DCS: AJS-37 Viggen Discussion

[addde]

Figuring what exactly "tätning" (literally "sealing", as in making something airtight) referred to wasn't trivial, but Google eventually turned up a report from Statens Haverikommission where it was actually explained. It means "rapid pitch-up". Explain how that makes sense, anyone? Then again, is that what "departure" refers to in English as well? That makes more sense but it's still kinda odd.

 

Tätning = rapid pitch-up?

[renhanxue]

Yes. See this SHK report about the crash of a Gripen back in 1999, page 13:

 

Förarens redogörelse för händelseförloppet har inledningsvis varit en betydande källa till information, vilket väglett den första delen av utredningsarbetet. Resultatet av ett antal intervjuer med föraren kan sammanfattas med följande: Han upplevde själva störningen som kort och intensiv och beskrev den som en "duns" i flygplanet och en mindre sättning, d.v.s. lastfaktortillväxt. Störningen vred flygplanet en aning åt vänster samtidigt som den negativa tippvinkeln på ca 70 º ökade till nära nog vertikal dykning. Den efterföljande flygplanrörelsen upplevdes inte som en tätning, (en uppåtriktad, hastig tipprörelse). Under hela sekvensen noterades korrekt flyglägespresentation i siktlinjesindikatorn (SI).

 

(emphasis mine)

[JanTelefon]

Could "flygläge" be translated into flight situation or flight position perhaps? From the sentence it seems the text is refering to how the plane is situated.

 

There are alot of these tricky words in swedish flight manuals, like flare (before landing) is translated as "övergångsbåge". I guess that could be a mouthfull to non-native Swedish speakers. :D

[renhanxue]

"transition arc" sounds great when translated literally though

[JanTelefon]

It does doesn't it. Feels very descriptive of what is actually being done.

[renhanxue]

I wrote a little piece on the rb 04E based on the SFI's. Figured people might be interested.

 

 

Robot 04E (with "robot", abbreviated "rb", being military Swedish for "missile") was the AJ 37 Viggen's signature weapon: a radar-guided, sea-skimming anti-ship missile, developed from the rb 04C which had originally entered service in the 1961 on the A 32 Lansen. The E version entered service in 1975, with 315 missiles produced. Let's have a look at how it works.

 

Rb 04C or D on a A 32 Lansen.

 

Missiles on the assembly line at the air force's Central Aircraft Workshops in Arboga.

 

First, some background on the doctrine and use case that shaped the design of the missile. The Swedish armed forces expected the Warsaw Pact to attempt to secure a beachhead on the Swedish coast with a D-Day style invasion: a massive fleet of hundreds of ships with surface combatant screens protecting a core of various landing craft. The AJ 37's raison d'être was to attack a fleet like this. The rb 04E was mainly intended to be used against the screening combat ships, since if their AA was silenced the Viggens would be able to go to town on the vulnerable landing craft with less expensive weapons like bombs, autocannons and unguided rockets. In order to achieve saturation of the defenses and a reasonable chance to actually sink mutually supporting surface combatants, the plan was to deploy at least four but preferably six or more full squadrons in each attack wave (one squadron in the air was two flights of four aircraft, so six squadrons would be 48 aircraft). Since the plan involved launching up to close to a hundred missiles at the same time (or slightly less - some aircraft would be carrying countermeasures instead of missiles), getting the missiles to spread themselves out between different targets and not collide with each other or lock on each other was a very real concern, which will be apparent when we get into discussing the seeker.

 

Onwards to the technical details!

 

 

The missile's about four and a half meters long (14 ft 9 in), weighs around 625 kg total (1378 lbs), has a shaped charge warhead that weighs about 200 kg (441 lbs) and is powered by a solid rocket motor that produces a nominal thrust of 195 kp (1.9 kN, 430 lbf) for a nominal burn time of 65.5 seconds (can vary between 60 and 75 seconds depending on propellant temperature). The control surfaces are pneumatically actuated. The seeker is a frequency hopping monopulse radar with a parabolic receiver antenna located under the radome in the front of the missile (the text "TRYCK EJ HÄR" on the radome means "do not press here"). The antenna sweeps horizontally only, 28 degrees to each side. The missile cruises at an altitude of 10 meters above sea level, which it maintains by the use of a radar altimeter.

