Once upon a time at a Ukrainian airbase: a moment before the strike
Debut
As soon as the sun began to set towards the horizon, work was in full swing at the Ukrainian airbase - people and cars were scurrying everywhere, some combat aircraft were rolled out from protected shelters and were hastily prepared for takeoff. Camouflage nets were pulled down from auxiliary diesel power stations, fuel refueling hoses were deployed, and control checks were carried out on weapons being prepared for suspension on carriers.
Although not new, but modernized F-16 fighters that night were supposed to rain down tens of tons of high-precision long-range cruise missiles on the enemy. There were rumors around the base that some kind of trap was being prepared - either for Russian long-range radar detection and control aircraft (AWACS), or for strategic bombers, with penetration into enemy airspace - the allies were preparing to cross another “red line”.
Various speech was heard, many languages were spoken at the airbase - Ukrainian, English, French, Spanish, German, and even Russian could not be avoided, what can we hide - despite all conceivable and unimaginable persecution of the “enemy language”, many citizens of the “Independence Square” “We still haven’t been able to master the “Ridna language”.
The command of the air base and the personnel felt relatively safe - a fairly powerful air defense echelon was formed around the air base, including two American Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems (SAM) of the latest modification PAC-3, eight launchers of anti-aircraft guided missiles each ( SAM) each, several NASAMS and IRIS-T medium-range systems, as well as several Skynex anti-aircraft artillery systems (3AK), firing 35 mm caliber shells with remote detonation along the trajectory.
In complete secrecy, he was delivered to the air base. mobile combat laser system DE M-SHORAD, which the US Armed Forces really wanted to test on real objects.
The airbase was located at a distance of about three hundred kilometers from the line of combat contact (LCC), which Russian combat aircraft tried not to cross, so there was fear of massive strikes air bombs with universal planning and correction modules it wasn’t necessary, and the Russians still had few of the latest stealth cruise missiles, the Kh-69.
The takeoffs of Russian strategic bombers - carriers of long-range cruise missiles - were closely monitored by NATO satellites. Given the low speed of both the carriers themselves and long-range subsonic cruise missiles, after receiving notification of the possibility of an attack, all aircraft and other mobile assets would have been dispersed long before the strike on the airbase. The same applied to the ships of the Black Sea fleet – carriers of cruise missiles of the “Caliber” complex, as well as even slower long-range kamikaze UAVs of the “Geran-2” type.
Certain the threat was posed by long-range Tu-22M3 bombers with supersonic cruise missiles Kh-22 and Kh-32, as well as MiG-31K aircraft - carriers of hypersonic missiles of the Kinzhal complex.
However, due to the increase in supplies of Storm Shadow and Scalp-EG cruise missiles, as well as the German Taurus missiles that complemented them, combined with an increase in the number of carriers - F-16 aircraft, which, in fact, were located at this air base, the Russians were forced to deploy their aircraft at remote air bases, which is why their total flight time increased significantly.
The only thing that could be expected to be tricky was from the Iskander operational-tactical systems (OTRK) with their high-speed ballistic missiles and the Bastion coastal missile systems (BRK), using Onyx supersonic anti-ship missiles.
However, the number of Iskander tactical missile systems and Bastion ballistic missile systems in the Russian Armed Forces was limited. If single vehicles could also reach the range of using their missiles at a Ukrainian air base, then a large concentration of OTRK and DBK would most likely quickly be discovered by intelligence means of NATO countries, after which it would either be struck or attacked by aircraft and ground equipment would have been dispersed, and the air base would have learned to cope with single and double air defense strikes at the very least.
There were no signs of trouble, but at that time eight powerful four-axle vehicles had already taken their positions, the hydraulic supports extended and locked, massive launch-guides aimed at the sky and fiery arrows in the amount of one hundred and twenty-eight units rushed towards their target with a piercing screech. The fired missile launchers immediately folded up and hastily left their positions.
Mittelspiel
Suddenly a network of American low-orbit satellites HBTSS and PWSA, serenely rotating in their orbits, capable of seeing even jet aircraft in flight, discovered a series of flashes in new Russian territories, indicating the launch of a sufficiently large number of missiles of an unknown type. Based on the number and heat signature of the flares, the combat artificial intelligence (AI) suggested that there was an attack carried out using multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS).
Согласно базам данных боевого ИИ, дальность РСЗО, имеющихся у Вооружённых сил России, не превышала ста тридцати километров, так что крупнейшая на востоке Украины авиабаза и другие соединения troop Украины, а также подразделения стран НАТО, замаскированные под ремонтные, медицинские и логистические структуры, находились вне зоны поражения.
However, a number of US government intelligence agencies reported that Russia was developing rockets for MLRS with a range of over three hundred kilometers, so the combat AI assigned a yellow danger code to the situation. Decision making by combat AI and transmission of threat information to ground units multi-domain forces NATO, unofficially including the Ukrainian armed forces, through an automated combat control system was carried out within a few seconds.
Meanwhile, the combat AI continued tracking unidentified missiles using the HVTSS and PWSA satellites, and within a few tens of seconds it became clear that they were moving directly towards the Ukrainian air base - at the same moment the situation was assigned a red danger code.
Before the operators of the Ukrainian airbase had time to recover from the stupor after the yellow danger level, it changed to red - the sirens howled heart-rendingly. The air base was engulfed in chaos - some of the planes were urgently dragged back into shelters, others began to hastily prepare for takeoff. Foreign mercenaries, both military personnel from NATO countries acting under this “guise”, and all sorts of rabble recruited from countries unknown to science, as well as mobilized prisoners from the service personnel, rushed to run “wherever they look.”
Radar stations (radars) from the Patriot air defense system detected the approaching missiles only when they had passed the apogee and were on the downward part of their trajectory - about a hundred kilometers from the protected air base. In less than a few seconds, two AN/MPQ-65 radars detected more than a hundred approaching targets moving at a speed of about six hundred meters per second, and tracked the first two dozen of them. Launchers with MIM-104 missile defense systems and ERINT anti-missile missiles turned towards the approaching threat.
In total, transport and launch containers (TPC) with twenty-eight MIM-104 missile defense systems were installed on the launcher, located four units per launcher; of these, seven missiles in the MIM-104A modification were intended to intercept aerodynamic targets. One hundred and forty-four TPKs with ERINT anti-missile missiles were installed in the remaining places, placed sixteen units per launcher. True, only a third of the launchers, fourteen MIM-104E missiles and ninety-six ERINT anti-missile missiles could operate against approaching missiles, since the remaining launchers were deployed in the opposite direction.
Several dozen more missiles were placed on the launchers of NASAMS and IRIS-T air defense systems, but their effectiveness against such complex targets as high-speed missiles, and even in such quantities, was in doubt. The same applied to the Skynex ZAK, and few people knew about the presence of the DE M-SHORAD laser complex at the airbase, not to mention its capabilities.
One after another, in “machine-gun mode”, the MIM-104E missile defense system and ERINT anti-missile missiles were fired from the Patriot air defense system launcher, followed by the missile defense systems launched by the NASAMS and IRIS-T air defense systems, both Skynex air defense systems “chattered”, but it was too late.. .
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