How strong has Pakistan's air defense system become since the introduction of the LY-80 missile system? Can it easily shoot down an Su-30MKI or a Rafale?
Modern warfare isn't that simple, a beginner with basic knowledge can easily tell LY-80 can shoot down Su-30 MKI and Rafale, by simply judging its max altitude ceiling.
But, here's where people is wrong. There is a thing called “Anti-Radiation Missile” that hunts radars. IAF Su-30 MKI comes with Kh-31P ARM having 110km range and Kh-58U ARM with 250km range. Both have terminal speed of more than Mach 3.6. It can destroy LY-80 long before Su-30MKI gets into LY-80′s engagement range of 40km. Such operations are called SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defense).
How and Why?
LY-80 is powered by
Semi-Active Radar Homing (SARH) guidance. SARH based SAM have both advantages and disadvantages. The guiding radar (FCR) for SARH cannot be jammed since its Land-based and hence powerful enough to counter jammings.
However, the advantage here is the disadvantage itself since
SARH SAM requires continuous guidance from the surface FCR Radar which transmits waves, because SARH SAMs doesn't have integrated radar seekers.
The transmitted waves gets reflected and received by waves receiver in the SAM. It means if the ground radar is switched off, the SAM practically becomes an unguided rocket and can't home itself towards the target.
This is where ARMs comes in handy. The ARMs have the upper hand here since LY-80 FCR can't switch off its radar or it will lose the already launched SAM. LY80 can destroy lower-speed ARMs but again, Kh-31P and Kh-58U have greater chance of destroying the radar
even when the ground radar is switched off in case of ARM threat, mostly because of its sheer speed of Mach 3.6 . Sorry to say this, but the remobilisation time of LY-80 radars isn't enough to escape such ARMs. By the time the radars detects the ARM,
it would be too late to put back the hydraulic stabilizers of the radar truck and start the engine to remobilise.
Incase, you are wondering if LY-80 can shoot down these Russian ARMs, then you are wrong here. LY-80 can engage Mach 0.8 or 300m/s subsonic cruise missiles at 50m altitude with minimum and maximum engagement range of 3.5km and 12km respectively and success rate of 60% only in case of subsonic cruise missiles. It means the probability of successfully engaging supersonic cruise missiles by LY-80 is near zero. The Reaction Time of this SAM is also high at 12 seconds, which is not enough. While these Russian ARMs have speed above Mach 3.6 or 1.3km/s, LY-80 can only dream of shooting it down.
[Reaction Time = Time taken to search, track, identity, lock and launch]
And I don't need to tell about Rafale. Its a complete next level fighter, way more capable than Su-30 MKI in SEAD ops.
Conclusion - No, it can't destroy Su-30 MKI and Rafale. One piece of advice for LY-80 operators is abandon their radar trucks and run away if they value their life, once they get to know an ARM is approaching towards them.
Related Questions
https://www.quora.com/How-strong-ha...-it-easily-shoot-down-an-Su-30MKI-or-a-Rafale