 

The AJ 37 can carry two rb 04E's on the inner underwing pylons. When pre-flighting the missile, the mechanic had a panel with five switches and a knob available to him for programming the missile - there really isn't much the pilot can configure from the cockpit. The panel looks like this:

 

 

The switches are intentionally only labeled with numbers for opsec reasons - the seeker electronics were highly classified and conscripts were not allowed to know much about how it worked. Switch 1 ("balkläge") is the missile's position on the aircraft; V (vänster, left), C (center) or H (höger, right). The centerline pylon © was initially planned as a possible launch position on the AJ 37 but the electronics to actually launch the missile from there were never implemented. The rest of the switches we'll cover when we get to the functionality they affect.

 

The missiles can be launched one by one or both together - in the latter case there's an automatic delay of about two seconds between the two, to avoid collisions. Targeting is simple: the pilot simply points the entire aircraft at the desired target, guided by the head-down radar screen, on which either a PPI or a B-scope is presented together with a wind-compensated aiming line (wind speed is taken from the aircraft computer, where it is either doppler calculated by the radar altimeter system or taken from the weather forecast as input during pre-flight procedures). The presentation looks like this:

 

B-scope and PPI, respectively.

 

The number 60 shown in the bottom right means that the range of the display is set to 60 km. The two short, curved lines on the PPI represent the ranges 12 and 24 km respectively, while the line marked "raktframlinje" is the wind-compensated aiming line. Originally, the 12 and 24 km lines represented minimum and maximum firing ranges for the missile, but at some point the procedure was improved to calculate the engagement envelope dynamically based on air pressure, temperature and speed of the launching aircraft (later manuals recommend a max launch range of about 20 km). The pilot can select if the missile's seeker should be in single ("ENKEL") or group ("GRUPP") targeting mode. In single target mode, the missile will simply lock on the first detected target. In group mode, the target selection process is more involved and we'll get back to it in a little bit. The missile can be launched at altitudes between 50 and 425 meters above sea level and airspeeds between Mach 0.7 and 0.92. The aircraft's radar does not need to be radiating to launch the missile, since the targeting is done just by pointing the aircraft the right way. In fact, the missile can be launched completely "blind" - this was particularly desirable on the Lansen, which did not have a radar in every aircraft. The flight lead could do the radar thing and the rest of the flight just launched when he did - a tactic that was also technically usable on the AJ 37. Once launched, the missile is completely autonomous and can no longer be controlled in any way by the launching aircraft.

 

When the launch signal is given, the missile activates its internal batteries, releases its gyro from being slaved to the aircraft's attitude gyros, unlocks and pressurizes the aileron actuators, and when the batteries have reached full power (after about 0.6 seconds), it separates from the aircraft. 0.7 seconds after separation, the elevators and rudders are pressurized and the missile immediately starts diving at an angle of about 7 degrees. About 1.1 seconds after separation, the missile starts yawing either 2.5 or 7.5 degrees to either the left or the right - which direction and by how much is determined by the position of the knob (marked 6, "kurstillskott") on the switch panel on the missile. After 8 seconds, the missile returns to the launch course. The reason for this is to separate the missiles horizontally.

 

When the missile's radar altimeter detects that the missile has had an altitude under 120 meters above sea level for more than 100 milliseconds, the automatic 7 degree dive stops and the missile instead follows a descent profile that takes around 10 seconds to reach its cruise altitude of 10 meters. Missiles launched from the right pylon ignite their rocket engine when descending below 130 meters, while missiles launched from the left pylon ignite it upon reaching the cruise altitude, to further separate them in time and in altitude.

