Russia has at its eastern borders the means capable of influencing the course of possible conflicts in the regionIn the Far East, on April 20, a sudden check of the combat readiness of the Pacific Fleet (TOF) was completed.
The maneuvers were conducted under the leadership of the Commander-in-Chief of the Navy, Admiral Nikolai Evmenov. As noted in the Ministry of Defense, the exercises confirmed high readiness indicators "to solve the tasks of repelling the aggression of a potential enemy from ocean and sea directions." More than 25 thousand servicemen, 89 planes and helicopters, 167 ships, including 12 submarines, were involved. Izvestia was looking into what Russia can oppose to potential aggressors in the Pacific coastal seas and what combat systems can seriously affect the military-political situation in the region.
Verification results
According to the results of the maneuvers in the Russian Defense Ministry, the command and personnel of the fleet in a short time prepared the forces for combat operations, performed operational deployment and worked out a set of combat training tasks in the near and far sea zones. In the designated areas of the Japanese, Okhotsk and Bering Seas, the crews of the ships conducted training to repel massive missile and air strikes, search and destroy submarines, torpedo, artillery firing and missile launches.
Multipurpose submarines, warships, coastal missile systems "Bal" and "Bastion" in cooperation with the forces of long-range aviation of the Aerospace Forces and naval aviation of the fleet did not allow the conditional enemy to deploy forces in the southern part of the Sea of Okhotsk and repelled his landing on the southern Kuril Islands and Sakhalin.
Units of coastal troops and marines worked out the anti-amphibious defense of the coast section and conducted exercises and live firing at training grounds. Strategic missile carriers Tu-95MS and long-range bombers Tu-22M3 long-range aviation VKS flew to the central Pacific Ocean with simulated strikes on ship groups. Crews of anti-submarine aircraft of naval aviation have worked out the search and destruction of submarines.
Long arm
As part of long-range aviation today, there are four types of carrier aircraft of missile systems that can be used to destroy the enemy at almost any range. The intercontinental range of hitting targets is provided by strategic missile-carrying aircraft Tu-160 and Tu-95MS — carriers of non-nuclear cruise missiles X-101 (range 5.5 thousand km) and X-555 (range up to 3 thousand km). Each Tu-160 can carry 12 such munitions, and the Tu-95MS takes up to 16 cruise missiles into flight in the inner armament compartment and on the outer suspension.
These missiles can destroy any objects with previously known coordinates — naval bases, headquarters, airfields, air defense complexes and others. Taking into account the flight range of carrier aircraft from airfields in the Far East, almost any targets in the west and in the central Pacific Ocean, on the west coast of the United States and Canada can be hit.
Several dozen supersonic medium-range missile carriers with variable wing sweep of the Tu-22M3 are also part of long-range aviation and are being upgraded to the level of the Tu-22M3M. Most of the modern Tu-22M3 can carry powerful modern supersonic X-32 missiles (up to three per aircraft, range up to 1 thousand km). Such ammunition is capable of destroying both stationary and moving targets. When used in groups, they can become a universal weapon against aircraft carrier groups, since it is very difficult to shoot down an X-32 missile with modern air defense systems.
Several types of new missiles are being created for the Tu-22M3 today, including hypersonic ones — ammunition is being created for the Tupolev Design Bureau carriers according to the Romance and Gremlin programs. The appearance of new missiles in the arsenal of the Tu-22M3 will increase the number of targets that this aircraft will be able to hit in one flight. The probability of hitting targets with hypersonic missiles today is close to 100%.
This has already been confirmed in practice by a new carrier aircraft, which only recently became part of the long-range aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces — the MiG-31I, the carrier of the Kinzhal hypersonic complex. The rocket's flight speed is up to 10 M (10 speeds of sound), the range is up to 2 thousand km. This is an aeroballistic munition, it has low radar visibility. To shoot it down today will be extremely difficult for any, even the most advanced air defense system.
"Dagger" is a high—precision weapon that can be used on the most important fixed targets, as well as on point moving targets such as aircraft carriers. The missile is equipped with a radar guidance system, it is able to selectively guide it exactly to the desired target in a group of ships, determining the desired silhouette according to the information stored in memory.
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The first squadron of MiG-31I carriers in the Far East should already be on combat duty at the Central Angular airbase nearby. It should be understood that in the event of a crisis, carrier aircraft can be transferred to the Far Eastern airfields from other military districts, which will ensure the defeat of dozens of targets at a distance of up to 2-3 thousand km from Vladivostok.
Marine component
The fleet will play an equally important role in a potential collision in the Pacific Ocean. Its most powerful anti-ship missile weapon in the near future will be an underwater version of the hypersonic missile "Zircon". The advantages of hypersound are undeniable — the impossibility of reflection, high selectivity and accuracy, a range of up to 1 thousand km, and maybe more.
After the test of the underwater version of the missile is completed, it will enter service with submarines of the 885M Yasen-M project — the K-573 Novosibirsk submarine of this project is already part of the fleet. A series of such submarines is being built, and there will definitely be a lot of "Ash-M" in the Pacific Ocean. And most importantly — today they can use "Onyx" and "Caliber" of all modifications.
The remaining submarines — atomic and non—atomic - have undergone almost total "calibration". In the course of modernization, submarines of projects 971 and 949A were able to use cruise missiles of the Kalibr-PL complex, which can work both on ground targets and on ships.
"Calibres" are capable of destroying naval targets at a range of at least 500 km and land targets — up to 2 thousand km. By the way, in addition to nuclear submarines, these systems can also be used by three non-nuclear submarines of project 06363, built specifically for the Pacific Fleet.
The fleet is also armed with surface ships, which are also equipped with various missile systems. The flagship of the Pacific Fleet — the Project 1164 Varyag missile cruiser — carries 16 supersonic cruise missiles P-1000 Vulkan, which can be used in groups. They were created at one time specifically for the destruction of aircraft carrier formations. At the same time, they can also be used for ground targets.
Recently, the modernized frigate Marshal Shaposhnikov of Project 1155M returned to the fleet, which received the Kalibr-NK complex with a universal launcher, it can use almost all types of the most modern Russian naval missiles — Zircons, Calibers, Onyx, Answers. The new frigate has very well complemented several new corvettes of projects 20380 and 20385, which are equipped with "Calibers".
Ground component
Are the land forces of the Eastern Military District capable of working on sea targets? Yes. The Air Force consists of three missile brigades equipped with universal complexes 9K720 "Iskander-M". The ammunition of the complex can also be used for naval purposes — exercises on the use of Iskanders against ships were held for the first time in 2018.
It is worth noting that the Iskander brigade will be able to use 24 ammunition only in the first salvo, which are guaranteed to destroy at least 12 targets at a range of up to 500 km. Iskander's aeroballistic missiles are just as unbreakable as those of the Dagger complex. And these unique combat systems can be transferred by transport aviation forces to any airfield in the Far East, and subsequently independently march along roads of any quality.
Dmitry Kornev
