The USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), which participated in the Vietnam War, is "loading" the suspensions of the F / A-18C Hornet carrier-based multipurpose fighter-bombers. In front of us is a guided gliding bomb of the AGM-154 JSOW family. The "smart" bomb is one of the most promising high-precision weapons of the US Air Force and Navy. The most advanced version of the gliding ammunition is the AGM-154C JSOW-ER: thanks to a powerful solid-propellant rocket booster, a range of 482 km was obtained during tests in 2009, which is planned to be increased to 560 kilometers or more. The planning range of the bomb from the stratosphere even exceeded the 350-kilometer indicator of the first version of the AGM-158A JASSM tactical cruise missile with a turbojet engine. There is no doubt that the JSOW UAB is one of the tools of the American "Third Offset" strategy based on the principles of network-centric combination of the WTO and prospective reconnaissance systems, but its use against our Armed Forces has a number of tactical limitations that will not allow the nomenclature of its warheads (cluster BLU-97B and penetrating "BROACH") to prove themselves in the European theater of operations, in particular, thanks to the developed air defense system of the Western Military District. But the missile can pose a danger in the course of hostilities in operational areas with weakened air defense. The versatility of JSOW is confirmed by the unification with the P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine aircraft, which are more often equipped with conventional Harpoon anti-ship missiles.
Soon after the creation of the North Atlantic Alliance in 1949, and then the development of various geostrategic concepts of the global confrontation between the USSR and the United States, summarized under the general term "cold war", the European theater of operations became the subject for detailed modeling of the escalation of conflicts between the Soviet Union and NATO. Eastern Europe had a special role of the hottest spot here, since it was through its territory that the border between the NATO and Warsaw Pact / USSR countries passed. In Western Europe and the United States, in the field of such modeling, work has been and is being carried out not only by the NATO Strategic Command for Operations (STO), but also by numerous alternative writers-publicists, often working in the genre of political-historical and technological thriller, where it occupied a serious niche at the time. famous American novelist Tom Clancy.
In his 1986 bestselling novel, The Red Storm, in the first half hour of the air confrontation, 11 NATO interceptor fighters and ground-based air defense systems managed to disable more than 300 Soviet fighters, and the nonexistent F-19 secretly got close to the air combat to the unique Russian AWACS A-50 "Mainstay" aircraft, which were covered by MiG-25P interceptors. Both the first and second moments absolutely do not correspond to the realities of air combat: a squadron of 12 F-15A / C, armed with AIM-7M "Sparrow" missiles, could never cope with even one MiG-25P regiment, just like stealth fighters would be detected by the Bumblebee radar system (A-50 aircraft) at a distance of 50-70 km. There is in the novel by T. Clancy and adequate judgments, but most of it is simply teeming with exaggerations and invented superpowers of NATO military equipment.
Clancy's myths described in Red Storm are perfectly refuted by the modern Russian journalist, publicist and futurist writer Maxim Kalashnikov in his unique book The Broken Sword of the Empire, where the level of combat qualities of the Russian military aviation is explained in a detailed and understandable technological language for an inexperienced reader. equipment of the Navy, Air Defense and Ground Forces of the Russian Federation participating in hypothetical military conflicts with the US Armed Forces in the European and Far Eastern theaters of military operations. But if, for example, the novels of Tom Clancy, a person with prejudices that have already developed towards the USSR and the entire Russian, can be understood at least because they were written with a "blinding" pro-American bias, and also did not take into account detailed comparisons of the characteristics of American technology with ours, which "hooked" even Ronald Reagan, the absolutely thoughtless judgments of more modern and highly qualified specialists of Western military-analytical institutions can cause nothing but bewilderment.
