Enemy attacks on targets and troop groups on the country’s territory inevitably raise questions about the effectiveness of air defense forces and means. Let us immediately point out that the claims are not entirely objective and are not always professional.
The enemy, however, does not sleep and has recently made several attempts to infiltrate the country’s airspace. In particular, anti-aircraft missile forces in the Rostov region shot down the Ukrainian missile defense system (anti-aircraft guided missile) The S-200 has been converted to attack ground targets. Air defense forces shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle in the Bryansk region.
Was the air defense system ready to conflict with Ukraine?
For a detailed analysis of the effectiveness of the actions of air defense forces and means, we will have to start remotely. Some representatives of the domestic expert community believe that during the military operation of the Russian Armed Forces in Syria, the air forces are constantly improving the forms and methods of combat use, but the air defense forces and means are frozen and “sleeping” in their development. Syrian campaign. Based on these judgments, it was concluded that aviation was engaged in a special military operation in a more organized way, and air defense forces had to learn and retrain on the fly.
Almost everything turns upside down in such superficial and unprofessional judgments. The thing is that during the Syrian campaign, aviation attacked enemy targets at an altitude of at least 6 thousand meters in the absence of any opposition. There is absolutely no need to develop forms and methods of using air force during such combat operations and to conduct any research in the field of tactics.
However, during the Syrian campaign, air defense troops, on the contrary, conducted intense combat operations and constantly improved methods of destroying certain enemy weapons. It was in Syria that anti-aircraft missile and radiotechnical units developed effective techniques for combating low-speed unmanned aerial vehicles and multiple launch rocket systems.
Before the military operation in Ukraine, the air defense forces conducted large-scale tactical exercises at the level of formations (air defense divisions), in which the target situation was constantly becoming more complex, and based on the results of the exercises, sample anti-aircraft missile weapons were developed. During such events, anti-aircraft missile forces were trained to repel massive attacks from various target types.
In particular, practically all the features of firing the S-400 Triumph air defense system against hypersonic targets (such as Kinzhal) have been improved.
At the same time, the Pantsir-S anti-aircraft missile and weapon system has been significantly modernized and is now able to effectively shoot down missiles of the American multiple launch rocket system and Ukrainian tactical ballistics on the M142 HIMARS wheeled chassis (including MRLS). even missiles Tochka-U”/OTRK “Grom-2”, that is, targets with speeds exceeding 1000 m/s.
Moreover, the improved Pantsir-S air defense system is capable of combating UAVs whose flight speed is slightly different from zero (that is, helicopter-type drones that practically hover in the air). Among other things, the Pantsir-S anti-aircraft guided missile is relatively cheap, which is important when repelling large enemy attacks.
When an important object needs to be covered during a military operation, the military often requests and almost prays for the Pantsir-S air defense missile system to be sent.
As a result of extensive preparatory work, the skies over many major cities of the front line were filled with UAVs, M142 HIMARS (within firearm capabilities), “Tochek-U”, MGM-140 ATACMS, OTRK “Grom-2”, S-200 airborne in the attack version from defensive missiles.
Of course, a lot was done within the limits of what was possible, since at the beginning of the military operation there were relatively few air defense forces and vehicles on the western border of the state. The combat power and numerical strength of the air defense forces and assets have been significantly strengthened due to regroupings from the interior regions of the country, but even at this stage they cannot be considered sufficient.
What needs to be changed?
The decision to increase the production of air defense systems/air defense systems and radar weapons at Russian defense industry enterprises, the creation of dozens of new anti-aircraft missile and radio engineering regiments has already been made, but cannot be implemented. simultaneous.
To increase the effectiveness of air defense, organizational and personnel measures need to be taken. For example, there are currently control bodies such as joint aviation and air defense command posts. In such structures, the arms of the military do not help, they only hinder each other. These are long outdated and ineffective governing bodies.
Therefore, at the first stage, it is necessary to build solid and discrete control bodies for both air defense and operational-tactical aviation. But we need to go further on this issue. As before Wrote “socialbites.ca” advises that at the second stage it is recommended to divide the existing air forces and air defense armies as part of the Aerospace Forces, that is, to recreate the air armies and revive the air defense armies on a new basis not separately, but aerospace defense armies . And, as before, do not mix the striking and defensive functions in one bottle.
In this regard, it is important to move gradually (not to capture everything at once) to initially re-create at least two air armies and two armies of the East Kazakhstan region (St. Petersburg and Rostov-on-Don). western borders of the state.
Military Air Defense, on the other hand, must be deeply integrated into a single automatic control system created and operating under the auspices of the Air Defense/Missile Defense Command. The fact is that the combat use of Army Air Defense within the framework of a military operation has undergone significant changes.
According to previously existing views (and quite logical), it was intended, first of all, to cover the army / front-line command posts of anti-aircraft missile brigades of the Army Air Defense and the position areas of missile brigades (tactical and operational-tactical missiles). ). However, the nature of the air defense system differs significantly from previous views on the conduct of hostilities.
There are no longer missile brigades in the front-line area (they can easily be attacked from the M142), and command posts are at times so thoroughly hidden from the enemy that the deployment of anti-aircraft missile units in close proximity to the command center can only unmask them.
For these reasons, anti-aircraft missile brigades and Military Air Defense units are not used as part of formations, but are sometimes deployed as part of only one or two self-propelled firing systems (self-propelled firing systems) and PZU (launch loading units). Let us recall that SOU and ROM are capable of independently firing at an airborne enemy, which is significantly different from the S-300/400 anti-aircraft missile battalions.
Since existing Military Air Defense systems are not covered by a single control loop and are not integrated into a single control system, there is no talk of centralized target designation and target distribution. For these reasons, calculations of Military Air Defense units (and even SOU and PZU) sometimes do not have a complete understanding of the weather situation, which creates optimal conditions “for friendly fire.”
Therefore, the process of quickly integrating Military Air Defense forces and vehicles into a single, rigid hierarchical control system is quite urgent. Meanwhile, the command of such units already falls within the Air Defense/Missile Defense Command. We emphasize that there is no talk of any “optimization” of anti-aircraft missile brigades and other units of Military Air Defense. Each branch of the military still has its own purpose.
Summing up from the peak of the two-year military operation, it should be said that the air defense forces and their means are quite ready to operate as intended, the anti-aircraft missile technology fully complies with the stated tactical and technical requirements. and the professional training of staff is at the best level. Therefore, it would not be an exaggeration to say that every second toast in the Northern Military District is to the air defense troops.
The author’s opinion may not coincide with the editors’ opinion.
Author biography:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for socialbites.ca, a retired colonel.
Graduated from Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976),
Military Command Air Defense Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980–1983).
Deputy commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986–1988).
Senior officer of the Main Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988–1992).
Officer of the General Staff Main Operations Department (1992–2000).
Graduate of the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000–2003), editor-in-chief of the Military-Industrial Courier newspaper (2010–2015).