CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VII (1, 2) Contemporary-Eurasia-3new | Page 19

ARTSRUN HOVHANNISYAN
superiority, especially in the vast of ocean and not-so-littoral sea areas to
be provided by carrier vessels, has a decisive role for navies, and Russian
ships without air superiority are doomed to detection and engagement,
before having time for fulfi lling their essential task. The second prob-
lem is the reliability of these missiles: it is a known fact that technology
attains such speeds not for the fi rst time. Nevertheless, the motors that
provide for such velocities are not as reliable as solid propellant rocket
engines. The thing is that such missiles (“SS-N-12 Sandbox”, “SS-N-19
Shipwreck”, “SS-N-26 Strobile” and others) currently deployed on the
best Russian vessels have large dimensions – up to 10-11m length and
weigh 3-4, sometimes up to 7 tons. Aerial vehicle of such parameters is
easily detected regardless of its velocity, especially taking into account
the fact that today main American naval detection assets are not ship-
borne radars, but various sensors installed onboard aerial vehicles such as
“E-2D Advanced Hawkeye”, “Boeing P-8 Poseidon”, project “UCLASS”
and others. For example, fl ying at such velocities will make the missile
to overheat; this is the best “gift” for modern sensors which can detect
such missiles at ranges of up to several hundred kilometers. It should be
reminded that the thermal detection sensor of American “F-35” fi ghter
has detected such missiles at one thousand kilometer range. And after de-
tection, it is possible to hit such missiles with shipborne “Aegis” system.
After detection comes the next major issue for a Russian missile: it can
be hit not only with modern or future AMD systems which decision-mak-
ing capabilities are increasing at incredible rate, but also with EW assets.
Suppressing systems and especially airborne EW systems are not “embar-
rassed” by speed; they do their job in a matter of seconds.
Conclusion
Those American experts that are warning about China’s and Russia’s
increasing military power are certainly doing important reviews. Indeed,
these countries are increasing their military expenditures, manufacture
new weapons, adopt the automatic control systems and basically repeat
achievements of the American military machine and even try to surpass
it. However American military system possesses and develops such tech-
nologies, that are out of competition and yet dictate the common direc-
tions of development. That are orbital fi ghters, such as “X-37B”, orbital
control systems, fi fth generation fi ghters “F-22” and “F-35”, modernized
and improved fi ghters “F-15” and “F-18”, which have active radars
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