GENERAL TRENDS OF THE MILITARY-STRATEGIC VECTOR OF THE NEW AMERICAN REGIME
Skeptical expectations regarding the future position of the "renewed" Pentagon in solving the most acute geopolitical issues of the Asia-Pacific region and Eastern Europe were fully confirmed. All the anti-Chinese campaign slogans of Donald Trump, as well as later notes on Twitter in the style of "Crimea was captured by Russia under Obama," are gradually beginning to make themselves felt not only on social media pages and in Western media videos, but are also quite successfully translated into life in a new, even more aggressive military-political line in the "hot" regions of the world. As a sign of the consolidation of the tougher anti-Chinese rhetoric, the command of the US Navy was instructed to significantly increase its presence in the disputed area of the South China Sea in the area of the island archipelago of Spratly. Now, instead of one or two Arley Burke-class destroyers on duty in Biendong, there is already an incomplete aircraft carrier strike group of the US Navy, led by the aircraft carrier Carl Vinson and EM URO DDG-108 USS Wayne E. Meyer. On March 4, the commander of the 1st AUG of the US Navy, Rear Admiral James Kilby, announced the transition to a strategy of permanent control over any actions of Beijing in the South China Sea, regardless of the opinion of the leadership of the Celestial Empire.
In Central and Eastern Europe, the situation has also become threatening. Firstly, numerous units of the Army of France, Germany, Great Britain and the USA, which are armed with dozens of MBT "Leclerc", "Leopard-2A6", "Challenger-2" and M1A2 "Abrams", were transferred to Poland and Estonia bordering on Russia, as well as a similar number of MCV-80 Warrior and Bradley heavy infantry fighting vehicles. The build-up of the armored "backbone" of the NATO Joint Armed Forces, just a few tens or hundreds of kilometers from our border, was brought under the framework of the sensational anti-Russian operation of an operational-strategic nature "Atlantic Resolve" ("Atlantic Resolve"). Ground units do not operate alone, and are supported from the air by British, German, French, Spanish, Danish and American tactical and strategic reconnaissance aircraft, which are present in the region on a rotational basis. Thirdly, located at the 7th training ground of the US Armed Forces in Germany (the rear zone of the alliance) MBT M1A2 quite suddenly began to be equipped with reactive armor kits for urban battles and increased survivability TUSK (tanks received DZ "ARAT-1/2" for better survival in the conditions of the enemy's use of the latest versions of anti-tank weapons); you have known for a long time who has the best anti-tank weapons in Europe. Therefore, we conclude that NATO is working on various models - "dress rehearsals" of a possible confrontation with the Russian Federation, while increasing the level of protection of its armored vehicles.
DETAILS OF TRAINING AMERICAN AND AUSTRALIAN FIGHTERS / EW AIRCRAFT OF THE SUPER HORNET / GROWLER FAMILY FOR NETCENTRIC INTERACTION IN THE ASIAN-PACIFIC REGIONAL
For a successful confrontation with Beijing, Washington together with its allies on the "anti-Chinese axis", in addition to the traditional militarization of the APR, is also developing many technological innovations, primarily related to the formation of a full-fledged systemic linkage in the tactical link of the Air Force. Such measures contribute to a noticeable improvement in the efficiency and coordination of actions between friendly fighters of the United Air Force. One of such innovations, on March 24, 2017, was reported by the military analytical and news resource "Military Parity" with reference to the foreign edition www.upi.com. We are talking about the introduction of additional modules for the exchange of tactical information at the level of two vehicles, a link, into the avionics of the F / A-18E / F "Super Hornet" squadron, or a full-fledged air wing. The integrated stations will be designed to transmit symbolic-graphic radar data received by the AN / APG-79 airborne radar of one of the fighters of the F / A-18E / F / G family to other similar machines.
For example, we have a combat operation, during which a link of the deck F / A-18E / F of the US Navy must disable the Chinese type 052D EM, which has installed a powerful all-altitude "anti-missile umbrella" on the southern borders of the Spratly archipelago, preventing the air delivery of KMP units USA to the islands. To accomplish the task, a squad of 4 Super Hornets with 16 anti-radar harms on suspensions was sent, which should release a deadly arsenal at the Chinese destroyer URO from a distance of 45 - 50 km and an altitude of up to 40 m, remaining hidden behind the radio horizon in order to avoid return fire with the HQ-9 complex. For this, the link of the assault "Super Hornets" will need target designation from third-party airborne radars, which may not be found on board the aircraft carrier in the conditions of intense hostilities with the PRC. The Australian Growlers, equipped with a tactical information exchange station, will come in very handy. Following the F / A-18E / F as slave vehicles (in the tail) at a range of 60-70 km and an altitude of 2-3 km, the Growlers will remain outside the zone of confident destruction of the ship's HQ-9, but the Chinese destroyer itself will be for their AN / APG-79 within the radio horizon. Thanks to this, the Australian F / A-18G will be able to give precise targeting to the Chinese ship attacking in front of the F / A-18E / F, as well as cover the AGM-88 HARM missiles launched by them with a dense and complex "veil" of noise and barrage of electronic interference. Something like this may look like one of the simple scenarios for the joint use of modernized American and Australian Super Hornets and Growlers.
At the moment, the American company "Raytheon" is implementing this option on the F / A-18E / F and F / A-18G. Precise data on the type of tactical data exchange terminals installed on fighters has not yet been provided. However, it is well known that a new information exchange device of the TTNT type (Tactical Targeting Network Technology) was tested on deck F / A-18E / F back in September 2005. Unlike the hierarchical model of the Link-16 tactical data exchange network, TTNT can carry out a full-fledged radio exchange of information packets in absolutely any configuration (for example, from F / A-18E / F to Aegis ship or vice versa). Moreover, the TTNT radio stations manufactured on the promising element base have, over Link-16, a serious baggage of other "advantages", the main of which are:
Among the shortcomings, it can be noted:
It is known that later the US Department of Defense plans to increase the TTNT frequency range from 1.755-1.85 MHz to 2025-2110 MHz. The TTNT system is considered by the US Navy and Air Force and their allies as the most advanced network-centric communications platform alongside the highly directional and even more highly secure Ku-band MADL radio channel. In the latter, the command of the American fleet sees the basis for the covert exchange of information between the F / A-18G and the F-35B / C in the context of air confrontation in the 21st century.
American and Australian "Super Hornets" and "Growlers" can receive any of the above types of tactical data exchange modules, after which the fighters will automatically become part of the American network-centric concept CEC ("Cooperativ Engagement Capability"), which includes the sub-concept of the naval air defense missile defense NIFC- CA, anti-ship defense ADOSWC and anti-submarine defense NIFC-CU. This stage of interaction between the US Navy's carrier-based tactical aviation and the land-based aviation of the Australian Air Force will be no less a significant challenge for Beijing than the preparation of the Australian Air Force Tyndall for the deployment of an air wing of American strategic missile carriers B-1B and KC-10A Extender tankers.
