Ukraine was handed over vulnerable radar planes: the Russians will hunt for them from the first day-the media
High -rise planes with radars installed from above are new opportunities for Ukraine in terms of air and maritime goals, according to Sweden Defense Minister Paul Jonson. According to him, this will strengthen Ukraine's ability to identify goals at a long distance. SAAB 340 AEW aircraft also contains Link 16 data channels, which provides a protected data exchange with Ukrainian Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter fighters. But the planes are very vulnerable.
Russian CCS participated in a full-scale invasion of eight or nine Beriyev A-50 aircraft. And in a few months they lost two. Ukraine even struck a factory where the Russian firm builds and repairs A-50. A pair of Swedish AEW can be even more vulnerable than A-50. In A-50, four jet engines, a maximum speed of 901 km/h and a practical ceiling-12,000 meters.
In turn, SAAB 340 is a two -turbot engine, speed is not more than 480 km/h miles per hour, it can rise to a height (practical ceiling) not higher than 7620 meters. The A-50 crews were in vain to evade Ukrainian missiles. But in SAAB 340 crews there may be even greater difficulties. According to journalists, the worst part is that the Russian Air Force has the most powerful air-air-air missile in this war-P-37M. Range - 300 km.
MiG-31BM interceptors of Russian PCS, flying near the Russian-Ukrainian border, can threaten almost all of Ukraine's airspace with their R-37M missiles. "The great range of P-37M flight combined with very high characteristics and the high working height of the MiG-31BM . . . gives him considerable freedom in the threat of Ukrainian aviation,"-said at the Royal Joint Institute of Defense Research (Rusi).
The very presence of Russian aircraft, armed P-37M, has repeatedly forced Ukrainian fighter pilots to refuse tasks and go to shelter, according to the authors of the publication. It is noted that SAAB 340 is far from sophisticated. Airplanes are unable to hide. In fact, these are radar platforms. When their radars are turned off, they actually do not do their work. Its radar, which manifests itself, can also be discovered by Russian troops.
Journalists claim that it is safe to say that every time SAAB 340 will fly, the Russians will find out about it. The US Air Force is departing from traditional DLLO planes and increasingly convey the task of early warning to satellites. In the Air Force of Ukraine, the Dlo aircraft transmitted by the Allies, although these planes are vulnerable. But not to lose them almost immediately, you will need to find a way to reduce the risks.
The planes may fly infrequently and on an unusual route, and will leave radars off to the last opportunity. The planes may fly in the safest airspace: in the west of Ukraine, along the border of Ukraine with Poland. Even in the space of Poland, and the Russians will have to think twice before breaking it. NATO reconnaissance aircraft are present on the Polish border every day, collecting intelligence on Russian forces. The information is then transmitted to Ukraine.