Cope India 2004

[adeem]

Aviation Week & Space Technology probably recently published an article on SU-30MKI tactics against F-15C. I personally have not read the article but on another website (orkut.com, community "Military Aviation") a gentleman by the name Gabriel has written a fact-based rebuttal to that article that I am quoting below: (Paragraphs from the AW&ST article are in bold)

Quote
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Gabriel:
I e-mailed them this:
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I'll quote everything written in what has been, so far, the worst article in history, and explain why it is a bunch of bullshit.

In certain circumstances, the Su-30 can use its maneuverability, enhanced by thrust-vectoring nozzles, and speed to fool the F-15's radar, fire two missiles and escape before the U.S. fighter can adequately respond. This is according to Air Force officials who have seen the results of extensive studies of multi-aircraft engagements conducted in a complex of 360-deg. simulation domes at Boeing's St. Louis facilities.

1- There are two versions of the indian Su-30: the Su-30MK, which is a multirole export version of the Su-30, and the Su-30MKI, which is an improved Su-30MK with canards and thrust-vectoring nozzles. The former is the one that flew in USA-India coop exercises, the later is the one still grounded due to engine problems.

2- The F-15C that went up against indian aircrafts is MUCH outdated. It uses an old radar that entered service 10 years before the russian N-011M fitted in the indian Flanker. The F-15C was limited with Sparrows, much inferior to the R-27RE (45km against 75km). Had the F-15C from Alaska fought the indian Flanker, it would have won. It has an AESA radar, and its russian counterpart is only entering service in 2006/2007. This radar is not fooled by the low closing velocity that unables the target to fire its missiles.

3- The russian doctrine is fire an R-27RE and then an R-27TE. Well, this is pretty stupid. The radar and the EOS (IRST) cannot operate at the same time. The radar has to guide the R-27RE till the target. To activate the EOS, the radar must be turned off, so there goes the R-27RE. While the R-27TE is easily spoofed by flares, the AMRAAM is not as sensitive to ECM and chaffs as the russian missiles.

THE SCENARIO in which the Su-30 "always" beats the F-15 involves the Sukhoi taking a shot with a BVR missile (like the AA-12 Adder) and then "turning into the clutter notch of the F-15's radar," the Air Force official said. Getting into the clutter notch where the Doppler radar is ineffective involves making a descending, right-angle turn to drop below the approaching F-15 while reducing the Su-30's relative forward speed close to zero. This is a 20-year-old air combat tactic, but the Russian fighter's maneuverability, ability to dump speed quickly and then rapidly regain acceleration allow it to execute the tactic with great effectiveness, observers said.

If the maneuver is flown correctly, the Su-30 is invisible to the F-15's Doppler radar--which depends on movement of its targets--until the U.S. fighter gets to within range of the AA-11 Archer infrared missile. The AA-11 has a high-off-boresight capability and is used in combination with a helmet-mounted sight and a modern high-speed processor that rapidly spits out the target solution.

Again, this tactic would never work.

1- The R-77 (AA-12 Adder) has the same range as the AMRAAM. Here we notice how stupid someone must be to say that the "Su-30 turns into the clutter notch of the F-15's radar", as the Eagle or anyother fighter can do the same thing. As soon as the R-27RE is fired, the Eagle also decreases its closing velocity, decreasing the russian missile's effective range, while getting closer to the Su-30MK within the AMRAAM's range.

2- Radars fitted in planes have a limited field of view. Again the tactic fails. If the plane turns 90 degrees to become "invisible" to the Eagle's radar, the russian radar also can't see the Eagle as its radar has a field of view of 120 degrees, and the R-77 loses its guidance and can no longer hit the target.

3- While the R-73 (AA-11 Archer) was built in the 80's and is easily fooled by flares, the AIM-9X is the most recent short-range missile being manufactored and is imune to flares. Too bad it wasn't used in USA-India coop exercises.

Positioned below the F-15, the Su-30 then uses its passive infrared sensor to frame the U.S. fighter against the sky with no background clutter. The Russian fighter then takes its second shot, this time with the IR missile, and accelerates out of danger.

Once again, this is bullshit. The russian EOS can only be used for 2 minutes, and then needs to be cooled for 5 minutes. In a head-to-head engagement, in perfect weather conditions, the russian EOS has a detection range of 15km only. This means it has to find the Eagle on its radar first, and then use the EOS to lock on it. If the Flanker can see the Eagle, the Eagle can see the Flanker. It's that simple.

Even though the R-27ER is only a semiactive radar-guided missile, the extra maneuvering capability resulting from the large motor is a significant improvement over the basic R-27

This is rather stupid. Whoever wrote this bullshit article needs to get its facts straight. The basic R-27R can hit targets maneuvering up to 12G's, while the R-27RE only 8G's. The larger motor has nothing to do with maneuverability.

Theory has it that the target aircraft's crew will be occupied spoofing the inbound radar missile, only to fall to the second missile.

Again this is complete rubish. While the R-27RE has mid-course update, the R-27TE does not. This means the later might be much more distant to the target when it turns its seeker on.

To whoever wrote this article, you better rewrite it with all details instead of making a fool out of yourself.
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[SSAAD]

I wrote about the AIM-9X and AIM-120 not being included in the Cope India exercise as one of the biggest handicap for the USAF in the other thread (IAF better than PAF or some BS like that). Aside from that the AI radar on the F-15s was also not up to par as indicated above. This exercise had a lot of constraints for USAF. Under normal circumstances, the Indian SU-30s would not even come close to the updated F-15s.

The same goes for the BVR and WVRAAM in the US inventory and those that are of Russian origin. There is in my mind no comparison in term of the ability of the US missiles to evade ECM vs. that of the Russian AAMs.

Overall I think the Russian technology has improved, but even then I think the US and western technology is better.

In the end, the Indians can simply boast that they exercised with the Pakistani capabilities in mind, but even then Pakistan may already have its hands on some interesting surprises which may potentially equalize the situation to a great extent.

[sargam]

please correct me if I am wrong but wasnt this 12 Su-30s against 4 F-15s ?
A 3:1 ratio in favor of IAF ? or may be I misread the article.