 

 

When the cruise altitude is reached, the seeker starts scanning for targets; the scan area (and lock envelope) is shown above. When a possible target is detected, the seeker activates a function called "three-view logic", which means that the ranging function continues seeking forward about 80 meters. Then, the antenna sweep is reversed and the ranging seeks about 250 meters backwards, then the sweep is reversed again and the ranging seeks about 300 meters forwards. If the seeker gets a return again during the first or second reversed sweep, the target is considered valid. If no return is received during the first or second reversed sweeps, the target search continues. On the other hand, if the seeker gets another return immediately after the first indication, caused by the size of the target, the three-view logic function is blocked and the seeker accepts the target immediately.

 

When the seeker has locked on a target, the range to the target is monitored. The range should be decreasing, since the missile is approaching it. If the closing speed is too low, for example because the seeker has locked on another missile flying in the same direction, the missile releases the lock and starts a new search. The seeker will not lock on targets that are located such that the missile cannot be maneuvered to hit them, either.

 

In group targeting mode, the seeker will assume that the target ships are traveling in columns, and can be programmed to lock on a target in the first, second or third row as seen from the attacking aircraft, using the target selection switch (marked 5, "målval") on the switch panel on the missile. In order for the missile to lock in group mode, two or more targets have to be detected in the same range sweep, and they have to be a maximum of 2700 meters from each other (this number looks arbitrary, but it's just about 1.5 nautical miles). In order to allow for at least some flexibility in the line up, the seeker performs a fictional widening of the antenna lobe by copying detected targets and considering them for the next range sweep as well. This is all perhaps best explained with a picture:

 

 

The "angle jump" function, which can be enabled on the switch panel using the switch marked 4 ("vinkelhopp") makes the missile skip the first possible target it sees and lock on the next one instead, if one is found before the antenna sweep reaches the end position and turns around.

 

The missile also has an additional targeting mode, called "active + passive", which can be selected on the switch panel (switch marked 3, "följemod"). When this is selected, the missile is basically home-on-jam - if it detects it is being jammed, it will lock on the jammer after one full horizontal sweep. While locked on the jammer (passive targeting mode), the antenna is kept pointed at the signal source and the missile tracks the bearing to it. The range search stays active during the passive target tracking and if a target is detected in the jammer's direction, the missile will lock on that. If the jammer stops transmitting, the missile will keep going "blind" for two seconds; after that it resumes active targeting.

 

Rb 04E seeker unit.

 

The seeker keeps the missile pointed straight at the target until it is less than 4000 meters away, at which point the missile starts accounting for the target's speed and leads it. The seeker keeps tracking the target until it has closed to 250 meters, then the missile flies blind the last distance. If the warhead does not detonate when the target is passed, the missile re-starts targeting and simply locks on the first thing it sees (disregarding the single/group target selection and any previous considerations).

 

At 250 meters from the target, the missile arms its fuzes. The missile is not intended to actually hit the target - the warhead is a shaped charge that is focused downwards, so it is supposed to be detonated above the target. There are three different proximity fuzes - one magnetometric, one temperature-sensitive and one based on the radar altimeter, which triggers on the sudden altitude change when passing over the target. There are two proximity fuze modes, selected with the switch marked 2 ("zonrör") on the switch panel - in mode 1, only the radar altimeter is active, while in mode 2, any two fuzes both giving the detonation signal is required (presumably mode 2 is for use in rough seas to prevent accidental detonations from high waves). Additionally, there is also a contact fuze in the nose of the missile, which detonates it after a small delay if it should hit the target directly.

 

 

In summary, I find the group mode to of questionable utility since it requires the targets to line up almost perfectly, but I guess they did what they could to try to get the missile to be able to work against large ship formations. In the single target mode though the missile seems to be a pretty nasty piece of business for 1975, especially considering the radio silent mass usage doctrine and the fact that very few aircraft needed to actually radiate to enable a launch. The main weakness was probably that there were so few missiles purchased - about two missiles per AJ 37, total.

Edited October 15, 2016 by renhanxue

[jeffdude]

That is very interesting! I can't wait to employ these bad boys! the entire weapons load is very interesting, some will be revolutionary to DCS player combat

[mattebubben]

Thanks for that very interesting read =).

