Gaps and windows in the anti-missile umbrella of the country. Aerospace defense troops at the present stage
On operational duty in a missile attack warning center
By the end of the twentieth century, Russia had an A-135 strategic missile defense system and anti-aircraft missile systems of various modifications, which have certain capabilities for implementing anti-missile defense. The decision to create a unified aerospace defense system (WKO) in Russia adopted in the 1993 year and formalized by a presidential decree was unrealized. Moreover, in the 1997 year, the Air Defense Forces of the country, which were the prototype of the East Kazakhstani Army, were disbanded, which significantly complicated the creation of the country's aerospace defense system in the future. The transfer of rocket and space defense troops from the Strategic Missile Forces to the created Space Forces did not correct this situation either in the 2001 year.
Only after the US withdrawal from June 2002 from the ABM Treaty did the military-political leadership of Russia realize the need to return to the issue of creating an EKR system in the country. 5 April 2006, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the "Concept of Aerospace Defense of the Russian Federation until 2016 and Beyond." This document defined the purpose, directions and priorities for the creation of the country's AO system. However, as often happens in Russia, the period from the adoption of a conceptual decision to the implementation of specific steps for its implementation took a long time. By and large, until the spring of 2010, the issues of creating the country's aerospace defense system did not find a real embodiment in the plans of military construction.
TURNING BEDROOM
Only after 19 on April 2010 was approved by the President of Russia "The concept of construction and development of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020 of the year" began to fulfill the task of creating the aerospace defense system of the country of the Ministry of Defense. Within the framework of the formation of a new image of the Russian Armed Forces, the creation of the country's aerospace defense system was determined as one of the main military construction activities. However, it seems that the practical implementation of this decision was delayed. This can explain the interference of the president, who, speaking in the Kremlin at the end of November 2010, with the next Message to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, tasked the Ministry of Defense of combining the existing air defense and missile defense systems, rocket warning and space control under the auspices of the strategic command being created IN TO. But even after these presidential directives, the Ministry of Defense did not stop the discussion regarding the appearance of the future EKR system. The Main Command of the Air Force and the command of the Space Forces "each pulled a blanket" towards themselves. The Academy of Military Sciences and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation did not stay aside.
March 26 The General Report and Elective Meeting of the Academy of Military Sciences was held with the participation of the leaders of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and other central military authorities. At this meeting, along with summing up the work of the Academy for 2011 – 2005, topical issues of military construction at the present stage were considered. Speaking with the report, the President of the Academy, General of the Army Makhmut Gareyev, spoke of the need to create the country's aerospace defense in the following way: “With the modern nature of the armed struggle, the center of gravity and the main efforts are transferred to aerospace. The leading nations of the world make a major stake in winning air and space supremacy by conducting massive aerospace operations at the very beginning of the war, striking strategic and vital targets throughout the depths of the country. This requires solving the tasks of aerospace defense by the combined efforts of all branches of the Armed Forces and the centralization of control on the scale of the Armed Forces under the leadership of the Supreme Command and the General Staff of the Armed Forces, and not the re-establishment of a separate type of Armed Forces. ”
In turn, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, General of the Army Nikolai Makarov, in his speech to the participants of this meeting outlined the conceptual approaches of the Russian General Staff to the creation of the country's aerospace defense system. He said: “We have a concept for creating an aerospace defense up to 2020. It describes what, when and how to do it. In this most important issue for the country and the state, we have no right to make a mistake. Therefore, some positions of the concept are now being revised. The governing body of the aerospace defense is formed under the General Staff, and it will also be managed by the General Staff. It should be understood that the Space Forces is only one element in the aerospace defense system, which should be multi-layered in altitude and range, and integrate the forces and means already available. Now there are very few of them. We are counting on the output of products by the military-industrial complex, which will start literally from next year. ”
Thus, it can be stated that at that time the developments of the Academy of Military Sciences and the General Staff regarding the basic principles of building the aerospace defense of the country completely coincided. It seemed that the matter remains only in order to formalize these developments with an appropriate presidential decree, and after that it would be possible to proceed to the creation of a country's EKR system. However, the situation began to develop in a completely different scenario. Unexpectedly, for the Russian expert community and for reasons unknown to him, the General Staff suddenly abandoned those approaches to the formation of the governing body of the East Kazakhstan region, which in March 2011 were made public by Army General Makarov. And, as a result of this, at a meeting of the collegium of the Ministry of Defense held in April 2011, a decision was made to create an EKR Army on the basis of the Space Forces.
