The US air defense will not withstand a big war
Since the Second World War, the role of aviation has been absolutized in the United States. In particular, it is traditionally assigned to her to solve the tasks of air defense (air defense).
Because of this, ground-based air defense developed according to a kind of "residual principle", partly just "so that it was". All of it is included in the US Army. In addition, from a certain point on, ground–based air defense began to be assigned a task that fighters are not able to solve - the fight against ballistic missiles.
history
The first American anti-aircraft missile system (SAM) "Nike-Ajax" was deployed in the early 1950s. More than 200 batteries of this SAM covered the entire territory of the United States. In the late 1950s, the Nike-Hercules air defense system began to replace the Nike-Ajax. 174 batteries of this SAM were deployed in the United States, which was completely removed from combat duty in 1974. After that, the United States never had a centralized ground air defense system again.
In the early 1960s, he began to enroll in the troops of the Hawk air defense system. Its range of destruction was 25 km, its altitude reach was 11 km. The battalion consisted of four batteries, each battery had a command post (KP), several radar stations (radars) and two or three firing platoons (in each platoon - two radars and three launchers (PU), three anti–aircraft guided missiles (SAM) on each).
The Hawk went through several upgrades, during which it received new radars and missiles. In the 1970s, all the "Hokies" were converted into the "Improved Hawk" variant (which was also later upgraded). Its firing range has reached 35 km, its altitude reach is 18 km. The lower boundary of the affected area remained the same (60 m). The guidance system is semi–active radar.
The American army had 18 battalions of the Advanced Hawk air defense system, and three battalions in the Marine Corps. They were completely decommissioned in 1994 and 2002, respectively, and never participated in hostilities.
This SAM was very widely exported. Iran became the largest buyer of the Hawk – 39 batteries. He also most widely used SAMs during the Iran-Iraq war (" Battle for the Barrel ", "HBO", 28.05.21). Presumably, the Iranian "Advanced Hawks" shot down up to 40 Iraqi aircraft and several of their own. Israeli air defense systems of this type shot down a total of up to 20 Arab planes and helicopters. The French "Improved Hawk" in 1987 shot down a Libyan Tu-22 over the capital of Chad, N'Djamena (" Military epics of Colonel Gaddafi ", "HVO", 01.11.19). During Iraq's aggression against Kuwait on August 2, 1990 (" What killed Saddam Hussein ", "HVO", 29.01.21), Kuwaiti sams shot down two Iraqi aircraft (MiG-23BN and Su-22).
Thus, the "Improved Hawk" became the only Western air defense system that achieved significant combat successes. However, the US Armed Forces themselves are not involved in these successes.
In the late 1960s, the Chaparel short-range air defense system entered service with the American army. The MIM-72 infrared guided missile system was created on the basis of the AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to–air missile, the firing range was 9 km, the altitude reach was 3 km. The radar and four missiles were placed on a tracked chassis based on the M113 APC. The battalion included 32 SAMs, there were 19 such battalions in the US Army. In the late 1990s, the Chaparral was decommissioned – and, like the "Improved Hawk", without replacement, which made the structure of the US ground air defense extremely unbalanced. About 60 batteries of the "Advanced Hawk" and about 500 "Chaparels" may remain in storage in the United States.
Simultaneously with the "Chaparral", the first American portable anti-aircraft missile system (MANPADS) "Red Eye" entered the troops. It had an infrared guidance system, a firing range of 4.5 km, and an altitude reach of 2.7 km.
MODERNITY
In the early 1980s, the Stinger MANPADS replaced the Red Eye in the American Army. He is still in service both in the United States itself and in many other armies and groups. The Stinger has a firing range of 4.8 km, an altitude reach of 3.8 km. The guidance system is infrared + ultraviolet. The Stinger can be used as an air-to-air missile on Apache helicopters and Predator combat unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). "Stinger" is very actively used in combat operations around the world, and quite successfully.
Since the early 1990s, the US Army and Marine Corps have received the Avenger air defense system (the total number of these air defense systems has reached 1,115 units; at least one air defense system was lost in Iraq). It consists of eight Stinger missiles (two packages of four missiles) and a radar on the chassis of a Hummer car.
Recently adopted by the US Army ZRPK IM-SHORAD, which has a module with four "Stingers", two anti-tank missile systems (ATGM) "Hellfire" and a 30-mm cannon on the chassis of an armored combat vehicle (BBM) "Striker". It is also planned to create a laser air defense system ME-NEL on the Stryker chassis.
In the US Marine Corps, instead of the "Avenger", the LAV-AD SAM is used, which is the same eight "Stingers", but on the chassis of the Canadian armored personnel carrier (APC) LAV-25.
At the end of the 1980s, 99 M6 "Leinbaker" SAMs entered service with the American army - all the same eight "Stingers" on the chassis of the M2A2 "Bradley" infantry fighting vehicle (BMP) (instead of the Tow ATGM). But just a few years later, the command decided that they did not need so many SAMs. After that, 88 M6s were converted back into BMP, one SAM went to the museum, six more were previously lost in Iraq.
In addition, since 2005, C-RAM Centurion anti-aircraft artillery systems (ZAC) have been used in limited numbers in Iraq and Afghanistan, which are a ground-based version of the Vulkan-Phalanx six-barrel 20 mm anti-aircraft assault rifle. "Centurions" were intended primarily to defeat primitive missiles used by local guerrillas.
