There are more types of aircraft in the Air Force than there are real tasks for them
By 2020, the Russian Air Force is planning to have two or three types of highly specialized aircraft for each combat mission. Differing in price, the new machines have almost the same characteristics and capabilities. On the contrary, the United States and NATO countries are reducing the range to one or two universal combat vehicles.
The Air Force should receive 60 T-50 fighters, 120 Su-35S, 60 Su-30SM, 37 MiG-35, up to 140 front-line Su-34 bombers and 80 combat training Yak-130. The army aviation fleet will be replenished with 167 Mi-28N / NM, 180 Ka-52, 49 Mi-35M, 38 Mi-26T, up to 500 Mi-8MTV / AMTSh. Even the US Air Force cannot afford such large-scale purchases.
Service and combat training
By the specified time, Russia will become the first in the world in terms of the number of types and models of attack aircraft. There will be four types of bombers alone - the Su-34, the "clean" Su-24, the modernized Sukhoi Design Bureau Su-24M2 and the Su-24SVP-24 with the installed SVP-24 sighting system of the Hephaestus and T company. There will be even more fighters - Su-27, Su-27SM, Su-27SM3, Su-30, Su-30SM, Su-35, as well as the T-50, which is undergoing flight tests. There is also the MiG-29 family, which will be supplemented by the MiG-33 and modernized MiG-29SMT. In the army aviation there are four types of combat helicopters - Mi-24, Mi-35M, Mi-28 and Ka-52.
As an officer of the Air Force engineering and technical service said, even now, before the start of the mass delivery of new types of aircraft, technical and repair services have big problems in the operation and maintenance of those already received. The 4th center for training aviation personnel and military tests (CPA) in Lipetsk operates old Su-24, newer Su-24M2, Su-24SVP-24 and modern Su-34. If there are no problems with the Su-24, then the maintenance of the Su-34 is fraught with significant difficulties. First of all, we are talking about radio-electronic stuffing, radars, sighting complex. Special spare parts and trained personnel are required. The same problem is with the 7000th airbase, which also received the Su-34. Each system of new machines needs its own repair and maintenance specialist, a representative of the Russian Air Force complained to "MIC". According to him, often new cars are out of order, waiting for representatives of the plant, since ground technical services do not even understand which side to approach the car. “They say that the Su-34 is in many ways similar to the Su-27 in terms of airframe, engines and electrics. This is not true. Completely different machines for which you need to train your individual specialists in all units and mechanisms. Spare parts are not interchangeable; each type of machine needs its own. And these are only the first signs so far. There are still Su-30SM, Su-35, MiG-33 ahead,”the specialist was indignant.
Thus, the diversity of combat vehicles can become a fatal blow to the ground services, for which the military educational and scientific center of the Air Force "Air Force Academy named after Professor N. Ye. Zhukovsky and Yu. A. Gagarin" in Voronezh must every year release several hundred technical officers for the maintenance and operation of new types of aircraft. In addition, it is necessary to create a stock of repair kits, engines, radio-electronic equipment. Taking into account the impending diversity of types, the fulfillment of these tasks may be disrupted.
According to Andrey Frolov, editor-in-chief of the Arms Export trade magazine, the purchase of so many different types of combat aircraft, often duplicating each other, is an element of support for the domestic aviation industry: -Air forces of Russia. All this is done not to please the military, but to support the defense industry. An example is the unsuccessful attempt by the Ministry of Defense to abandon the purchase of MiG-33s and replace them with MiG-29s, upgraded to the SMT version.
These problems have long been recognized by the Air Force High Command. The aircraft fleet is aging by leaps and bounds, so there is a desire to renew it at any cost. The industry has a lot to offer the military. On the other hand, problems are growing not only in maintenance and operation, but also in the combat training system.
“The course of combat training, developed jointly by the 4th Aviation Personnel Training and Military Testing Center and the 929th State Flight Research Center (GLITs), is based on the aircraft's aerobatic capabilities, the characteristics of weapons and avionics. For example, if the armament and radar of the MiG-31 interceptor are sharpened for long-range interception, then most of the time is allocated to these exercises, and to close maneuverable combat - already on the residual principle. The same principle works when planning the combat use of aviation,”said the officer of the Air Force High Command.