NEW KIND OF TROOPS
The decision adopted by the Ministry of Defense Collegium, in many respects fateful for the cause of military construction, was promptly implemented by the relevant presidential decree of Dmitry Medvedev, issued in May 2011. This was done in spite of the generally accepted logic of military construction in Russia - first, the issue of creating the country's aerospace defense system was to be considered at a meeting of the Security Council of the Russian Federation with the adoption of an appropriate decision, and only then this decision is formalized by presidential decree. After all, the creation of the EKR system is not a purely departmental affair of the Ministry of Defense, but a national task. And accordingly, the approach to solving this problem should be adequate to its significance and complexity. But, unfortunately, this did not happen.
8 November 2011 of the year Dmitry Medvedev, who was in the presidency, issued a decree appointing the senior staff of the EKR Army. As expected, Lieutenant-General Oleg Ostapenko was appointed commander of the Armed Forces armies with his release from the post of commander of the disbanded Space Forces.
The structure of the 1 formed in December 2011 of the new branch of the Armed Forces - the Airborne Forces armies itself includes the command of the Airborne Forces, as well as the space command and the command of the air defense and missile defense.
Inside the multifunctional radar "Don-2N" in the Sofrin near Moscow
According to available information, the EKR Troops included:
- 1-th State Testing Cosmodrome "Plesetsk" (ZATO Mirny, Arkhangelsk Region) with 45-th separate scientific test station (Kura test site in Kamchatka);
- The main test space center named after GS Titova (ZATO Krasnoznamensk, Moscow Region);
- The main center of the missile attack warning (Solnechnogorsk, Moscow region);
- Main Space Intelligence Center (Noginsk-9, Moscow Region);
- The 9 Division of the Missile Defense (Sofrino-1, Moscow Region);
- three air defense brigades (transferred from the disbanded Operational and Strategic Command of the East Kazakhstani Army, which was part of the Air Force);
- parts of security, security, special forces and rear;
- Military Space Academy named after A.F. Mozhaisky "(St. Petersburg) with branches;
- Military space cadet corps (St. Petersburg).
According to the modern views of the Russian military science, aerospace defense as a complex of nationwide and military measures, operations and combat operations of troops (forces and assets) is organized and carried out in order to warn about the enemy’s aerospace attack, repelling and defending objects of the country, groups of Armed forces and population from air and space attacks. In this case, the means of aerospace attack (SVKN) is commonly understood as the combination of aerodynamic, aeroballistic, ballistic and spacecraft operating from the ground (sea), from the airspace, from space and through space.
To accomplish the tasks arising from the above aerospace defense goals, the EKR Troops created now have a missile attack warning system (SPRN), an outer space monitoring system (SSS), an A-135 strategic missile defense system and anti-aircraft missile systems in service. air defense brigades.
What are these forces and means, and what tasks are they capable of solving?
ROCKET ATTACK PREVENTION SYSTEM
The Russian anti-ship missile defense system, as well as the analogous American SPTRIU system, consists of two interconnected echelons: space and ground. The main purpose of the space train is to detect the launch of ballistic missiles, and the ground train - on receiving information from the space train (or independently) provide continuous support for the launched ballistic missiles and warheads separated from them with the definition of their trajectory, but also the area of the fall with an accuracy of tens of kilometers.
The space train consists of an orbital grouping of specialized spacecraft, on the platform of which are mounted sensors capable of detecting the launch of ballistic missiles, and equipment that records the information coming from the sensors and relays it to ground control points via space communications channels. These spacecraft are placed in highly elliptical and geostationary orbits so that they can constantly monitor all of the missile-prone areas (POD) on the surface of the Earth, both on land and in the oceans. However, the space flight of the Russian missile warning system does not have such capabilities today. Its orbital grouping in its existing composition (three spacecraft, one of them in a highly elliptical orbit and two in a geostationary orbit) exercises only limited POP control with significant time intervals.
In order to increase the capabilities of the spacecraft SPRN and increase the reliability and efficiency of the combat control system of the strategic nuclear forces of Russia, it was decided to create a Unified Space Detection and Combat Control System (CEN). It will consist of new generation spacecraft and upgraded command posts. According to Russian specialists, after adopting the CEN, the Russian missile warning system will be able to detect not only launches of ICBMs and SLBMs, but also of any other ballistic missiles, no matter where they are launched from. The dates for the creation of CEN are not published. It is possible that this system will be able to perform its tasks no later than 2020 of the year, since by this time, as Army General Makarov has stated, the creation of a full-fledged VKO system in the country will be completed.
