Netizen asked: During the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, many Russian fighter jets were shot down by the "Sthorn" missile. Why did the "Sthorn" become a nightmare for fighter jets?
"Sthorn" missile
Xiong: In this conflict, the small portable air defense missile did cause great damage to Russian fighter jets, especially helicopters. The fundamental reason is that the Russian fighter jets have low technical level and dull tactics, and the level of missile faced is not low.
Su-25 attack aircraft uses rockets to attack ground targets
First of all, Russian fighter jets lack precisely guided air-to-ground ammunition, so it is difficult for attack aircraft and bombers to accurately bomb targets at mid-to-high altitudes thousands of meters high, and they have to rely on aviation rockets and ordinary bombs to bomb and attack at low altitudes; armed helicopter is difficult for targets to attack in long-range and high-speed flights, and can only use rockets with poor accuracy, or hovering to launch anti-tank missiles . This provides many good attack opportunities for portable air defense missiles, especially the "Sthorn" missiles. Moreover, the number of fighters deployed by the Russian army in each air strike is obviously relatively small, and there is no cover provided by other fighters such as the electronic warfare aircraft , which is a bit like fighting alone. Such an air strike of one or two fighter jets will be difficult to impose sufficient suppression on the enemy on the ground, and will also increase the dangers and difficulties it faces.
In the early stages of the conflict, more than 20 Russian helicopters raided Kiev Gostomer Airport
, and the Russian helicopters ran too far. For example, in an air raid on Kiev , dozens of helicopters still need to fly about 200 kilometers after crossing the border, which took more than an hour. Although the range of portable air defense missiles is only a few thousand meters, the flight route of the Russian helicopter formation is monitored by detection systems such as the Ukrainian radar , as well as the NATO early warning aircraft, and the targets and routes are relatively obvious. The Russian army did not destroy the communication and command system of the Ukrainian army in advance, which left plenty of time for the Ukrainian army along the way, especially the Ukrainian army in the area near Kiev. Ground vehicles are equipped with air defense teams and can be quickly concentrated in the surrounding areas of Kiev to deploy defense.
Third, attacking Russian fighter jets not only infrared-guided missiles such as "Sthorn", but also other forms of guidance, which brings many difficulties to the defense and avoidance of Russian fighter jets.
British "Starlight" air defense missile
For example, the British "Starlight" missile uses visual tracking and laser beam guidance, that is, the shooter aims at the target, and the missile automatically corrects on the aiming line. To deal with the "Sthorn" missile, throwing flares (infrared bait bombs) is the main way to confront, but to deal with the "Starlight", this method is not right and must be controlled by maneuver, concealment or counterattack.
Compared with the "Sthorn" missile, when a laser beam guided missile strikes, laser light will come, and the laser alarm on the fighter can be found. At this time, the fixed-wing aircraft performs large overload maneuvering, which can greatly change the opponent's aiming line. The missile is forced to perform large overload maneuvering, resulting in the inability to keep up with the aiming line and finally off the target. As long as helicopters are quickly concealed, such as lowering their altitude and hiding behind trees and buildings, the missiles will not be able to hit them. During the entire attack, the "Starlight" missile requires the shooter to aim at the target. Therefore, another fighter attacks at the missile launch position, which can also kill the missile shooter or force him to dodge, thus making the attack invalid.
Therefore, there are still some tactics to deal with this type of missile. However, Russian fighter jets performed poorly in this regard, and even saw the Ka-52 armed helicopter hovering at a low altitude and were hit from the rear by laser beam guided anti-tank missiles. This may be because the tactical level of the Russian helicopters is not high, or because the troops are insufficient and they cannot dispatch a sufficient number of helicopters to cover each other.
