Russian Space Eye
On June 12, servicemen of the Space Forces serving at the Volga radar station located in the Republic of Belarus celebrated the 25th anniversary of their unit. This radar station is one of the key facilities of the Main Missile Warning Center. rocket attack (GC PRN) of the Space Forces.
The decision to build the Volga radar station was taken on 20 August 1984. At that time it was supposed to be used primarily for detecting Pershing-2 missiles, which threatened the Soviet Union from the western direction. That is why the radar stationed in 50 kilometers from the city of Baranavichy in Belarus.
Here, for the first time, they used the method of accelerated construction of a multi-storey technological building from large volume-constructive modules manufactured at Moscow factories. The modules were designed so that they had all the necessary embedded elements for installing the equipment, providing it with power supply and cooling. The installation of the building of these "cubes" made it possible to reduce the construction time by about two times.
The Volga radar station received the continuation and development of the idea of building a station for the long-range detection of ballistic missiles and spacecraft — radars with continuous radiation. Hybrid integrated circuits, microcircuits and computer technology have found widespread use. Active phased arrays have replaced the frequency-dependent antennas. Transistor modules of high power were used in the transmitting complex, digital processing of the received signals was used in the receiving complex.
The results of work on the radar station allowed in 1987 to expand the production of equipment in full. The creation of the station was supposed to be completed in five years. However, after the signing of the Soviet-American treaty on the elimination of medium-range and shorter-range missiles, work was halted. There was an opinion that in connection with the disappearance of the threat of strikes by the RSD, the need for the Volga disappeared.
Nevertheless, some time later, the construction of the radar station was still decided to continue, simultaneously carrying out its modernization. Since the 1972 ABM Treaty prohibited the construction of multifunctional radar stations, the interceptor missile guidance was removed from the tasks assigned to the Volga.
The collapse of the Soviet Union for a missile attack warning system turned into a cessation of funding for facilities under construction. From the beginning of the 90-s, the work in Baranavichy was practically frozen. However, when it became clear that Russia, after the decommissioning of the radar station in Skrunda (Latvia), was deprived of the technical ability to control the north-western missile-prone direction, a decision was made to continue work in Belarus.
Following the signing of an agreement between Russia and Belarus in 1995, industrial cooperation continued to improve the station (Agreement on the order to complete the construction, use and maintenance of the Baranavichy Hub of the missile attack warning system located on the territory of the Republic of Belarus on January 6 of 1995). This document was ratified by the Russian Federation 27 May 1996.
In 2001, after the creation of the Space Forces of the Russian Federation, work on the commissioning of the Volga was actively resumed, and state radar tests began. In December 2001, the first stage of the station was put on pilot duty. Already at that time, this made it possible to ensure the detection of ballistic missiles launched from the waters of the Eastern and Western Atlantic.
20 December 2002 of the Year “Volga” was put on pilot duty, and on October 1 2003 was on duty on duty.
Now, the radar station performs not only its main task - the detection of ballistic missiles, it also controls near-earth space, fixing more than 1000 objects flying through space every day, which are identified by measurement results.
On the whole, Volga is a guarantor of strategic stability in the region and one of the most important elements of the Russian missile attack warning system. Moreover, it should be noted that the development of domestic EGSS is gaining momentum. In December last year, in the village of Lekhtusi of the Leningrad Region, the leading model of the radar station of high factory readiness (VZG radar) "Voronezh-M" was put on duty. She is fully ready for the interception of combat duty, which will take place in the near future. In February last year, the second radar VZG "Voronezh-DM" took over experienced combat duty in the Krasnodar Territory. In the 2010 year it is planned to be put on combat duty.
But for the first time, technical solutions, which were later developed and used to create the latest, so-called modular radars of high factory readiness, were realized during the creation of the Volga radar station. It should be noted that the scientific and technical potential laid down in it allows to increase the operational and technical characteristics, expand its capabilities, and conduct rationalization work.
The Volga radar system of the missile attack warning system is a sector-type land stationary radar and is designed for continuous monitoring of outer space in the western direction in order to detect enemy ballistic missiles (BR) on trajectories and artificial earth satellites in a given sector. And also for the issuance of information about them in automatic mode at the notifiable control points.
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