Ukraine pilots are flying high-risk ‘wild weasel’ missions first developed in the Vietnam War by the USAF, says defense analyst

• Ukrainian pilots fly dangerous “wild weasel” missions to suppress Russian air defenses.

• Advanced missiles supplied by the US have played a critical role in these missions.

• The arrival of F-16 fighters will help level Russia’s air superiority.

Pilots in Ukraine’s Soviet-era air force, a fraction of the size of Russia’s air force, are using a tactic first developed by the U.S. Air Force to contest the skies above the 600-mile front line.

Videos from recent months appear to show Ukrainian pilots conducting so-called “wild weasel” missions.

The strategy involves jet pilots baiting enemy air defenses into attacking them with their radars. The radar waves are then tracked to their source, and the Ukrainian pilots retaliate with weapons such as US-made AGM-88 high-speed anti-radiation missiles (HARMs) before the Russian van attacks them with surface-to-air missiles. . (SAM).

Since mid-2022, the US has been supplying Ukraine with HARMs, which have provided Ukrainian pilots with Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) and Destruction of Enemy Air Defenses (DEAD) capabilities.

The US Air Force pioneered SEAD tactics in the Vietnam War. So-called wild weasel aircraft were tasked with destroying enemy air defense radars to clear the way for attack aircraft to fly.

The wild weasels had radar receivers to locate enemy air defenses and were initially armed with bombs and later special missiles that could target radar.

The term “wild weasel” originated from the Wild Weasel Project. This US Air Force anti-SAM strategy utilized direct strikes to suppress enemy air defenses, according to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

These missions, originally called “Project Ferret” — a reference to the small predatory mammal that enters the burrow of its prey to kill it — were renamed Project Wild Weasel so as not to be confused with the codename “Ferret” that was used during the Worldwide. WWII for radar countermeasures bombers.

HARM is the latest of these air-to-surface missiles: a projectile weighing about 770 pounds, with a range of about 90 miles. These missiles can locate and attack enemy radar even after the radar systems have been turned off.

HARM has been used in wars in Libya, Iraq and the former Yugoslavia, The Economist previously reported.

This experience is being used in Ukraine.

“Ukraine is clearly learning from Western military thinking,” Frederik Mertens, a strategic analyst at the Center for Strategic Studies in The Hague, told Business Insider. “Ukraine is placing great emphasis on SEAD and DEAD missions.”

These missions can be “very dangerous,” especially for wild weasels, he said. But Russian air defenses are a “key target”.

“This game is worth it,” Mertens said.

But he added that Ukraine’s tactics “go far beyond the classic wild weasel missions of aircraft equipped with anti-radiation missiles.”

From special forces strikes to ground-launched missiles like GMLRS and ATACMS, as well as UAVs of all types, “Ukrainians use all the weapons, troops and systems they have at their disposal to suppress and destroy Russian air defenses,” he said. Mertens.

Adaptation of Western weapons for use in Ukraine

The difficulty of adapting HARM to Ukraine is due to the incompatibility of old Soviet-era jets, such as the MIG-29 and Su-27 fighters, with modern Western technology.

Last month, U.S. Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante counted reporters at a conference in Washington DC that Ukraine was using iPads in an attempt to make Ukrainian jets compatible with Western weapons.

He described how Ukraine’s former fighter planes could now take many Western weapons and make them work on their aircraft, as they were “basically controlled from an iPad by the pilot. They’re flying in conflict a week after we handed it to him, ” he said.

Since making the necessary adaptations, Ukrainian pilots have fired hundreds of HARMs at Russian air defense radar systems. However, their technique has changed, Justin Bronk, senior airpower and technology researcher at the London-based think tank Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), told BI.

“Although they initially achieved a number of successful kills against Russian SAM systems and radars when first introduced; Russian SAM operators quickly adapted their tactics,” Bronk said.

Now, HARM launches serve “a suppressive, non-destructive purpose.”

When launched, “the missiles force Russian SAM operators to turn off their radars and move to avoid being hit by them,” Bronk said. “This leaves a small window within which other strike systems, such as HIMARS rockets or Storm Shadow missiles, can strike nearby targets with much less risk of being intercepted by Russian SAMs.”

Waiting for F-16

Although modified Soviet-era fighters allow Ukrainians to use HARM missiles, the modifications do not allow Ukrainians to take full advantage of all of their characteristics.

“It doesn’t have all the capabilities that it would have on an F-16,” said Gen. James Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe. said previously during a roundtable at the Air Force Association’s Air, Space Cyber ​​conference.

Therefore, the delivery of F-16s will be crucial to increasing Ukrainian air superiority.

Earlier this week, the Netherlands announced plans to begin delivering its F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine this fall, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said. he said during a press conference in Vilnius.

Denmark formerly he said would begin transferring its aircraft in the summer,

“Dealing with the Russian GBAD [Ground Based Air Defense] will be crucial to enabling future Ukrainian airstrikes once the F-16 fighters arrive,” Mertens told BI.

While the delivery of such a small number of F-16s should not be overestimated, Mertens believes they could significantly impact Crimea.

“Crimea is vulnerable: the Russians have relatively limited room for maneuver on the Peninsula, resupply depends on the Kerch bridgehead, and here Putin has a lot to lose, both politically and militarily,” he said.

“If a limited number of fighters can have a real impact, this is it.”

Read the original article at Business Insider