As Ukraine comes under increased attack from the air without increasing ability to defend itself in that regard, one frequently wonders why such a vulnerability to civilians from that layer has not been rectified to a greater degree. I have heard on the news that "dumb" bombs are being used on cities, so Ukrainians appear to have need for at a minimum for defensive equipment systems that can drive off mid and high altitude fast moving aircraft, but I am not an expert on those things.
Ukraine actually 'natively' has mid/high-altitude AA systems, courtesy of their soviet legacy and some basic upgrading (because Russia is short of any really fancy stealth stuff). Western systems are being employed to fill in at the low-level, with man-portable launchers, etc.
The following are silly suggestions after considering Russia is launching planes from Belarus anyways but if the problem is still "logistics" for the Mig29s is it possible to modify them with a jettisonable float for a one time seaplane takeoff, or is it legal to convert one of the seized oligarch yachts into a one time launch platform or carrier conversion?
Floats on a typical modern jet fighter/multirole aircraft..? Unless designed in (e.g. the Ekranoplan, which is a jet-seaplane that doesn't even expect to properly fly) I can't see that making any sense, except as an aderenaline-rush for some bored jet-jockey with loads of experience (and far less sense) to try once. Twice if the first time actually worked.
If you look at the
kind of things that were built (in a few cases, often no further than prototypes) or designed, you'll see that jet planes
intended for aquatic/amphibious roles are basically flying-boats (buoyancy designed into the airframe) rather than sea-planes (buoyancy available as undercarriage). There are challenges to water-take-off that a Mach-capable plane (therefore needs a relatively high take-off speed) wouldn't work well with, even with a jettisonable float which would need to be designed and tested given that it's not been too many people's answer to any serious question when you can design for carrier-launching instead.
Rigging a superyacht with a carrier-sized flight-deck (not just helo-pad) would also need plenty of yard-time even to create sufficient launch-deck (with catapult system?) but which you'd have to lift your planes onto as there's not enough to land. Seems like a good way to get through your stock of airworthy planes, and those that remain airworthy (after take-off, mission and then finding somewhere to land) need a lot of effort to set up for a second such jaunt.
What was the reason for this, again? It's not that Russia has air-supremacy over land (which it doesn't) but for some reason the Black Sea Fleet isn't checking everything it can within Ukrainian territorial waters...
In addition, this attack was carried out by aircraft mounting cruise missiles according to the NY times. I would guess those can launch from outside the range of anti-air defenses. I imagine that complicates things a great deal, and I am not knowledgeable enough to know whether interceptors could have intercepted them or not.
Realistically, plane-launched cruise-missiles may well be dropped from the planes well outside Ukrainian airspace. This may possibly be in range of (any surviving) AA batteries or intercepters stationed near the ground border, but does mean firing into (Belo)Russian skies. Something I think even Ukrainian pilots/gunners might not do without pause, and if it was a third-party doing it it
would be seized upon as an attack on Russian territory (regardless of the justification).
You ideally want to shoot the plane before it looses the missile, also, and (as Russia/its 'local' forces discovered) shooting a plane that might be on totally innocent business causes a lot of fuss. Russia can be (has been) brazen-necked about that sort of thing when it makes it happen, but would also probably take full advantage of any hint of doubt if even a 'training flight' is clipped of its wings by 'western aggressors'.
The best thing to do, really, is to keep the Ukrainians supplied with as much air-defence/iron-done-style equipment as possible and let them work out how to deploy it to their best effort. (In fact, if anyone else started patrolling up there, there is potential for IFF to go wrong. The protectors ending up being targetted/enemies being assumed friendly, either case reducing their current home-grown capabilities to use their ground-based AA systems.)
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Topic: Maybe the WWIII thread (soon) (Ukraine) (Read 68550 times)