Ukraine Anti Aircraft - The urgency of Ukraine's highly mobile and sophisticated air defense systems is key to keeping Russian aircraft at risk.
When it comes to helping Ukraine prevent Russia from gaining air supremacy in the skies — a miraculous feat in a conflict now in its third week — all attention is on giving the embattled country the decades. -old MiG-29 Fulcrums. That's a bad distraction. What Ukraine needs more than anything else are ground-based air defense systems—surface-to-air missiles, or SAMs—especially those with medium or higher altitude deployment capabilities optimized for long that move. And not just any SAM systems that meet the requirements, but Soviet-era systems that the Ukrainian military is fully trained to use in combat and field support.
Ukraine Anti Aircraft
While providing more fighters to Ukraine's air force, which remains under heavy pressure from the Russian war machine, is a potential aspect of strengthening its air defense, it is far from the most important. or easy. Fighter jets are currently the least of the Russian military's worries in terms of anti-aircraft attacks. The presence of medium-to-high-level SAM threats prevents Russian warplanes from operating at medium or higher altitudes, effectively pushing them directly into the engagement envelope of shoulder-fired surfaces. -to-air missiles (man-portable air defense systems, or MANPADS). , which is roughly defined as anything below 15,000 feet. Thousands of MANPADS of various types have flooded Ukraine and scattered troops across the country - and more are on the way. At the moment they are brutally effective, but without the threat posed by a more capable air defense system, the opportunities to attack the enemy at lower altitudes will decrease. In other words, the presence of one enables the other.
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The highly unpredictable land-based and mobile SAMs further complicate the tactical threat picture for Russia. They are much more viable than their less agile, mostly static counterparts. They can appear out of nowhere and then disappear before traditional attacks are possible. Thanks to the radar guidance, they are also effective in any weather, day or night.
In recent days, it has become abundantly clear that this stronger air defense remains a major concern for Russia, as you can read about in this recent article in our . Regardless, according to the UK Ministry of Defense, a significant decrease in Russian air activity in recent days is likely due to this reason.
When it comes to anti-SAM fighters, the US government seems to have reached the same conclusion. In a speech yesterday, John Kirby, the chief spokesman of the US military, said that instead of MiG-29s, Ukrainian forces would benefit more from the additional delivery of air defense systems based on land. While the Fulcrum became a signature weapon for the Ukrainian side early in the conflict and a rallying point for the country's population, Kirby is right that moving more of these jets doesn't necessarily create the most military or dangerous definition. increase in perception. However, while Ukraine's defense ministry makes big claims about aerial kills achieved by its fighters, the country's ground-based air defense system is sure to play a much bigger role in removing Russia's air superiority - a surprise to many analysts who expected Russian. air superiority to show quickly. They also limit Russia's ability to provide close air support to its own forces, giving Ukraine another advantage.
Even the US decision was not made immediately. In the months leading up to the war, a special team was sent to Ukraine to thoroughly assess the country's air defense capabilities and the expected needs in the event of an invasion. In other words, the US has intimate and up-to-date knowledge of how to help Ukraine with Russian air power.
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Even stranger, some in the media and on Capitol Hill are somehow re-examining the usefulness of allegedly decades-old MiG-29 variants as part of the MiG relocation drama. While these aircraft have a strong ground attack capability, they have somehow become an important air-to-ground platform capable of unilaterally destroying multiple bug columns. -and Russian armor sitting under their own anti-aircraft umbrella. This is pure fantasy created by people who have no idea what the capabilities of the MiG-29 really are and think that it is just an analogy of the late block F-16. And yet, their understanding of what the F-16 can actually do must be Hollywood action movie level and has nothing to do with reality. So no, a MiG-29 armed with a few missile pods or some stupid bombs won't stop Russia's northern invasion of Kyiv. And any mission of this kind has a high probability of being one-way, no matter what.
Even in the air, it is true that the MiG-29 generation mentioned is at a great disadvantage against its Russian counterparts, especially since Russia has learned and adapted from its own mistakes and further integrated in A-50 radar aircraft. . and other abilities to increase the strength of your air battle plans. This era of MiG-29s also relied heavily on airfield and ground-based radars, some of which remained operational despite the initial Russian strikes, but the real question remained for how long.
So while ground-based air defense is not a hot topic like the high-performance fighters flown by seemingly supernatural Ukrainian pilots, they are more relevant to the pressing tactical realities facing the country today.
Again, the main issue is that Ukraine needs systems that it can operate, successfully deploy and maintain in the field.
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, not Western designs that would take months or even years to train, build and produce a war zone logistics train to support. Hopefully, the US government and its partners have learned from their grave mistakes in equipping the Afghan military with advanced Western equipment that they could not maintain on their own even after years of effort, and takes a different path in Ukraine.
Because of all this, any additional and known air defense systems that can be quickly sent to Ukraine to continue to maintain and even expand the successful air campaign are likely to affect the course of the battle and the long-term destiny of the country as a whole. The following summary provides details of the MANPADS over-the-threshold SAM system currently in use by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which may therefore be prime candidates to enhance their anti-aircraft capability in the ongoing air war.
On paper, among the most capable surface-to-air missiles in Ukraine's inventory, at least before the outbreak of war, was the S-300P (SA-10 Grumble), one of the earlier back to the Soviet S-300 family of long-range SAM systems.
The earliest examples of this system operated by the Ukrainian military were the S-300PT variants, which first entered service in the late 1970s and used trailer-mounted erector launchers, radars and command posts. The Ukrainian Armed Forces also deployed the S-300PS systems, which were first introduced in the mid-1980s and integrated various components into the MAZ-7910 8x8 truck chassis for better mobility.
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A trailer-mounted launcher attached to one of Ukraine's S-300PT systems during a live-fire exercise in the Kherson region in 2018, Ukrainian Ministry of Defense
It is unclear how many examples of either of these systems were still in service or stored in Ukraine before the outbreak of the current conflict, although previous assessments have suggested that 250 launchers remain in inventory.
The current organizational structure of S-300 units in Ukraine is also unknown, but a typical S-300PS battery may have three portable erector launchers (TEL), two of which may also to act as translators to assist each other in billing. with two other vehicles, one carrying a 5N63 or 30N6 phased array radar and the other configured as a mobile command post. Up to eight fire batteries together with other command and control nodes and radar, such as the 36D6 Tin Shield surveillance radar, form a complete S-300PS system.
Although the S-300PS system can fire various types of interceptors, the 5V55R missile, equipped with a semi-active radar homing terminal, is the main type available in Ukraine and has a stated maximum range. which is 56 miles and capable of high altitude targets. height.
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Ukraine's Defense Ministry says at least some of its S-300PS systems are still operational. For example, they allegedly contributed to the destruction of four Russian Su-25 attack aircraft and two helicopters, as well as two cruise missiles on the night of March 8-9. Some elements of these systems may also have been destroyed by Russian forces.
Within NATO, there are several potential sources of additional S-300s that could be used for transfer to Ukraine. Bulgaria has a complete S-300PMU system, while Slovakia inherited a battery after the breakup of Czechoslovakia. Greece has 12 S-300PMU-1 systems, one
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