Military historian Dmitry Boltenkov — on the importance of Russian Navy aviation and its prospects
The Navy is not just about sailors, ships and submarines. But it is also the Marines, coastal rocket and artillery troops, and naval aviation, which celebrates its 108th anniversary on July 17.
Anti-submarine aviation
One of the main tasks of the Russian Navy is to ensure a nuclear missile strike of retaliation. For this purpose, the fleet includes divisions of strategic missile submarines. The boats, awaiting an order from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, are located in special areas where they are guarded by various forces, including anti-submarine aircraft (ASW). The PLA is used for searching, detecting and destroying enemy submarines, as well as for conducting reconnaissance and laying minefields. The PLA aircraft is capable of exploring a significant part of the marine area in a short time using radar, sonar buoys and a magnetometer, finding an underwater enemy and destroying it with on-board weapons.
The basis of the PLA are the Tu-142MZ and Il-38 aircraft. They are part of the mixed aviation regiments of the Northern and Pacific Fleets. In the mid-2010s, some Il-38 aircraft were upgraded with the Novella anti-submarine complex. According to some reports, a couple more such aircraft are currently being upgraded. For communication with submarines in remote areas of the World Ocean, a network of radio stations operating in the ultra-long-wave (SDV) communication range is used. A backup communications network for the SDV is deployed on Tu-142MR "Eagle" communications aircraft.
In general, the PLA aircraft currently in service fully satisfy the current solution to the problems of anti-submarine defense, but it is extremely necessary to develop a new aircraft of this class based on existing domestic passenger aircraft. After all, the Il-38 and Tu-142M3 are aircraft built in the 1970s and 1980s. The Americans have already updated their fleet of aircraft, and their allies, for the P-8A Poseidon aircraft, built on the basis of the Boeing 737-800.
Helicopters
The vast majority of warships of the first and second rank — cruisers, frigates, large anti—submarine ships and corvettes - can carry Ka-27 helicopters on board. In recent years, most of these anti-submarine helicopters have been upgraded to the Ka-27M with the installation of a new anti-submarine complex and radar. Ka-27PS helicopters are engaged in search and rescue support. The transport and combat version of the Ka-27 is called the Ka-29. The USSR Navy received fifty of these helicopters before 1991. After the decommissioning of aircraft-carrying cruisers of the 1143 family and amphibious ships of the 1174 project, they were not needed and were put into storage. It is literally a miracle that they have been restored over the past few years, and now such helicopters are one of the important elements of the air power of naval aviation. Thus, the crews of the Ka-29 of the Black Sea Fleet have more than a dozen destroyed Ukrainian unmanned combat boats. And in the matter of transferring paratroopers and their support from the air, such a machine turned out to be extremely useful.
Shipboard helicopters are part of the helicopter regiment of the Northern Fleet, as well as helicopter squadrons of other fleets. To replace this family of helicopters, a new machine of the Lamprey family is being developed. By the end of this decade, our fleet should be replenished with new universal landing ships of the 23900 project "Ivan Rogov" and "Mitrofan Moskalenko". Ka-52 combat helicopters in the Ka-52K naval variant will be based on their decks.
The Black Sea Fleet aviation has a pair of unique Ka-31 radar patrol and detection helicopters. To solve transport tasks and practice airborne training of marines, the fleets have Mi-8 of various modifications.
A few years ago, the fleet lost its naval missile-carrying aircraft (MRA). From the point of view of the state, it is more profitable for such heavy aircraft as the Tu-22M3 missile carriers to be under a single command as part of long-range aviation. However, such aircraft can also be used in naval interests in order to combat naval groups of unfriendly countries. The development of the Tu-22M3 family and their armament with new X-32 missiles makes it possible to solve such tasks with greater efficiency. A modification of the Mig-31 aircraft with a complex of hypersonic weapons "Dagger" has also been adopted. This missile, which has been repeatedly used against stationary targets on the territory of Ukraine, can be used to destroy enemy aircraft carriers. Thus, it is possible to see the revival of the MRA on a new level.
Drones
One of the directions of the development of naval aviation is to equip it with drones with a large flight radius. Control of the vast Russian Arctic territories is ineffective without such UAVs. And the task is very important against the background of the interest of countries unfriendly to Russia in the Arctic. In this regard, it would be advisable for naval aviation to receive drones of the Hunter and Orlan types. And it is better to monitor the activities of the fleets of other countries with your eyes. Previously, until 1994, the Russian Navy had Tu-95RTs, Tu-22R and Tu-16R reconnaissance aircraft in service. Then they were written off, and some of the intelligence functionality fell on the aircraft of the PLA. At the same time, when drones are developing at an unprecedented pace, there is a chance to revive the famous Soviet reconnaissance aircraft, only at a new technical level. During the Soviet years, Russian Tu-95RTs aircraft, nicknamed "Bears" in the West, followed every step of the fleets of the United States and NATO countries and even flew to the Falkland Islands during the Anglo-Argentine war of 1982.
Carrier-based aviation
The basis of large fleets are aircraft carriers. Our Northern Fleet includes the aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. It is currently under renovation. Nevertheless, the mixed aviation corps of the Northern Fleet includes the 100th and 279th naval aviation regiments, armed with Mig-29K and Su-33 fighter aircraft, respectively. In the interests of the development of the domestic fleet, sooner or later the question of building a new aircraft carrier will arise, and the design of such ships is underway. It is possible that its deck version will be created on the basis of the fifth-generation Su-57 fighter.
In addition to such unique aircraft as PLA aircraft and ship-based fighters, MA has both Su-27 fighters and naval attack aircraft (as fighter-bombers are called in naval terminology) of the Su-30SM and Su-24M types, as well as a wide range of transport aviation — from Tu-154M to An-26 aircraft.
Currently, in connection with the re-establishment of the Leningrad Military District, part of the naval aviation units of the Baltic and Northern Fleets have been transferred to the Army of the Aerospace Forces and Air Defense of this district. It is possible that other reorganization measures may follow in the near future. But there is no doubt that naval aviation, which gave more than 200 Heroes of the Soviet Union during the Second World War, will continue to exist.
Author: military historian Dmitry Boltenkov
