What attracts kings
The Moscow Aviation and Space Salon, held at the Zhukovsky airfield near Moscow at the end of August, traditionally becomes a platform for both Russian and international companies, some of which will host their expositions, while others will send delegations consisting not only of managers, but also of engineers -specialists. Among the most awaited by the military and experts are the novelties of the High-Precision Complexes holding.
In addition to the industrialists at MAKS, there are representatives of military departments from dozens of countries. Undoubtedly, all shown aircraft, as well as various types of weapons and military equipment will be closely studied.
On the first working day of the air show, the King of Saudi Arabia Salman and King of Jordan Abdal II plan to visit him. So far, there is no reliable information that specifically from the Zhukovsky represented Russian manufacturers are interested in monarchs from the Middle East, and this is just one of the intrigues that cause increased attention of the expert community and the press.
One of the most impressive exhibits at the current MAKS belongs to the holding company “High-precision complexes”, which is part of the state corporation “Rostec”. It is noteworthy that the company is known primarily as a manufacturer of air defense systems, including the Pantsir anti-aircraft missile-gun and man-portable Verba anti-aircraft missile systems.
The product line of “High-precision complexes”, intended for arming the ground forces, is diverse. This, in particular, has already become a world bestseller ATGM "Cornet-E", capable of striking not only the enemy armored vehicles, but also field fortifications, buildings, unmanned aerial vehicles.
The expositions of the holding and its affiliated enterprises, including the legendary design bureaus from Tula and Kolomna - KBP and KBM, at one time headed by great gunsmiths Arkady Shipunov and Sergey the Invincible, always pay close attention to themselves not only specialists and military, but also ordinary visitors.
The phenomenon of "shell"
Despite the fact that the Pantsir anti-aircraft missile and cannon complex has long been presented to the general public and has been presented at various international arms exhibitions more than once, interest from not only specialists, but also potential customers, does not subside.
This is largely due to the fact that in the Tula Instrument Engineering Design Bureau they constantly improve their offspring, at the cradle of which Arkady Shipunov still stood. For example, just started mass deliveries of the latest ZRPK to the Armed Forces of Russia, as KBP announced the development of a new promising complex.
It will be not just a product with improved characteristics, but in fact a completely new complex with unique tactical and technical data. In particular, the promising ZRPK will be used in conjunction with the C-500 anti-aircraft missile systems.
And for the already released "Pantsirey" last year were tested the latest missiles, developing speeds close to hypersonic. Mastered the "shell" and in the Arctic, in particular on the island Boiler.
Despite the frost and snow, the Pantsir, in a spotted gray-white-black coloring, so uncharacteristic of it, which replaced the already plain monochromatic dark green protective color in the Polar Regions, quietly rides in the front box. Moreover, the video clearly shows that not only the combat, but all the other machines that make up the complex, as they say, are workers.
Appeared "shell" and in the Crimea. The recently published photographs from the Guards airfield clearly show the ZRPK located in special shelters and covering the positions of the C-300 anti-aircraft missile systems located there. A little more than a year ago, the photos of the Pantyreys, which ensure the safety of the Olympic Winter Games, were bypassed the whole world, not only in Sochi, near the sea, but also in the mountain cluster. So this Tula Design Bureau of Instrument Engineering, developed and manufactured by the High-Precision Complexes holding company, is an anti-aircraft missile and gun complex located on the front lines of defense of Russia - from the arctic-cold Kotelny Island to the sultry Crimea.
In the foreseeable future, the "Shell" will appear on the ships of the Russian Navy fleet. According to Aleksandr Denisov, general director of the High Precision Complexes holding company, work on the so-called Shell-M (naval), which should replace the widely known Kashtan anti-aircraft missile and artillery complex (it is he who is armed with most Russian warships now) should begin according to the contract concluded with the military department next year.
It is noteworthy that the latest shipboard anti-aircraft complexes will be equipped not only with ships undergoing modernization, but also with the promising destroyer “Leader”, the work on which is now actively carried out. According to the MIC, the composition of its armament will consist of two Pantsir-M at once.
