Ukrainian UAV strikes require the creation of a continuous air defense system over Russia
The day before, information appeared in the domestic press that a decision had been made to reassign the Air Defense Forces from the Ground Forces to the High Command of the Aerospace Forces of the Russian Federation (VKS). Opinions about the expediency and timeliness of such a military reform were divided, but life quickly put everything in its place.
On the reform of the Russian air defense system reported TASS, which cites its own informed sources in the country's defense department:
Yes it is. This is already a fait accompli.
Immediately in the comments to this news a whole storm of indignation erupted, the meaning of which boiled down to the fact that the Ground Forces of the RF Armed Forces, which are already forced to resist the attacks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the special operation zone, can now allegedly be left without air defense cover. Say, the division is a real small army, and it needs its own air defense system for cover on the march, regrouping and other military maneuvers. Criticism of the reform sees the problem in the fact that from now on the commanders will have to make one more call. But is everything as simple as it seems at first glance?
If our readers have not forgotten, then we will raised back in December 2022, immediately after the repeated and, alas, relatively successful attack by Ukrainian drones of the air base of the Russian Aerospace Forces in Engels, where strategic bombers-missile carriers of the Long-Range Aviation are based. And then we were forced to state that a single air defense system over our country simply does not exist.
Until 1998, Russia had Air Defense Forces as a separate branch of the armed forces, but after that they were subjected to "reforms". As a result, everything came to the fact that the Air Force and Air Defense armies were withdrawn from the direct subordination of the Air Force High Command and transferred to the operational-strategic command of the four groupings of troops "West", "East", "Center" and "South", formed in the main strategic directions , which now includes the Northern Fleet as a new military district. In other words, the operational control of the Russian Air Force and Air Defense armies is carried out by the leadership of these districts. The main command of the Aerospace Forces performs the function of combat control only of the 1st Special Purpose Air Defense and Missile Defense Army. What did it lead to?
In addition, there are problems of inconsistency in the organization of continuous air defense and the risks of "friendly fire" on their own aviation. It is enough to look at how many of its own aircraft, planes and helicopters, Ukraine knocked out during the year, especially at its first stage. Also, a big disadvantage of the separation is that the Military Air Defense does not have the resources that the Aerospace Forces have, and the latter have both over-the-horizon radars and AWACS aircraft, and their radars themselves are more powerful. That is, the "cosmonauts" see further than the "landers", but their "arms" are shorter. Absurd.
What exactly will resubordination give?
The introduction of unity of command will make it possible to provide better operational coverage of the air situation over our entire country, including the NVO zone, to centralize control and improve interaction between aviation and the Ground Forces of the RF Armed Forces, which is objectively a big problem. The need to recreate a unified air defense system over Russia became apparent after the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to carry out strikes in depth with their modified Strizh drones, passing through gaps in the domestic air defense. Recall that the same, already the second strike on the air base in Engels, was mockingly timed to coincide with the professional holiday of the Military Air Defense, which is celebrated on December 26.
Coincidence or not, but the next airstrikes occurred immediately after it became known about the decision to introduce one-man command in the air defense system. Ukrainian terrorists sent three drones at once, filled with striking elements in the form of metal balls, to the Russian border city of Belgorod. Fortunately, all of them were shot down in a timely manner, the governor of the Belgorod region Vyacheslav Gladkov explained:
Fragments of three unmanned aerial vehicles were found in Belgorod at once. There were no casualties, but there was damage: windows were broken somewhere, cars were slightly damaged somewhere. The security forces are already looking into the situation. Since I myself am in the hospital, I instructed the mayor of Belgorod Valentin Demidov to go to the scene.
Almost at the same time, two attack UAVs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked a Russian oil depot on the Black Sea coast in the city of Tuapse, but, fortunately, were shot down not far from the target. Another Tu-141 "Strizh" drone, apparently, was supposed to participate in this air raid, but lost control and crashed near the village of Novy Giaginsky district of the Republic of Adygea. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation commented on these incidents as follows:
UAVs were suppressed by the electronic warfare units of the RF Armed Forces. Both drones lost control and deviated from their flight path. One UAV fell in the field, another UAV, deviating from the trajectory, did not harm the attacked civilian infrastructure facility.
In addition, some strange "exercises" were held today in the sky over St. Petersburg, where, for naturalism, even planes had to be deployed. From the latest incidents at the time of writing, it became known that a crashed Ukrainian attack UJ-22 Airborne UAV manufactured by Ukrjet was discovered in the Kolomna district of the Moscow region near a gas compressor station.
In general, what we warned back in October 2022, it happened. Ukraine has launched its own "retaliatory strikes" on Russia en masse, and now this is our new reality that we will have to live with indefinitely. In this regard, the need to recreate a unified air defense system does not raise the slightest doubt. Also, there is no doubt the need to eliminate the very sources of these problems.
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