a nato airborne early warning aircraft
flies slow lazy patrols over the
northern polish border suddenly at a
distance of several hundred miles it
picks up the unmistakable radar return
of a russian fighter the aircraft is
closing fast at supersonic speeds which
puts it only minutes away from getting a
good weapons lock on the big awax
aircraft the plane immediately banks and
turns to put distance between itself and
the russian fighter simultaneously an
alert is issued to poland's air defense
network a patrol of american f-15s have
been in the air for three hours flying a
deterrent patrol and are immediately
vectored in an alarm is sounded in the
alert lounge of a polish aircrew station
on standby and the two pilots rush to
strap on their flight gear as the f-16s
are prepped for flight since the start
of russia's invasion of ukraine poland
has kept air crews on alert just in case
of further russian aggression meanwhile
the f-16s wing pylons are loaded with
live air-to-air missiles within minutes
the pilots are climbing into their f-16s
and screaming into the sky ready to
support their american allies thousands
of feet in the sky and over a hundred
miles to the north the big american
f-15s are now picking up the unknown
contact presumed to be russian on their
own radars the f-15s are speeding toward
the unknown contact gaining air speed so
as to retain the advantage should this
turn into a hostile encounter the
russians have the distance advantage
with the r-77 beyond visual range
missile exceeding the range of the
american aim-120s by about 10 miles
however the american fighters have
better sensors ensuring a higher
probability of a kill even if doing so
requires putting themselves inside the
kill envelope of the russian fighter
there's a chance the russian fighter is
armed with r37ms with a range of over
300 kilometers in that case the f-15s
will be well inside the russian threat
envelope in minutes though the missiles
are primarily meant to target less
maneuverable aircraft such as the aywax
and tankers the nimble f-15s would be a
hard kill for the bulky r37ms on the
ground the nato aywax plane sends
targeting data to patriot batteries
stationed toward the north of poland
while the russian fighter is not yet
within range of high resolution
targeting radar the ability to link up
with airborne assets makes patriot air
defense batteries deadly to interloping
aircraft even at long ranges soon
poland's aegis ashore facility will be
online and bring the same powerful
tracking and targeting capabilities of
the most advanced aegis systems to
ground-based air defenses however the
facility is not yet complete after four
years of construction delays as a very
likely target for russian air or missile
strikes though it is well protected by a
ring of air defenses just in case the
russians seek to neutralize the
multi-million dollar facility before
it's online and able to defend itself
the intercepting f-15s attempt radio
contact with the russian fighter which
is now identified as a su-35 one of
russia's more capable fighters the
american air patrol warns the su-35 that
is approaching polish airspace and that
it must turn back before crossing the
situation is tense but not overly so
russia is fond of pushing nato's buttons
by coming close to but not actually
crossing into nato airspace in the
baltics though where nato forces are
weaker russian aircraft will
occasionally and briefly cross into nato
air space only to shortly exit soon
after it's a common provocation that's
picked up intensity over the last
decades as relations between russia and
nato have deteriorated using
afterburners the polish f-16s are now in
a position to support the american
allies if necessary though the plane
seems to be taking no hostile actions
its altitude and speed remain steady
around 32 000 feet if it was truly
preparing to threaten the american f-15s
it would climb for altitude in order to
give its missiles a height and speed
advantage where the atmosphere is
thinner air-to-air missiles can travel
faster for longer due to a lack of air
resistance plus once their fuel is spent
they can pounce on targets below
building additional speed from their
downward trajectory that's why in
air-to-air engagements modern missiles
first perform steep upward climbs
gaining thousands of feet in altitude
versus their targets before pouncing on
them from above the f-15s make it clear
they mean business by climbing altitude
though the russian plane remains on
course there's no response in their
radio hails again this is fairly routine
for now the russian su-35 is in
belarusian airspace after the war in
ukraine began belarusian dictator
alexander lukashenko has allowed russia
to base pretty much any forces it wanted
inside the former soviet republic this
has dramatically increased the frequency
of air encounters between nato and
russian air forces near poland's
northeast border though rare nato has
even shadowed russian aircraft flying
strike missions into northwest ukraine
from just across the border as the
distance to the polish border shrinks
the f-15s change their course turning
their noses toward the su-35 this lets