So, on April 10, 2016, the entire Western, and then our Internet, circled a very thoughtful, at first glance, publication by James Hasick regarding the development of the American strategy of countering Russia in Eastern Europe and the Baltic States “Third Offset”. In an article with the loud title "The Russian military machine and the US Third Offset strategy: who will win?", Senior officer and military analyst of the American Brent Scowcroft Center for International Security D. Hasik expresses his concern about the military-strategic situation on the eastern borders of NATO - in the Baltic countries … He casts doubt on the effectiveness of the measures taken by the alliance to curb our geopolitical ambitions in the region, applying very harsh, aggressive and invented assessments of the activities of the Russian Federation in the western strategic direction. They use such phrases as “Tallinn is on fire”, “the pace of Russia's invasion”, etc., which in itself contradicts the real situation, and can only happen in the event of an attack on our state from the outside.
The author is absolutely correct in emphasizing the impossibility of functioning of NATO air bases in the immediate vicinity of the Russian border, since they will be regularly subjected to powerful strikes by the Iskander-E / M OTRK. promptly appear at almost any point in the theater of operations. Indeed, if the most powerful superpower, which because of its just ideology of “global multipolarity” has been attacked by “colleagues” from the Western camp for decades, is finally angered, the consequences will be just the following: even Reagan was ready to see Russian paratroopers “on the threshold of the White House”.
But there are also such pearl statements in Hasik's article that can plunge into laughter not only regulars of military Internet resources, but also ordinary readers.
His first assertion is that in the event of a major military conflict in the European theater of operations, the surface and submarine components of the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Navy will not be able to maintain combat stability for a long time (literally - “they will not stay for long”). Well, a bold statement!
Despite the fact that the Baltic Fleet is quantitatively comparable to the German naval forces alone (49 surface warships in the FRG versus 55 in Russia, as well as 4 submarines in the FRG versus 2 diesel-electric submarines in Russia), and the number of ships of the main classes of frigates / destroyer is 4 units. ours against 10 German ones, our BF has significant advantages over the German fleet, and the navies of Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden in terms of anti-ship capabilities.
The Baltic Fleet includes 8 surface ships - carriers of supersonic anti-ship missiles 3M80 "Mosquito"; 40 anti-ship missiles "Mosquito / Mosquito-M" are located in two quadruple (2x4) launchers KT-190 on destroyers pr. 956 (on 2 ships 16 3M80), in two twin (2x2) launchers KT-152 on missile boats pr. 12411/12421 (on 6 boats 24 Mosquitoes). These anti-ship missiles can approach a surface target at an altitude of 7-10 meters at a speed of about 750-780 m / s (2, 6M), while performing anti-aircraft maneuvers with overloads of about 12-14 units. Also, in addition to the standard version of the 3M80 anti-ship missile system with a range of about 100 km, there are versions 3M80E (range - 120 km) and 3M80MBE (240 km thanks to the introduction of the combined mode of flight along the "low-high-low" trajectory into the inertial navigation system software). A single massive anti-ship strike by 40 Mosquitoes is capable of sending 2 or even all 3 German Saxony-class frigates to the bottom. It is possible that part of the 3M80 will be intercepted by highly maneuverable anti-aircraft anti-aircraft missiles RIM-162 ESSM, but even 16-channel APAR radar will not be enough for all Mosquitoes, since high supersonic speed and vigorous maneuvers will not allow RIM-162 to accurately hit all anti-ship missiles without exception. And the shipborne self-defense air defense systems "SeaRAM" and "Phalanxes" against "Mosquito" are the same as "Shilka" against "HARM".
Speaking about the anti-ship capabilities of the Baltic Fleet, I will also note 4 corvettes of project 20380 ("Guarding", "Smart", "Boyky" and "Stoic") and 2 patrol boats of project 11540 ("Fearless" and "Yaroslav the Wise"). This naval strike group is armed with the 3K24 Uranium anti-ship missile system with 24x4 launchers of the Kh-35 / Kh-35U anti-ship missiles, the total number of which is 96 pieces. Numerous coastal SCRC K300P "Bastion-P" (a mobile version on a wheeled chassis MZKT-7930), a highly protected mine version of the K300S "Bastion-S", as well as a BKRC "Bal" (a coastal version of "Uranus") are also taken into account. These systems can be brought up to the Baltics in the shortest possible time and in the amount of dozens of launchers. And the radius of their destruction (260 - 300 km) in the small basin of the Baltic Sea turns tactical anti-ship missiles into strategic missile weapons. The Bastions installed near Kaliningrad are capable of hitting any NATO frigate up to the Swedish island of Gotland, and the deployment of complexes in the Leningrad region will stop NATO surface ships at the entrance to the Gulf of Finland, over which Russian tactical aviation with hundreds of Kh-25MPU anti-radar missiles will be successfully operating, X-58 and tactical X-59MK.
