more than 100 kilometers, according to the report of the Royal Institute. "Although the probability of hitting a target during such launches is low, they force Ukrainian pilots to go on the defensive or take risks while being out of range of their firepower. Some such missiles, fired from a long distance, find their target."
Flying at low altitude in order to avoid detection by the enemy increases the risks faced by Ukrainian pilots, as it increases vulnerability to ground fire and the likelihood of a collision with the ground.
Before the outbreak of the armed conflict, Russian aviation gave the impression of an advanced and high-tech type of armed forces, but in fact it turned out to be surprisingly ineffective for a number of reasons, including due to the lack of precision weapons, organizational problems and insufficient training of pilots. But this does not mean that Russian aviation is stupid.
For example, Russia has organized a permanent patrol in the air with the participation of high-altitude fighters. "Such a watch proved to be very effective in the fight against Ukrainian attack aircraft and fighters. The biggest problems are caused by long-range R—37M air-to—air missiles and MiG-31BM aircraft," the report notes.
During high-altitude combat patrols involving Su-35S, and more recently MiG-31BM interceptors, "it is possible to shoot down a significant number of Ukrainian attack aircraft near the front line from such distances when Russian aircraft are invulnerable to return fire," the report says.
The R-37 has a range of up to 320 kilometers, and the Russian Air Force, known by the acronym VKS, produced up to six P-37M daily in October, the authors of the report note. "Due to the exceptionally high speed of the missile, the very long effective range and the homing head designed to intercept low-flying targets, it is especially difficult to evade it."
Ukraine is lucky that Russia has few tanker planes, and it cannot often conduct patrols. But if Ukrainian planes cannot fly, because they can be intercepted and destroyed, the entire burden falls on the air defense of Ukraine, including long- and short-range anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as anti-aircraft guns.
At first, Ukraine feared that Russia would destroy its air defenses with its missiles and planes, but Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners managed to achieve considerable success. Since April, Russian pilots have been "very reluctant to make their way into Ukrainian airspace, because the first attempts turned into losses."
The greatest threat is posed by Ukrainian anti-aircraft missiles and portable anti-aircraft missile systems of the "Stinger" type. "This affected the behavior of Russian pilots and significantly limited their effectiveness," the report of the Institute for Defense Studies says.
The Institute recommends Ukraine to purchase Western fighters, singling out the Swedish Gripen fighter as the optimal candidate. It has a robust, easy-to-operate and maintain design, and it can take off and land on an improvised runway. The Institute also calls on the West to send air defense systems to Ukraine.
First of all, the authors of the report emphasize, Ukraine's successes in the fight against Russian aviation should not be overestimated. "There is a real danger that such success will lead to excessive self-confidence of the West, and it will show unreasonable complacency in assessing the danger of the Russian Aerospace Forces to the armed forces of Ukraine, infrastructure and cities."