For highly effective combat use of the aircraft, GLITs test pilots, before the start of mass delivery to the troops, test weapons and avionics in all flight modes in difficult and simple weather conditions, day and night, finding the optimal parameters. Based on the results obtained, the CPA develops a manual for combat use for single aircraft, flights and squadrons, and then a course of combat training. At the same time, according to an officer of the Russian Air Force, the Su-35 and Su-30SM with variable thrust vector engines have not even completed the flight test program with sophisticated radars. “The first Su-30SM will soon arrive at the airbase in the Trans-Baikal Domna. There is no combat training course for this machine, nor a manual for combat use. Now in Lipetsk they are doing something, so to speak, "on the knee." But the main thing is that there is still no understanding of what the new car should do. Is it a fighter, an interceptor, a fighter-bomber? We do not know yet, but the vehicle is already beginning to enter the troops,”the interlocutor continued.
Army aviation faced this problem last year. A Mi-35M from the Center for Combat Use and Retraining of Army Aviation Personnel in Torzhok, sent to the North Caucasus, crashed in bad weather, hitting a mountain. The vehicle, sent on research flights as part of the training program for combat use in the mountains, was alerted by the ground command to escort the convoy. Combined-arms commanders can be understood: there is a high-tech tool, it must work. For bad weather conditions, the Mi-35M, equipped for flights in adverse weather conditions and at night, was the best fit. But the crew from Torzhok only studied the capabilities of its radio electronics and weapons in the mountains. In fact, the helicopter was not ready for a combat mission. The result is a disaster and loss of life.
Today, the Air Force command insists on the modernization of existing combat aircraft. There is no need to train ground specialists for the updated and re-equipped vehicles, create repair kits for all components and mechanisms, and a combat training program. The application manual is easy to modify. But it is profitable for the industry to supply only new machines.
There are already examples of successful modernization according to modern standards: Su-27SM and SM3, Su-25SM and SM3, MiG-31BM. For relatively little money, the Air Force received good modified vehicles with modern avionics and updated engines. It took about a year to develop all the documentation for the training and combat use of the Su-27SM and SM3. “We already know the Su-27 well. Install a new radar, upgrade the weapon system for the new RVV-SD and RVV-MD missiles, and everything is fine. But tinkering with the Su-35, with variable thrust vector engines, will take a very long time. First, we need flight research, which is now going on in Akhtubinsk, and then only work on combat use. By the most conservative estimates, this is at least five years. Until we bring the Su-35 to mind, the PAK-FA will also go into production and everything will start anew,”a source in the Air Force headquarters assessed the prospects.
Modernization and unification
The US Air Force began in 2010 a large-scale program of improvements to its aircraft fleet. In anticipation of the appearance of the newest F-35, the US Air Force did not abandon the rest of the strike aircraft. The F-15E "Strike Eagle" fighter-bombers received new optical sighting containers "Sniper", instead of the revision of the standard AN / PG-70 radar, there appeared AN / ASQ-236 suspended synthetic aperture radars from Raytheon and new aircraft weapons. In the course of modernization, the service life is extended twice - from 16 to 32 thousand flight hours. According to the calculations of the US military, the updated F-15E will last another 10-15 years.
In the spring of this year, the US Air Force signed a contract for the modernization of about 300 F-16s under the SABR program, previously planned as they were replaced by the newest F-35s for decommissioning. The updated "Vipers", which received new multifunctional radars, sighting systems, and before that were equipped with new "Sniper" hanging sighting containers, became identical in their combat capabilities to the more expensive F-15E. After completing the modernization program, calculated until 2017, the American Air Force will receive universal combat vehicles capable of both working on ground targets with precision weapons and conducting aerial combat.
The British Royal Air Force took a different path, abandoning almost the entire fleet of old combat vehicles. Until 2020, only the Typhoon multifunctional fighters will remain, modified for striking ground targets and combating air defense, as well as the F-35. The Tornado interceptor fighters have already been decommissioned, and the same type of fighter-bombers will hold out until 2020, until they are replaced by Typhoons. The Air Force Command believes that two types of combat aircraft capable of performing the entire range of combat missions will suffice for all occasions. The German Luftwaffe and the Italian Air Force followed the same path, betting on the multifunctional European Typhoon. The French Air Force keeps in its fleet the upgraded Mirage-2000 fighter-bombers in their fleet. European countries with limited budgets and some financial difficulties understand that for them a large diverse fleet of military vehicles is an unaffordable luxury.
