Can Pakistan and China repeat the Israeli feat against India's S-400? Read here

Source : The Great Indian Defence News in Bengali (Facebook)

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In this article, we have analyzed the scenario of Israeli fighters successfully dodging Russian S-400 in an air operation in Syria a few days ago. Can the same feat be repeated against India's S-400, lets analyze it...

First of all, cruise missiles fly at maneuverable, guided and subsonic speeds.

Israel first used its own sensors to locate Russian aircraft in Syrian skies. They then launched air-launched cruise missiles. The missiles were first fired towards Russian patrols into the skies and then flown from Russian patrols area towards Syrian targets. Understand the reason here. The S-400 in Syrian skies will work in the same way as other in other country’s skies. The radar will track first. The missile will then be guided until the terminal phase. The missile will then turn on its own seeker radar and advance towards the target.

Think carefully now. Even if you take the help of radar IFF towards a target, that is, the technology used to identify enemy targets and allied aircraft, you will still be able to do so till the initial stage. When the missile reaches the terminal phase, as soon as its radar seeker is turned on, the frequency of the seeker will be reflected from the objects where the object flies in the sky. Missiles will run after him wherever he receives more radio frequencies. Because the missile has no brain that will differentiate between targets. So there is a big possibility that there will be a friendly shoot down. Because the RCS or radar signature of the aircraft is bigger than the missile.

But this problem can be solved if the integration is done properly. That is, if a data link is placed between all the assets. And the missile is guided to the mid course. But in this case, Russia does not have such a big integration on the lands of Syria.

Secondly, the integration of different sensors!

Which we have said a little earlier. If we break it down a little, the matter will be understood more. Long range air defenses to hit targets at great distances. But there is a problem with that. We all know that the world is round (except the the peacefuls). Now when a radar generates frequency, the frequency moves in parallel. Since the earth is round, it gradually goes down due to its curvature. That is, the distance of the missile from the ground increases. The radar can see targets up to 25 km closer to the ground. Then the ground object goes beyond the range of the radar. And the higher the range, the greater the range of low flying objects. If an object finds a gap of 50 meters between 30 km and a distance of 300 km to avoid the radar, it may become 5 km. In other words, if you go 5 km above the ground, you will be able to see the radar target or not. This is what we said to explain. We did not measure the scale.

Now come to S-400. 

You see, the S-400 has never been seen as a stand-alone air defense. Because from the very beginning S-400 has been called Integrated Air Defense System (IADS)! This is great air defense, but only if you integrate everything with it. S-400 + various ground based radar + AWACS (very important) + ISTAR aircraft (again very important) + fighter aircraft + drone sensors + short medium and long range air defense etc. You need to add data to it. There are big reasons to have AWACS and ISTAR aircraft. And that is what we have discussed in the previous paragraph. Notice that we told you about the problem of curvature of the earth but for ground based radar. Now suppose an AWACS that is flying from a height by itself can spread its frequency over a large area. Due to its height, it can easily neutralize the curvature of the earth.

This is one of the main reasons why Israel has succeeded. Look! The S-400 deployed in Syria has no integration with Air Asset. Because they do not have any AWACS or modern aircraft with good quality radar and data links. Leave Syria. Russia itself did not have any AWACS in those areas for the Russian S-400. As a result, if the S-400 cannot detect cruise missiles in Syria, it is not a S-400-equipped disability. Rather it is the normal reality that is the same for all air defenses.

Now the biggest question is India! Is it possible to do the same thing against our S-400 ?

Answer is a Big ‘No’ !! India currently has a large fleet of aircraft with state-of-the-art radars patrolling the border at all times. There are ground based radars like Arudhra. And there are 6 AWACS. India has ordered six more AWACSs for the S-400, which will be mounted on A320 aircraft.

India has recently upgraded its operational data link. Due to which India can bring different types of sensors and air defense in the same link. As a result, it is very unlikely that the S-400 will fail in India.