Thomas Newdick reports in The Drive, Warzone:
The Ukrainian Air Force is using iPads, or similar tablets in the cockpits of its Soviet-era jets to enable rapid integration of modern Western air-to-ground weapons. "The Ukrainians have a lot of Russian and Soviet-era aircraft. Working with the Ukrainians, we’ve been able to take many Western weapons and get them to work on their aircraft controlled by an iPad (used) by the pilot. And they’re flying it in conflict a week after we get it to him.” Such a setup, with a pylon adapted for the weapons being employed and paired with a tablet, would not need any wiring. The pylon contains hardware that handles this with a short-range wireless device, like Bluetooth, connecting with the pad in the cockpit.The Ukrainian Air Force is using iPads, or similar tablets in the cockpits of its Soviet-era jets to enable rapid integration of modern Western air-to-ground weapons — something that TWZ predicted back in 2022. This has been confirmed by Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Dr. William LaPlante. While many questions remain about the tablet and how it exactly works, there’s now footage showing it fitted in cockpits during combat (or at least live-fire training) missions.LaPlante was speaking at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank's annual Global Security Forum yesterday, April 24, 2024. When asked to provide examples of successful programs that rapidly developed capabilities and got them into the hands of the military, one example he chose was the tablets in Ukrainian fighter cockpits:
“There’s also a series of … we call it ‘air-to-ground,’ it’s what we call it euphemistically … think about the aircraft that the Ukrainians have, and not even the F-16s, but they have a lot of the Russian and Soviet-era aircraft. Working with the Ukrainians, we’ve been able to take many Western weapons and get them to work on their aircraft where it’s basically controlled by an iPad by the pilot. And they’re flying it in conflict like a week after we get it to him.”
LaPlante didn’t provide further details, but it’s noteworthy that a video recently released by the Ukrainian Air Force shows a Su-27 Flanker fitted with exactly this type of system — possibly an iPad, but perhaps also another kind of commercially available tablet.
The video in question shows the Su-27 employing U.S.-supplied AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARMs), which have provided these fighters, as well as Ukrainian MiG-29 Fulcrums with a suppression and destruction of enemy air defense (SEAD/DEAD) capability.
In one portion of the video, screen-capped below, the tablet can be seen to display a navigational map, as well as other, undiscernible data.
The fact that the size of the tablet, attached horizontally, blocks out key instruments in the cockpit suggests that it displays a variety of flight-critical data, as well as being used for navigation.
It is even possible that such a setup, with a pylon adapted for the weapons being employed and paired with a tablet, would not need any data bus wiring at all. The pylon could contain a hardware module that handles this with some sort of a short-range wireless device, like a Bluetooth system, that connects with the pad in the cockpit wireless. While this may be far from a traditional military-grade solution, it would make integration seamless without having to wire the aircraft specifically for these new munitions.
So, while still much is unknown about exactly how these tablets interface with the aircraft and the Western weapons they now carry, it's clear that they play a major role in giving Ukraine's old Soviet-era fighters a bunch of new and very deadly tricks.
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