August 18, 2004 :: Interfax :: News
Colonel General Yuriy Solovyev, commander of the Moscow’s air defense, told a news conference on August 18 of plans to upgrade and reorganize the Moscow air and missile defense systems, notably remarking that Russia’s most advanced system, the S-400, would be deployed in 2005.
Excerpts of the news conference were broadcast on Moscow’s Channel One TV, subsequently reported by the BBC Monitoring Service:
Basically, the complex is ready and is being tested by a state commission. In the nearest future, I think next year, we’ll get one of these systems. We have tweaked the S300PM complexes through the Favorit programme, and now they are ready for use along ballistic trajectories. In other words, the work on ABM defence programme is going ahead and these systems can start working.
A subsequent report by Interfax included other remarks by Solovyev:
“In principle, the S-400 system is ready. It is taking state tests and one such unit will enter our inventory next year,” Solovyev told a news conference at the Interfax main office [today]. The Almaz-Antey air defence consortium is developing a missile that would hit targets in near space, he noted. The skies over Moscow are protected by S-300PMU air defence missile systems, Solovyev said.
The systems have been upgraded and their combat specifications have been increased considerably. “We have developed our S-300PMU systems so that they can fire missiles on the ballistic trajectory. We launched missiles at an analogue of a ballistic target at the Ashuluk proving range last year and this year,” he noted.
Russia’s Pravda news service goes on to quote Solovyev as speaking to the S-300PMU and S-400 improvements, testing against ballistic missile targets, and plans for further deployment:
Test fires have been performed on the Alushuk range ground on such trajectories. The Russian missile proved to be less detectable for radars as opposed to other analogues. “Imagine a missile two meters long, 220 mm in diameter. The missile flies at the speed of 800 meters per second. The effective surface to repulse the missile is 0.01 square meters. The missile flies 60 km up and starts attacking the target from this height,” Yury Solovyov explained.
“Scientific institutes and the Almaz-Antey concern are currently developing the missile capable of operating in near space,” the colonel said. Solovyov reminded the special-purpose troops command pursues the objective to set up the leading part of the air and space defense.
According to Solovyov, the unit defending Moscow has performed test fires this year. “All targets have been destroyed, including ballistic targets and cruise missiles,” Solovyov said. The colonel added targets had been hit at distances between 500 meters and 56 kilometers.
Solovyev also spoke of renaming the “Special Command” as the “the Moscow air-space defense district,” and denied that there would be cuts in the defense forces: “On the contrary, we are proposing that the forces and means of the Special Command, including fighter aviation and the surface-to-air missile forces, be strengthened, noted Interfax. The Defence Ministry leadership understands that this is necessary.” He said that the dual purpose air and missile defenses would likely be improved both around Moscow and parts of European Russia, which he described as “commensurate with the actions of the possible enemy.”
It was Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov, however, who indicated that Russia’s plans to upgrade its Strategic Missile Troops and Space Troops, and the “Special Command” air and missile defense around Moscow, were in response to U.S. missile defense efforts, including the upgrade of the Greenland Thule radar. The Russian Kommersant news agency gives an interesting account of Russia’s “Special Command,” and of the capabilities of the S-300PMU and S-400 air and missile defense systems:
The Special Command currently comprises the 16th Air Army headquartered in Moscow Region’s Kubinka, equipped with MiG-25 and MiG-31 interceptors, MiG-29 and Su-27 fighters, Su-24 frontline bombers and Su-25 ground-attack aircraft, as well as two air defence corps (the 1st Corps in Balashikha and the 5th Corps in Rzhev) equipped with S-300PM, S-300PMU1, and S-300PMU1 Favorit surface-to-air missile systems [SAM].
The first sample of the new S-400 Triumf missile system capable of fulfilling tasks of both air defence and nonstrategic missile defence will be adopted as early as 2005. We would point out that one Triumf can replace three S-300PMU1 SAM.
As Col-Gen Yuriy Solovyev, special troops commander, stated yesterday, the Almaz-Antey Air Defence Concern is currently developing a missile (it can be used both with S-300PMU and with S-400), which will be able to intercept and destroy targets “in near space”. In addition to this, Russia is developing the Samoderzhets SAM that will be able within less than a minute to down aircraft hijacked by terrorists.
» More stories on: Russia, Russian Missile Defenses
» Missile system details for: S-300P (SA-10 Grumble), S-400 (SA-20 Triumf)
