Cosmonauts-reconnaissance. Why Russia's Scout M-55, and what is wrong with it
Therefore, the Russian Federation waved dust from another Soviet aircraft to fit them for tracking. Experts explain that this may come out. On November 5, a photo of the M-55 aircraft of the Soviet era of Geophysics appeared in the open access. A rare altitude aircraft was expelled by the Russian Air Force. Before that, he was at the Ramenskoe aerodrome near Moscow. In two weeks, British intelligence said that Russia is considering the return of the M-55 to use it in the war with Ukraine.
"Russia probably considers the possibility of re-commissioning of the Soviet high-rise scout Mystic B (NATO M-55 designation). Having a working ceiling of more than 70,000 feet (21 km), the aircraft was recently used for research missions. However military intelligence equipment designed for use on Russian fighters, " - said British intelligence. M-55-Soviet-made plane, developed in the 1960s and 1980s.
It is a stratospheric scout that could be invisible and unattainable for land because of the high flight height. Its maximum flight range is up to 5 thousand km. The M-55 was not a serial plane, there were only a few such machines. And he did not use long. Already when he was released and went into the sky in 1988, he lost relevance-space intelligence appeared, so because of it he was preserved. It was used by the Russians only for research purposes as a platform for the study of land.
Experts from the Ukrainian Militar Center say that photos have recently appeared on the network depicting one of these aircraft, equipped with a control unit, which is usually used by Su-34 tactical bombers when performing radio-electronic exploration tasks. Therefore, there may be an assumption that the M-55 can return to the service and will be engaged in a targeting the territory of Ukraine or even beyond.
In particular, the British Ministry of Defense suggests and notes that the use of M-55 in combat operations has dared to "create an adequate intelligence potential, observation, detection of goals and reconnaissance. " "His ability to fly at great height allows equipment to work at a safe distance," - said in intelligence, and said that this will probably happen over the territory of Ukraine.
The peculiarity of these aircraft is that the aircraft flies high enough - on the verge of the stratosphere and atmosphere. And Ukraine cannot knock it down - there are no means for this. "A similar situation was when American MQ-9 Reaper Flew Above Crimea in 2016-2017 at a height of 15 kilometers, when the Russians had not yet taken to the C-400 Peninsula. They saw them at an altitude, even lifted planes, trying to knock down, but but unsuccessful.
When the C-400 appeared, the Americans began to do it very carefully, "-says Focus Military Expert Mikhail Zhirokhov. Currently, Russians can use the M-55 as a high-rise intelligence officer, in particular to perform rocket strokes in Ukraine. "A kind of analogue of the US U-2, which is still used by the US, is in the state of the US Air Force," continues the analyst.
"For example, when Russians strike infrastructure facilities, except for reconnaissance in place of collaborators, which They write and remove everything for them, they need objective data - how much this object is damaged as a result of a blow. It is about conspiracy. And to carry it out to them nothing when infrastructure objects are far from the border or frontier area. If something happened Selidovo or Kramatorsk, just lift "Orlan" - they immediately see the picture.
They believe that if they raise "geophysics", they will be able to walk and remove the necessary information at great height at great height at great height. " But it is worth mentioning that the operation of the M-55 is quite expensive, because it is an artificial aircraft made in fact in a single copy. And it is not easy to find pilots. They have to undergo special training. In Soviet times, this was. But nowadays the youngest of the prepared pilots for many years - they can hardly fly.
Current pilots may have passed some express courses. Experts say that there is nothing complicated in such flights - you do not need to use weapons, just go out for a course, wind circles. The main thing is physical health, because such flights are considered on the verge of human opportunities. To rise to such heights, you need to have appropriate health, preparation, wear a special suit that reduces the load. It is important to go through workouts in order not to lose, say, consciousness.
In fact, such pilots were prepared as astronauts. And they were prepared in Soviet times. Now the technologies have gone far forward. In America, there are planes that fly at such heights, even space walks on state -of -the -art apparatus, with compensators. But if we talk about this plane, we are talking about other possibilities. Experts recognize that the Russians have a huge problem with intelligence information, and during the war they need it constantly.
They would like to get, for example, Chinese balloons, which have not been seen over the US territory recently, but Beijing will not supply them to Moscow. Zhirokhov notes that the Russian Federation now does not have a full satellite group in orbit in order to keep track of the situation online, as the Western and US military does. They are currently using aviation. In particular, distant radar detection and management-A-50. But there are not many in the Russian Federation.
"That is why they mentioned" geophysics "that has a side view radar," he says. "This aircraft can go at great height and track intelligence information online. This function was not laid in it. It was to be used for scientific purposes" . Director of the information and consulting company Defense Express Sergey Zgurets says that if there is an equipment in Russia, which is able to look at the terrain at an altitude of 20 km, then you can use the car.
If not - there will be no benefit from such flights. We will remind, British intelligence wrote that it was a matter of radio intelligence containers, which were used in the training of 2021 for use on aircraft Su-34, Su-35. "Most likely, these planes are used to work out some new intelligence containers, which can then be used on regular Russian air aircraft," Defense Express said. At the same time, Mikhail Zhirokhov doubts that this plane by Soviet era Russians could be upgraded.
"He was unlikely to be tied into one network with other aircraft so that it was an air command post. And it was unlikely Modern mobile phones with samples of twenty years ago. So the quality of the information obtained will be unaccompanied, "he adds. Of course, the Russians could set the quality of primitive Chinese devices on the aircraft. But then it is about making changes to the design of the aircraft - a change in parameters, the characteristics that it is not easy to implement.