The basis of US ground-based air defense is currently the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system (SAM), adopted in the early 1980s. The battalion has a KP and two to five batteries (maximum - up to six, but in reality there are no six–battery battalions in the American army). Each battery has six to eight PU and one universal radar (AN/MPQ-53 or AN/MPQ-65). Each PU has four MIM–104 missiles with a firing range from 3 to 100 km for aerodynamic targets, up to 20 km for ballistic targets, and an altitude reach of 60 m to 25 km. The maximum target speed is 2.5 km/s.
The Patriot air defense system implements the principle of "guidance through a rocket", which is a synthesis of radio command and semi-active radar guidance. The original version of the RAS1 missile defense system is currently no longer in use. Variants of the RAS2 and RAS3 missiles are in service, and the latter are placed in the amount of not four, but 16 missiles per PU. A RAS3MSE missile defense system with an increased interception range has been created, 12 such missiles are placed on the PU. Formally, any missile defense system can hit both aerodynamic and ballistic targets, in fact, RAS3 is focused on hitting only ballistic targets.
Currently, the standard composition of the battery is considered to be four PU M901 with ZUR RAS2 and two PU M902 with ZUR RAS3. The American Army has 16 battalions of the Patriot Air Defense System. The number of batteries (in relation to this ZRS, the equivalents of the concepts of "battery" and "SAM") is about 90, of which 63 are active.
The Patriot air defense system was used during both the Iraq wars. Basically, its targets were outdated Soviet-made Iraqi ballistic missiles R-17. The effectiveness of the Patriots turned out to be very low, in 1991 (" Dictator's Paralysis ", "HBO", 05.03.21) it was from the P-17s they missed that the Americans suffered the most serious losses in people. During the second Iraq War in the spring of 2003 (" Why the United States lost the war in Iraq ", "HBO", 03/16/18), the first two downed aircraft appeared on the Patriot account, but both of them were their own: the British Tornado and the F/A-18S of the US naval aviation. Such an ambiguous result nevertheless remains the only example of the combat use by the Americans of their ground-based air defense after World War II.
Patriot was purchased by traditional US customers, and in Germany, Holland and Japan, this air defense system was produced under an American license. Saudi Arabia uses its Patriots with extremely low efficiency against ballistic missiles and UAVs launched on its territory by the Yemeni Houthis. Israeli Patriots shot down two Syrian planes (Su-24 in 2014 and Su-22 in 2018), as well as several drones. At the same time, the price of downed UAVs is several times, and sometimes orders of magnitude lower than the price of the MIM-104 missiles spent on them.
Whether in the spring of 2023 the Patriot was shot down over Ukraine, either the Dagger or the Iskander, remains unclear. It is unknown whether Patriot was involved in the loss of two planes and two helicopters of the Russian Aerospace Forces on May 13.
It is also unclear whether, in turn, the Patriot was hit by the Dagger, and if so, to what extent – were any elements of the air defense system destroyed, which ones and how many? It can be noted that the loss of one or two PU is extremely unpleasant, but the SAM will retain combat capability, but the loss of the radar will completely paralyze the battery. But now RAS3, not 5B55, are falling on Kiev (" Ukrainian anti-aircraft gunners are working in self-firing mode ", "HVO", 09.12.22). Local propaganda now calls American missiles "Russian missiles", which is no longer surprising.
Since the 1990s, the American command has been increasingly "skidding" towards the creation of anti-missile defense (ABM) instead of traditional air defense, within the framework of which the Theater High Altitude Area Defense (Theater High Altitude Area Defense) missile defense system was developed. Both the firing range and the altitude reach of the system are 200 km. The defeat of a ballistic missile is carried out by direct hit (similar to RAS3).
The battery consists of a radar and six PU with eight missiles on each. Currently, up to eight batteries of this air defense system have been deployed, including at least one mixed with Patriot air defense systems. Two batteries of TNAA air defense systems have been purchased by the UAE, the acquisition of this air defense system by Saudi Arabia is expected. At the same time, the United States, in addition to TNAD, in 2020 purchased two batteries (six PU in each, 20 missiles per PU) of the Israeli tactical missile defense system "Iron Dome", however, apparently, they will not be adopted.
The US strategic missile defense system currently includes three over-the-horizon radars and 44 GBI (Ground Based Interceptor, ground-based interceptor) missiles with an interception altitude of 2 thousand km and, theoretically, an orbital range. 40 missiles deployed in Alaska, four in California. GBI are designed to intercept intercontinental ballistic missiles, but it is still unclear to what extent they are capable of solving this task. In addition, their number is too small to repel a massive missile strike on the territory of the United States.
VIEWS FOR THE FUTURE
If the United States has to wage war with an equal opponent (both quantitatively and qualitatively), this will require the presence of a classic ground air defense capable of fighting any means of air attack.
It is necessary to have SAMs that fill a huge "niche" between the "Stinger" /"Avenger" and "Patriot". The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, for example, in a similar niche, there are six to seven types of SAMs, anti-aircraft cannon and missile systems (ZRPC) and anti-aircraft self-propelled guns (ZSU), not counting their modifications. Perhaps the United States will acquire the Norwegian NASAMS air defense system – especially since it uses the American AIM-120 air-to-air missile as a missile system.
It is the absence of "intermediate" air defense systems that is the reason that the United States is almost unable to help Ukraine strengthen its air defense. So far, Kiev has received only 12 "Avengers" (at least one has already been lost) and several hundred "Stingers" themselves. This created certain problems for the Russian Aerospace Forces, but did not bring any radical change in the course of hostilities. The supply of two Patriot batteries will not make it either.
Alexander Khramchikhin
Alexander Anatolyevich Khramchikhin is an independent military expert.