New air defense missile system “closes” Russian skies
Russian cities, industrial and social centers will be covered by a non-strategic missile defense (NMD) system. The equipment components can be moved from one region to another and quickly deployed in vulnerable areas. What is NMD, and against what targets?
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| Russian air defense missiles |
The strategic missile defense system has been deployed in Russia, and in the near future it will be replaced by a more advanced system. However, the main task of strategic air defense is to protect the industrial area of Moscow from a missile attack in the event of a full-scale nuclear war. The non-strategic air defense system (NMD) is designed to perform a lighter task. It can intercept ballistic and cruise missiles with a range of several hundred kilometers. First of all, it is the American ATACMS tactical missile, which has been in service since 1991. The firing range varies from 140 — 300 km in the first versions to 400-500 km later.
Such indicators have been compared with the capabilities of the Russian Iskander tactical missile.(US military analysts have suggested that the Pentagon deploy these missiles in Poland and target Russian troops in Kaliningrad. However, today's short-range ballistic missiles can be produced in China, Pakistan, Iran, India and the DPRK. Pyongyang has sold these devices to Egypt and Saudi Arabia. If such a weapon fell into the hands of terrorists or some other fanatical group, southern Russia could be within range.
It is still unclear when and where the NMD system will be deployed and what components it will consist of. In general, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has everything necessary for this.
"The Russian armed forces have a full range of means to destroy air targets such as: Tor-M2, Buk-M2 and Buk-M3, S-300V4, S-300PMU2, S-400"-Editor-in-Chief of the magazine "Arsenal of the Fatherland" Victor Murakhovsky said."But here we are talking about creating a cheaper system: highly specialized, compact, designed to intercept ballistic and cruise targets at relatively short distances."
The expert emphasized that the new NMD system does not necessarily need to be highly mobile, but can be transported by motor vehicle, and is convenient for assembly, relocation or start-up. This will simplify the design and reduce costs. Components such as a radar with a phased array antenna, an automatic control system have successfully performed combat missions.
The air defense missile system can become the basis of the NMD complex. It is the Vityaz S-350: on three specialized BAZ chassis, a launcher with 12 missiles, an omnidirectional radar and a command post are installed. The ammunition used includes both medium-range (like the S-400) and short-range anti-aircraft missiles. The S-350 system will be equipped before the end of the decade.