The ground-level echelon of the Russian SPRN currently consists of seven separate radio-technical units (ortu) with over-the-horizon radar stations such as Dnepr, Daryal, Volga and Voronezh. The detection range of ballistic targets by these radars ranges from 4 to 6 thousand km.
On the territory of the Russian Federation, four ortus are located: in Olenegorsk of the Murmansk region, in the Pechora of the Komi Republic, in the villages of Mishelevka of the Irkutsk region and Lehtusi of the Leningrad region. The first and third of them are equipped with a rather outdated Dnepr-M radar, the second with a more modern Daryal radar, and the fourth with a new Voronezh-M radar. Three more ortus are located in Kazakhstan (Gulshad settlement), Azerbaijan (Gabala settlement) and Belarus (Gantsevichi settlement). The first of these is equipped with the Dnepr-M radar, the second with the Daryal radar, and the third with the fairly modern Volga radar. These ortus are served by Russian military experts, but Russian property is only ort in Belarus, and rents two other Russian defense ministries from Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, paying for this monetary compensation in the amount established by intergovernmental agreements. It is known that the term of the agreement for the lease of ortum in Gabala ends in 2012, but the issue of the prolongation of this agreement has not been resolved. The Azerbaijani side exposes lease terms unacceptable for Russia. Therefore, most likely the Russian side at the end of 2012 of the year will refuse to rent a halt in Gabala.
Until recently, two orths with the Dnepr radar in Ukraine (in the cities of Mukachevo and Sevastopol) were included in the ground-level echelon of the Russian anti-aircraft missile system. These ortus were served by Ukrainian civilian personnel, and the Ministry of Defense of Russia, in accordance with an intergovernmental agreement, paid for the information they supplied. Due to the large depreciation of the equipment of the Ukrainian ortu (no funds were invested in their modernization) and, as a result, the decrease in the quality of the information they supplied Russia in February 2008 terminated the agreement with Ukraine. At the same time, a decision was made to erect a new Voronezh-DM radar near the town of Armavir in the Krasnodar Territory to close the resulting gap in the radar field of the Russian missile early warning system due to the exclusion of Ukrainian radar stations from it. Today, the construction of this radar is almost complete, it is in trial operation, the expected duration of its deployment on combat duty is the second half of 2012 of the year. By the way, according to its capabilities, this radar is able to compensate for the exclusion of the radar station in Gabala from the ground-level echelon of the Russian anti-ship missile system.
At present, this echelon provides POD control with a discontinuity of a continuous radar field in the northeast direction. Increasing its capabilities is provided by building new radars of the Voronezh type around the perimeter of the borders of the Russian Federation, with a refusal from the prospect of leasing foreign vehicles. Work is already underway on the construction of the Voronezh-M radar in the Irkutsk region.
At the end of November 2011 of the year in the Kaliningrad region was put into trial operation (put on pilot combat duty) radar "Voronezh-DM". It will take about another year to put this radar on alert. As for the radar being built in the Irkutsk region, then in May 2012, its first phase was put into trial operation. As expected, this radar will begin to function in full force in 2013, and then the existing “gap” in the radar field in the northeast direction will be eliminated.
SPACE CONTROL SYSTEM
The Russian SSS currently has two information and measurement instruments. One of them, equipped with the Krona radio-optical complex, is located in the village of Zelenchukskaya of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, and the other, equipped with the Okno optical-electronic complex, is located in Tajikistan, near the town of Nurek. Moreover, according to the agreement concluded between Russia and Tajikistan, the ort with the “Window” complex is the property of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
In addition, for the detection and tracking of space objects, the Motent spacecraft control complex in the Moscow region and the astronomical observatories of the Russian Academy of Sciences are used.
The facilities of the Russian SSSU control space objects in the following zones:
- for low- and high-orbital objects - by altitudes from 120 to 3500 km, by the inclinations of their orbits - from 30 to 150 degrees relative to the earth's axis;
- for objects located in geostationary orbits, - by altitudes from 35 to 40 thousand km, with standing points in longitude from 35 to 105 degrees east longitude.
It should be recognized that the technical capabilities of the current Russian SSS for the control of space objects are limited. It does not observe outer space in the altitude range of more than 3500 km and less than 35 thousand km. In order to eliminate this and other “gaps” in the Russian SSS, spokesman Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin, the spokesman for the press service and information department of the RF Ministry of Defense for the Aerospace Defense Forces, said, “work has begun on creating new optical, radio and radar specialized means of control of outer space. " It is possible that the deadlines for the completion of these and other works and the adoption of new space control devices will not go beyond the framework of 2020.
