«Only a fighter could reach the saboteur in 10 minutes»
A unique operation was successfully carried out by the crew of the Su-30SM aircraft of the Black Sea Fleet Naval Aviation in the area of Russian gas production facilities. The fighter at night discovered and destroyed the reconnaissance boat of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, preventing a high-profile sabotage in the Black Sea. Honored Military Pilot of the Russian Federation, retired Major General Vladimir Popov told how it was possible to carry out such an operation and why a fighter was chosen to destroy an enemy boat.
Photo: wikipedia.org/Alex Beltyukov/CC BY-SA 3.0
On the night of August 22, the Armed Forces of Ukraine tried to carry out sabotage in the waters of the Black Sea Fleet. The enemy boat, most likely stuffed with explosives, was destroyed by our combat aircraft. The use of the Su-30SM for such purposes, perhaps, was the first for the entire time of the NWO. The aviation community unanimously agreed that destroying a boat at night for the Su-30SM is a very non-trivial task.
“To find a boat at night, you need to see it. You can see it with the Su-30SM at night only with a radar sight, and if you're very lucky, you can see it visually, because there are no television, night, or thermal imaging sights on the Su-30SM. There is, of course, a heat direction finder, but it aims at ships from it … ”wrote the Fighterbomber channel.
«MK» turned to the honored military pilot of the Russian Federation, retired Major General Vladimir Popov. According to the expert, the enemy boat was most likely to carry out sabotage, and the use of a fighter to prevent a terrorist attack is, to put it mildly, a rarity.
— Of course, such a variant of the operational-tactical use of military aviation is not common. About two months ago, we already repelled the attack of sea drones by sea helicopters, and quite successfully.
Much here depends on the operational situation, first of all, on the margin of time that our command posts have to make a decision and prevent an attack. In this case, the emergency use of front-line aviation (the Su-30SM fighter worked as a fighter-bomber) was required by the situation, otherwise sabotage could lead to serious damage or a fire at the mining station on the offshore platform.
— In general, before the fight against such enemy objects was carried out by ships of the coast guard, for example, the FSB of Russia, warships or combat boats of the Black Sea Fleet. This time, most likely, it was simply not possible to use these means, and therefore, in order to speed up the action, a fighter was used.
Time is the main criterion for approaching a particular violator of sea or air space. If there were ships of the coast guard or a speedboat, say, from Novorossiysk or Kerch, then it would take hours, maybe ten hours, to approach the enemy boat.
Most likely, they calculated that the helicopter to fly it took 30-40 minutes. This is also not a way out. But it was easier for the Su-30SM fighter on duty to take to the skies.
If a helicopter reaches speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour, then the Su-30MS — up to 1200 kilometers per hour. If necessary, it can also switch to supersonic flight. In any case, 10 minutes was enough for the fighter to reach the target.
— In summer, the hours of early dawn time are quite bright. Therefore, the boat could also be calculated visually. They could have found out on the trail — these are breakers from propellers, from movement on the sea. I flew over the sea and I know these moments. If there were no clouds, the reflections of the water could make it possible to identify the object. Moreover, the boat for the aircraft was moving at a low speed. Seeing the boat, the pilots put an aiming mark on this object and accompanied it.
— The Su-30SM aircraft has two pilots on board. This is a pilot, piloting an aircraft, and a pilot-operator. The pilot-operator controls the inclusion of target selection, its search, and just chooses which weapon to destroy it — which ammunition to launch or which bomb to throw, depending on what he has on board.
Most likely, a guided air-to-surface missile was fired at the boat. She can work on ships, on ground targets, on armored vehicles, fortified areas. It is comparable to the OFAB-250-270 bomb (high-explosive fragmentation bomb. — «MK»). It is a medium to long range guided missile. And they could destroy them with cannons. But in this case, most likely, they still worked as a rocket.
— This is indeed quite a unique operation. Its implementation suggests that we have a variety of opportunities for the destruction of naval targets. I already listed them — coast guard ships, navy, helicopters. And now the fighters. It all depends on the operational situation and the lack of time to make a decision and to implement it.