Rockets look to the sky

In Russia, a unified air defense system is being created on the basis of the operational-strategic command (USC). The decision, apparently, will be taken in May. Recently, our freelance correspondent visited one of the usual, as they say, average air defense regiments, which in the future will become part of such a system. What does this regiment look like against the background of the army and navy reform, what problems does it live?

The 108 th anti-aircraft missile regiment, commanded by Colonel Oleg Chichkalenko, is long-standing story. In October 2012, he will be 70. The regiment was formed by order of the USSR People's Commissar of Defense in April 1941, defended Tula during the war, for which he received the honorary title of Tula. He operated C-75, C-200, now armed with C-300PT and C-300PS.

EXPERIMENT WAS SUCCESSFUL

Under Voronezh it is deployed from the 1949 year. For a long time (from 2002-th to the beginning of 2010-th) was cropped. Since December 1, due to the large-scale reform of the Armed Forces and the transition to a three-tier command and control system, 2009 has been staffed to a state of wartime and has become part of constant alert. And now, an hour after receiving the order, he is able to solve any task as intended.

Another result of the transformation is that 1 took over February 2010 for combat duty. In this connection, the regiment increased the number of conscripts and the number of officers - mostly junior officers. The regiment began to receive vehicles, equipment for the command post and household needs. As a result of the 2010 school year, he managed to win first place, better than others in September to shoot at the Telemba training ground.

The regiment entered the air defense system of the Central Industrial District (TsPR) of the Russian Federation and the city of Moscow. He should be the first to meet an airborne enemy when approaching Moscow at the turn of approximately 600 km. Its task also includes covering industrial facilities in Voronezh and military units located in the region. This year there was an experiment. This happened during the large-scale operational-strategic exercises "Vostok-2010". Then the missilemen were transferred to the Far East theater, where they were staffed with standard equipment, and assigned the task of conducting anti-aircraft combat. Goals turned out to be - not a gift. Especially one of them under the name “Armavir” that says nothing.

“The goal’s difficulty was that it was faster than everyone else,” said the regimental commander, Colonel Oleg Chichkalenko. - But they coped with the task. In reality, several targets were hit by the regiment. In addition to the "Armavir" had to work on no less difficult - "Swift" and "Pischal."

At the Telemba test site, targets were also launched that simulated a tactical ballistic missile "Lance", a precision weapon. But "three hundred" coped with the task, and in a strictly allotted time. Why is it important? As a rule, air defense troops in combat (first train) live no more than 15 – 20 minutes, since the enemy immediately fixes its location. As the missilemen themselves say, “everything that you manage to shoot down in the first few minutes is yours, and then they will start shooting you down, if you do not change positions.” In the same Yugoslavia, that division survived, which managed to shoot at least 1 – 3 times.

For obvious reasons, the leadership of the regiment is reluctant to talk about problems. But how without them? The former commander of the reserve reserve colonel Alexander Lavrenyuk said that from 2002 to 2010, the regiment did not carry combat duty, that is, it did not do what it was intended for.

And what is a military unit without a normal combat training, you can imagine. During this period, it is called, and obkarnali. The regiment was first part of the reduced composition, then - cropped. “Everything seemed to subside, people were not in the best mood,” says reserve colonel Alexander Lavrenyuk. - But nevertheless, all these years, the combat readiness was maintained here, all the equipment was deployed in positions. Approximately once every two years, live firing was carried out at the test site. This, probably, is the secret of such a confident revival of the regiment as a combat unit: the most important thing was preserved here - specialists and equipment ”.

RESOURCE IS NOT ENDLESS

Bad is another. The fact that, along with positive trends, is sometimes followed by others. Yes, people were taking care of here. But in recent years, quite a few highly qualified specialists have left the unit. Stock Colonel Lavrenyuk believes that the military leadership of the Ministry of Defense in 2009 – 2010 was too categorical to dismiss them.

“The trained officers are fired in 42, 44, 53 of the year - those who could have served a couple of years to prepare a young recruiting,” he says. - The plan was fulfilled, but now young people are sometimes taken in their places even from other branches of the military, without sufficient knowledge and experience. And in order to prepare a good officer of anti-aircraft missile forces after a military school, you need at least 4 – 5 years.

