Commenting on the growing military activity of the United States and its allies in the Arctic, experts interviewed by RT stated the need to develop effective methods of countering the Navy, including their landing craft.
For example, Alexei Podberezkin, director of the Center for Military-Political Research at MGIMO, believes that against the background of the rapid development of Russian UAVs, it makes sense to create reconnaissance and strike vehicles that could operate in a single circuit with manned aircraft.
In an interview with RT, he noted that today the institutions of the Ministry of Defense and the defense industry of the Russian Federation are working on solving problems related to the interaction of drones and manned aircraft complexes.
“The main task of such experiments is to destroy the enemy's air defense systems, that is, to break through his air defense and eliminate the means of retaliatory strike.
The joint use of UAVs, airplanes and helicopters is also suitable for the defense of vast Arctic spaces from the potential landing of enemy amphibious assault forces, ”the expert said.
Honored Pilot of Russia, Major General Vladimir Popov, also believes that the widespread use of drones in conjunction with operational-tactical and army aviation can cover the "northern strategic directions."
“The Arctic is a tasty morsel for a potential enemy.
Today, it is important to develop new ways to combat a possible amphibious assault operation directed against our country.
Based on current trends, we can conclude that not only aircraft and helicopters, but also UAVs should be involved, linking them into a single combat use scheme, ”Popov stressed.
Threat from America
Earlier, employees of the Air Force Academy named after Professor N.E.
Zhukovsky and Yu.A.
Gagarin (Voronezh) presented a new method of joint combat use of manned aircraft, reconnaissance and attack UAVs of a small class (MK).
Its contents were published in the journal Aerospace Forces.
Theory and practice".
“The implementation of the proposed method will ensure the timely delivery of air strikes by army, operational-tactical aviation.
The use of MK UAVs will reduce the risks of loss of crews and IACs (multifunctional aviation complexes. -
RT
) by suppressing enemy air defense systems and will increase the accuracy of air strikes by identifying the targets of the strike, ”the article says.
The authors believe that their proposed solution will effectively counter the over-the-horizon amphibious assault, especially in the Arctic.
It is in this region that Western states, and primarily the United States, are trying to challenge the military and economic leadership of the Russian Federation.
The material says that under modern conditions, a potential enemy is capable of organizing an amphibious assault landing at a distance of 30-50 miles (48.3-80.5 km) from the coast, that is, outside the line of sight of reconnaissance equipment.
In addition, Voronezh specialists drew attention to the continuous improvement by the United States of technologies for the production of universal amphibious assault ships (UDC).
So, at present, the US Navy is receiving America-class aircraft-carrying platforms, which, according to the Pentagon, are capable of solving a wide range of tasks, including reinforcing amphibious assault groups and ensuring the actions of the marines in populated areas, when seizing ports and airfields.
The airborne landing craft of the new UDC are capable of providing the landing of about 1,700 military personnel with equipment and providing the necessary air support.
In addition, up to 30% of the forces can be airlifted, experts say.
The article provides a table from which it follows that the wing of one America-class ship consists of 12 MV-22B "Osprey" tiltrotors (each unit accommodates 24 military personnel) and four CH-53K heavy transport helicopters capable of carrying 32 people.
UDC class America
Reuters
© Mike Blake
“In this case, full support of actions by a heavy aircraft carrier and its air group will not be required.
This is due to the fact that the UDCs of the America project have their own aviation group and air defense system, which allows them to independently carry out expeditionary actions in separate operational (tactical) directions, ”the article says.
Based on experiments
Based on historical experience, the staff of the Air Force Academy came to the conclusion that the defending side has the ability to deter and successfully counter amphibious assault.
In addition, in modern conditions, the attacking group needs to ensure air superiority.
In general, according to the authors, when developing an antiamphibious operation, there is no need to set the task of defeating the enemy.
For effective combat, it is enough "to achieve a disruption in the fulfillment of the tasks of the assault echelon and the consistent destruction of the forces of the landing assault force."
As a result, the enemy will be forced to abandon plans of conquest.
According to experts, tactical groups (GTN), equipped with small-class attack UAVs, can play a leading role in countering a potential enemy.
It is assumed that the drones will operate in conjunction with manned aircraft.
"In the conducted military-technical experiments (VTE), the possibility of using UAVs in conjunction with AA (army aviation. -
RT
) and OTA (operational-tactical aviation. -
RT
) has been
experimentally proved
," the article says.
