New electronic intelligence station for next year
In the late autumn of last year, information appeared in the press about the imminent start of full-scale work on a new promising project. It was reported that in the coming years, the domestic armed forces will receive a new radio intelligence system with a wide range of capabilities. In addition, it was argued that the new system in its characteristics surpasses all existing intelligence systems in the army.Messages about the new complex appeared in Izvestia, where it was designated as MRIS (Multi-Point Intelligence Information System). Since almost all the information on this project has not yet been officially published, the publication had to turn to an unnamed source in the Ministry of Defense, who gave some details of the project. The MRIS system is a complex of equipment capable of receiving various radio signals and processing them. As a result, without radiating any waves, the electronic intelligence system can collect a variety of information.
Separately noted the possibility of so-called. passive location. Due to the reception of radio waves emitted or reflected by any object, MIRS can calculate its location. Thus, even a simple radio altimeter can produce an aircraft. The information received by the MRIS is suitable for use for target designation in air defense. According to the Izvestia source, a platform of several tens of square meters is required for the installation of the MRIS. It hosts all the antenna units, as well as the hardware complex. While there is no information about the variants of the system, but there is every reason to assume the possibility of creating a radio intelligence station on the car chassis.
According to the source, to date, MRIS “learned” to recognize several types of radio signal and classify their source. In addition, back in 2009, one of the prototypes of the system during tests showed its high potential. It is alleged that during the test use, the prototype of the MRIS installed at the test site in the Moscow region, was able to detect and track several aircraft flying over the Barents Sea. Comparison of the data of the electronic reconnaissance system and the radar stations showed an error of only a few meters. Thus, when operating at a longer range, the MRIS has at least not less efficiency than the existing radar.
The main part of the MRIS project can be recognized as computational algorithms, thanks to which the station's equipment can extract the signals it needs from all the noise in the radio range and interpret them in the right way. As a result, even significantly weakened signals from communication systems, radar stations or other elements of aircraft equipment are sufficient for confident detection and identification. In theory, an electronic reconnaissance station, which has passive location capabilities, is capable of detecting even inconspicuous aircraft.
It should be noted that such systems of electronic intelligence and passive locations are not something revolutionary new. For example, from the late eighties in the Soviet, and then the Russian army used the station of electronic intelligence "Kolchuga". Its capabilities make it possible to find airplanes by their radiation at distances up to 750-800 kilometers (depending on the specific type and number of conditions). Thus, the MRIS does not have any fundamental differences from its predecessors. However, a promising intelligence system has a characteristic feature: a long range. If the source of "Izvestia" told the truth, then we can draw approximate conclusions about the sensitivity of receiving equipment. Between the nearest points of the Moscow region and the Barents Sea, about 1800 kilometers. Thus, the new MRIS is capable of “seeing” air targets at a distance of more than two times the radius of the older “Kolchuga”.
Of particular interest is the term "multi-position", used in the title of MRIS. Among other things, it can mean the possibility of interfacing an intelligence station with third-party receivers. Foreign countries have already conducted successful experiments on connecting intelligence systems to various military and civilian antennas. For example, a radio intelligence station can be connected to a cellular tower, which, with certain additional system settings, will increase the amount of information received. In addition, the use of several receiving antennas spaced apart from each other makes it possible to determine the location of the detected object with greater accuracy. According to experts, the main obstacle to increasing the efficiency of passive location systems of such an architecture is to gain access to the corresponding antennas.
A good impetus for the further development of systems like MRIS can be their use for civilian purposes. Passive locators with detection accuracy comparable to conventional radars consume significantly less energy and because of this they may be of interest to aerodrome operators. At the same time, there is every reason to assume that such a development of events may be quite real: civil aircraft never observe radio silence, and this will greatly help passive locators to determine their location. However, this use of radio intelligence systems for peaceful purposes dates back to at least the next five to seven years. At present, passive locators have a number of characteristic problems that prevent the immediate commencement of operation of such equipment in air traffic control.
It is quite clear that for practical application of the MISD, work on it should first be completed. According to the Izvestia source, as of the end of autumn and the beginning of last winter, the Ministry of Defense was finalizing the coordination of technical and financial documentation on the MRIS project. Thus, the source summed up, the use of the new system in the troops could be started by the end of the current 2013 year. Since only a few months are left before this date, official information on the new multi-position reconnaissance and information system may appear in the very near future.
On the materials of the sites:
http://izvestia.ru/
http://lenta.ru/
http://vz.ru/
http://rus.ruvr.ru/
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