 

And personally i think i might be more likely to use the RB 04E instead of the RB 15F (Unless very important or highly protected targets) just because i find it to be more interesting and its also a more classic weapon and is so closely tied with the Viggen etc.

 

I also like its "Advanced Simplicity" ^^.

 

But yea i very much look forward to doing anti-ship missions in the Viggen.

 

With RB-04Es against the escorts and then RB05s (Or alternatively Bombs or Rockets) against Transports or Landing Craft.

Edited October 14, 2016 by mattebubben

[Farks]

Fantastic writing renhanxue!

 

If the Falklands Wars and other engagements with ASM's are any indication of their effectiveness, E1 (the AJ 37 squadrons) would have been a major threat even for a military super power. And let's not forget the west-german Marineflieger which was of similair size and had the same mission as E1.

[myHelljumper]

Big thanks for that !!

[Pocket Sized]

Wow! I love the look of the seeker, its just a tiny satellite dish :D

What's the typical top speed on one of these babies? The motor burns very slowly.

 

Also, how does it compare to the jet powered RBS-15 in terms of range? I imagine they're pretty similar in the way they operate.

 

Edited October 15, 2016 by Pocket Sized

[renhanxue]

Wow! I love the look of the seeker, its just a tiny satellite dish :D

What's the typical top speed on one of these babies? The motor burns very slowly.

 

Wasn't there a second anti ship missile? Could've sworn one of them was jet powered...

I haven't found any number on the cruise speed, just "high subsonic". Doing the math though, in order to travel 20 km in the 65 seconds the rocket motor burns, you have to do around 1100 km/h or M 0.9. So somewhere in that ballpark is a reasonable assumption.

 

The rb 15 probably has a considerably longer range since it's turbojet powered, but I don't have any exact numbers.

[Pocket Sized]

I haven't found any number on the cruise speed, just "high subsonic". Doing the math though, in order to travel 20 km in the 65 seconds the rocket motor burns, you have to do around 1100 km/h or M 0.9. So somewhere in that ballpark is a reasonable assumption.

 

The second ASM you're talking about is the rb 15F, which is similar-ish to the rb 04 but has the rocket motor replaced with a turbojet, a new considerably smarter seeker that can be programmed to fly a course with multiple waypoints before starting targeting, and probably a new warhead. It was integrated on the AJS 37 in the early 90's.

 

Wow, that was quick :P

 

Yeah, I found the missile on the first page of the thread and edited my post.

 

However seeing how recent the missile is makes me question if we're getting it or not...

[renhanxue]

I happened to refresh at the right moment ;)

 

The rb 15 has been confirmed to be in :)

I'll see about a write up about that one too.

 

By the way, I was wondering what was up with the 2700 meters figure for the group targeting mode since it seemed pretty arbitrary, but then I realized it's pretty close to two nautical miles (correction, 1.5). I bet that's where it comes from.

Edited October 15, 2016 by renhanxue

[Justin Case]

1 nm = 1852 m

2 nm = 3704 m

 

2700 m = 1,46 nm

 

My bet is on something more arbitrary.

[renhanxue]

Brain fart, I meant 1.5 nm. The reason I made the connection is this quote from an old issue of FOI's internal magazine Framsyn (as cited here - I would really like to read the entire article but it's not online anymore):

 

Det var en häftig apparat för sin tid. Målsökaren var så hemlig att värnpliktiga inte fick se den. Roboten kunde ställas in för enkelmål och gruppmål. Vi lät FOA simulera ett anfall mot invasionsflottan med 30 robotar. När vi valde enkelmål gick alla robotar på ett och samma fartyg. När vi valde gruppmål gick de flesta robotarna tvärs igenom hela invasionskakan utan att träffa. Nu hade vi fått en chock. Felet berodde på att vi antagit att skillnaden i avstånd mellan fartygskolonnerna var maximalt 1500 meter. Men den ryska amiralen hade naturligtvis sagt att avståndet mellan fartygen skulle vara en sjömil, det vill säga 1852 meter. Felet gick att rätta till. Man fick skruva och dona i varje målsökare. På den tiden var det mekanik och inte mjukvara som gällde.