Although, according to the leadership of the regiment, 2009 – 2010 graduates are still better than 2008. That is, shifts for the better in the training of young officers have already begun. Solved and social issues. Thus, of the five young officers who arrived in 2010, all are provided with living space. And now people no longer write a report on dismissal, as it was five or six years ago.

Worse with young specialist soldiers. According to the commander, now it is impossible to find a young soldier-driver with the rights of categories C, D, E. But someone needs to be trusted with a military bus with people. In general, the problem of training professionals is one of the most important not only for the division, but also for the Armed Forces as a whole. Old specialists left, retired, and it was far from possible to prepare the shift everywhere. It can be said that at some stage the connection between generations was interrupted. Therefore, now we must not dismiss all under the common comb, but, on the contrary, take care of specialists, giving them the opportunity to serve for another two or three years so that they can pass on their experience to the youth. In the meantime, the level of professional training of young officers - graduates of higher educational institutions is in clear contradiction with the increased requirements for the officer corps of the “permanent readiness” regiments, especially in the part of special training.

Another equally important problem is that all military equipment is far from the first freshness. Even the one that is on duty, has a term of 20 years or more. To maintain it in combat status, repairs and upgrades are carried out annually, including under the Favorit-S program. This allows you to maintain the required level of serviceability of weapons.

“I would stress that our equipment is reliable,” Lieutenant Colonel Viktor Rakityansky, deputy regiment commander for armaments, shares with us. - Together with us, she passed, as they say, fire and water, more than once visited exercises and firing in various climatic conditions. But its resource has been extended several times. A major overhaul was recently carried out, the service life was renewed again, and at the moment IWT is fully operational. But it cannot go on forever ...

“If our regiment is included in the unified air defense-air defense system, we will naturally solve new tasks as responsibly as today,” continues the regimental commander, Colonel Oleg Chichkalenko. “But for this, the corresponding weapons and military equipment will be required ...”

According to the commander, the 300 complex is a good system, which has no equal in the world. However, the element base itself is already becoming obsolete, on which it was once made. She is more than 28 years old. Time is extended for missiles. At first they were 10 years, then 15, 20, and now 30 years. But if a rocket is stored in a pencil case in its microclimate and is less susceptible to external influences, then the rest of the equipment is affected by various temperatures and moisture.

Lieutenant Colonel Rakityansky had been in the Armed Forces for 31 for a year, had been in Vietnam, where he had operated and maintained the C-75, and he had dozens of military shooting on his account. But, according to him, the overhaul of equipment, which is being done in Anakhoy (Buryatia), Lyubertsy and in another place, leaves much to be desired. One day, for example, when one of the blocks failed, he found in it a bolt left there. And it happens that there is no soldering at all. And this, by the way, is also a problem not even in the production discipline, but in the training of personnel. Take the same cab mate with the superior CP (P53L6). There are no specialists left for it. Technical officers are not familiar with it. The same lieutenant colonel Rakityansky had to study it himself, but he, too, was retired.

Or an example. Once at the test site, when performing a combat task, it was necessary to control the actions of subordinates in an automated mode. At one of the moments in the interfacing cabin (between KP and ACS) there was a problem. But then there wasn’t a specialist in the whole test site to fix it. There were no representatives of the plant who went to another job or, alas, to another world.

And yet, progress is also outlined here. In 2014, the regiment will have to re-equip itself with a more modern C-300PM Favorit system. Therefore, we must now think about how to prepare officers for this technique.

... During the combat work we visited one of the booths F2K (point of command and control). The complex solved the problem of detecting, targeting and capturing the target. Thanks to combat coherence, rocket engineers succeeded in declaring combat readiness to transfer missiles on launchers to a combat position in a matter of minutes. This showed once again: the combat technology, and people are trained. But the creation of EKR, of course, will require all new knowledge and skills.

RESPONSE MEASURES

You do not need to be a big analyst to understand why it was in 2009 that the part was revived, and not eliminated, like some others. The United States was going to deploy its third position missile defense area in the Czech Republic and Poland. So if it were not for these movements along our borders, perhaps the regiment would have remained cropped. Now it is quite specifically raised the question of the creation of the aerospace defense. Although if you recall the history of the issue, then in 90-ies the Presidential Decree “On air defense in the Russian Federation” was issued, where it was envisaged to create an Aerospace Defense system on the basis of the Air Defense Forces.