But after all, we know very well that the US Air Force has been practicing for more than one year in the use of E-3C AWACS and RC-135V / W "Rivet Joint" electronic reconnaissance aircraft on the Baltic ON, which can detect the coordinates of anti-ship missile launch points and transfer them aboard E-8C "J-STARS" for further observation and destruction of launchers using stealth "JSSM-ER" or other missiles. It is the same with surface ships, which will be detected by the same AWACS and Poseidons, and will definitely be attacked by anti-ship missiles "Harpoon", "LRASM". But here, too, we hasten to upset Mr. Hasik, since he really miscalculated.
Today, the Baltic ON, including the Kaliningrad region, the Gulf of Finland and the Leningrad region, is reliably protected by one and a half dozen divisions of anti-aircraft missile systems of the S-300 family. The radius of detection and destruction of the "Three Hundreds", like a dense "web", intertwines absolutely the entire airspace over Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, parts of Poland and Finland, as well as directly over the Baltic Sea. In addition, several S-400 Triumph batteries were recently deployed near St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad, with a "dead zone" covered by the Shells. Now about the "Three Hundreds".
The main tasks of air defense and missile defense in the region are entrusted to the well-equipped 2nd Air Defense Division of the 6th Leningrad Red Banner Army of the Air Force and Air Defense ZVO. The armament of the 5 anti-aircraft missile regiments of the division is represented by: 10 S-300PS SAM divisions, 4 S-300PM divisions, 2 S-300V missile defense divisions and one Buk-M1 auxiliary division. Together with the Chetyrehsotkas, they will be able to defend both the coastal facilities of the Baltic Fleet and the BF ship groupings in the sea, forming for them a kind of anti-missile “umbrella” (the long-range air defense line). The anti-aircraft missile systems of the 2nd Air Defense Division, if necessary, will not allow any Typhoon or F-16C operating from the Lithuanian Zoknyai airbase to take off. If they (NATO OVVS) try to "sneak up" on our strategic objects of the Baltic Fleet in a low-altitude mode, they will receive a worthy rebuff from the air defense aviation of the 790th IAP of the Order of Kutuzov (MiG-31BM and Su-27P), based on the Khotilovo-2 aircraft ". "Flankers" and "Foxhounds" will receive information about the tactical situation from the A-50U, so that NATO fighters will not be able to remain unnoticed.
Hasik could handle such moments as the use of an entire wing of suppression of the F-15E air defense with a hundred AGM-88 "HARM" missile launchers on suspensions operating under the cover of the F-22A squadron, which would "open" our air defense near Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg, and then intercepted most of the fighter aircraft of the Western Military District, but even here he would be deeply mistaken. Firstly, the Russian Armed Forces have impressive "bins", in which more than a dozen S-300PT / PS divisions, capable of fighting both anti-radar missiles and stealth aircraft, can still be mothballed. All these systems, upon reaching the "yellow" threat level, can be quickly reactivated and put on alert at the western borders of our country. Secondly, in view of the enormous strategic depth of the territory of Russia (Hasik in his work calls it "legendary"), the Aerospace Forces can significantly increase the combat potential of the Western Military District by transferring a large number of tactical aviation from the airbases of the Central Military District. The Central Military District is relatively safe from NATO tactical aviation, and strikes by Tomahawks and ALCMs from the Arctic ON can be repelled by Triumphs and Favorites, which are on duty at strategically important cities and facilities in the Urals, Tyumen Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Territory. If we think more broadly: from the southern strategic direction, the Central Military District will be protected by a powerful echeloned air defense line of Kazakhstan, from the northern strategic direction - by the structures of the "Arctic forces" being formed, within which the restored Tiksi airbase will operate. The huge area of our state can allow the Air Force to carry out various kinds of "packing" aimed at strengthening one direction or another.