Do not forget that the Tula anti-aircraft missile and gun systems are in demand on the international market and are already actively supplied to more than ten countries.
So what is the phenomenon of Tula anti-aircraft missile and cannon complexes?
First of all, it is versatility, which makes it possible to cope even with low-altitude targets: helicopters, and most importantly, cruise missiles. “Pantsiri” are being torn down with such complex targets as unmanned aerial vehicles, moreover, at present, it is cruise missiles and UAVs that have become the main goals for our ZRPK.
It should be noted that with the entire mass of equipment and weapons installed on it, the “Shell” is a fairly maneuverable complex, characterized by good cross-country ability and a power reserve. It is convenient to transport by military transport aircraft aviation. So, in 2013, during the exercises in the Far East, the “Pantsiri” from one of the aerospace defense brigades were transferred to Kamchatka, after which, having made a multi-kilometer march over rough terrain, they immediately hit targets simulating a cruise missile strike.
The designers of the Tula KBP were able to create an anti-aircraft missile-gun complex capable of striking a wide range of targets, including the most complex, and at the same time very mobile, maneuverable and easily transported by aviation. It is unique not only in its characteristics, but, which is of fundamental importance, and in terms of the “cost-effectiveness” criterion.
There is nothing surprising in the fact that now Tula ZRPK “Pantsir” has become one of the world's bestsellers, and everyone who already has this complex in the arsenal and highly appreciates its merits, are looking for an increase in the contract and are looking forward to a new continuation.
Cornet-E / EM beats for sure
In the product line of the holding company “High-precision complexes” there is one more unique product that is not inferior in the world armament market in popularity to the “Shell” - the Kornet anti-tank missile system, also the brainchild of Arkady Shipunov.
May 9 this year at a parade in Moscow dedicated to Victory in the Great Patriotic War, in addition to the latest Tagil tanks The Armata, the T-15 heavy combat vehicles, the BMP and the Kurganets armored personnel carriers, the Boomerang armored personnel carriers, which also contain weapons modules developed at the KBP, the general public was able to see the Kornet-EM self-propelled anti-tank systems mounted on the chassis armored vehicles "Tiger".
These unique anti-tank systems are capable of dealing with both enemy armored vehicles and field fortifications, combat helicopters and UAVs. Currently, the Instrument Design Bureau and the High-Precision Complexes holding offer Kornets as weapons systems that enhance the potential of the Pantsir air defense missile system in the fight against drones.
Now various modifications of the Kornet ATGM are not only in service with the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, but are also supplied to many countries. Moreover, the Tula anti-tank missile systems have already managed to war more than once. In particular, during the second Lebanese war, the Kornet destroyed the Israeli Merkava tanks, which are considered among the most invulnerable in the world.
For a long time, experts, including domestic ones, argued that the Tula ATGMs would not cope with the American Abrams tanks. But as they say, the war puts everything in its place. A video appeared on the Internet where Islamic State militants are firing trophy Cornet on the Abrams M1A1 tanks transferred to the Iraqi government. The result is not in favor of the United States. "Cornets" easily cope with his armor and destroy the combat vehicle. It’s not for nothing that American tank crews write in their memoirs about the invasion of Iraq in 2003, that they perceived the Cornets as one of the biggest threats.
In contrast to Western competitors, in particular from the company “Martin Marietta”, which developed the Javelin ATGM system, the Tula engineers went about their own way in designing the “Cornet-E” complex - they decided not to use a sophisticated homing head on the missile itself, the laser. On the launcher mounted surveillance devices and automatic target tracking, allowing with high accuracy to destroy the enemy. It is enough for the ATGM operator to detect the target and take it to escort - throw a “frame of sight” and then launch the rocket. Further, the control system of the complex itself will keep the enemy on the front sight, illuminating it with a laser, until the rocket hits the target. An all-weather telethermal sight allows effective round-the-clock shooting in difficult weather conditions, so that the enemy cannot be saved by a smoke screen or other countermeasures.