MOSCOW anti-missile defense
It is appropriate to note here that the Russian SPRN and SSS, like the similar American systems, are interconnected and form a single reconnaissance-information field of control of aerospace space. In addition, radar facilities of the A-135 missile defense system, in which the detection range of ballistic targets is 6 thousand km, are involved in the formation of this field. Thus, a synergistic effect is achieved, which provides a more efficient solution of the tasks assigned to each of the above systems separately.
The Russian A-135 PRO system is deployed around Moscow in an area bounded by a radius of 150 km. It includes the following structural elements:
- a command and measurement center of missile defense equipped with a command-computing complex based on high-speed computers;
- two sector radar "Danube-3U" and "Danube-3M" (the latter is presumably in the recovery stage), which provide detection of attacking ballistic targets and issue preliminary target designation to the command and measurement point PRO;
- multifunctional radar "Don-2H", which, using preliminary target designation, provides capture, tracking of ballistic targets and targeting antimissiles on them;
- Mine launching positions of the short-range intercept 53Т6 ("Gazelle") and long-range intercept 51Т6 ("Gorgon").
All these structural elements are integrated into a single whole by the data transmission and communication system.
The combat operation of the ABM A-135 system, after it is activated by combat crew, is carried out in a fully automated mode, without any intervention by the attendants. This is due to the exceptionally high transience of the processes occurring when a rocket attack is repelled.
Today, the capabilities of the A-135 missile defense system to repel a rocket attack are modest. The 51Т6 anti-missiles have been decommissioned, and the 53Т6 interceptor missile service life is outside the service life (these missiles are located in mine launchers without special combat units that are stockpiled). According to expert estimates, after the A-135 missile defense system is fully operational, it can destroy, at best, several dozen warheads attacking the defended area.
Antenna-feeder device radar "Voronezh-DM"
After the US’s withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, the military-political leadership of Russia made a decision on the profound modernization of all the structural elements of the A-135 ABM system, but this decision is being implemented very slowly: the time lag is five or more years behind the planned deadlines. At the same time, it should be noted that even after all the modernization work has been completed in full, the A-135 missile defense system will not acquire the appearance of a strategic missile defense system in the country, it will remain a zonal anti-missile system, albeit with enhanced combat capabilities.
Air defense of the central industrial district
The three air defense brigades that cover the Central Industrial Region transferred from the Air Force have a total of 12 anti-aircraft missile regiments (32 Division), armed with the overwhelming majority of the C-300 mobile anti-aircraft missile system (ZRS). Only two anti-aircraft missile regiments of the two-divisional personnel are armed with a mobile new-generation C-400.
The S-300PS, S-300PM, S-300PMU (Favorit) and S-400 (Triumph) air defense systems are designed to protect critical political, administrative, economic and military installations from attacks aviation, cruise and aeroballistic missiles such as "Tomahok", ALKM, SREM, ASALM and ballistic missiles of short, short and medium range. These air defense systems provide an autonomous solution to the problem of warning about air raids and the destruction of aerodynamic targets at ranges up to 200–250 km and altitudes from 10 m to 27 km, and ballistic targets - at ranges up to 40-60 km and altitudes from 2 to 27 km .
The outdated C-300PS, adopted for service in 1982 and whose supplies to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation were discontinued in 1994, must be replaced, and the C-300М, adopted by 1993, will be upgraded under the Favorit program to level C-300PMU.
The State Weapons Program of the Russian Federation for 2007 – 2015 years (GVV-2015) planned the purchase of 18 C-400 divisional missile systems. However, in 2007 – 2010, the Almaz-Antey Air Defense Concern supplied the Russian Air Force with only four divisional C-400 SAM sets, despite the fact that there are no shipments of this anti-aircraft missile system abroad. Obviously, the state procurement program for the C-2007 ground-to-ground missile system adopted in 400 was failed. Such a negative trend did not change even after the approval of the new State Armaments Program of the Russian Federation at 2011 – 2020 (GW-2020). According to the plan, in the 2011, the Russian Air Force was to receive two regimental sets of C-400 air defense systems, but this did not happen. As stated by the First Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Alexander Sukhorukov, “the delivery times for these weapons are shifted by 2012 year due to the late conclusion of contracts”.
The HPV-2020 in the part concerning the delivery of C-400 troops to the ground-to-ground missiles, the development of advanced anti-aircraft missile systems and their adoption into service, is much more stressful than the HPV-2015. So, up to 2015 of the year it is envisaged to put in the troops nine S-400 regimental sets of air defense systems, bringing the long-range anti-aircraft guided missile (Zour) 40H6 to standard. In 2013, the development work on the Vityaz project launched in 2007 was to be completed by conducting state tests (so as to adopt this anti-aircraft missile system for the armament not later than 2014). In 2015, the development of the new-generation C-2011 anti-aircraft missile system begun in 500 should be completed.
