Life is illogical in many ways. The construction of the smallest boat is presented as an important event on the path of the revival of the Navy. But, talking about new tugs and longboats, our media completely ignore what, in principle, a modern fleet is impossible without.
Holy of holies - naval aviation! St. Andrew's flag on the fuselage and a proud stripe - "Admiralty anchor with wings".
In comparison with the ship, the plane is small. But its advantages are obvious: twenty times greater speed and the ability to maneuver in three planes. Extreme mobility, operational movement between theaters, instant (within minutes) arrival at a given square. The high altitude allows you to survey the water surface for hundreds of miles. As for radio electronics and weapons, a modern fighter-bomber with a take-off weight of under 40 tons can give odds to another frigate!
The front-line bomber Su-24 flew several times in critical proximity to the American destroyer in the Black Sea. Pentagon spokesman Steve Warren clarified that the Russian plane flew over the destroyer 12 times, reports Russia Today, citing Deutsche Welle. The Donald Cook crew made several attempts to communicate by radio with the SU-24, but were unable to establish contact with the Russian aircraft: they did not answer, Warren said. At the same time, the American military noted that the Russian plane flew at a distance of almost 1000 meters from the USS Donald Cook ship and at an altitude of 150 meters above sea level.
News from April 14, 2014.
As the incident with the destroyer "Cook" showed, one plane can sometimes cost an entire fleet! This time, the Russian Su-24 "spared" the American ship, but the maritime history is replete with examples when aircraft attacked ships and achieved fantastic success. It's not just about Pearl Harbor and the Taranto attack - over the past 50 years, the vast majority of sunken ships have been destroyed by air strikes. The very atmosphere of modern wars contributes to the pilots' victories - most countries are not able to build a full-fledged surface and nuclear submarine fleet. But keeping a squadron of tactical missile-carrying bombers is no problem!
Thirty years ago, in the South Atlantic, a squadron of Her Majesty's 83 warships and support ships faced the insane courage of the Argentine amigos. Obsolete (mostly subsonic) aircraft flew into the open ocean, operating at the limit of their radius, 700 km from the nearest airfield, with a single refueling tanker and a passenger Boeing that served as a reconnaissance … But even that was enough to roll it into the trash a third of the British squadron!
Skyhawks are on the attack!
Impact consequences - frigate "Antiloupe" broken in half
Science fiction, similar to reality. It is interesting to simulate a situation in which the Royal Navy, instead of the stunted Argentine Air Force, would have run into the first-class aircraft of Israel … "Alien vs. Predator"! I am sure the British would not have been saved from defeat even by an aircraft carrier of the "Nimitz" type going abeam …
By the way, about aircraft carriers. As practice shows, their presence is optional for naval aviation. Pilots fly wonderfully from the shore. Jet engines work wonders. Long transatlantic travels now last less than 8 hours. As for less ambitious theaters of war, planes fly over the Black Sea in just 20 minutes. The situation is similar in the Baltic and the Sea of Japan. Most naval missions can be successfully accomplished by air force aircraft. The main difference between naval aviation and the Air Force is in the chevrons and the color of the uniform.
A balanced and sufficiently large air force poses a mortal threat in the coastal (up to 1000 km) zone, and with a fleet of air tankers and a network of foreign air bases, it is capable of solving tasks at almost any distance from the coast. However, this is usually not required - all skirmishes take place near the coast, aviation defends its coast, on which the enemy is trying to land.
But answer how, after all these incidents and the facts of the combat use of aviation in naval wars, after the sunk Sheffield and the damaged Stark, after a loud (in every sense) overflight of the destroyer Donald Cook, after all this as part of the Northern Navy there is not a single squadron of multipurpose fighters of the Su-27 family or at least front-line bombers Su-24, one of which so scared the American destroyer?
We regularly discuss anti-sabotage boats of the Grachonok type, which undoubtedly strengthened the potential of the Novorossiysk naval base, while the Black Sea Fleet aviation does not have a single Su-27 or MiG-29. There is only one (!) 43rd Naval Assault Aviation Regiment - a couple of dozen of the same Su-24s.
Pacific Fleet - No Dryers. There is a symbolic number of MiG-31 interceptors - machines, to put it mildly, outdated and with a very narrow specialization.
The situation in the Baltic looks "more cheerful". The DKBF includes the 4th Assault (Su-24) and 689th Guards Fighter (Su-27) Aviation Regiments.
Sad statistics were created without taking into account the aviation of the air force.
The Russian Air Force has hundreds of modern aircraft, but how is the interaction between the aviation and naval commands ensured? Do land pilots have sufficient experience to fly over the sea and carry out attacks on naval targets? Finally, the materiel - is there high-precision ammunition (primarily anti-ship missiles) in the Air Force's range of weapons designed to combat ships?