NATO WILL NOT ANSWER ANYTHING IN PRINCIPAL NEWS, BUT THE UNDERWATER THREAT WILL REMAIN
As we found out, the naval strike group of the Baltic Fleet, contrary to the opinion of James Hasik, will be able to maintain combat stability for a long time thanks to the successfully organized air defense over the southeastern part of the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland, as well as thanks to the worthy shipborne self-defense air defense systems "Redut", "Dagger" and "Dagger", installed on the corvettes of pr. 20380 and SK pr. 11540.
NATO cannot use any unique anti-ship air attack weapons that we could not intercept against us at the moment. Subsonic anti-ship missiles of the AGM-84 "Harpoon" family can be easily detected and destroyed by naval air defense systems, especially taking into account the arrival in the Baltic Fleet of promising patrol ships of the far sea zone of project 22160 (class "Vasily Bykov"), on which the Shtil- 1 "with a fundamentally new antenna post for the AFAR-based radar, the Norwegian NSM anti-ship missiles, the coastal versions of which were recently ordered by the Polish Navy, will be intercepted in a similar way. The only question remains regarding the AGM / RGM-84N Harpoon Block II + version. The new missiles will receive a group action mode with an all-round approach to one target, which may complicate their interception for ships such as the Undaunted, where only one one-way antenna post of the Dagger is installed, and the Dagger can be distracted by other flying targets. But this issue will also be resolved over time, because the fleet will be replenished with "Redoubts", where the basis is active radar homing.
A much greater threat may come from the NATO submarine fleet, which today is significantly ahead of the submarine component of the Baltic Fleet, at least quantitatively. The Baltic Fleet includes only 2 diesel-electric submarines, project 877 / 877EKM "Halibut" B-227 "Vyborg" and B-806 "Dmitrov" (1983 and 1986 years of joining the fleet). Even with a uniquely low noise level, two submarines are absolutely not enough to conduct large-scale underwater missions against the fleets of the Baltic NATO member states. The only thing that the submarines will be able to do is to hunt with Swedish super-quiet anaerobic DSEPLs of the "Gotland" type in the "quiet" mode to prevent them from entering the Gulf of Finland or approaching Kaliningrad. But there are many pitfalls in this task as well, since 3 submarines of the Gotland class are among the quietest non-nuclear submarines in the world. Their noise coefficient is either on the same level with the Halibut, or even lower than that of it, and the air-independent diesel-styrling-electric power plant does not force the crew periodically (about once a day) to float to the surface to replenish the oxygen tanks. The extremely demagnetized hull creates enormous difficulties in detecting a submarine using magnetic anomaly detectors installed on patrol anti-submarine aircraft and warships. Hunting for "Gotlands" can turn into a real game of "cat and mouse" for only two of our "Halibuts", especially since they are not anaerobic. And an example of this has already existed for 10 years, when in December 2005, the lead submarine "Gotland" during the exercises in the Pacific Ocean off the West Coast of the United States "Joint Task Force Exercise" was able to overcome the anti-submarine defense and conditionally "destroy" almost the entire AUG at the head with the atomic aircraft carrier CVN-76 "Ronald Reagan". It is very important that the Swedish submarine was not found not only by the SAC of the Los Angeles-class multipurpose escorting nuclear submarine, but also by the powerful AN / SQQ-89 sonar systems of the Ticonderoga missile cruisers and the Arley Burke destroyers. These SACs are considered one of the most advanced hydroacoustic systems: they have high sensitivity and network-centric capabilities of avionics due to their integration into the Aegis CIMS.
