Russia scraps rare Il-76 aircraft designed to jam Patriot systems

As the media outlet reports, the exact time of the start of work on the Il-76PP is not known, but general information points to the mid-1980s. The Il-76PP was only produced in a single example in Russia and remained in the experimental development phase without moving to serial production.

It is known that the Il-76PP was converted from a serial Il-76MD transport aircraft, with work carried out at the Beriev Design Bureau in Taganrog. This factory specializes in radar surveillance aircraft, such as the A-50.

The Il-76PP was reportedly intended primarily to jam Western air defense systems, including Patriot systems.

The most notable feature of the Il-76PP was the Landysh electronic warfare (EW) system, also used on Su-24MP aircraft. Defence Express suggests that the Landysh could have been the reason why this project was not realized.

To solve this problem, the aircraft designers installed two additional generators based on the AI-24VT aircraft engine. Each of them was to power four alternators on board the IL-76PP. However, this was not enough to reliably power the electronic warfare equipment.

Another problem 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 non-functional development that was unable to fulfill its main task. Because of this, in 1993 the aircraft was put into storage at the aforementioned training airfield in Irkutsk and remained there until 2024, when space was needed for new construction.

Previously, we reported that Russia this year delivered 24 new combat aircraft to its military, but this production barely covers the losses.