The training program for naval aviation has been added to the development of the destruction of various types of drones
A program to combat naval and aerial drones is being developed for naval aviation. Pilots will be taught to detect UAVs flying over the sea and destroy them with missiles and aircraft cannon fire, sources told Izvestia in the Russian Defense Ministry. Naval pilots will also gain skills in searching for floating drones and will be trained to defeat them with guns, bombs and unguided missiles. The fight against drones and unmanned boats is especially relevant in the conditions of conducting military operations and requires certain skills from aircraft crews, experts say.
For all fleets
A new training program to combat naval and aerial drones is being developed for all fleets, sources told Izvestia in the military department. It is based on the experience gained by the aviation of the Black Sea Fleet, as well as the fighter units of the Northern Fleet attached to it during a special military operation.
— Such training is very important, because drones are one of the most modern types of weapons, — the former chief of naval aviation of the Russian Navy, Hero of Russia Major General Igor Kozhin, told Izvestia. — This training has certain features. The difference between the speed of the aircraft and the target does not play a big role here: We also work on helicopters and have received special training. The difference is not fundamental.
Deck-based multi-purpose MiG-29K fighters
Image source: Photo: RIA Novosti/Pavel Lvov
Now drones and unmanned boats pose a serious threat to ships, former commander of the 4th Army of the Air Force and Air Defense Hero of Russia, Lieutenant General Valery Gorbenko, told Izvestia.
— Previously, aviation did not face such a task, — he noted. — And now it is quite urgent to prepare naval aviation for the fight against unmanned boats. In order to detect backups in a timely manner, surveillance must be organized. And when they are detected, they must be destroyed. This is a new task for naval aviation, so special training is needed now.
According to the general, the fight against unmanned boats requires certain skills from aircraft crews due to the small size of the target.
— It is necessary to work with diving, with specific aiming. Previously, the tasks of combating small-sized targets were solved by fighter—bomber aircraft, and now tactical, - said Valery Gorbenko.
Deck-based multi-purpose fighter MiG-29K
Image source: Photo: IZVESTIA/Dmitry Korotaev
On March 17 of this year, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu inspected the work of the command post of the Black Sea Fleet. The head of the military department set the task to conduct constant training with the military to repel enemy terrorist attacks both during the day and at night. In addition, Shoigu instructed to equip warships, boats and ships of the fleet with large-caliber machine-gun rifle complexes and other additional firepower to defeat enemy naval drones.
A new threat
Recently, in conditions of a shortage of artillery ammunition, the Ukrainian command has increasingly relied on the use of UAVs. Kiev even announced plans to produce one million such devices per year. In addition, the Ukrainian military is armed with several types of unmanned boats. It is known that they are controlled via Elon Musk's Starlink satellite communication system.
The Mikola-3 marine kamikaze drones are a 5.5 m boat with a range of up to 60 hours and a maximum speed of 45 knots. They can carry up to 200 kg of explosives on board. According to experts, the American MANTAS T-12 reconnaissance drones are taken as the basis for the Mikola.
"Mikola-3"
Image source: Photo: Social media
Another unmanned boat, the MAGURA V5, was demonstrated by the Ukrainian state—owned company SpetsTechnoExport last July at the international defense exhibition IDEF 2023 in Istanbul. The maximum range of the five—meter boat is about 450 nautical miles, the maximum speed is up to 45 knots, and the payload is 320 kg.
Since the beginning of the special military operation, Ukraine has attacked ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet dozens of times with unmanned boats.
Earlier, Izvestia reported that the Ministry of Defense has developed and approved a new combat training program for helicopter units of naval aviation to destroy unmanned aerial vehicles. It is based on the interaction of pairs of Ka-27 and Ka-29 helicopters. The former will perform reconnaissance tasks, search for surface drones, the latter will destroy detected objects.
Russian Navy Ka-29 Helicopter
Image source: Photo: IZVESTIA/Zurab Javakhadze
The combat training program takes into account the specifics of the actions of all fleets and flotillas of the Russian Navy. So, in the anti-drone program developed for the naval aviation of the Northern Fleet, the emphasis is on searching for objects among the ice and in the conditions of the polar night. In the case of the Pacific Fleet, the main task is to search for surface drones over a large area in bad weather conditions.
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