“Now the versatility of combat vehicles is achieved by installing additional sighting, navigation and electronic equipment in overhead containers. Firms carrying out modernization extend the life of the vehicle, remotorize engines and make avionics, power supply systems and sighting systems compatible with overhead containers. An example is the strategic B-1B, which, thanks to the installation of the Sniper sighting containers, successfully began to solve the tasks of hitting ground targets, "said Anton Lavrov, an independent military expert and author of books on the modern Air Force. According to him, sighting containers such as the American "Sniper", LANTIRN, French "Damocles" have now become an indispensable element of modern combat aircraft. “Due to an aiming container with a thermal imager, a high-resolution television system and a laser rangefinder, the strike aircraft can easily hit ground targets with bombs with laser and television guidance systems from a height of several thousand meters. The price of one container varies from one and a half to four million dollars, which is an order of magnitude cheaper than installing the same systems directly on an aircraft. The container can be easily removed and replaced with reconnaissance equipment by converting a fighter-bomber into a reconnaissance aircraft,”Lavrov said.
China, India, Indonesia immediately ordered Russian Su-30s with sighting containers coupled to the aircraft's onboard sighting and navigation system. True, all the containers were not made in Russia, mostly French.
Back in the mid-90s, NATO countries recognized that a de-standardized aircraft fleet with highly specialized combat vehicles was too expensive and ineffective. But only in the mid-2000s, when compact radio-electronic equipment, navigation and sighting systems that fit in overhead containers appeared, was it possible to implement the concept of a universal combat vehicle.
There is a problem
For all the ambitiousness of the Russian Air Force rearmament program in its current version, apparently, it will not be able to radically increase combat capabilities. Instead of unification and transition to universal combat platforms in 2020, the Air Force will receive hundreds of highly specialized vehicles for solving a limited range of tasks. The situation can only be saved by cost optimization and partial refusal to purchase combat aircraft planned for GPV-2020 and modernize the fleet of existing ones.
Irkut Corporation, which is active in the international market, perfectly understands world trends. The Su-30SM, which is being purchased for the Russian Air Force, can easily become a universal combat platform, especially since now on the basis of the 929th GLITs in Akhtubinsk, a suspended sighting container developed by the Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant is being tested, which should be completed in the near future.
The Su-34 and Su-35 are classic examples of highly specialized vehicles. The entire unique Su-34 sighting system now fits easily into a suspended container of the American "Sniper" type. Despite the declared possibility of using medium-range air-to-air missiles, the Su-34 is unlikely to cope with the air enemy. The KLA and the leadership of the Air Force have still not been able to clearly explain why an armored titanium cockpit is needed, which protects against small arms fire and artillery systems, on a bomber that operates at an altitude of more than five thousand meters and hits targets with high-precision weapons without entering the enemy's air defense zone …
The super-maneuverable Su-35, despite the statements of the UAC leadership, still has limited capabilities to defeat ground targets, but the Irbis radar and a set of medium and long-range air-to-air missiles make it a formidable enemy for aircraft and helicopters.
One of the options for optimizing purchases can be proposed to abandon the Su-24 and Su-34 bombers, entrusting the task of striking ground targets to the Su-30SM with suspended sighting containers developed by the Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant. Now a vehicle with such weapons is being tested in Akhtubinsk. A similar option is chosen by the British, Italian Air Force and the Luftwaffe. There they equipped a two-seater version of the European Typhoon fighter with a suspended sighting system, which made the latter a versatile vehicle capable of being an interceptor and a fighter-bomber. Another way is to resume work on the modernization of the Su-27 fleet into the "CM3" version, but with the installation of sighting suspended containers. For little money, the Air Force will receive universal combat vehicles without lengthy testing and development. This is what the United States is doing, modernizing the F-15E and F-16 fleet.
