Grisha's Stealth «Pidgeon Shoot»

Ten years ago, Grisha much concerned about Amerikanski ‘Stealth’ weapons. F-117A spyplane fly anywhere, drop bomb and make much trouble. Nobody catch Nighthawk at night. Fighter planes like F-22 Raptor very fast and powerful, cannot see in time to catch him before target. Destroy SAM batteries like S-300 and open holes in defence for other attack. Even slow F-35 effective, cover battlefield and attack SAMs and army troops and tanks on ground. Do much damage.

Tide begin to turn March 27, 1999 when Serbians shoot down F-117A spyplane with old S-125 'Neva-M'. Hey, if Serbians can get Amerikanski F-117A with old radio locator [Ed: radar] and missile, what can smart Russians do with latest stuff? So Russian Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics comrades scratch head and say, ‘even smart Amerikanski cannot change law of physics, so maybe we come up with new sensors, find ‘stealth’ fighters and missiles, and direct smart missile to kill box’. They look at old radars and realise that Amerikanski ‘stealth’ is designed to beat radio locators working at wavelength of much less than one metre. So, if using wavelength of many metres, get good radio locator reflection from wings, body, tail. Even small ‘stealth’ missile like JASSM has length 4.27 metres and wingspan 2.4 metres. Perfect tuned reflectors for VHF radio locator waves. Even better the VHF radio wave get deep into target skin so radar absorber paint not work. Much cheaper and faster to use old radio locator and give new insides. Russki transistors make frequency of GigaHertz, so ‘solid state’ at 50 or 100 MegaHertz no problem. Also have smart digital electronika, can change radio locator beam direction with phase change. When signal comes back, can use smart computers and software to know much about target. Then put radio locators in network, some GigaHertz, some 100 MegaHertz, and learn more. Spread radio locators around, and even jamming source found with triangle computer.  So, Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics and Nizhniy Novgorod Research Institute of Radioengineering comrades work together on old system. Design new transmitter and receiver, smart computer to process radio location reflections, write software to make AFAR [Ed: AESA – Active Electronically Steered Array] beams dance like Bolshoi Ballet. Many, many fancy steps not seen before in meter-wave radio locator. Engineers tell Grisha how they find target, probe around and locate exactly. Pretty good for VHF radar. Some very fine things about long wave radio locator. Fighter aircraft cannot easy install antenna to find long wave radio locator, and Amerikanski HARM rocket [ Ed: AGM-88 anti-radiation missiles] cannot find transmitter either – its self guidance head [Ed: seeker] antenna much too small and dumb. The NNIIRT 55Zh6-1 Nebo UE / Tall Rack 3-Dimensional Surveillance Radar is by far the most powerful and capable Russian VHF band early warning radar. This enormous relocatable surveillance radar uses an inverted T arrangement of horizontally polarised dipole arrays, providing electronic beam-steering in addition to the mechanical sweep of the antenna system. Squinted auxiliary arrays are employed for heightfinding array sidelobe cancellation. Stated tracking accuracy is 400 metres in range, 24 min in azimuth, and a heightfinding accuracy of around 2,500 ft at at a range of 110 NMI, making it suitable as an acquisition radar for the S-300PMU-1/2 and S-400 systems. (NNIIRT). Biggest radio location system is 55Zh6-1 NEBO-UE. This radio locator shows target position in three coordinate system. Coverage is 500 km range, 40 km height and all-round [Ed: 360° mechanical antenna steering]. Detection ranges for a combat fighter flying at 10,000 m are 300 km and 20,000 m are 400 km; targets flying at 500 m can be found at least 65 km. Radio locator also very accurate: 500 m in range, 850 m in height and half degree in azimuth. So, can link with new S-400 Triumf [Ed: SA-21 Growler] system, send big 48N6DM missile 400 km. Smart enough to guide missile to kill box so target not know it has company coming. 64N6E Big Bird Deployed (above) and stowed (below). This Aegis-like 2 GHz band phased array acquisition radar is the core of late model S-300PMU-2 Favorit / SA-20 Gargoyle and S-400 Triumf / SA-21 Growler  missile battery. The radar can be deployed/stowed for "shoot and scoot' operations in a mere 5 minutes. Stated tracking accuracy is 200 metres in range, 30 min in azimuth, and 35 minutes in elevation. The tracking accuracy of recent Russian VHF early warning and acquisition radars is easily adequate for guiding a BVR missile like the R-27ET1/EA or R-77/R-77T into a safe seeker acquisition box (KnAAPO). Here is good joke, Amerikanski call F/A-18G ‘Growler’. When Russki Growler meet Amerikanski Growler, I think Amerikanski not come home. Best of all is that VHF radio locator see ‘stealth’ planes like F-22A Raptor and F-35 Pigeon. NEBO-SVU is little brother of NEBO UE designed for missile battery. This one find, shoot and run with Triumf ZRK [Ed: SA-21 Growler SAM system] so if Pigeon sees it, Pigeon most probably dead before it puts bomb onto SAM or radio locator.   The new 3 dimensional Nebo SVU AESA is an improved new technology derivative of the baseline 1L13 Nebo SV series of VHF radars. Towed by a Ural 4320 tractor, it has much better mobility and reliability than earlier VHF band SAM battery acquisition radars, and is only bettered by the 64N6E Big Bird series, with 20 minutes to deploy. Stated tracking accuracy is 200 metres in range, 30 min in azimuth, and 1.5 degrees  in elevation, making it suitable as a target acquisition radar for the S-300PMU-1/2 and S-400 systems. Grisha also worry about cruise missile. Old stuff like Tomahawk no problem – big radio location reflection and slow flight, so kill easy. New JASSM has small radio location reflection for centimeter wave radio locator, but big radio location reflection for metre wave radio locator [Ed: VHF band] frequency. Take out this one with new 9M96 missile. Can also link to air combat plane like Sukhoi or MiG. Send target location by satellite or radio link so planes fly with no radar transmission. Kill two ways – use Infrared sensor like OLS-35 to find target and plane send killer missile. Also use VHF radio locator target coordinates inside interceptor plane computer which then send missiles. Amerikanski call this ‘Network Centric Warfare’. Russians do this for many years, so is old dogma with new teeth. Amerikanski call new stuff ‘game changer’. New VHF radio locator change air combat game. Can see ‘Stealth’ planes and missiles, link to new missiles and kill target easily. So Chuck emperor stealth cloak gone, now naked in sky for all to see.