On April 10, 2014 US destroyer "Donald Cook" with cruise missiles "Tomahawk" entered the neutral waters of the Black Sea on April 10. The purpose was a demonstration of force and intimidation in connection with the position of Russia in Ukraine and Crimea. The appearance of American warships in these waters is in contradiction of the Montreux Convention about the nature and duration of stay in the Black Sea by the military ships of countries not washed by this sea. The jamming claims were never directly refuted by the U.S. military and ignored by Western mainstream media.
In response, Russia sent an unarmed bomber Su- 24 to fly around the US destroyer. However, experts say that this plane was equipped with the latest Russian electronic warfare complex. According to this version, "Aegis" (the most modern American combat management system ) spotted from afar the approaching aircraft, and sounded alarm. Everything went normally, American radars calculated the speed of the approaching target. And suddenly all the screens went blank. "Aegis" was not working any more, and the rockets could not get target information. Meanwhile, Su-24 flew over the deck of the destroyer, did battle turn and simulated missile attack on the target. Then it turned and repeated the maneuver. And did so 12 times.
Apparently, all efforts to revive the "Aegis" and provide target information for the defence failed. Russia's reaction to military pressure from the United States was profoundly calm, feels the Russian political scientist Pavel Zolotarev:
The demonstration was original enough. A bomber without any weapons, but having onboard equipment for jamming enemy radar, worked against a destroyer equipped with "Aegis", the most modern system of air and missile defence. But this system of mobile location, in this case the ship, has a significant drawback. That is, the target tracking capabilities. They work well when there is a number of these ships which can coordinate with each other somehow. In this case there was just one destroyer. And, apparently, the algorithm of the radar in the "Aegis” system on the destroyer did not load under the influence of jamming by the Su-24. It was therefore not only a nervous reaction to the fact of flying around by the Russin bomber which was common practice during the Cold War. The reaction of the Americans was due to the fact that most modern system, especially its informative or radar part, did not work adequately. Therefore, there was such a nervous reaction to the whole episode.
After the incident, the foreign media reported that "Donald Cook" was rushed into a port in Romania. There all the 27 members of the crew filed a letter of resignation. It seems that all 27 people have written that they are not going to risk their lives. This is indirectly confirmed by the Pentagon statement according to which the action demoralized the crew of the American ship.
The system with which the Russian Su-24 shocked the American destroyer "Donald Cook" has the code name "Khibiny" ( Хибины ). This is the name of the mountain range on the Kola Peninsula in the Arctic Circle. "Khibiny" is the newest complex for radioelectronic jamming of the enemy. They will be installed on all the advanced Russian planes .
Recently the complex has undergone regular testing exercises on the ground in Buryatia. Apparently, the tests which were conducted under conditions as close to real as possible, were successful.
Khibiny (L-175V) (Хибины) (Л-175В) is a Russian aircraft electronic countermeasures (ECM) system. The system is designed for radio direction-finding and probing signal source irradiation allowing it to distort reflected signal parameters. This helps to
- Delay aircraft detection;
- Mask the true subject against false reflections;
- Cause range finding difficulties, namely in speed and angular positions;
- Degrading Maintenance Mode "on the aisle" when scanning antenna beam radar;
- Increase the time and difficulty of capturing an object during real-time active scanning.
The first work related to the creation ECM "Khibiny" began in the Kaluga Research Institute of Radio Engineering (KRIRE; Калужский научно-исследовательский радиотехнический институт) in 1977. The plan was to create a unified set of electronic countermeasures for all the armed forces, where the tasks for KRIRE was to develop SIGINT blocks of equipment "Proran" and radio jammer (RJ) "Regatta", which was successfully completed with protected of scientific research in 1980.
In 1982 KRIRE was entrusted with research and development activities, first with "Proran" and "Regatta", and after an ECM as a whole, which includes many developments on related topics (including the use of accumulated experience in the development of RJ " Sorption ", which was planned to be installed on the Su-27 ). When started research and development with new ECM, later named "Khibiny",it was intended to unite all the units, ensuring that they work closely with the Jets avionics.
The first samples of "Khibiny" were far from ideal as to their weight and size parameters were not suitable for installation on the aircraft. To solve this problem KRIRE collaborated closely with Sukhoi, working under the direction of Rollan G. Martirosov. Collaborate on a plane integrated ECM (received code "product L-175V") bore little resemblance to the conventional practice in such cases. Typically, the manufacturer of equipment issues to aircraft design bureau specification for the placement of products that represent a complete set of design documents and makes recommendations on placement of its parts with the restrictions on the length of the connections between them. In this case, the equipment "Khibiny" was immediately inserted into the design of the aircraft under development. As a result of close co-operation by the end of the 1980s the first stage of R&D was completed.
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