Edited October 15, 2016 by renhanxue

[renhanxue]

Right, found where FOI put their magazine on their new new new webpage. The article the quote comes from is in issue 1, 2004, page 20 and on. Highly recommended reading, someone (not me) should translate it.

 

Sample quote:

- Om det verkligen var den stora invasionen och landets ödestimme kanske vi hade fått räkna med att ta större förluster än annars, för då tydde det på att vi skulle börja anfalla långt ut. Det skulle göra det farligare för oss. Då kunde vi riskera att få flyg emot oss. Här hamnade man i resonemang om bränsledueller. Det gick en gräns någonstans på Östersjön, där den ena sidan hade ett bränsleövertag över den andra. Det innebar att den som hade ont om bränsle fick fly. Men det innebär också en risk.

 

På Viggentiden räknade militären med att kunna genomföra fyra anfall mot invasionsflottan.

 

- Den fjärde kunde möjligtvis ske tillsammans med flottan. Men det var inte lätt att samordna dessa attacker. Här fanns militärbefälhavaren i Strängnäs och hans uppgift, som han såg det, var att åstadkomma samverkan. Det innebar att den ena sidan skulle skjuta från vänster och den andra från höger. Och helst samtidigt. Men att hantera två styrkor, där den ena går i 40 knop och den andra i 400 knop, skapade problem. Det gällde att bestämma en framförpunkt för att kunna slå till vid en viss tidpunkt. Om invasionsflottan ändrade kurs ändrades både framförhållningspunkten och tiden. Och så försökte man hitta ett nytt ställe och då svängde invasionsflottan igen. Hela tiden kunde han svänga inom vår beslutscirkel.

 

Flygets primära mål var de fartyg som skulle skydda överskeppningen. Om konvojen inte hade tillräckligt bra skydd skulle den bli ett lätt byte för flottan. Någonstans gick det därför en gräns, där invasionsförsöket kunde avbrytas. Att angripa jagare och korvetter var dock en svår uppgift. Göran Tode säger att det kunde gå hur som helst.

 

- Antingen sänkte vi tillräckligt med fartyg eller också tog våra flygplan slut. I praktiken räknade vi dock med att om invasionsflottan kom nära kusten skulle vår flotta inte behöva bekymra sig så mycket om skyddsfartygen.

Edited October 15, 2016 by renhanxue

[JanTelefon]

Great read! Very nice work renhanxue!

[iLOVEwindmills]

the warhead is a shaped charge that is focused downwards, so it is supposed to be detonated above the target.

 

This kinda surprised me, how effective is this against any larger ship? Against tanks a top attack shaped charge makes sense to me, with them being so densely packed its hard not to hit some critical/volatile component or crew.

 

Against something as large as a ship it seems there would be a really low chance of doing critical damage with a shaped charge, at least compared to slamming a large HE load straight through the side and detonating it in the interior.

[emg]

Afaik the intended effect would be a pressure wave that would break the keel of a typical destroyer.

[renhanxue]

The missile and the warhead were originally designed in the late 1950's, when the Soviets were still building gun cruisers like the Sverdlovs with armor 100mm thick, or even thicker. You couldn't penetrate that kinetically with a missile like this, so you had to rely on the explosive effect for penetration. I also agree with emg's post - as I've understood it the missile is intended to work like a torpedo does, by breaking the keel of the ship.

[renhanxue]

Continuing on the rb 04 theme, enjoy some Lansen porn in the form of Taktiska anvisningar för attackförband, 1961 års utgåva

 

 

 

Speech bubble: "Let's try ARMING next time!"

Caption: "It is a grave error to overlook any setting such that there is no effect on the target"

[Sporg]

Right, found where FOI put their magazine on their new new new webpage. The article the quote comes from is in issue 1, 2004, page 20 and on. Highly recommended reading, someone (not me) should translate it.

I had a go at it:

"Attack" - The pilot's daily life is both farce and disaster

A common sight over Sweden in the 1960s - Lansen aircraft on the way to exercise.

Here we see the Lansens from F 6 in Karlsborg with bombs under the wings.

