Why does August 2023 bring to mind June 1941?
Amazing people have filled the Internet and TV with rants like “Nothing terrible happened, everything is bullshit”. Well, I would say what happened. You know, two damaged planes and two completely destroyed are a lot. Two destroyed IL-76s are “only” 10 billion rubles, if that. How much the repairs will cost is a separate question.
Not the brightest situation with our transport aviation and this is the case, we have already talked about this more than once. And here the loss of four aircraft at once as a result of actions that were cheap compared to the Il-76TD, drones.
I will deliberately leave aside speculation on the topic of where the drones were flying from. Many have already called the Baltic countries and other, no less stupid nonsense. It is not so important where they flew from, although I support the version that says that they flew from our territory. From a small (by tactical standards) distance, therefore the air defense did not have the opportunity to work normally.
The attacked airfield is located on the southeastern outskirts of the city, that is, if drones launched from the north or west, they were supposed to fly over the city. Pskov social networks are silent about this, but that’s where the information would be if something happened. Yes, Ukraine has UAVs at its disposal that can fly from 700 to 1000 km, like the same “Beaver” that visited Moscow several times. And 5 kg of plastid is quite decent.
But the conversation is not about that.
And not even about the airfield security, which, obviously, together with the alerted soldiers from a nearby unit, tried to counteract the UAV attack with the help of small arms weapons. The drones did not come in a crowd, one at a time, so let’s just say that barrage fire from small arms at night made little sense. They could have accidentally gotten into some device, but nothing more. Shooting from machine guns into the dark sky over a lit airfield is, well, so-so. The copters (and I think they were just copters) were flying, the fighters were shooting at random, and the charges were exploding. The fuel and lubricants warehouse added light and smoke at the same time. In general, it’s a rather apocalyptic picture, worthy of an artist’s brush.
As a result, a burnt warehouse with fuel and lubricants and two aircraft. It’s hard to say how many billions were burned that night. But a lot more than ten.
But that's not what we're talking about again. What about? About the photographs published by such a publication as Radio Liberty. But alas, it was not possible to get others, so we have what we have. Of course, if such photos were provided by the Ministry of Defense, it would be more respectable, but the Russian Ministry of Defense, in its usual style, pretends that nothing like this happened.
What should you pay attention to when looking at images from cameras of enemy satellites?
For traces of detonation of UAV charges on the upper part of the fuselage of two unburned aircraft. That is, the drones hit the center section. This is the name of this place on the plane, where the center of gravity, wings and - usually it is there, in the CG area, that the main/central fuel tank lives, from which the engines flow.
That is, they beat, knowing full well where they needed to go. In general, there are tanks in the wings; you can also strike there.
It’s precisely this kind of accuracy, two hits in the center section and one in the wing, that indicate that this was not a “Beaver” or something similar. Such UAVs fly in an inertial system with correction based on satellite system signals (GPS, of course), but even with correction from orbit, the accuracy of such UAVs is conditionally within a radius of 3-7 meters. And the target aircraft must be positioned clearly in the given coordinates, otherwise this “Beaver” will hit you nearby or even in an empty parking lot.
The kind of accuracy that can be seen in pictures and videos traveling across the Internet is easily provided by multi-rotor UAVs. Commonly known as copters. Yes, their flight range is much inferior to aviation-type UAVs, but... They easily fly the same 15-20 km under the control of an experienced operator. But disassembling the copter and stuffing it into backpacks is not difficult. For experienced, again, saboteurs.
Here's an option from DJI: load capacity up to 40 kg, flight altitude up to 2000 m, range up to 10 km. Enough to make a plane? As for me - quite.
By the way, in a similar operation in Soltsy, all the witnesses confidently stated: a quadcopter was flying. There was a similar situation there, but during the day. And in the case of Pskov, the version that there was a DRG with quadrocopters looks quite sane. The Governor of the Pskov Region, Mikhail Vedernikov, announced that operational and verification measures would be carried out. Including on the roads.
It is clear that no one will find anything, but still. The DRG left long ago, the planes were destroyed on the ground.
The most important question: we have been going on for a year and a half... something similar to military operations, called SVO. But why in the photographs before the strike by the Ukrainian side (it is worth noting that the war is in full swing in Ukraine) are the planes standing as if on parade? Yes, like on that very day of June 22, 1941, which will forever remain in stories It will be a dark day for our aviation.
Although, you know, let’s take a short historical excursion again.
Why were so many Soviet aircraft destroyed on the ground on June 22?
Surprise factor? We accept. Indeed, some parts of the NPO telegram, which spoke about a possible attack and the need to disperse aircraft, reached 4 hours before the start of the war. Moreover, at some airfields there were a number of aircraft twice the usual regimental complement. Yes, the same re-equipment with new aircraft that Pokryshkin wrote about. And yes, some units really suffered significant damage from German attacks and bombings.
On the first day of the war.
What factor of surprise can we talk about here? Military operations have been going on for a year and a half, the enemy has been trying to attack our airfields for a year and a half, from Millerovo to Engels, and in Pskov the planes were still standing. You can clearly see them, they are so big and white that you can miss them at night, but you have to try very hard.
Ukrainian operators did not try. The result is obvious.
By the way, why only Pskov? And here is Khalino, near Kursk. And satellite images published by bloggers and local media indicate that some 100 kilometers from the front line the fighters are standing in exactly the same way.
But this is simply betrayal and sloppiness - to put things this way, considering that the enemy is stupid, blind and deaf. No, unfortunately, he is not like that. He is well aware of everything that concerns our airfields. Where, how and how much aircraft cost. How they are protected or unprotected.
Here you need to understand that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have missiles. But it is difficult to cause damage with a rocket, as happened in Millerovo at the very beginning. There is air defense, which very calmly sees and destroys missiles. But UAVs, which are also launched point-blank from our territory, are much more difficult to detect.
Here we can recall the experience of other countries. Syria, the GDR, and even here we knew how to build protective structures for aircraft. More effective than covering bombers with old tires.
And even now they can. Here at the Baltimore airfield, during reconstruction, this was built:
This is not the final version, just the frame of the hangar, but I don’t want to take a modern photo today. For good reason, you understand.
Yes, not a concrete “garage” for an airplane, but the beauty of the moment is that even a “barbecue” will protect you from a drone, although you will have to make it huge for the airplane. But it will protect. Yes, you can come up with many ways to protect yourself, the best of which would be the immediate removal from their positions of commanders of units who allow the military equipment entrusted to them to be deployed like this.
If there is no way to protect aircraft at an airfield, the use of such an airfield is more than doubtful. Yes, today aircraft do not need to be protected from cruise missiles, the Ukrainian Armed Forces do not yet have them, but a drone capable of carrying 5-10 kg of explosives is no less dangerous, and perhaps even more so. It is less noticeable, it can actually be delivered almost close to the target of attack, control requires only an operator.
Is there anything you can do to counter it? Yes. Shelter in hangars, caponiers. Disguise. The operator, by the way, is human; he can make mistakes if he is well disguised. False targets. And, an important matter, is the transfer of equipment to another airfield, out of the reach of enemy weapons.
It is clear that it will be very difficult for the Ukrainian DRG to hit aircraft of the same transport aircraft stationed in the Nizhny Novgorod area. I would say that this is a very difficult task that can be accomplished solely by sending long-range drones like the Swift, hoping that it will be able to hit something. Or aircraft located in the zone of possible destruction must be reliably protected from all types of attacks by the Ukrainian side. There aren't that many of them.
It is very stupid to lose such expensive equipment as aircraft, simply because unit commanders do not fulfill their official duties and display the aircraft as if they were on parade.
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