To carry out such a large-scale program, it will be necessary not only to establish proper order with the conclusion of contracts for the development and supply of armaments and to provide them with rhythmic and complete financing, but also to solve the extremely difficult task of modernizing and increasing the production capacities of defense industry enterprises. In particular, as Alexander Sukhorukov said, “two new plants are to be built for the production of C-400 systems, which will be in demand in the future, including the production of C-500 systems”. However, the confusion that arose in 2011 in Russia with the state defense order (GOZ) and condemned it to non-compliance with the main nomenclature of armaments, as well as the serious problems that have arisen with the 2012 GOZ of the year, raise great doubt in the implementation of the outlined plans for the LG-2020.
It will take tremendous efforts from the government of the Russian Federation to take extraordinary measures in order to correct the current negative situation with the development and production of high-tech and high-tech weapons. Otherwise, it may happen that the Armed Forces armies will be created, and the tasks assigned to them due to the lack of the necessary weapon systems cannot be fulfilled.
Along with the problem associated with equipping the Armed Forces of the East Kazakhstan region with modern weapons, it will be necessary to resolve another equally important and complex problem, due to the need to create a single combat information and control system for the East Kazakhstan region and integrate into the single reconnaissance and information field control of aerospace of all the various dissimilar means observation and targeting.
Currently, the information and control system, which is inherited by the EKR Troops from the abolished Space Forces, is not associated with a similar Air Force system, in the outline of which nine VKO brigades and fighter aviation are assigned to perform air defense tasks. There is no clarity with regard to military air defense / missile defense, subordinate to the command of military districts. Its information management system is now completely autonomous. To combine the capabilities of these systems to solve a single task - the defense of the country, the groups of the Armed Forces and the population from air and space attacks - it will be necessary to solve a very complex technical problem.
The same order of complexity will need to be overcome when solving the task of pairing reconnaissance and information assets of the space command and the air and missile defense command created by the EKR Troops, since now these means do not form a single field of control of aerospace. Such a situation rules out the possibility of using percussion means to intercept ballistic targets using external sources of target designation, as is the case in the US global missile defense system, which significantly reduces the combat capabilities of the EKO system created in Russia.
UP TO A NEW AIR OF ECO - A DISTANCE OF HUGE SIZE
In order for the country's aerospace defense system to acquire the look conceived in the Russian Ministry of Defense, it will be necessary to invest huge financial and human resources. But will these investments be justified?
As rightly noted by Alexei Arbatov, head of the Center for International Security at the Institute for World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, “massive non-nuclear air-missile strikes against Russia are an extremely unlikely scenario. In his favor, besides the mechanical transferring to Russia of the experience of the recent local wars in the Balkans, in Iraq and in Afghanistan, there are no arguments. And no VKO will protect Russia from American nuclear strikes (just as no missile defense will protect America from Russian nuclear missiles). weapons). But then Russia will have neither money nor technical capabilities to repel real threats and challenges in the foreseeable decades. ”
Common sense dictates that priorities should be identified in the field of aerospace defense, on which the main efforts of the state should be focused. Russia possesses and will possess quite creditworthy nuclear deterrence, which serves as an “insurance policy” against direct military threats on a large scale. Hence, the task of the first stage is to provide anti-aircraft and antimissile cover for the Russian strategic nuclear forces.
The task of the second stage is to improve and build up air defense and antimissile defense groups of the Armed Forces, which are designed to act on possible theater of operations. That is, it is necessary to develop military air defense / missile defense, since Russia's participation in local military conflicts, such as 2008’s “five-day war in the Caucasus” of the year, cannot be ruled out.
And third, with the availability of the remaining resources, efforts should be directed to the anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense of other major state facilities, such as administrative-political centers, large industrial enterprises and vital infrastructure.
To strive for the creation of a continuous anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense of the entire territory of Russia is irrational, and it is unlikely that such an aerospace defense can ever be created. The proposed ranking in solving problems at reasonable costs of resources in Russia in the foreseeable future will create an aerospace defense system that, together with the potential of nuclear deterrence, will be able to fulfill its main purpose - to prevent large-scale aggression against the Russian Federation and its allies and to provide reliable cover for the armed forces on TVD
- Victor I. Esin - retired colonel-general, candidate of military sciences, professor of the Academy of Military Sciences of the Russian Federation.
- http://nvo.ng.ru/
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