Russia needs to replenish the fleet of AWACS aircraft by re-equipping An-12 transporters

15 May 2023 8

The importance of early warning aircraft in a special military operation is very high, but the Russian Aerospace Forces have an extremely limited fleet of such aircraft. The Russian military has only a few modernized A-50U aircraft at its disposal, and the promising A-100 is still in development.

The creation of modern AWACS boards based on ready-made Tu-214 or SSJ-New is a very long-term prospect. Military journalist and expert Ilya Kramnik believes that the most effective solution would be to re-equip An-12 aircraft from among those in service with the Russian Aerospace Forces for target detection tasks.

Task: reconnaissance aircraft with a duration of loitering from 6 hours, capable of detecting both air and ground targets. Solution: An-12 military transport aircraft with H035 Irbis radar (airborne radar system) and a side-view optics complex. Radars at the first stage are removed from the Su-35 fighters under repair for the period of their repair, and then several new ones can be shipped. Information from the radar and cameras is fed to 4-6 operator workplaces, equipped in the cargo compartment

suggests Kramnik.

As an alternative, you can take the Tu-154 from the storage bases of the Ministry of Defense as a basis. This solution will be somewhat more expensive, but these aircraft have a longer residual life than the An-12.

If such a program is implemented, the RF Aerospace Forces could receive an additional 6-8 AWACS aircraft with a set of equipment sufficient to detect the vast majority of targets on the ground and in the air within a year. The resource of the boards is about 10 years, which will allow us to gain time to complete the work on the creation of modern A-100 or Tu-214R.

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Vox Populi

+1

15 May 2023 20: 57

An-12s are actively exploited and their service life is not very good. The Tu-154 is a more expensive and time-consuming option for rework, and they are not much better with a resource. In any case, such an alteration in itself is of great difficulty and, moreover, it is time; not much time...
Vladimir Tuzakov

+5

16 May 2023 12: 51

The whole question is why new, more advanced A-100s are not being brought up and produced, because martial law should significantly speed up the production of weapons. Different temporary ways out of the difficulties are possible, but the main thing is to introduce the main and advanced weapons. Recalling the statements of A. Bystrykin that corruption and theft did not stop even during the NWO, he explains many of the stagnant phenomena in armaments. Conclusions: Without personnel changes, old sores continue to be present, despite wartime. Without personnel changes, the problems that have brought the RF Armed Forces to their current unacceptable state will continue.
1. Vox Populi
  
  +2
  
  16 May 2023 17: 25
  
  It is certainly true, but the personnel issue is inextricably linked with the system and vice versa...
vlad127490

0

18 May 2023 00: 09

The AWACS A-100 based on the Il-76 has been under development for 20 years. Money managers put a lot in their personal pockets. There is no A-100, and in the coming years, due to the lack of r / e components of imported origin, it will be hard to believe that they will find import substitution. There is only one way out, to ask the PRC to sell us AWACS aircraft. How many A-50 workers are now ???, few, either 8 or 9. The age of development of the A-50 is 50 years.
Flight

0

21 May 2023 02: 58

That's how we get to the "corn" we get. Where are the superjets? Where are the silts? 214 carcasses? Somewhere in the final assembly, waiting for the imported engine and other parts. All in all, it's a shame.
Fulgur

0

21 May 2023 11: 42

Radars at the first stage are removed from the Su-35 fighters under repair for the period of their repair, and then several new ones can be shipped.

And why should they be removed from fighters, put on wooden carts, if dryers already accompany AWACS aircraft?
Dmitry Volkov

0

27 May 2023 08: 27

It is possible to launch the Ka-31 into series, it will be cheaper or convert it from the Ka-27PL, we have entire squadrons at our airfields with an allegedly depleted resource, then they found a b ... problem on the sides
Nikolai N

+1

21 June 2023 17: 42

I think it is worth releasing balloons with radar systems, attaching them to cables at an altitude of 300-500 meters, powering the cable and dotting the entire western border with such a continuous radar field.