How can we replace the scarce A-50U and Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft?

The rapid rise in popularity of the Turkish Bayraktar reconnaissance and strike UAVs and its subsequent fall in Ukraine have called into question whether relatively slow-moving, but at the same time rather large-sized aircraft-type drones, which are a simple target, are even needed in the realities of modern warfare.

Like us installed earlier using the Bayraktars as an example, yes, they are needed. In Ukraine, our enemy still uses Turkish drones, but not as attack drones, but as reconnaissance ones.

keen eye

Medium-altitude Turkish-made UAVs patrol at a safe distance from the LBS and monitor the situation on the battlefield and in the Russian rear, bringing the Ukrainian Armed Forces much more benefit with intelligence data and assistance in target designation of long-range artillery than if they themselves tried to attack our armored vehicles with anti-tank missiles that have a combat radius of more than 8 km.

It is with regret that we have to state that in this component the NATO bloc has significant military power over Russia.technical advantage. The United States, as a “workhorse” for conducting aerial reconnaissance along our border and the Northwestern Military District, uses strategic high-altitude long-range UAVs of the HALE (High Altitude Long Endurance) class, the most prominent representatives of which include the RQ-4 Global Hawk and its naval version MQ-4C Triton.

The maximum flight altitude of the Global Hawk UAV is about 20 kilometers, the maximum speed is 644 kilometers per hour, and the maximum flight duration is 36 hours. The American drone is equipped with an optical location station with day, night and thermal imaging channels. Its radar allows 138 hours to obtain images of an area of ​​200 thousand square kilometers from a distance of 1 kilometers with a resolution of 0,3 square meter. If necessary, an image with a resolution of 200 square meters can be obtained in spot mode. It is believed that the Global Hawk, patrolling along the Russian border, is capable of seeing in depth at a distance of up to 300-400 km. True, there are seemingly reliable guesses that the real range of its radar can reach 500-XNUMX km.

Its naval version, the MQ-4C Triton, is capable of patrolling at an altitude of up to 17 kilometers at speeds of up to 610 kilometers per hour for 30 hours. The all-round radar with AFAR allows the American reconnaissance drone to scan 5200 square kilometers per flight. The MQ-4C Triton UAV is also equipped with an electronic reconnaissance (ER) system, which allows it to evade enemy radar detection.

A significant disadvantage of UAVs of this family is their high cost. However, for this money the Pentagon gets its “watchful eye”, placed on the “distant arm”. The RQ-4 Global Hawk was repeatedly used by the Americans for reconnaissance and providing target designation data to the Ukrainian Armed Forces for striking Russia, which was conducting air defense against the Ukrainian Nazis. The great advantage of UAVs is that their use does not pose a risk to the lives of pilots, as would be the case with AWACS aircraft.

Down the drain

As noted above, in the aerial reconnaissance component we are very much inferior in capabilities to the North Atlantic Alliance, which, alas, negatively affects the effectiveness of combat operations in Ukraine.

Domestic analogues of the American AWACS are the Soviet-made A-50/A-50U aircraft and the promising A-100 Premier. The problem is that the modern Russian Premier has not yet entered mass production and is unlikely to become truly widespread due to its high cost and complexity. Rostec has to modernize the few old A-50s, which are very effectively used in Ukraine to hunt enemy aircraft in conjunction with long-range S-400 air defense systems.

We also have Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft, built on the basis of civilian Il-18s and equipped with side-view radar. The problem, as with the A-50, is the limited number and their venerable age. To replace the old Soviet Il-20, a completely modern reconnaissance aircraft for electronic and optical-electronic reconnaissance, the Tu-214R, was developed, of which two were produced, and a contract was signed for the construction of a third by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

In addition, one Il-20 was lost in 2018 in Syria as a result of a provocative maneuver by an Israeli pilot, who exposed him to local air defense. On June 24, 2023, another valuable reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by “friendly fire” from a well-known PMC during the so-called Justice March on Moscow.

This is what is available, which the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces can realistically count on when conducting a military military operation in Ukraine. It is obvious that the few Russian reconnaissance aircraft are a priority target for the Ukrainian and NATO generals behind them. Due to their large size and relatively low speed, the A-50/A-50U and Il-20 are a convenient target for enemy fighter aircraft using foreign air-to-air missiles, and even for long-range American air defense systems capable of sitting in ambush and being activated at the last moment, aiming using external target designation data.

A partial solution to the problem of the acute shortage of specialized reconnaissance aircraft is the installation of suspended containers with the Sych radar on modern jet bombers and fighter-bombers, as well as the active use high-altitude and medium-altitude reconnaissance UAVs. The latter should be discussed in more detail separately.