Currently, to protect against fire, hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers and anti-tank systems everywhere are being introduced so-called active protection complexes such as the Russian Arena or the Israeli Trophy - Windbreakers, which are capable of shooting down missiles flying up to the tank.
But Tula engineers are not standing still. Today, for the guaranteed destruction of a tank equipped with an active defense system, Kornet-EM can fire in tandem, when two missiles are launched at a split-second interval. When approaching the KAZ armored vehicle knocks down the first, and there is no second protection, the defeat of the tank is guaranteed.
It should be noted that the portable-portable version of the Kornet-E ATGM system is one of the easiest and most mobile complexes. Remote launcher with a stock of missiles can transfer the calculation of only two people. If necessary, and also at the request of the customer, the ATGM can be mounted both on a vehicle and on an armored troop-carrier, an infantry combat vehicle, any other armored vehicle. In particular, the Kornet-E ATGM missiles are part of such weapon modules as Berehok and Bereg, manufactured by the Tula Instrument Engineering Design Bureau and actively being exported.
It must be admitted that the modern version of the Kornet-EM anti-tank system has ceased to be a purely anti-tank complex, and has turned into a highly accurate defensive-attack weapon on the battlefield able to cope with a wide range of targets, including helicopters and UAVs.
Thanks to the technical solutions implemented in the Tula ATGM, buyers receive a product with a unique combination of “price-quality” with wide capabilities, which far from all foreign classmates can boast.
Sharper "Needles"
The Verba, a portable anti-aircraft missile system, despite the fact that it was adopted by the Russian Defense Ministry relatively recently, has repeatedly appeared on the pages of not only industry, but also social and political publications, and not only domestic, but primarily foreign .
Numerous experts who tried to determine the tactical and technical characteristics of MANPADS, claimed that Verba, developed by Kolomenskiy engineering design bureau, which is part of the High-Precision Complexes holding company, far exceeds its foreign competitors, such as the American Stinger and the French "Mistral".
Only a few countries independently develop and mass-produce man-portable air defense systems. These are the USA, France, China, Israel and Russia. But nevertheless, the title of flagships of the world market of MANPADS, in the opinion of almost all experts, belongs to American and Russian manufacturers, whose products are most in demand in the market.
In our country for many decades, man-portable air defense systems have been developed and manufactured by the Engineering Design Bureau. On account of the Kolomna engineers were delivered to dozens of countries of the world, the Strela and Strela-2 MANPADS, the more modern Igla, and now the KBM presented the newest Verba.
The presentation of a new portable anti-aircraft missile system, which since last year has already been supplied to units and subunits of the Russian army (in particular, Verba has already been received in several divisions of the Airborne Forces), was held at the exhibition in Moscow near Kubinka last June. Forum "Army-2015".
At the event, organized at the stand of the High-Precision Complexes holding company, Valery Kashin, Director General of the Engineering Design Bureau, said that the homing head of the latest rocket of this complex works in three spectra at once (ultraviolet, near and medium infrared), that is, according to the classification adopted by foreign experts is multispectral. Aircraft of the enemy will not be able to defend themselves not only by the so-called heat traps - pyrotechnic charges with a high burning temperature, but also by complex counteraction systems that place a homing system using a laser.
But the most important thing is that with a multispectral homing head, a rocket of the latest Russian MANPADS easily captures an unmanned aerial vehicle, which has a very small amount of heat generated, which makes such targets unavailable to other MANPADS.
It is noteworthy that Verba is immediately supplied with a battery, which includes not only the launchers themselves, but also radar stations and automated control complexes, thanks to which the commander can not only distribute targets between MANPADS calculations, but also give them target designation long before how they themselves will see the aircraft of the enemy. The package also includes special training complexes, which allow, without spending expensive rockets and the resource of launchers, to train personnel efficiently.
Even at the present time of sanctions, the High-Precision Complexes holding and its member enterprises continue to produce competitive products, often surpassing world analogues. And the current Moscow aerospace show is another proof of that.
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