 

The coastal invasion would have been the First Attack* Group's great moment. It was for this they had practised. Many pilots and navigators had sacrificed with their lives. Göran Tode was one of the strike flight's many pilots in the 1960s. During the 1970s, he would lead the assault against invasion ships. The paradox is that the battle would never have taken place. The invasion would not have been possible, unless the strike flight had been knocked out first. The strength of the "Attack" was to exist.

* attack = strike

 

By Jan-Ivar Askelin

 

Swedish summer tranquillity. The sun is blazing and the bumblebees buzzing. The cottage of the nearest neighbour is over three kilometres away. It's the holiday season. On the small forest road there is a scooter rider. He is wearing a red helmet. Cottage owner Göran Tode thinks he looks unusually tanned. It is explained when the scooter rider presents himself as an African student from the University of Warsaw. To supplement his meagre student funds he sells agricultural literature.

 

- I was not a farmer and gave him a dollar for gasoline and forgot the whole incident. A few days later, in (the) Expressen (newspaper), I could read that a flight friend who had his summer cottage seventy kilometres away also received visits. From a black scooter rider with a red helmet. The article was describing that the fighter pilots were being mapped. And then I understood the context.

 

- That's how it was. We were constantly spied on. The Russians kept check on where we lived, where we were on holiday, what car we had and what our families looked like, says Göran Tode. One might think that this thing with Polish salesmen was obvious and amateurishly handled, but the deal was that we should feel the threat. When I was a flotilla manager at F 6 in Karlsborg the pilots made their own evacuation plans for their families, in the event that things should get serious.

 

History says a lot about the Cold War period. It was idyllic in Sweden with red houses and at the same time there were people in this sanctuary who knew the threat very clearly. Farce and disaster can be accommodated in the same story. And so it will be when Göran Tode tells how the strike flight, decade after decade, practised before the country's hour of destiny.

 

In the 1960s, Göran Tode was squadron leader at the air force. In the 1970s, he sat as chief operating officer of what was then called the First Attack Group, E 1. In the 1980s, he had high positions at Headquarters before retiring as a colonel in 1998. Göran Tode has been involved in many operational studies since 1972 . After his retirement, he has been engaged as a consultant in the new defence management studies.

 

In the cartoonist Thorwald Gahlin's series, the father gave the following advice to his son: In the hour of danger, the presence of mind is the best property after the absence of body.

 

- It could also be a guiding star for the strike flight. As long as the strike flight could be counted on, the coastal invasion, at least in the 1960s, was almost impossible. So it was up to us to make it through the initial combat. The snag was that in the war games, it was assumed that the flight was going to be knocked out, otherwise the army would have nothing to do.

 

- In the Viggen era we introduced the concept of "Johansson Bases". When the alarm came for the coup*1, the pilots peeled off. They arranged between themselves which small base they would land on. It was not formalized and not written down. If it had been, the information would have reached "the other side" directly. The airmen landed at small places like Arvika and Hede. The pilot called the Home Guard and asked them to guard the plane. He himself would knock at the door of "Mrs Johansson"*2 to get shelter overnight. In the morning he would phone the strike command, called "Björn", and ask if the war had started.

*1 the strategy was meant in the event of a fast assault, a "coup" by the Soviet forces.

*2 Johansson was a common name like Smith, Jones etc.

 

This fast dispersal, according to Göran Tode, was almost impossible to beat, which, as mentioned, created discontent among some people when the war games would be played.

 

- Another method was the so-called vertical dispersal. I once met a French air force officer who had been in the war and had been shot down. He said that the war will only have lasted for five minutes, when you realize that the planes cannot stay on the ground. So I figured that I would try this. My aviators in F 6 was given orders that if there was a coup, they would get in the air as soon as possible, and stay near the Norwegian border. After two hours they had to refuel, and by then we would have had time to arrange rapid refuelling teams and then they could go up again. Next time they have to leave the plane to pee.

