The new head of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Andriy Belousov, has already announced an order to create protective structures for aircraft at military airbases.
Points of attention
- The Russian army is facing challenges in creating protective structures for aircraft at military airbases to defend against Ukrainian attacks.
- The high costs and possible corruption issues make the construction of effective shelters for the aircraft a difficult task for the Russian Federation.
- Experts doubt that Russia can replicate the scale and complexity of shelters required to protect its aircraft, even comparing it to challenges faced in the USSR.
- Analysts suggest that Russia may opt for cheaper solutions like sheds or metal hangars, which may not offer full protection for the military aircraft.
- Despite financial constraints and corruption concerns, Russia is determined to find funds for the project to safeguard its aircraft from attacks by Ukrainian drones and missiles.
Can the Russian Federation protect its own military aircraft from attacks by Ukrainian drones and missiles
He announced this decision after the Ukrainian attacks on Russian airfields, including the attack on "Millerovo".
It is interesting that such a decision is presented in the Russian information space as an initiative "from below" by the so-called "warlords" with whom Belousov held meetings. Although the lack of protective structures for aircraft at Russian airfields has been known for a long, long time, namely since the 1980s, when the Soviet troops received new aircraft that physically could not fit into the standard 2A13 shelter. Among them was the Su-27, and the machines based on it and its versions are the bulk of the entire combat aircraft "VKS" of the Russian Federation. Another fighter, the MiG-31, also has no shelters, the analyst's material emphasizes.
Experts emphasize that such a large-scale and complex task could not be implemented even in the USSR.
At the same time, even standard arched shelters 2A13 (AU-13) with a width of 13 meters were built only in the border military districts, primarily in the western ones, and not throughout the USSR. Because a standard arched shelter is a protective structure with concrete walls 60 cm thick and steel gates half a meter thick. But this is not just a shelter, but a platform that allows maintenance of the aircraft, therefore it is equipped with additional rooms, electrical equipment, ventilation and a fire extinguishing system, analysts emphasize.
According to their information, the price of 2A13 as of 1972 was 160 thousand Soviet rubles, that is, it would be worth approximately 1.5 million dollars today.
However, larger shelters are needed to protect Su-27 aircraft and vehicles at its base.
For this machine, in the last years before the collapse of the USSR, they began to build 2A19 (AU-19), which had a width of 18.6 meters and a wall of 50 cm with additional internal 5-mm steel sheets. That is, its cost is proportionally higher, taking into account the difference in area - at least 1.5 times (area 2A13 - 358 sq. m, 2A19 540 sq. m), but the dependence in cost is not linear, so we are talking about a larger modifier, - the authors of the material explain .
Which airfields will Russia try to protect first of all
It is also worth considering that such shelters will primarily be built on the part of the airfields that are located next to Ukraine, that is, we are talking about such air bases as "Kushchevskaya", "Millerovo", "Belbek", in Taganrog, Voronezh and others at a distance up to 300 km from the border or front line.
Taking into account the fact that the Russian Federation uses about 300 combat aircraft against Ukraine, this means the need for 300 such shelters and the bill, perhaps somewhere around a billion dollars. But it is quite likely that instead of full-fledged shelters for aircraft in the Russian Federation, they will take the path of least resistance and it will be either sheds, as at the Khmeimim air base in Syria. Or metal hangars, which are designed to protect only from bad weather, analysts emphasize.
The analysts concluded that it is necessary to take into account the fact that Russia will still find money for it, even realizing that "their construction may well run into problems traditional for the Russian Federation with total corruption, ostentatiousness and ostentatiousness."