The issue of Tu-22M missile carriers is a separate issue. They are interesting machines in every sense, but no longer correspond to modern realities … In the era of Aegis and long-range anti-aircraft missiles, huge bombers cannot pose a threat to the fleets of developed countries. "Carcasses" are excessively large (and therefore expensive and few in number) for successful operations in the coastal zone. At the same time, their use in the open ocean, at full range without a fighter escort, is a more than dubious decision. The main armament is the monstrous 11-meter X-22 missiles from the 60s. of the last century, with a cruising altitude of 20 km, - today they can only amuse the operators of shipborne air defense systems and electronic warfare equipment.
As the events of the Falklands, tanker and other modern naval wars have shown, the force of naval aviation is not in super-aircraft with super-missiles, but in squadrons of conventional fighter-bombers and tactical missile carriers, with combat support vehicles attached to them. Continuous attacks from all directions, the factor of surprise and volleys of conventional anti-ship missiles are capable of finishing off any squadron.
Indian Su-30MKK with a suspended model of the supersonic anti-ship missile system "Bramos-A"
Therefore, it is strange how the Russian Navy, which claims to be one of the three strongest fleets in the world, lacks a well-established combination of tactical aircraft - anti-ship missile, similar to the legendary French system "Super-Etandar" - "Exoset".
The real reinforcement of the Russian fleet is not minesweepers, corvettes or even frigates (although the importance of these ships is also great). For confident operations in the sea, squadrons of modern Su-34 bombers, multifunctional aircraft of the Su-30 family, Su-35 fighters, A-50/100 "flying radars", air tankers, and electronic warfare aircraft are needed. An aviation anti-ship missile of a light class is needed, with reasonable dimensions and relatively high performance characteristics, like the American LRASM or the Norwegian JSM (NSM). New tactics and high-quality training of pilots of naval aviation are needed.
Without all this, efforts to revive Russian naval power are deliberately doomed.
Basic anti-submarine aircraft
The sea element undoubtedly leaves its harsh imprint on the appearance of the Navy's aviation. In addition to "conventional" fighters and bombers, specialized aircraft, the basic anti-submarine aircraft, are needed to solve naval missions.
The main requirements are the ability to patrol for many hours over the sea and the presence on board of special search equipment: a magnetometer, a stock of sonar and sonar buoys and receiving equipment, as well as a high-resolution radar station required to detect periscopes and retractable antenna devices of submarines. The main armament is small aircraft torpedoes dropped by parachute.
Flight characteristics, on the contrary, fade into the background - anti-submarine aircraft operate over the endless expanses of the world's oceans, where the chance of meeting enemy aircraft is close to zero. The main thing is reliability, payload and the longest possible flight range. It is not surprising that strategic bombers and passenger airliners have become the best bases for the construction of such aircraft.
Long-range anti-submarine aircraft Tu-142M (mod. Tu-95) and anti-submarine aircraft P-3C "Orion" (mod. Airliner Lockheed Electra), 1986
Basic anti-submarine aircraft does not guarantee protection against enemy submarines. Anti-submarine aircraft are completely useless in the Arctic ice zone and are no longer capable of fighting modern strategic SSBNs, whose missile launch range exceeds the range of the Il-38 and Poseidon combined.
Nevertheless, basic aviation does not allow submariners to completely relax and, under certain circumstances, is able to effectively protect ship groupings from submarines - after all, it is the basic Orions that cover the AUGs at transoceanic crossings. In addition to its main function, basic anti-submarine aviation is capable of solving many other naval missions. Patrolling, laying minefields, search and rescue operations, monitoring the situation at sea, specific and radio-technical reconnaissance, relaying signals. If necessary, anti-submarine aircraft can independently perform strike missions by hanging a bunch of anti-ship missiles under their wings.
At the moment, the core of the base anti-submarine aviation of the Russian Navy is 40 Il-38 and about two dozen long-range anti-submarine aircraft Tu-142.
The newest Tu-142M3 left the assembly shop in 1994, and the average age of the Il-38 is 40 years. The only positive news is that half of the existing fleet of Russian anti-submarine "Ilov" in the coming years will be upgraded to the level of Il-38N with the installation of a digital search and sighting system "Novella". The first modernized Il-38N was handed over to the Navy in July 2014.
Like we have:
The Tu-142MR repeater aircraft for transmitting signals aboard strategic missile submarines. Short wave communication using a towed 8 km antenna (Fregat system)
IL-38 tickles the nerves of "potential enemy"
Takeoff of Tu-22M missile carrier
Like "them":
Orions of Japan's Naval Self-Defense Forces
6 anti-ship missiles "Harpoon" under the wing of the B-52 strategic bomber
Discharge of 324mm MK.54 torpedo from P-8C Poseidon anti-submarine aircraft, US Navy
A new era in naval aviation. Marine patrol drone MQ-4C "Triton", built on the basis of the strategic reconnaissance aircraft RQ-4 "Global Hawk". Takeoff weight 14 tons. The duration of the patrol at an altitude of 18,000 m is 24 hours. The drone is equipped with an AN / ZPY-3 surveillance radar with an active phased array, which allows it to inspect an area of 7 million square meters during one patrol. km
