Author: Huang Ruixin, Wu Haowei, Cai Yingshuai
At a time when the situation is turbulent and the international environment is tense, the number of original bomber formations and the production capacity of bombers are no longer enough to meet the needs of the Russian army. So what is the direction of development of Russian aviation? At present, in order to expand the strategic missile bomber formation relatively quickly, the Russian military may modify the transport aircraft to a certain extent so that they can carry missiles and join the bomber formation.
And the famous strategic transport aircraft of the Russian army "Il-76" precisely meets the current needs.
The Il-76 is one of the most widely equipped strategic transport aircraft in the world, and has been in service with 38 countries in the civilian and military fields, and is still regarded as the main equipment of air transportation by the air forces of 16 countries. When it was first developed, the Soviet idea was to build it into a field transport aircraft that could take off and land smoothly in extremely harsh conditions and transport heavy equipment to remote, poorly runway areas such as Siberia or the Arctic, so it was highly adaptable. Therefore, in the nearly 50 years since its launch, although it is not the most load-carrying aircraft in the world, it is definitely the one with the strongest modification ability. The aircraft types modified with it include air tankers, early warning aircraft, flying laboratories, missile tracking and control platforms, reconnaissance aircraft, electronic jamming aircraft, communication relay aircraft, electronic intelligence aircraft, astronaut training aircraft, and air hospital platforms.
It is worth mentioning that the Il-76 can also carry out parachute missions and can airdrop cargo or properly packaged military vehicles. It can carry 150 heavily armed soldiers, or 120 paratroopers; It can also transport a variety of military vehicles or equipment. The cargo compartment of the Il-76MF can accommodate one T-72 tank or three BMD-3 paratrooper fighting vehicles. At the same time, the aircraft is equipped with the Coupo-3 navigation equipment and satellite navigation system, which can fly to any point in the world to carry out missions. In the strategic airlift in the war in Afghanistan, played a huge role. In just three days, the Il-76 of the former Soviet Air Force made 77 sorties, transporting a large number of personnel and equipment to the front line. Between 1979 and 1991, the Soviet Air Force flew 14,700 strategic airlift missions to Afghanistan. A total of 786,200 people and 315,800 tons of cargo were carried. The IL-76 carried 89 per cent and 74 per cent of all military equipment and supplies to Afghanistan.
Due to its exceptionally excellent adaptability, it was possible to achieve its "combatization" only at the expense of installing additional equipment on the "Il-76". That is, an ordinary transport aircraft in the base, after the installation of a special ammunition box, will turn into a missile-carrying bomber. But taking into account the dimensions of the cargo compartment and the payload capacity of the aircraft of the Il-76MD-90A family, as well as the dimensions and weight of the Kh-101 / 102 cruise missiles, the analogue of the Russian Rapid Dragon system can accommodate 12, 18 or 24 Kh-101 / 102 cruise missiles, while the flight range of the aircraft under this mass is 7,500, 5,500 and 4,000 kilometers, respectively. Given the flight range of the Kh-101/102 cruise missile, which, according to open data, is 5,500 km, it is easy to deduce the range of the Il-76BR. But with the ammunition capacity of smaller ammunition, for example, the Kh-69 cruise missile, the range can be increased several times.
Therefore, it was not necessary to create any bomber on the basis of the Il-76 or other transport aircraft, as well as to carry out a deep redesign of its fuselage, reducing the midsection and other complications. Instead, what we need is a unified multifunctional transport and combat platform, on the basis of which we can make the following main modifications as part of the future modification / modernization of the Il-76MD-90A aircraft: transport aircraft, missile-carrying bombers, tankers.
However, the modification of the Il-76 will not affect the innovation of systems similar to the American Rapid Dragon, since it should be used mainly on existing aircraft of the Il-76 family, just as the United States will not redesign the C-130 and C-17 aircraft for the installation of the Rapid Dragon system.
Therefore, in view of the ongoing NWO in Ukraine, as well as the threat of a direct conflict with NATO countries, it is necessary to maximize the production of the Il-76MD-90A series, which will be equipped with the Russian Rapid Dragon system. Of course, the current pace of production of 5-6 units per year is clearly not enough, but if the figures announced in 2023 - 18 Il-76MD-90A per year are reached - the situation will be very different.
The modification of existing transport aircraft models not only greatly increases the combat grouping that the Russian army urgently needs, but also reduces the cost to a certain extent. For example, in the case of a kilogram of cargo, the cost of transportation of a transport aircraft is lower than that of a fighter.
In addition, at a time when unmanned combat is becoming popular, it is also a good choice to add an anti-unmanned combat module to the aircraft. In the future, the Il-76 family of transport aircraft may be modernized, aimed at increasing their versatility and protection by equipping them with on-board self-defense systems and electronic warfare.
Taking into account the launch of low-flying cruise missiles using the Il-76BR, more use of real long-range and strategic bombers may switch to the use of ammunition that requires initial acceleration and altitude flight trajectories, for example, hypersonic missiles of the Kinzhal complex, Kh-22 / Kh-32 anti-ship missiles, hypersonic missiles Ostrota and Gremlin under development, and other similar ammunition .
So far, we have a rough guess about how Russia will adjust its strategy in the field of aviation, but it remains to be tested how this idea will progress in the future and whether it can really "show its talents" in real application.