Russian super weapon shocked when 'Flying Radar' brought S-400 aimed straight at Ukrainian air force plane
After Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's statement that Russian air defense forces had destroyed 24 Ukrainian planes in the past five days, military experts began to wonder what new weapons Russia used to achieve such high results?
One of the most convincing options is for Russia to use the A-50 long-range radar detection, guidance and control aircraft, coordinating operations with the S-400 air defense missile system.
The A-50 is one of the most unusual aircraft in the Russian Air Force, built on the basis of the Il-76 heavy military transport aircraft, but with a huge round "mushroom" on the fuselage, where powerful radars are hidden under the shield.
Former commander of the air defense missile force of the Special Forces Command (Moscow Air Defense Corps), Colonel Sergei Khatylev spoke about this issue to the Russian media.
“The thing is that the A-50's "flying radar" has a much wider field of view than the radar of the S-400 air defense system on the ground, detects hundreds of air targets at a distance of several kilometers and shares reconnaissance and combat information with the S-400 air defense gunners. Air defense crews can receive information about targets from advanced radar stations of the technical radio forces or from the command post of an air defense division or brigade, which receives data on the air situation from the A-50 aircraft," explained expert Sergei Khatylev.
By the way, a more advanced modification of the A-50 Premier aircraft has recently entered service. In principle, we have a standard option for collecting information from air defense units.
If it was standard, why wasn't it used before? Well, or wasn't it used as effectively as it was last week. Can we say that the A-50 has expanded its reconnaissance and target designation capabilities?
- The method of armed struggle is always improved in combat conditions. The use of A-50 aircraft for reconnaissance and guidance for air defense systems can be considered a successful solution.
Long-range radar patrol aircraft, at a certain altitude, detect targets at a distance of 600 km or more. The reconnaissance system of ground-based radar stations - radar field in different areas has different parameters - but in a certain area, it can cover a range of about 300 km. And "flying radar" allows receiving information over a wider range.
Is this long range only used for gathering reconnaissance information?
- No. This information is not only for reconnaissance but also for target designation. That is, it is combat information for the automatic command system, which designates targets for the S-400 air defense missile division. Thanks to that, the air defense system will automatically "understand" the position to fire at high speed. In addition, the type of ammunition used is a fairly new missile that operates at maximum range. The West calls it the "long arm" of the Russian air defense force.
If other missiles of the complex have semi-active guidance, this missile has active guidance. That is, it is fired at the target, then locks on to automatically track and destroy the target with high probability.
Data received from the Ukrainian side shows that for some reason their onboard complex did not record the aircraft's radar emissions and did not see the approaching Russian missile. Why?
- For many reasons. The A-50's flight radar is located at a long distance, detecting targets 600 km away. But the aircraft's complex cannot sense "radiation" at such a range. So the enemy does not know where it is flying and where it is firing from - the range is more than 300 km.
At the time our missile is approaching the target, the enemy should see it visually. However, they don't see it. Why?
- Yes, because this missile moves at almost supersonic speed, appearing suddenly at the target. Enemy radar stations simply cannot detect it, because they do not even know from which direction this missile is flying.
If the enemy had reliable intelligence, they could have detected it far away, somewhere on the border, for example. But we did not give them that opportunity. At the moment when the enemy air force was tasked with attacking, the Russian missile arrived and destroyed the plane. Sorry! There was an element of surprise, secrecy and the maximum use of the Russian military potential.
