"Aerostat" or how to get intelligence information completely free
Photo: mil.ru
I do not know who and what will be able to think about reading this material, but clearly not everything is clear in it. The material was published by the well-known and respected blogger BMPD, he, apparently, translated the text.
Text (Text of the article) very strange. And it can be viewed from two sides. First, someone was fed disinformation (this is also discussed in the comments) and the process of digestion has begun, or vice versa, our potential people are feeding disinformation to our side, hoping to derive real benefit from this.
Personally, I take the second point of view and here's why. Russia itself is such a country with such a population that it is difficult to keep something secret in it. Here humor sounds in words, because they know how to keep what is needed, but they always swarmed around everything secret, who discussed and evaluated, starting from "sources close to ..." and similar "OBS stations".
Yes, we have so many “sofa experts” that one can easily form a couple of divisions of information resistance from them. And they just dislikes any information enemy will beat to death.
If you think about it, then just these "sofa", without too much trouble thinking about what you can talk about and what you shouldn't, can easily become sources of information useful to the enemy. After all, they primarily think about their popularity, and not about the principle of "do no harm", which should be understandable and respected for the writer.
So what is at stake. And we will talk about an article on the American site "The Space Review" by a certain Bart Hendrickx (Bart Hendrickx). Bart Hendrix is a fairly well-known specialist in space technology in our country, co-author of the book Energia-Buran: Soviet Space Shuttle, published by Springer-Praxis in 2007, and quite often his articles appear in the Russian media up to Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
What did Hendrix write about this time? In general, after his thoughtful articles about "Petrel" and "Peresvet" it would have been difficult to surprise with something, but Bart did.
The article "Aerostat: a Russian long-range anti-ballistic missile system with possible counterspace capabilities" ("Aerostat: Russian long-range missile defense system with probable anti-space capabilities") is devoted to the creation of a corresponding missile system in Russia.
In the article, Hendrix writes that the work is being carried out by the Almaz-Antey concern and the Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering. In principle, it is logical that these organizations are working on the creation of a missile system, they have such a specialization.
And then there are strange oddities. In quotes.
"The missile defense system with the strange name" Aerostat "has never been mentioned in the Russian press or openly discussed by Russian military analysts, but its existence and basic design features can be determined using intelligence from open sources."
What are you thinking? That's what I'm talking about. About "Petrel", "Poseidon", "Prometheus". The S-500 Prometheus is just being developed, but it has already been licked all over. The same is true for an unmanned underwater vehicle and the same atomic aircraft. In addition to photographs of dubious quality and computer clips, no one saw anything, but both Poseidon and Petrel were literally disassembled into cogs.
And then the "Aerostat", capable of shooting down satellites - and nothing.
"Aerostat" appears in a number of open official documents, the first of which is the annual report for 2013 of JSC "Concern East Kazakhstan region" Almaz-Antey "
Well, this is, frankly, a lie. It is difficult to say which annual report Hendrix had in mind, but the Russian-style reports do not indicate such things as the programs that are being worked on.
However, all the information that is actually in the public domain can be found here:
Reports part 1
Reports part 2
No, perhaps there is also some Almaz-Antey report for 2013, which at least mentions all the programs the concern worked on, but it’s for sure that it is classified as “secret” or chipboard.
In open access reports, the word "Aerostat" never appears. Therefore, either Hendrix lied, or he has some other reports that appear.
Further in the text.
"In a court document published last July, the task of the July 2013 contract is literally described as" the development of a long-range interception complex for the anti-missile defense of the Russian Federation for the period 2013-2018 "and the designation of the missile is given as 106T6."
In what "court document" ... Where it was published ... No instructions. It is unrealistic to find a court document, which, as follows from the text, is dedicated to the "objectives of the June 2013 contract". And this is clear and understandable, for such searches a little more information is required.
But this link gives a hint of some kind of event certainty.
And then we have a cherry. On the cake.
Aerostat is not the first long-range missile defense system developed under the leadership of Almaz-Antey. Another system, called "Nudol", has been in flight tests for several years now, and is probably considered primarily as an anti-satellite weapon».
It seems that for the sake of this phrase the whole preamble was started. Indeed, if Russia has been working on the Nudol complex for a long time, why not have an Aerostat?
Moving on.
Further, Hendrix mentions a number of enterprises that are working on the Aerostat project. These are military-industrial complex enterprises, for which, indeed, work on rocket technology is usually a phenomenon. And yes, on the websites of some companies you can find references to the topic "Aerostat".
For example, a military engineering corporation listed in the list of JSC "VIKor" mentions work on its website.
NIIR
This confirms the work carried out on the topic "Aerostat-C-MIT-Reliability". No more. Similar things can be found on other sites.
What conclusions can be drawn here? Only that there is a certain topic "Balloon", on which certain scientific developments are being carried out. And "the results have novelty, practical significance, completeness and validity of proposals." That is, that something interesting was dug up there based on the results of the research.
And here very peculiar thoughts arise. Does Mr. Hendrix want to get the heat with someone else's hands?
As a matter of fact, it is very nice to give a tip to the search and development of the "Aerostat" theme. Look, guys, what are you doing! You are not aware of what is happening in Russia, how can that be? The field is unplowed for work, all these "possible", "probably", "it is possible to assume", all these innuendos simply can induce some to search for information.
After all, the path has already been indicated. Shovel the sites of the mentioned enterprises. There is nothing there, the secretaries do not receive their allowance for nothing, but the military and paramilitary forums - there you can look out for something like that. You can't find anything in the reports either, but they are not given for that. This is a firelighter, nothing more.
The fact that there is nothing in the public domain according to "Aerostat" and cannot be - this is clear and understandable, like a white day. There is still no "Aerostat" as such. And here's why: because we haven't finished with "Nudol" yet.
By the way, "Nudol". The complex is mentioned in the text at the right time. It is on this weapon that the conclusions are drawn that the enterprises that developed the Nudol can easily work on the Aerostat. As they say, search and find. And if something about "Nudol" comes up on the way - nothing too. It will come in handy.
Overall, Mr. Hendrix's article is very provocative. She provokes actions, which she listed in her controversial and criticized (including by us) order of the FSB, which should prevent the collection of information on various topics, if this is of interest to foreigners.
Of course, Bart Hendrix does not directly order information searches on the topics "Nudol" and "Aerostat". But his interest in them can be seen in the text. And, as I understand it, he would not mind putting affirmative punctuation marks around his "possibly" and "probably."
The speculations of Mr. Hendrix can easily turn into a big headache tomorrow for those who decide to go his way and "dig up something in open sources." If I understood correctly (and I usually understand some things correctly), all the existing information is clearly not yet ready for publication in open sources. Therefore, you should not waste time looking for her. Obviously, this search will bring nothing but trouble.
Not that "be vigilant", but it is more expensive to succumb to such provocations.
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