In fact, this is a kind of preface. A picture from an invisible battlefield that unfolded in the third dimension, that is, in the air.
When it comes to military operations of a modern nature, electronic countermeasures are an integral part of the war, where armies with modern weapons clash. Accordingly, the military conflicts of today in the Donbass and in Syria can in no way be interpreted as modern.
Hence the need to train flight personnel (and not only) precisely in conditions of counteraction to them by modern electronic warfare systems. Today it is not necessary, tomorrow it may become a necessity.
That is why we ended up at two (no longer able to because of the small size of the group) points where the training of today's combat operations was unfolded. On the whole, what he saw made a definite impression, and added to the store of knowledge and understanding of what may be happening in the very near future.
Part one. Airfield Buturlinovka, Voronezh Region.
A Su-34 flight equipped with the Khibiny complex is preparing for takeoff. There will be a separate article about the complex, it's worth it.
The planes are sent to one of the training grounds of the neighboring military district, where they are practicing the use of the Khibiny against the air defense system.
Naturally, except for the "Khibiny", everything is widely used that can help the pilots of our aerospace forces in their work against air defense systems. At the airfield, a full set of traps was loaded, both in the infrared range, simulating the operation of the engine, and electronic, simulating the operation of the radar.
In fact, simultaneously with the takeoff of the bombers, the advance of the third, most interesting side to us, began. Namely - the calculations of the complexes of the EW ZVO brigade.
The command of the brigade to fulfill the assigned task of countering the aircraft put forward a very impressive force: two "Krasukhi-4S", R-330B, R-934S "Sinitsa", R-330Zh "Zhitel".
Knowledgeable readers can ask a reasonable question: what did the "Resident" forget there? The answer will come a little later. It came in handy.
The calculations arrived at the training ground, turned around and began to perform their tasks to detect and suppress the planes of a potential enemy. Absolutely disgusting weather did not bother anyone, the planes flew above the cloud zone, the calculations were inside their cars.
After some time, the commander of the unit, Colonel Vostretsov, arrived at the training ground. I was surprised that he arrived not in a passenger car, but in a "KaMaz". Everything became clear almost immediately. The brigade commander brought with him a "sabotage group of the enemy", which was supposed to move unnoticed and make the work of the complexes as difficult as possible.
According to the terms of the task, the "saboteurs" were supposed to use cellular communications for coordination. Here, in fact, it became clear that the "Resident" actually became a shield for the rest of the stations.
The calculation of the complex very quickly found six telephones operating near the landfill and notified the calculations of the remaining complexes. Then he successfully suppressed all the phones, completely shutting down the cellular communications at the test site.
Further, a cover group, consisting of fighters who were not involved in solving the main tasks, entered the case.
A smoke screen was installed very quickly, completely hiding the working stations from the "saboteurs" and becoming a very unpleasant surprise for the filmmakers. The soldiers had gas masks, the operators, of course, did not.
The only really unpleasant moment. The smoke that the falling snow nailed to the ground was very dense and caused discomfort and coughing. To eliminate completely disoriented "saboteurs" in such conditions was not very difficult, as it seemed to us.
But all this had to be observed from a really safe distance.
The result was the fulfillment of the assigned tasks by the calculations of the electronic warfare brigade of the Western Military District both in relation to the aircraft of a potential enemy and in relation to "saboteurs". According to the information received, the aircraft of the Aerospace Forces also successfully coped with the task of countering the air defense system of a potential enemy. In the confrontation between the Aerospace Forces and EW, the victory remained with the electronic warfare complexes.
Returning to the beginning of the article.
Speaking about a certain preface, we meant that further stories will follow about those complexes that took part in these teachings. We have already talked about the "Krasukha", then we will talk about the "Khibiny", "Zhitel", "Sinitsa" and R-330B. And the "icing on the cake" will be a short (unfortunately) due to certain limitations, the story about the product 14TS875.
But the topic of electronic warfare will not end there either. The weather did not allow us to get closely acquainted with such complexes as "Leer-2" and "Leer-3". But we will definitely return to this topic, especially since the electronic warfare brigade has something to demonstrate. Both the technique and the skill of calculations to apply it.
