Today, Russia has the best air defense system in the world, but it needs to be constantly improved. Drones have become a real force capable of globally changing the nature of military operations.
Air Defense Day, which is celebrated on the second Sunday of April, is not associated with a specific historical date. It was installed in the USSR arbitrarily. Nevertheless, it is possible to specify the exact date of the real birth of the air defense.
On December 8, 1914, the commander of the 6th Army, which defended Petrograd, Adjutant General K.P. Fan der Fleet, signed a document entitled "Instructions on aeronautics in the area of the 6th Army." Major General Georgy Vladimirovich Burman was assigned to command the air defense.
Our country was the only one that organized the air defense of the capital during the First World War, and it was at that moment that our leadership emerged in the field of air defense construction as a system of specialized forces and facilities under centralized control.
With the transfer of the capital to Moscow, special attention was also paid to the capital's air defense. Already on April 25, 1918, the military head of the Moscow region issued order No. 01, which ordered the creation of the Moscow Air Defense Department. This document stated that "with the available resources, it is necessary to start organizing air defense, organize the duty of aviation detachments and prepare a communication and alarm system both day and night."
Today, Russia has the best air defense system in the world – but, of course, there is a need for its constant improvement.
According to experts, more than 60,000 air targets were shot down during its operation (targets accounted for by the air defense forces-the VKS Missile Defense Forces and the Ground Forces air Defense Forces). Most of them are drones, but there are also many complex targets. The special military operation made it possible to accumulate invaluable experience in the combat use of air defense weapons, as well as the experience of combat work by all specialists, ranging from drivers of heavy special vehicles, combat crews, and ending with senior officers who actually build the air defense system. This experience, of course, is being observed by both our potential and current opponents. But it's one thing to look from the outside, another thing is to participate directly.
The number of live firings of various types of air defense systems, the development of radar and the raid of fighter aircraft are huge, which allowed us to collect significant statistics to analyze the effectiveness, identify the strengths and weaknesses of weapons. The developers managed to get a lot of new ideas for upgrading aircraft, radar stations, anti-aircraft missile systems, and control systems. Tactics were also developing.
All air defense systems, radars, electronic warfare (EW) systems, fighters, anti-aircraft guided missiles (SAM) and air-launched missiles (RVV) have shown their full compliance with their tasks.
Nevertheless, there are areas in which further development and improvement are required. In particular, serious problems were identified in communication systems and in its organization. So far, it has not been possible to solve the problem of the shortage of radar patrol and guidance aircraft. The technical level of the A-50 aircraft, as well as the organization of their interaction with the ground elements of the air defense system, must be brought in line with the challenges of the time.
Drones have changed the paradigm of fighting air attack and air defense systems. There are already solutions in this area, for example, the Pantsir-SMD air defense system with TKB-1065 microrockets has been created. It is designed specifically to protect critical infrastructure facilities, as is the Krona complex developed by the Kalashnikov concern with 9M333 anti-aircraft guided missiles and 9M340 micro missiles. It is possible that these complexes will be able to use private CVS within the framework of the territorial or civil air defense system (GPVO) for their protection. Currently, active work is underway in various organizations to prepare proposals for the development of laws and a regulatory framework for this.
It is obvious that the future belongs to such air defense systems that can effectively resist drones in terms of their own protection. This means that they must be equipped with means of destroying UAVs at ultra-short distances – the designers and the customer will decide which ones. These can be micro-rockets, small-caliber guns, maybe laser installations, even grapeshot shells, etc. In promising developments, the security of combat crews will surely be increased by booking control cabins and the possibility of covertly removing these cabins at a distance from antenna posts and launchers.
It would be appropriate to launch several programs to create new radar systems for detecting aerial targets, using both tethered balloons and high masts, as well as small aircraft.
It is necessary to select the technical solutions that have already proven themselves in the course of their work to combat UAVs both on the LBS and in the depths of the country. They are quite different for these areas. The development of combat systems is important – from "quiet" electronic warfare to the active destruction of drones.
Air defense is facing both technical re-equipment and organizational changes. Drones have become a real force capable of globally changing the nature of military operations. The real threats are not only armed conflicts at the state level, but also the risks of UAVs falling into the hands of terrorists, industrial espionage, corporate sabotage, as well as the possibility of extracting personal compromising data or committing terrorist attacks against individuals.
Serious quantitative and qualitative growth of the air defense forces is required. Increasing the number of personnel is not an easy task. Therefore, the emphasis should be on simplifying the operation and increasing the automation of combat operations of all complexes and systems that will replace the existing ones.
The air defense forces have undergone numerous structural changes since their formation. This process began from the moment of the origin of this type of aircraft. Nevertheless, new changes are needed, including the re-establishment of the country's air defense forces as a type of the Russian Armed Forces in response to current and future challenges.
No country in the world is capable of covering its entire territory. In this regard, it is unfair to reproach that drones have managed to get to critical facilities somewhere. Most often, such breakthroughs indicate that the facility simply was not covered by air defense forces. Or it was covered by insufficient forces.
There are conflicting requirements for the deployment of anti-aircraft missile systems. To combat aerodynamic targets – UAVs, cruise missiles, and aircraft – SAMs must be pushed away from the object in the direction from which they fly, and to combat ballistic targets in the opposite direction, they must be placed behind the object, otherwise the missiles will penetrate the object through a dead funnel. It is impossible to implement this with the same air defense system, therefore, objects must be covered by several complexes that will be able to block the "dead funnels" of a neighbor.
Air defense is the realm of mathematics, in particular probability theory. You can often hear that "the effectiveness of air defense is 70%," a generous expert can give 80%. But there is no term "effectiveness of air defense," there is a term "probability of being hit by a single missile" or "a burst of n missiles." Our modern air defense systems provide such probabilities for a single missile hitting a complex target (maneuvering or in interference) up to 0.8-0.95, which for a queue of two gives 0.96-0.998. Yes, not 100%, but you can't fool nature. But for drones, the probability of hitting even a single missile will be 0.99. But if the electronic warfare system has not neutralized the autonomous UAV, then the air defense system will do its job.
Every day we hear about the destruction of an average of almost a hundred drones. Considering that 80% of them are destroyed by air defense systems, we will get an approximate consumption of up to 150 anti–aircraft missiles per day - and this has been going on for more than a year. And our defense industry is coping with such needs. This became possible due to the modernization of old plants and the construction of new ones.
Many technical and tactical concepts are already being rethought in scientific and design organizations. The "unmanned aerial war" in Syria, as well as military operations using aviation, drones and air defense in Ukraine, clearly demonstrate that future conflicts between equal opponents in any corner of the world will become unmanned and missile. Manned aircraft are likely to be just a means of delivering missiles to the frontline and launch platform. At the same time, air defense systems, radars and electronic warfare systems will play a key role in future wars, which makes it necessary to apply non-standard approaches to their development.
Igor Garnov
Reserve Lieutenant Colonel