 

The Group was almost eliminated

First Attack Croup E 1, at the time known as "The Supreme Commander's club", had its roots in the defence's rapid armament of the air force. The war organization was then called the group and for a while there were four groups. The only one that remained was E 1, but that nearly disappeared as well. There was always a wrangling for the strike aircraft. The country was divided into military zones each controlled by a military commander. In the beginning he would take care of the army in the area, while the air force and the fleet would manage their own war. This regime failed in the early 1960s in connection with a major exercise, when the air force felt they had more important things to do than to cooperate with the army.

 

- The then Supreme Commander went through the ceiling and said that now there would be operational commands. There should be an end to the armed services staging their own wars. This led to the so-called October Revolution in 1966, which gave military commanders more power and then the E 1 was also about to disappear. However it was managed to convince those responsible, that the flight had an advantage that other parties lacked. The planes could quickly be at one place at the same time, even if the planes took off from different locations. The air force was also able to quickly split up a large coherent force. We introduced the term iso-attacks. You know what isobaric and isothermal is. Everyone does not know, however, that an iso-attack is a line joining locations with the same attack capability. If there's a target, you can draw an iso-attack line for all units that can attack the target within an hour

 

Huge hole in Norrland

The Attack Group's main task was the coastal invasion - Sweden has 2700 kilometres of coast line - but it also had the task of Norrland. The conditions in Finland were studied since a land invasion over the Kalix border required that the Soviet brought troops up through Finland.

 

- Back then there were six main routes, of which four were of decent calibre. Furthermore, there was a railway and that was necessary to fill out a sufficiently big attack front-line. We tried to bomb the roads in Norrland. Once we got a hit, and the hole was so big that it took ten truckloads to fill it out. The roads in northern Sweden are floating on a spruce sprig bed, and if you get penetration there, it will create a huge hole.

 

We transferred our own (simulation) models for mobilization to the countries around us. Then you could see that rail transport was very sensitive to disturbances. It would not have been easier to transport troops in neighbouring countries than it would in Sweden.

 

We got better and worse

Coastal invasion was the dominant task. It was practised, simulated and calculated and during all the years the military kept a constant lookout, as good as possible, on what happened on "the other side". All the vessels that were needed for the invasion were not normally situated in the Baltic Sea, so you had to count the boats that went in and out. It was calculated how much cargo each ship could take. The size of the "invasion cake" had a tendency to grow proportionally with the distance from reality. Those who worked with the issue knew that it was still a fairly limited business. But in war games and in the debate the "invasion cake" grew. It should of course be large enough for the army even deep inside Sweden to have something to do.

 

- In the 1960s, we had plenty of planes and weapons and the Soviet aircraft range was poor. The paradox is that when we got better equipment like the Viggen and the missile 15 we ended up in a worse situation. On "the other side", the quality also increased. But unlike us, it did not reduce the Soviet quantity. The big difference was that now the Soviet aircraft had received the range that they previously lacked.

How was the daily life in the shadow of the coastal invasion?

 

- We watched with radar surveillance how the Russians grouped themselves when they practised coastal invasion. We studied the times, speeds, protection and so on. Once when they started practising, I wanted to call in our strike command to see if we really had time to collect all the intelligence that we needed. It was a very good idea and of course it failed. Due to working hours regulations. Joint Exercises must give notice several weeks beforehand. We should probably not expect that the Russians would have the courtesy to give notice of the invasion that far in advance.

 

The core of a fully staffed strike command comprised of approximately 70 people. Of these, many were civil servants and women.

 

- Without them it would never have worked. It used to be the same show on every exercise. After the first day, they would say that "this is the last time we will attend" and at the termination party they would wonder how long it would be until the next exercise.

 

Cool device

The Attack Group could choose among the best equipment that Sweden could offer - such as the anti-ship missile 04.

 

A Lansen with its arsenal. All weapons could obviously not be carried simultaneously.

The main choices were the missile 04, bombs or rockets.

