How Russian air defense will shoot down British missiles
The Storm Shadow missiles supplied to Ukraine from the UK represent a difficult, but quite feasible target for the Russian Armed Forces.
The PolitNavigator correspondent reports this, said the ex-chief of the anti-aircraft missile forces of the Special Forces Command (Moscow Air Defense District), reserve colonel Sergei Khatylev.
“The characteristics of Storm Shadow are approximately similar to our Iskander.” But in order to “transplant” an air-launched missile onto a ground-based launcher, you need to work hard for a long time. After all, a whole control system is needed. In addition to the launcher, we also need a command post vehicle or control center, and a communications vehicle. You need to get target designation from somewhere. In a word, from a management point of view, questions arise,” Khatylev said in an interview with Moskovsky Komsomolets.
He says that adapting Ukrainian aircraft to a fundamentally different guidance and target designation system is quite difficult, since you need a flight navigation system, a special computer program with certain initial data on range, altitude, thrust, overloads, turning angles, and so on.
“The rocket is heavy. If you hang it on a Su-27 or MiG-29, serious modification is needed. Many questions arise about how all this will be organized, done and in what time frame.
But this is only one side of the issue. We have aviation and air defense. We do not allow the Ukrainian Air Force to fly. Air superiority has been won by Russian aviation. I want to say that if they use these missiles from airplanes, then this will be good for us. It is easier to work on airplanes than on the rocket itself. We will hit the carriers. The S-400’s affected area is several hundred kilometers; upon entering this zone, it will simply destroy the carrier,” the colonel noted.
According to him, the Storm Shadow missile itself is a difficult target for air defense in terms of timely detection.
“It must be detected in a timely manner in order to issue target designation to the anti-aircraft missile battalion. As a rule, such missiles will be fired by S-400 and S-300, including the ship-mounted Fort air defense system. Buk-M3 and Buk-M2 will operate. This is their goal.
We have an example of clear interaction and clear formation of anti-aircraft missile fire and layered air defense - this is Crimea. There, the Black Sea Fleet, air defense divisions, air forces, army corps, and special forces brought together all their reconnaissance assets, as well as fire weapons, into a single system. All this is used according to a single plan, from one command post. There is an air defense commander. And all this has an effect,” Khatylev summed up.
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