the russians know that the americans are
looking straight down the barrel at them
in an optimal targeting angle for their
electronically scanned array radars
which guide missiles to their target
while the f-15s radars can still guide
missiles to target at a variety of
angles the head-on angle is optimal and
lets the russians know that the
americans aren't messing around any sign
of hostility will be met with immediate
and lethal force now with the airspeed
and height advantage and well within the
threat envelope of the eagles aim 120s
amrams the russian su-35 is in dire
straits if it decides it wants to pick a
fight to make matters worse ground-based
air defenses are now in the game patriot
air defense batteries use their powerful
an mpq 65 radars to track and target the
russian fighter the big phased array
radar provides the patriot system with
classified range believed to be in
excess of 100 kilometers it's a
formidable air defense radar that uses a
second traveling wave tube to boost the
strength of the signal this makes the an
mpq65 difficult to jam or spoof even at
a long range the attack network to the
us military's link 16 command and
control network allows the patriot
battery to share information with a vast
array of u.s assets software upgrades
throughout the 2000s and 2010s give the
patriot a greater capability to conduct
tbm or theater ballistic missile
searches a necessity spurred on by the
growing danger from long-range ballistic
missiles fielded by both russia and
china the system can also engage targets
at predetermined altitudes so as to
neutralize the effects of chemical
weapons or early release submunitions
which would otherwise be released across
a wide area the combination of software
and radar is even able to tell if a
contact is manned or unmanned and if
incoming ballistic objects re-entering
the atmosphere are carrying ordinance or
not this makes the patriot capable of
resisting at least some of the most
common countermeasures employed by
ballistic missiles such as releasing
dummy warheads to lure in intercepting
missiles what makes the patriot system
work however is the pac-2 and pac-3
missiles the pac-3 missiles are the
newest iteration of patriot air defense
missiles but designed almost solely for
the interception of ballistic missiles
the pak-3 missile is slower and has a
smaller range than the pac-2 as it's
intended to destroy ballistic missiles
in their terminal phase they also employ
a hit-to-kill kinetic warhead armed with
active radar that can be disconnected
from ground stations and guide itself to
a target being smart enough to target
the warhead portion of the missile the
kinetic kill warhead does employ a small
explosive charge called a lethality
enhancer which launches 24 tungsten
fragments in a radial direction to
enhance kill probability this makes the
pack 3 a much more sophisticated missile
than the pak 2 but also gives it
extremely poor capabilities against a
fast flying and agile enemy fighter like
the incoming su-35 that's why patriot
batteries carry a mix of missiles and
it's the pac-2's job to destroy incoming
aircraft which might threaten the
patriot battery itself to do this the
pac-2 employs a large fragmentation
warhead which is designed to shred enemy
aircraft a direct hit is not required to
neutralize a fighter jet or a bomber as
these delicate machines require
thousands of precisely engineered parts
all working perfectly to stay in the air
damage to even some of these systems can
be lethal to the aircraft and the pak 2
creates a vast cloud of high-speed
shrapnel that shreds even the most
armored enemy plane in a wartime
situation a firing solution would have
already been achieved and the incoming
russian su-35 would be facing threats
from both airborne and ground-based
missiles but nato and russia are not at
war yet thus the f-15 pilots are told
not to engage unless they themselves are
engaged and instead are directed to
intercept the russian plane within
visual range it's a show of force with
the f-15s placing themselves between the
su-35 and any further penetration into
polish territory as expected the su-35
briefly crosses into polish airspace is
met by the american f-15s but doesn't
push its lock and quickly turns its nose
parallel to the f-15s after a few
minutes the russian fighter once more
turns back for safe airspace leaving the
f-15s to loiter near the border and
watch from a distance it's yet another
microaggression by russia meant to
simply show nato that it's not afraid of
it though it very much should be
russia's aging air fleet puts it in
serious doubt that it could actually
threaten nato airspace in any
significant manner and the current
sanctions against russia has left it
unable to procure the more sophisticated
electronic components it relied on for
producing its air-to-air and
air-to-ground missiles this means that
as the war in ukraine rages on russian
stockpiles of weapons diminish daily and
it couldn't possibly hope to compete
against the vast quantities of missiles
nato still holds in reserve now go watch
what's wrong with russia's military or
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