Was supposed to “jam” the Patriot: why Russia is disposing of the world's only Il-76PP aircraft
Kyiv • UNN
A rare IL-76PP jamming aircraft is being disposed of at a former training airfield in Irkutsk. The unique aircraft, which was supposed to counteract Patriot systems, was unable to perform its functions due to technical problems.
The Russian media reported that a rare IL-76PP jamming aircraft is being disposed of at the former training airfield in Irkutsk, which was scrapped for a rather prosaic reason - to make way for construction, UNN reports with reference to Defense Express.
Details
According to the publication, this story is about a rather interesting and specific Soviet-designed monster that, in theory, should have been able to "jam" even Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems.
The exact time when work on the Il-76PP began is not mentioned, only a general reference to the "mid-1980s". This airplane was produced in a single copy, remained at the stage of experimental development, and never went into mass production.
A serialized IL-76MD transport was used for the conversion to the IL-76PP, and the work was carried out at the Beriev ASTC in Taganrog, which specializes in A-50 radar surveillance aircraft. It was assumed that the Il-76PP would be used primarily to "jam" radars of Western SAMs of various types, including the Patriot.
The most interesting and specific detail that seems to have "buried" the Il-76PP project is that this aircraft was equipped with an electronic warfare system designated "Lily", which was also used on the Su-24MP (the jamming version was produced in 12 units).
The fact is that the installation of the Landysh electronic warfare system on the IL-76PP required, among other things, the installation of additional power sources. To solve this problem, the designers of the aircraft installed two additional generators based on the AI-24VT aircraft engine, each of which was to supply four AC power lines on board the IL-76PP. However, it seems that this was not enough to reliably power the electronic warfare equipment.
But the most problematic thing was that during the work and tests, the designers of the IL-76PP failed to achieve electromagnetic compatibility between the aircraft's onboard equipment and the Landysh complex, whose containers were installed on the wingtips.
"In other words, the Il-76PP turned out to be a monstrous and at the same time non-functional development that was unable to fulfill its main task, so in 1993 this aircraft was put into storage on the territory of the aforementioned training airfield in Irkutsk. And apparently, they "remembered" about this Il-76PP only when it was necessary to free up space for construction, that is, at the end of 2024," Defense Express summarized in .
