The occupation of the northern part of Iraq, the continuing oil traffic from the territories controlled by ISIS across the Syrian-Turkish border, the strengthening of the Turkish army on the border of the SAR, as well as the openly arrogant and unsubstantiated statements of the top officials of Turkey, commenting on their "blinkered" vision of the military-political situation in the region, and many other examples only strengthen our opinion on the future policy of this country.
The Turkish leadership will not contribute in the least to reducing the degree of tension in the region, which has been established since November 24, when the Su-24M of our Aerospace Forces was "stabbed in the back", and consolidated when a large unit of the Turkish army was deployed to the region of Iraqi Mosul.
Everything is happening with the full assistance and support of the Turkish army by the NATO Joint Armed Forces, and this is at the moment when the Prime Minister of Iraq Haider al-Abadi calls J. Stoltenberg with a request to calm down his ally in the alliance. But, as we can see, “ring the rail”!
New cases of provocations from the Turkish side were also noted, one of which was the dangerous approach of the Turkish seiner by 2, 92 cables (540 m) to the Black Sea Fleet patrol ship Smetlivy on December 13, 2015, the crew of which was forced to use small arms in order to avoid the threat to our ship (after all, absolutely nothing was known about the seiner crew and cargo). The situation is indeed developing according to a bad scenario, as Turkey continues to receive more and more new types of weapons and intelligence systems from the West, which change the parity balance of forces in the Middle East, the Caucasus and the Mediterranean.
On December 9, 2015, it became known about the completion of the formation of a link of four AWACS aircraft Boeing 737AEW & C "Peace Eagle" ("Peace Eagle"). The first aircraft was put into service with the Turkish Air Force on January 31, 2014, thus, a full-fledged link of the Turkish "overseers" was created in just 2 years. The American corporation Boeing became the main executor of the contract. The Americans assembled the first Boeing 737-400 airframe modified for AWACS for the Turkish Air Force, and the Australian branch of Boeing helped organize the ground service and assembly infrastructures of the Turkish companies Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), HAVELSAN and ASELSAN, which were involved in the installation. onboard radio-electronic and radar equipment of the Israeli company ELTA.
The appearance of a whole link of such aircraft in the Turkish Air Force does not at all contribute to the stabilization of the situation in the Middle East, in addition, it gives them a feeling of complete control of the situation both over the Black Sea basin and the Caucasus, and in the northern part of Syria. Despite the very tense relations between Turkey and Israel, ELTA still handed over to the Turkish TAI the most advanced MESA radar with AFAR for airborne deployment, which allows tracking tactical fighters at a distance of 370-500 km (depending on the RCS) and small cruise missiles.
Boeing 737AEW & C aircraft significantly expand the air superiority capabilities of 200 Turkish F-16Cs, especially with the long-range versions of the AIM-120C-7/8 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles and due to the highest throughput achieved by the high performance of the radar control avionics: 10 operators The radar can simultaneously detect 3000 targets in the review mode and simultaneously track 180 air, ground and sea targets on the way, working with the highest priority of them. This capacity allows you to maintain control in the most difficult tactical environment, where the theater of operations is oversaturated with various sources of threats, from UAVs and missile launchers, to fighters and electronic warfare directors.
Four aircraft can control a section of the front with a length of about 3500-4000 km, and the range allows monitoring the airspace over the Crimea and most of the Krasnodar Territory, even if the Boeing 737AEW & C is flying in Turkish airspace.
This Turkish video, describing the principles of operation of the Boeing 737AEW & C AWACS, was published in the spring of 2011, when there were no signs of a "spiral" of tension between Russia and Turkey. Nevertheless, at the end of the video, attention is drawn to the combat aircraft chosen by the Turkish authors as the aggressor vehicle. This is our Su-34. This fact needs no comment.
To protect the ground infrastructure of the Russian Aerospace Forces and part of the Syrian airspace, there are S-400 Triumph, Pantsir-S1 air defense systems and Krasukha-4 electronic warfare systems, which, in the event of a military confrontation with Turkey, will be able to repel powerful MRAU directed against the Russian contingent in Latakia and Tartus, but such a defense will be most secured only in the confident range of the S-400 (250-300 km at medium and high altitudes and 40 km at ultra-low). At longer distances, you will have to rely only on the highest combat qualities of the super-maneuverable multipurpose Su-30SM fighters and Su-34 fighter-bombers, the information awareness of the pilots of which is still low, since the absence of A-50U aircraft does not allow to prevent the approach of Turkish fighters flying from the border to heights of 40-70 meters.
Conducting a probable air battle against hundreds of F-16Cs, guided by AEW & C aircraft, with one Su-30SM regiment, without AWACS support, will also not be an easy task. So radar patrol and guidance aircraft are now very important for our pilots in the SAR.
