On the hunt for the F-16! A Russian Su-30 has been spotted with a new long-range air-to-air missile

On the Internet footage of a Su- 30СМ2 of the Russian Naval Aviation, on which two "air-to-air" missiles are suspended. medium-range R-77-1 and two air-to-air missiles; long-range R-37M. The Ukrainian military publication Defense Express drew attention to this.

As far as can be determined, this is the first footage that confirms the possibility of using the P-37M by aircraft of the Su-30 family. Previously, these missiles could only be seen on MiG-31BM and Su-35S.

This is quite an important signal that shows that Russia intends to use the P-37M more actively. It is known that the missile can hit air targets at a distance of about 200 km (some sources claim about 300 km).

However, this is significantly more than the range of the AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles, whose standard carriers are F-16 aircraft. According to open sources, the launch range of the latter can exceed 120-150 km, but this applies only to later versions of the missile, such as AIM-120C-7 or AIM-120D.

There are no guarantees that Ukraine will receive new versions of AMRAAM. As for the aircraft, it is known that the F-16s from Denmark should be available to the VSU "within months”.

Even more interesting is the question of how many P-37Ms Russia has. Unfortunately, the volume of production of these missiles is unknown, but there are relatively few photographs of aircraft with this weapon.

As for the declared Su-30 model, according to The Military Balance at the beginning of 2023, Russia had 80 Su-30SM and 19 Su-30SM2 fighters in service with the Russian Air Force and another 19 Su-30SM and four Su -30СМ2 in the naval aviation service of the Navy.

As for the MiG-31BM and Su-35S, the Russians have about 100 and 110 units, respectively. Therefore, formally, the Russian fleet of potential R-37M carriers is not small at all.

The fact that Russia began to use the P-37M against Ukraine became known the previous year: in one of the propaganda videos, the Russians showed footage of a MiG-31 taking off, under the fuselage of which there could be three P-37M at once. It is known that the R-37 was built on the basis of the old Soviet R-33. In the process of modernization, the missile received a new designation - R-37M.

The flight speed of the P-37 is 6M, and the flight speed of the hit targets is up to 2500 km/h. The launch weight of the rocket is 600 kg. The missile has a high-explosive fragmentation warhead weighing 60 kg.