Law of interception and shooting down of aircraft… We are prepared?

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Ecuador prepares to have a law so that the Armed forces can carry out the demolition of aircraft in illegal acts, are we ready to do it?

In recent weeks there has been talk of the operational capacity of the Ecuadorian Air Force regarding its operation of supersonic ships and its need to have a combat air wing for the care of its national sovereignty.

Post written by: Captain Rudolph Star
FAA Commercial Pilot
Twitter: @rodo_estrella

Well, although the capacity of supersonic fighters is nil at the moment, Ecuador is a country that, following the signing of peace in 1998 with Peru, does not have in sight or in the long term conflicts that require an armed force with combat capacity capable of facing similar forces.

The Ecuadorian supersonic force was acquired since the 1970s due to the constant threat of conflicts with Peru, and although Ecuador received a donation of Dassault Mirage supersonic fighters 50 by Venezuela on 2009 to work together with Cheetah purchased from South Africa, none of these are operational.

Currently, Ecuador Just like its neighbors, it is only threatened by crime and particularly drug trafficking that every day incursions into the airspaces of sovereign nations in aircraft dedicated for this purpose..

Although this threat constitutes a violation of air status, it does not constitute a direct threat to security that requires forceful retaliatory intervention, as is the case of a violation of airspace by aircraft capable of engaging in combat or attack..

It is for this reason that Ecuador, as well as neighboring developing nations have opted for the acquisition of small fleets of aircraft capable of operating in low threat environments. For this, the military forces in addition to the replacement of other obsolete aircraft acquire within the period of the past decade among other equipment, The aircraft Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano with the intention of being its front line aircraft for the care of air sovereignty and the state.

The plane for the demolition of aircraft

A few days ago, the Government presented what will be the «demolition law» that seeks that the FAE have the capacity to act progressively using force against illegal aircraft, which brought about the debate on which aircraft will be used for this purpose.

We will analyze a bit the correct aircraft that our country already has and why it is an aircraft capable of facing and meeting the combat or air sovereignty defense needs of any country and in this particular case of Ecuador..

The Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano

The Embraer Super Tucano is the emblematic combat aircraft of the Brazilian Aeronautical Industry, a modern multi-purpose aircraft capable of fulfilling various combat and training missions.

The Super Tucano has its beginnings as a requirement of the Brazilian Government for the VAS program, “Amazonian Surveillance System” whose task, together with R99 aerial surveillance aircraft, had the mission of intercepting aircraft in violation of the state and for this it required replacing the veteran Embraer AT-26 Xavante, license-built version of the Italian Aermacchi MB-326 aircraft.

This is how the Embraer EMB-314 Super Tucano turboprop platform is developed under the ALX program, a multi-purpose, multi-mission tandem cockpit monoplane characterized by a long combat flight range of 550 km o 300 nautical miles or range in normal flight of 1330 Kilometers or 830 nautical miles and all at low cost per unit (9-10 millions of dollars) and low cost of operation with an average cost of 400 dollars per flight hour versus 4500 dollars per flight hour that it costs to operate on average a modern supersonic combat fighter like the Saab JAS-39 Gripen whose market price is 30 millions of dollars.

The maximum operating ceiling of the Super Tucano is 35.000 pies o 10.700 meters.

The Super Tucano in its combat role is capable of operating in all types of weather, day, night and is equipped with advanced weapons systems for ground attack, tactical surface support, interdiction and interception of low-performance hostile aircraft and air-to-air combat. Its fully digital avionics system makes it capable of handling sophisticated weapons and navigation systems..

armament

for combat, the Super Tucano is equipped with 5 external supports for weapons among which we can highlight:

For Air-to-Air Combat:

• AIM9 Sidewinder missiles.
• MAA1A and 1B Piranha missiles.
• RAFAEL Python missiles 3 y Phyton 4.

For Air Combat – Surface

• AGM-65 Maverick laser-guided bombs.
• Conventional free fall bombs. MK-81 y MK-85.
• BINC-300 Incendiary Bombs.
• BLG-252 cluster bombs
• Laser-guided precision bombs of the JDAM type.
• rockets of 70 millimeters in containers 4 rockets per container.

For use in general combat

• Two FN Herstal machine guns from 12.7 millimeters one on each wing with 500 total cartridges.
• A pod with an M20 gun from 20 millimeters under the fuselage
• Optional pods with two FN Herstal machine guns from 12.7 mm, one in each wing
• Additionally, it can be equipped with external disposable fuel tanks for extended range., CHAFF and FLARES flares as countermeasures in case of receiving attacks and also FLIR infrared sensor equipment

Operation

Operationally, the Super Tucano is an aircraft that has ALREADY been tested in real combat against insurgent forces in Colombia, Its most remembered and important missions were Operation Phoenix, where terrorist Raúl Reyes was killed in a “surgical” operation with laser-guided bombs.. The Sodom operation where the terrorist leader alias Mono Jojoy was killed is also remembered. These being the first combat interventions of the plane.

In hostile aircraft interception roles, the Super Tucano has been seen operating with great success in USA, Brazil and Colombia neutralizing smuggling aircraft.

knockdown

Since the interdiction regulations for this type of aircraft in the countries where it is allowed establish the full identification of the aircraft possible only at low speed, subsequently, if the aircraft does not obey instructions, warning shots are fired and if it persists, the aircraft is shot down or disabled, for this, strafing is a very low-cost alternative to shooting down using air-to-air missiles. To mention an Air-to-Air missile of the Python type has a cost of $20.000 dollars while the use of machine guns would have a very low cost and high effectiveness.

The hostile aircraft that are usually used to traffic illegal substances between countries are mostly made up of small single or twin-engine aircraft with low performance and low speeds or sometimes small corporate aircraft for which the Super Tucano is capable of intercepting. and disable it either in the air or on the ground without any restriction and without the possibility that its characteristics exceed those of the Tucano.

as we see, the capabilities of the Embraer Super Tucano, far exceed the current needs of the Ecuador, although we would all like to see a modern air weapon with the latest generation of combat aircraft, We must be aware that the country is not currently in the economic capacity for the total renewal of the combat wing, This is also added to the aforementioned that no major conflicts that require this type of investment are foreseen in the near future..

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