In this regard, the authors noted the positive value of the supply of tactical aviation of the Aerospace Forces of gliding bombs and new types of missiles, the flight range of which allows aircraft not to enter the air defense zone.
Along with this, in the near future, guided missiles will appear in service with domestic combat helicopters, capable of destroying targets at a distance of up to 25 km.
At the same time, the latest airborne weapons require preliminary target designation.
Scientists propose to assign this function to UAVs of a small class.
“Firstly, because they have low visibility in all areas of the operation of reconnaissance assets.
Secondly, the analysis carried out in the work shows that small-sized targets present certain difficulties when they are destroyed by various air defense means, ”the article emphasizes.
According to experts, today it is possible to use drones to deliver radio beacons that will illuminate targets.
These signals can be used to launch guided aircraft missiles and gliding bombs.
United States Marines
© US Department of Defense
According to the presented method of combating amphibious assault, in addition to airplanes and helicopters, "systematic fire impact" on the enemy will have to be provided by unmanned attack vehicles equipped with mines and small-caliber ammunition.
It is most effective to use them when the enemy's UDC slowed down or completely stopped.
"The most expedient, according to the authors, the UAV MK to strike at the moment when the preparation of the enemy airborne vehicles (LA) for landing and they are on the upper decks, but did not take off," argue the scientists of the Air Force Academy ...
Experts are confident that, despite its modest size, drone ammunition can destroy the enemy's manpower and inflict such an amount of material damage that will hamper the "normal operation of combat crews."
The highest priority targets, as reported in the article, should be the antenna systems of enemy radars.
"Freedom of maneuver"
An important advantage of their method of disrupting an amphibious assault operation, Voronezh experts call the reduction of the risk of loss of manned aircraft through the widespread use of UAVs.
According to them, planes and helicopters will "have freedom of maneuver and, if necessary, can camouflage themselves in the folds of the terrain."
Also, manned aircraft will be able to strike with high-precision weapons at the enemy's amphibious transport ships and "mine approaches on the routes of the advance of the assault echelon."
As stated in the article, the above scheme of actions will allow you to give the enemy an "asymmetric response".
Experts interviewed by RT positively assessed the method developed at the Air Force Academy to counter the amphibious assault of a potential enemy.
In particular, they agreed with the thesis that there was no need to completely defeat the enemy forces.
According to Aleksey Podberezkin, in the modern theater of military operations (theater of operations) it is often enough to "frighten" a potential aggressor with the inevitability of an asymmetric retaliatory strike.
In an interview with RT, the expert noted that Voronezh scientists have developed a way to combat amphibious assault, focusing on a number of indisputable postulates in the art of war.
One of them is that success in a theater of operations is impossible without first gaining air supremacy.
“The widespread use of aerospace forces, including with the participation of drones, is now an integral part of the success of any military operation, be it offensive or defensive,” Podberezkin said.
According to him, the new method of countering amphibious assault operations involves the combined use of drones and unmanned aerial vehicles.
Podberezkin believes that Russia has a technological base that will make it possible to implement the solutions proposed by scientists in practice.
“It is obvious that in the future the combination of UAVs and manned aircraft will give the maximum effect,” Podberezkin explained.
Vladimir Popov adheres to a similar point of view.
As the expert said in a comment to RT, there is now a need to work out methods of mass use of manned aircraft in conjunction with UAVs.
Such interaction, according to the analyst, "makes it possible to work more precisely and respond to threats in a targeted manner."
© US Department of Defense
"The enemy" wave "must be stopped before approaching the shore.
Scientists correctly noted that it is important to deliver strikes when the deployment of amphibious assault vehicles begins.
I think that if the task is to disrupt this process, drones, including those of a small class, are really suitable for this.
If it is required to inflict more serious damage, then it is necessary to involve airplanes and helicopters, the firepower of which is significantly higher than that of drones, ”the expert argues.
Popov believes that the publication of an article by employees of the Air Force Academy can be regarded as "a kind of message."
“The likely adversary understands that Russia has a very long state border on the side of the Arctic Ocean.
In general, the Arctic is a difficult region for warfare.
Nevertheless, we observe that NATO countries and mainly the United States are preparing for a potential confrontation, and Russia is developing new methods of defense and, in my opinion, very successful, which will certainly have a certain sobering effect on Washington, "Popov summed up.