The Ukrainian army used this anti-tank missile produced by its own country to shoot down Russian armed helicopters
Fourth, the Russian fighter jets lacked electronic countermeasures.
is a common method to fight against infrared-guided missiles such as "Stinger".In the 1980s, in , Afghanistan, the guerrillas had the "Sthorn" missiles assisted by the United States, and Soviet fighters and helicopters mainly relied on throwing flares to interfere with them. But the "Stinger" at that time was still an early model. Today's "Stinger" has undergone many improvements and changes, such as the replacement of a dual-band seeker (infrared and ultraviolet bands), which changed the scanning method and improved the ability to distinguish baits; the replacement of the microprocessor makes the reaction speed faster. The latest model of "Stinger" also uses a focal plane array seeker, which can distinguish between aircraft and flares through infrared images. For this kind of missile, the flare can only temporarily interfere with the tracking of the seeker when it is just released, and it will be discovered if the distance is slightly widened. Moreover, flares need to consider infrared and ultraviolet bands in radiation wavelengths, so that their radiation characteristics are closer to the fighter itself. However, the progress of Russian fighter jets in interference methods has been very small in recent years. A few successfully developed airborne electronic warfare equipment are also rarely purchased and equipped with troops.
F-15 fighter jets throw jamming bombs
Mi-24 armed helicopters throw jamming bombs
Modern fighter jets throw jamming bombs
When encountering air defense missiles, they will continuously throw many flares. Therefore, the flares carried by a fighter jet can often only cope with two or three missile attacks. The Russian Su-25 attack aircraft such as the Russian army can barely deal with this because they stayed over the enemy for a short time. Mi-24, m-28 and other armed helicopters, as well as m-17 transport helicopter , this time has been long. After encountering multiple attacks, it is easy to fall into a situation where there is no interference bomb .
Fifth, compared with the self-defense methods of fighter jets, modern portable air defense missiles have made greater progress, not only in speed and lethality, but also in guidance technology. Especially for helicopters with low flight altitude and slow speed, portable air defense missiles have already pose a great threat.
Even if one or two American armed helicopters encounter three or four air defense missile teams, it will be difficult to escape unscathed, and will not be much better than Russian helicopters. Therefore, in tactical terms, US armed helicopters often "crush the more to bully the few": after mastering absolute air supremacy, the attack on the enemy's defense is very weak, especially in places with weak air defense firepower. A few examples of "fighting" with the enemy's regular army also ended with the defeat of the US armed helicopter. For example, in the early morning of March 24, 2003, the 3rd Infantry Division of the US military sent 32 " Apache " to attack the Iraqi Medina Division, but was counterattacked by anti-aircraft artillery, machine gun and portable air defense missiles. One was shot down on the spot (two pilots were captured the next day), and 30 were injured (more than a dozen of them were seriously injured), barely flying back to the outside of the defense zone for emergency landing. They just went deeper into the front line less than 60 kilometers. In order to retaliate, the 101st Air Brigade changed a line to attack on the night of March 28, and used tactical ballistic missiles to suppress the target in advance, but it lost nothing. Instead, due to low visibility at night, two "Apaches" crashed.
At that time, the US military also lost many AH-64 "Apache" armed helicopters, even when facing Iraqi troops, which were weaker than the Ukrainian army, mainly anti-aircraft guns, anti-aircraft machine guns, and few portable air defense missiles.
Mi-28 armed helicopter destroyed by Ukraine
Therefore, in the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine, portable air defense missiles have become a nightmare for Russian fighter jets. On the one hand, these missiles are indeed very powerful now and the threat to fighter jets is becoming increasingly greater. It is difficult for any country to deal with fighter jets. On the other hand, it is because the Russian fighter jets have low technical level and little tactical choices, so they are forced to jump into such a difficult situation.
Xiong Wei: He has served as the deputy editor-in-chief of " Weapon Knowledge " magazine in 2001 and has been awarded the title of deputy editor-in-chief in 2003.So far, he has published more than 200 popular science articles in journals such as "Weapon Knowledge" and " We Love Science "; he has participated in the planning of the "Handle Battlefield" and "Gun Master" series, and has written scripts such as "Infantry Equipment for Modern Urban Operations" by CCTV National Defense and Military Channel; he has edited the book "Li Jia Crazy" in China's popular science articles (second volume) and participated in the compilation of the "Painting Military" series of comic military books, and organized and implemented the work of the "National Directory of Ancient Chinese Inventions and Creations" project.
Produced by: Popular Science China
Author: Xiong Wei
Planning: Jinhe
Producer: Guangming.com Popular Science Department
Source: Popular Science China - Frontier of Military Science and Technology
