The Russian military** revealed that they can use the A-50 airborne early warning and control system (AWACS) and the S-400 missile system with a range of up to 400 kilometers to strike F-16 fighter jets that are about to arrive in Ukraine.
Western analysts have long believed that the F-16 will not function under the threat of the Russian Air Force (RUSAF) and surface-to-air missiles (SAM) and will not have a fundamental impact on the situation on the battlefield. However, the unofficial disclosure of the possible technical and tactical schemes used by the Russian air defense forces is startling. This may reflect the confidence of the Russian commanders, or it may be a propaganda ploy.
Ukrainian pilots are being trained on F-16 fighter jets at a newly built facility in Romania, which was opened by Romanian Defense Minister Angel Tilwar and Dutch Defense Minister Kaysa Olongren at an air base east of Bucharest. Ukraine expects to start using these fighters in mid-2024.
Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen sit in the cockpit of an F-16 fighter jet at Skredstrup Air Base in Denmark on August 20, 2023.
Izvestia quoted an unnamed ** as saying: "The S-400 uses 40N6 ultra-long-range anti-aircraft missiles. With this missile, the S-400 can work in tandem with the A-50U long-range radar reconnaissance aircraft to strike targets beyond visual range. ”
EurAsia Times reported in October that Russia had successfully combined S-400 and A-50 AWACS aircraft to shoot down Ukrainian aircraft.
The 40N6 missile has a semi-active or active dual-mode radar homing seeker. It uses a dynamic radar homing seeker, which first rises to a specified altitude, and then switches the guidance mode to search and destroy.
In this way, it can effectively attack low-altitude targets at extremely long distances (in radar below the radio horizon, which will be explained later). Of course, the power and range of the missile's on-board radar, compared to the large radars on the aircraft, are limited, especially compared to the radars on AWACS aircraft like the A-50.
This missile also has a proximity fuse with fragments, and when the missile is close to the target, it fires and emits sharp metal fragments so that it can cause damage even if the missile does not hit the target directly. These fragments can also destroy and tear apart the jet's soft fuselage, rendering it incapacitated.
The 40N6 is also suitable for the possible flight trajectory of the F-16 for Ukrainian pilots. Ukraine cannot fly at medium and high altitudes for the entire duration of the mission, as this would be easily detected by Russian ground-based air defenses.
They are most likely to fly in a "low-high-low" manner, flying a distance at low altitude, then quickly climbing at a steep angle, dropping air-to-ground** (e.g., Storm Shadow), and then descending to low again before returning to base.
In a report in early December, Sputnik Radio confirmed this analysis, citing another anonymous **. "When the S-400 is deployed on the front line, it can hit a climbing aircraft with a 16N40 missile immediately after the F-40 takes off," said the **. ”
What type of air-to-ground ** the F-16 fighter will carry is not yet known. It is also unclear whether the aircraft will be equipped with airborne electronic warfare (EW) equipment such as self-defense jammers (SPJs), which could be used against the 40N6 when it switches to active self-guidance mode in the final stages.
In fact, ground-based air defense is not the only threat to the F-16. Fighter jets such as the Su-35S, Su-30SM2 and MiG-31 are constantly patrolling Russian airspace and are armed with over-the-horizon missiles such as the R-37 (or RVV-BD) with a range of nearly 200 kilometers.
According to TASS, the 40N6 missile entered service on October 18, 2018. By 2027, more than 56 missiles will be produced for 400 S-1000 units of the Russian Aerospace Forces. The missile can attack airborne early warning (AEW) and electronic warfare (EW) aircraft, strategic bombers, hypersonic cruise and ballistic missiles.
The missile has a "lethal range" of up to 380 km against "aerodynamic targets" and up to 15 km against ballistics at altitudes from 10 m to 35 km. The average flight speed is 1,190 meters per second. Thanks to its new homing seeker, this missile can destroy aircraft outside the radio visibility range of ground-based radars.
This means that the homing seeker can also detect conditions in the airspace of the blind zone due to the curvature of the Earth. Radar waves propagate in a straight line, and the missile's seeker may be activated when the ground guidance radar loses its effect.
It is not known whether the missile can receive mid-course updates of target information through ground-based radars or radio or data links from A-50 AWACS aircraft. But without such capabilities, it is impossible for missiles to operate effectively at such long ranges.