What is contained in the concept of development of Naval aviation of the Russian Navy
The Arctic is becoming one of the most important regions for the Russian Armed Forces. This directly follows, among other things, from how the military leadership sees the development of domestic naval aviation. Why is the work of naval pilots critically important for the security of Russia and what are the main tasks they need to solve today?
According to a recent statement by the Chief of Naval Aviation of the Russian Navy, Colonel Andrey Pakhomov, a concept for the development of Naval aviation (MA) has been approved in Russia. It was approved by the Commander-in-chief of the Navy Admiral Evmenov. About the content of the concept, Pakhomov stated the following: "This will be the acquisition of modern aviation equipment, the development of the airfield structure, we will pay more attention to the Arctic, because this is one of the promising tasks for both the fleet and the whole country." Although there is no concept in open sources, it is possible to assess in which direction it would be worth developing the Naval Aviation of the Russian Navy.
The Arctic and possible development concepts
The largest maritime border in the world belongs to our country, and most of it (which is why it is so long) is in the Arctic. The Arctic theater of Operations (Theater of Operations) will always be very important for Russia's security.
It is in the Arctic that the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy is concentrated, which includes a group of strategic missile submarines (RPKSN). The routes of American strategic bombers pass through the Arctic. It is in the Arctic that the launch lines of cruise missiles of the US Navy and Air Force are located. And it is not for nothing that American and British multipurpose nuclear submarines are traditionally located in the Arctic, the purpose of which is reconnaissance, tracking of our submarines, and in case of war – the early covert destruction of our missile defense systems.
This is also a traditional area from which the surface forces of the US Navy and their allies are preparing to act against our country.
Geography dictates the nature of threats to Russia in this region. From the point of view of Naval Aviation of the Russian Navy, this means that 99% of all combat missions of the MA will be carried out in the western direction – in the Norwegian and Barents Seas. Simply because the rest of the Arctic territories are covered with ice almost all the time, and there is nothing for planes to do over the ice-covered waters. Neither enemy ships are there, nor submarines can't be reached through the ice. Naval Aviation has some tasks over ice, but there are very few of them.
At the same time, the following will be critical tasks for Naval Aviation over open water. The first is the search and destruction of enemy submarines, together with surface ships. The latter is very important. It is the level of interaction with surface forces that means success or failure in solving such tasks. The second is the search and destruction of surface ships.
The third is conducting reconnaissance. In conditions when our country does not have enough marine reconnaissance satellites yet, it depends on aerial reconnaissance whether the fleet will have target designation for the use of long-range missile weapons or not. Any failure in the performance of this task, and all the "Zircons" with "Onyx" are useless, they have nowhere to shoot. There is no data about the location of the target.
The fourth is the setting of minefields. Mines, when used correctly, have consequences for the enemy comparable to the use of tactical nuclear weapons. That is why in the old days they used to say that "the fleet begins with a minesweeper", simply because for a war at sea you first need to get into it.
In Soviet times, Naval aviation participated both in mine laying and in neutralizing minefields. So, in the USSR Navy, Mi-14BT mine-trawling tow helicopters were used, and there were trawls that could be towed by helicopters. And anti-submarine aircraft could expose sea mines from the air. But today, the capabilities of Naval aviation in the fight against mines have been lost, and setting mines from anti–submarine aircraft can no longer be considered sufficient - and there are few planes, and the conditions of the situation may be such that they simply will not survive there.
The fifth – on the list, but not in importance – is the struggle for air supremacy over maritime areas. Russia has an aircraft carrier, and they even promise to release it in a few years from repair. There are two separate naval fighter aviation regiments. Their condition and level of combat readiness is a separate story, but it is possible to make full–fledged combat-ready air units out of them, in principle, for some time.
It is the combination of the "naval aviation regiment – aircraft carrier" that determines how the surface and underwater forces of the Navy will fight in a hypothetical battle with NATO forces in the Norwegian Sea.
And the course of this battle will depend on whether Russia will have time to bring all its RPKSN into position, ensuring their combat stability from the actions of the enemy Navy. If everything works out, a retaliatory nuclear strike by Russia will be guaranteed under any circumstances. This task, of course, is not limited only to Naval Aviation, but it cannot be solved without it.
Although the concept of the development of Naval Aviation is not public, there is no doubt that all these tasks are present in it. Otherwise, the existence of Naval Aviation loses its meaning.
Modest opportunities
To what extent is Naval aviation ready to perform such tasks, and especially in the Arctic? Unfortunately, this readiness can hardly be considered sufficient. In particular, today the Northern Fleet does not have strike aircraft. Instead of specialized reconnaissance aircraft, slow-moving anti-submarine ships are flying, and they will then have to fight submarines. And the state of the ship's fighter aviation regiments is alarming, and they have nothing to fly from yet. Basic (ground-based) fighters will not help much here – calculations show that they simply do not have time to protect surface ships further than about 200 kilometers from the coast.
The newspaper VZGLYAD has already evaluated the technical equipment and armament of Naval aviation. We can assume that from this assessment, indirectly, the head of the AI confirmed something, for example, that a new anti-submarine aircraft will be developed. In addition, in the future of several years, Russia needs new aviation units in the Northern and Pacific fleets and a constantly practiced inter-theater maneuver by Naval aviation.
At the same time, the probability of a collision with the West, unfortunately, is growing every day. In this context, what should and can be done in the short term for Naval Aviation?
First of all, to immediately begin working out actions in the Arctic of the 4th Guards Aviation Regiment from the Baltic and the 43rd separate naval assault aviation regiment from the Crimea, and under a single command, together. This is the only strike aircraft trained to work over the sea, which is now part of the Russian Navy.
As a fighter cover, you need to use naval aviation regiments. On them, together with the regiment of unmanned aircraft of the SF, it is necessary to assign the tasks of performing aerial reconnaissance. Such a measure will allow us to get at least some kind of strike aircraft in the north, which could interact with surface and underwater forces when performing strike tasks. And these same regiments must learn to fight over the Pacific Ocean, over the Japanese, Okhotsk and Bering Seas.
It is worth remembering that the navy and Naval Aviation are parts of the same military system. Russia has neither a search-and-sighting system for an anti-submarine aircraft ready for a series, nor a base aircraft from which an anti-submarine vehicle could be made. It will take many years to fix this in any case. But at the same time, Russia can quickly make a lot of container hydroacoustic towed stations and equip them with everything that can carry them, at the same time transferring the Baltic corvettes of project 20380 to the north. These ships have modern sonar, they are very useful in anti-submarine warfare.
Next is the transition to a scheme where massive surface forces monitor the underwater situation on the maximum feasible area, in narrow areas and areas through which our RCCS enter combat service. Naval aviation aircraft only insure them in some areas. Basically, they should be dispersed at airfields in readiness for immediate departure to a submarine detected by surface forces with a combat load in a search and strike variant (both sonar buoys and torpedoes). This scheme will already allow us to solve combat tasks with minimal Naval aviation forces.