 

- It was a cool device for its time. The seeker device was so secret that servicemen were not allowed to see it. The missile could be set for single target and group. We let FOA* simulate an attack against the invasion fleet with 30 missiles. When we chose single target all the missiles went for the same vessel. When we chose group target the missiles went through the whole invasion fleet without hitting anything. Now, this came as a shock to us. The error was because we assumed that the difference in distance between the columns of vessels was a maximum of 1500 meters. But of course, the Russian Admiral had said that the distance between the vessels should be a nautical mile, ie 1852 meters. The error was possible to correct. You had to screw and fiddle in each seeker device. At that time, it was mechanics and not software that was the order of the day.

* FOA = The Defence Research Institute

 

The calculations also included how large losses Sweden could accept.

 

- If it really was the great invasion and the country's hour of destiny, perhaps we would have had to expect to take more losses than otherwise, because it indicated that we would start attacking at long distances. That would make it more dangerous for us. Then we could risk getting aircraft against us. Here you would get into considerations about "fuel duels". There was a limit somewhere on the Baltic Sea, where one side had a fuel advantage over the other. That meant that whoever was short of fuel had to flee. But it also involved a risk.

 

In the Viggen era the military counted on carrying out four attacks against the invasion fleet.

 

- The fourth attack could possibly be done in conjunction with the Navy. But it was not easy to coordinate these attacks. Here the military commander was in Strängnäs and his task, as he saw it, was to achieve synergy. This meant that one side would shoot from the left and the other from the right. And preferably at the same time. However handling two forces, one travelling at 40 knots and the other at 400 knots, created problems. It was important to determine a forward point to be able to strike at a certain time. If the invasion fleet changed course both the forward point and the time changed. And so they tried to find a new point, and then the invasion fleet turned again. The whole time, he could move within our decision circle.

 

The flight's primary targets were the ships that would protect the shipping. If the convoy did not have enough protection it would become an easy prey for the navy. Somewhere therefore, there was a limit where the invasion attempt could be interrupted. However, attacking destroyers and corvettes was a difficult task. Göran Tode says it could go either way.

 

- Either we would sink enough ships or else we would run out of aircraft. In practice, however, we estimated that when the invasion fleet arrived near the coast, our fleet would not have to worry very much about the protecting vessels.

 

A high-risk profession, even during peace

Bomb drops was a matter of seconds before the air defences were able to home in on the aircraft. All this was practised and rehearsed in such a way that today's pilots, according to Göran Tode, have doubts that it is possible to fly in this manner.

 

- Illuminating flares drop was the most eerie thing I was involved in. In that case four planes flew towards the enemy and one plane broke out and dumped illuminating flares behind the ships. The other three would then attack. We got there in the darkness of the night and tried to see the ships silhouettes against the black water. At the same time, we had a number of flares that shone in our faces. And then we had to do the regular bombing attack.

 

At night flights four planes would fly so that there were only one wingspan of separation.

 

- We would sit and follow the other aircraft's position lights on the wing tips. It was the only thing you saw. All the while the planes were moving in the formation, but one could not deviate too much because then there was a big chance that the guy who flew outermost was lost. And then he would suddenly be alone. The two so-called "number twos" in each group of four had neither radar nor navigator. There was simply not enough money for it. When Lansen arrived in the late 1950s, the Air Force also no longer had any tradition of having navigators.

 

Military flights in the 1960s was a high-risk profession. Some years over 20 pilots and navigators were killed. Göran Tode was involved in several near misses, but survived.

 

- In relation to my total flight time my survival chance was like playing Russian roulette with two bullets in the magazine, he notes.

 

To conclude his reflection on the flight, Göran Tode recites the following memorable words of the great poet of Grönköping, Alfred Vestlund (A:lfr-d V:stl-nd):

 

I stand here one evening at the Bergska lake's shore

There the sea begins and there the land ends

Nature wisely separated these two elements

But above is flown as if nothing happened.

 

Jan-Ivar Askelin is editor of Framsyn.

 

Edited October 16, 2016 by Sporg

[SpeedStick]

Afaik the intended effect would be a pressure wave that would break the keel of a typical destroyer.

 

Seems pretty badass too me

[Farks]

Nice work. But "Första Flygeskadern" doesn't translate into "First Attack Squadron", it would translate into something like "First Air Group" or "First Attack Group".