https://www.yahoo.com/news/e-2d-refuelin...00347.html
I post this not because of E-2D refueling (although that may interest some of you), but rather because of the great slide further down in the article illustrating the use of the E-2 as part of the Naval Integrated Fire Control - Counter Air (NIFC-CA). This slide illustrates the E-2 down-linking the radar picture to the controlling platform, in this case a AEGIS ship with SM-6 missiles. The ship can't even "see" the target because of the radar horizon. The mountains in the slide are an embellishment. The curvature of the earth is enough. The ship gets the data from the E-2 and launches the missile "blind". The ship tracks the missile and uses the uplink on the ship to "correct" the missile based on the E-2 picture for as long as it can. The missile then "goes active" (possibly after a programmed delay to conserve power) and homes in on the target by itself. As the article states, this allows using the SAM (the SM-6) out at its maximum range. This ability is a "game changer". Operating at lower altitude no longer protects enemy air from long range SAMs.
Substitute "Patriot battery" for the ship and "PAC-3 MSE" for SM-6 and "ASC 890" for E-2D and you have what Ukraine should be able to do "very soon". The US has demonstrated interoperability between the Patriot battery and both the E-2C and E-3 AWACS. I believe (though I am not sure) the same has been demonstrated with the E-7 Wedgetail. I post the following link with trepidation, because much of what it says is absolute nonsense. However its speculation is "interesting". https://www.eurasiantimes.com/australias...ite-likel/. The point is the technology and software exists for Patriot to do this now. The ASC 890 may not have latest software capability yet. However, they do have Link-16 which is fundamentally all that is needed. The following article describes using this capability with the F-16. https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/what-mak...98885.html. Both these capabilities will really "put the hurt" to Russian air operations. The Patriot involvement greatly augments the F-16 capability because of the PAC-3 MSE range advantage over an AMRAAM. Both are important, but driving Russian air as far back as possible is a big win.
I have previously talked about the notional capability of the A-50 to do the same things with the S-400. Russia claims they can do this, but nobody has ever seen them do it AFAIK, even experimentally. As previously stated it will only "work" with 9M96 and beyond versions of the SA-400 missiles. Fortunately these are supposedly much less plentiful than the SARH type of S-400 missiles. OTOH there is no inherent reason Russia can't do this. It isn't exactly "cutting edge" technology. Ukraine has to be prepared for it if they do. The longer the war goes on, the more probable it becomes they will.
I post this not because of E-2D refueling (although that may interest some of you), but rather because of the great slide further down in the article illustrating the use of the E-2 as part of the Naval Integrated Fire Control - Counter Air (NIFC-CA). This slide illustrates the E-2 down-linking the radar picture to the controlling platform, in this case a AEGIS ship with SM-6 missiles. The ship can't even "see" the target because of the radar horizon. The mountains in the slide are an embellishment. The curvature of the earth is enough. The ship gets the data from the E-2 and launches the missile "blind". The ship tracks the missile and uses the uplink on the ship to "correct" the missile based on the E-2 picture for as long as it can. The missile then "goes active" (possibly after a programmed delay to conserve power) and homes in on the target by itself. As the article states, this allows using the SAM (the SM-6) out at its maximum range. This ability is a "game changer". Operating at lower altitude no longer protects enemy air from long range SAMs.
Substitute "Patriot battery" for the ship and "PAC-3 MSE" for SM-6 and "ASC 890" for E-2D and you have what Ukraine should be able to do "very soon". The US has demonstrated interoperability between the Patriot battery and both the E-2C and E-3 AWACS. I believe (though I am not sure) the same has been demonstrated with the E-7 Wedgetail. I post the following link with trepidation, because much of what it says is absolute nonsense. However its speculation is "interesting". https://www.eurasiantimes.com/australias...ite-likel/. The point is the technology and software exists for Patriot to do this now. The ASC 890 may not have latest software capability yet. However, they do have Link-16 which is fundamentally all that is needed. The following article describes using this capability with the F-16. https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/what-mak...98885.html. Both these capabilities will really "put the hurt" to Russian air operations. The Patriot involvement greatly augments the F-16 capability because of the PAC-3 MSE range advantage over an AMRAAM. Both are important, but driving Russian air as far back as possible is a big win.
I have previously talked about the notional capability of the A-50 to do the same things with the S-400. Russia claims they can do this, but nobody has ever seen them do it AFAIK, even experimentally. As previously stated it will only "work" with 9M96 and beyond versions of the SA-400 missiles. Fortunately these are supposedly much less plentiful than the SARH type of S-400 missiles. OTOH there is no inherent reason Russia can't do this. It isn't exactly "cutting edge" technology. Ukraine has to be prepared for it if they do. The longer the war goes on, the more probable it becomes they will.