During a national broadcast last week, Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yuriy Ihnat said that its forces were able to cut through the Russian air defenses using the US-provided HARM, allowing its “Air Force’s strike planes, including the Su-25 attack aircraft and Su-24M bombers, to blitz Russian forces,” Newsweek reported. These successful bombardments boosted Ukrainian ground troops’ capability to advance freely and liberate lands more effectively and efficiently without worrying about Russian air strikes.
Ukraine’s “Wild Weasel”
As mentioned, the Ukrainian Air Force’s aircraft used to launch its AGM-88s aren’t supposed to be compatible. With a little DIY, as you may, they made it possible and even effectively took down Russian radar stations.
Thrust into full production in the early 1980s, the AGM-88 is a 14-foot, 800-pound missile capable of reaching up to 30 miles and a top speed of Mach 2. Its predecessor is the AGM-45 Shrike which was used in the Vietnam war, but compared to it, the AGM-88 is much better, more capable, and more effective. Spearheaded by the US Navy, the potent missiles were first deployed aboard platforms A-6E Intruder, A-7 Corsair II, and F/A-18A/B Hornet before being equipped onto the EA-6B Prowler and EA-18G Growler dedicated electronic attack aircraft. The US Air Force, on the other hand, attached AGM-88 missiles to its own Wild Weasel aircraft: the F-4G Phantom II, and later, the specialized F-16C Fighting Falcon outfitted with the HARM Targeting System (HTS).
It’s to note, though, that the missile system relies heavily on its digital display to be fired, and knowing the system’s incompatibility with the Russian-made platforms, the question arises to many: how does it work? Are the pilots firing them blind?
And apparently, yes.
But Ukrainian pilots apparently are firing the HARMs blind, using a mode that requires no new hardware in the single-seat, supersonic MiG’s cramped cockpit.
As seen in the video mentioned above, the Ukrainian pilot was operating the HARMs blind using the “prebriefed” mode, which requires no new hardware and allows quicker and easier integration between the US-made missiles and the Soviet-made jets. It may not have the best accuracy, but it remains capable of SEAD/DEAD, as well as terrifying enough for the Russian crews operating radars and radar-equipped surface-to-air missile vehicles to scram for their lives.
In a press briefing last August, the US Undersecretary of Defense for Policy reported the success of the AGM-88 in helping Ukrainian forces eliminate Russian radar systems. “The Ukrainians in recent weeks have been using the HARM missiles to great effect to take out Russian radar systems,” said Colin Kahl.
Nevertheless, much can still go wrong, particularly if the pilot fails to nail the launch position, direction, and speed. The HARM may not be able to detect and home in on the target. But there isn’t much of an option, isn’t it?
While Ukraine has yet to persuade its foreign allies to provide them with modern Western jets, the Pentagon has stated that it prefers to improve rather than replace Ukraine’s existing warplanes, weeks after confirming that the US is supplying HARMs to Ukraine.
It is less expensive and faster and only involves the risk of grounding aircraft for a few days, as opposed to transitioning to new aircraft, which requires training pilots, new processes, and new support equipment—which may take longer.
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