Today, a real movement in this direction has begun to transform some of the air defense units into Aerospace defense brigades. But there are a lot of problems on this path. One of them - our radio engineering troops today do not provide control over most of the territory of the northern regions of the Far East and along the coast of the Arctic Ocean from the Yamal Peninsula to the Chukotka Peninsula. There, in this connection, it is not always possible to timely detect and stop violations of the state border of Russia in the airspace of neighboring countries. The Commander of the Operational Strategic Command of the East-Kazakhstan Oblast, Lieutenant-General Valery Ivanov, spoke about this with concern at the time when he was Commander of the Far Eastern Association of the Air Force and Air Defense.

To this we must add the problem of small heights. Since 2010, permission to fly at these altitudes for our small aviation not required to receive: they will be of a notification nature. So this is another “headache” for the command of East Kazakhstan region, especially in the Central Industrial Region, saturated with such aircraft.

“As is known, some parts of the anti-aircraft missile forces of the Operational-Strategic Command of the Air and Space Defense (USV VKO) were part of the frame,” reminds Colonel Chichkalenko. - But in connection with the reform of the Armed Forces and the implementation of the decree of the President of the Russian Federation on giving a new look to the modern Russian army, all units of the USC have become parts of constant combat readiness.

108 th FRA, repeat, an example of this. After the organizational and personnel measures carried out by the USC command, a part took its firm place in the defense ring of the Central Industrial District. Its personnel took up combat duty for the protection of the air borders of the Russian Federation in the western strategic direction.

The main combat mission of the regiment today is to cover the most important state and administrative authorities and facilities on the territory of the Voronezh Region from air attack weapons. Including aviation group of the Western Military District, stationed in the city and the Voronezh region. Finally, the regiment is an integral part of the air defense ring of the city of Moscow and the Central Industrial Region of the Russian Federation. On combat duty in the USC VKO daily numerous KPs, forces and means ZRV, RTV, in total - more than 1000 people. Under their control, the airspace in the area 1,3 million square meters. km They ensure the safety of 30% of the population of Russia, covering the 140 objects of government, industry and energy, transport communications, nuclear power plants, as well as the 23 region and 3 republic.

In service here are air defense systems of the C-300 model range, which have repeatedly shown high efficiency. As well as the newest air defense systems developed by the Almaz-Antey GSK C-400 Triumph. All this suggests that the air defense forces in general are moving to a qualitatively new level. And their numerical reduction should be compensated for by the qualitative component. As the chief of the anti-aircraft missile forces of the Air Force, Major General Sergei Popov, says, we are currently at the stage of creating highly mobile, well-equipped and modern anti-aircraft missile forces. The implementation of each of these characteristics requires the solution of a whole range of issues, first of all, retooling new types of HWS equipment, raising the level of training of military personnel, improving the regulatory base of combat training and combat use of the type of troops.

Presumably, for the same purpose, a decision was made in its time to transfer air defense missile units armed with C-300В systems into the air force's air defense system. They were able to shoot off pretty well during exercises on the Kaban target missiles - analogues of operational-tactical ballistic missiles. Which also indicates a considerable combat potential of the structure being created. In general, the effectiveness of combat firing ZRV was in 2010, more than 85%. This is a good start, from which, as from the stove, you can continue to dance.

Previously, our air defense system was created on a territorial-object basis. That is why, according to the leadership of the Air Force, there will be no need for any special practical measures to adapt the air component to the new structure of districts. Only separate demarcation lines between zones and air defense areas will be reviewed, as well as the subordination of separate air-defense and air defense missile units. The anti-aircraft missile forces will continue to perform combat missions for anti-aircraft missile defense of the most important state-designated military facilities as part of the EKR brigades.

These positive trends are gaining momentum. According to the Chief of the Air Force ZRV, Major General Sergei Popov, the purchase of air defense equipment has been identified as one of the priorities of the State Armaments Program. From 2011, it is planned to mass-flow new weapons and military equipment in the air force anti-aircraft missile forces, and by 2020, it is planned to bring their share in the operational composition of the air force missiles to 100%.

At the same time, VKO, apparently, will be given special attention. According to the leadership of the Air Force in the period before 2020, the troops will receive the newest missile defense system (PRO) C-500, which can hit ballistic targets in the stratosphere and near space. And in the coming 10 years, all anti-aircraft missile regiments of the Russian Air Force are planned to be re-equipped with C-400 anti-aircraft missile systems (ZRS) and Pantsir-S complexes.