S-500: How Russia Plans to Kill F-22 and F-35 Stealth Fighters in a War?(nationalinterest.org)
nationalinterest.org
S-500: How Russia Plans to Kill F-22 and F-35 Stealth Fighters in a War?
https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/s-500-how-russia-plans-kill-f-22-and-f-35-stealth-fighters-war-186195
8 comments
It seems like the pendulum has swung back in favor of air-defense systems. Also doesn't help, I am sure, that the biggest weakness of the F-35 is itself. I am also curious, in the event of a breakout of hostilities, is there any way to emergency-reboot F-22 manufacturing? Or is 187 all we have, and that's it?
Looks like they might bench it early and replace it with 6-gen fighters. [1]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGvKNs-F-JI
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGvKNs-F-JI
Well, apparently would cost $10b, with a required engine re-design, with approximately $200m per copy [1]
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4452474-F-22A-Produc...
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4452474-F-22A-Produc...
> It seems like the pendulum has swung back in favor of air-defense systems.
I presume drones did this anyway.
The point of putting a human in theatre is that the situation is volatile--you don't yet know if the target is something you want to take out.
If you really want to take something out, I presume drone saturation is far less expensive.
I presume drones did this anyway.
The point of putting a human in theatre is that the situation is volatile--you don't yet know if the target is something you want to take out.
If you really want to take something out, I presume drone saturation is far less expensive.
The S-500 is designed for long range and high speed interception - it's meant to replace the A-135 anti-ballistic missile system, protecting against not only ballistic missiles but also hypersonic weapons. It's similar in role to the american PAC-3. While there seems to be many articles claiming it is an "F-35 killer", these don't appear to be based on any substantiated evidence and the requirements for defeating stealth are wildly different from its missile defense role. The S-500 supplements the S-400, which is the primary anti-aircraft system and the S-400's 9M96E missile is designed to hit stealth targets.
Any radar that can see F-22 or F-35 will in turn be visible by them. It will be a cat-and-mouse game. In which case training, doctrine, improvisation and quick learning matter a lot. Weapons may be expensive, but training is expensive too. Expenses aside, how can Russia train to use its S-500 against US stealth jets? Using what jets as mock F-35's? Conversely, the US can very easily train against a simulated S-500 battery. It's not like S-500's radars are some big secret.
I think you are missing one of the key ingredients to anti-stealth radar, and why we have shifted to a strong focus on RAM. That would help answer your own questions. I won’t say it here, but separately it certainly is possible to train against targets which would produce returns analogous to an F-22 or F-35 type aircraft to various radars.
On another note, US anti-air capabilities are already far behind the S-400. I understand we don’t have an immediate use case ourselves, but the lack of a credible AA system pushes potential partners like India and Turkey to fight with us for the right to buy the S-400.
On another note, US anti-air capabilities are already far behind the S-400. I understand we don’t have an immediate use case ourselves, but the lack of a credible AA system pushes potential partners like India and Turkey to fight with us for the right to buy the S-400.
It costs less to improve the hardware and software to detect stealth, than to produce the stealth itself.
Stealth has been obsolete for over 20 years, ever since the Serbs brought down that F117.
But go broke in the stealth vs stealth-detection war, if you desire. It's not as if there are better uses for that money, anyway.
Stealth has been obsolete for over 20 years, ever since the Serbs brought down that F117.
But go broke in the stealth vs stealth-detection war, if you desire. It's not as if there are better uses for that money, anyway.