US intelligence report: S-500 is too scary
The CIA report indicates that the S-500 will cause the US Air Force around the world to be controlled by Russian systems.
Just days after President Putin announced that Russia's next-generation Almaz Antey S-500 air defense system had entered mass production, US intelligence reports have gradually revealed information about the results of testing the new Russian military weapons system.
The S-500 is a surface-to-air system with an extremely long combat range of up to 600 km. For comparison, the S-400 is limited to a range of 400 km, while the US THAAD system, which is said to be equivalent to the S-500, has a combat range of less than 200 km.
The system is designed to destroy enemy ballistic missiles, including hypersonic missiles, modern combat aircraft, including airborne early warning and control systems (AWACS) and airborne command centers.
|
| America's THAAD is said to have no chance when compared with Russia's S-500. |
In addition, a special variant specializing in the anti-aircraft role is expected to be developed in the future.
According to a US intelligence report, cited by the country's media without specifying the source, the S-500 system has successfully tested detecting an aerial target at a distance of 299 miles (or 481km), setting a new world record compared to previous missile systems.
However, this range is still relatively modest when considering the specifications planned for the S-500's previous design.
In the event that Russia deploys the S-500 to its Kaliningrad exclave, it could intercept hostile targets across Poland and much of Germany, including Berlin.
If deployed to the Far East, the S-500 could seriously impact US military operations from bases in Japan and South Korea.
The S-500, along with the R-37 long-range air-to-air missiles equipped on MiG-31 fighters used specifically for AWACS hunting missions, will be the key factor in forcing the US Air Force to "early retire" its support aircraft.
The Joint STARS Surveillance Radar System (Joint STARS) E-8 aircraft is an example.
|
| Long-range strategic bombers like the B1-B Lancer would be useless against the S-500. |
According to Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, the E-8 is virtually useless in a major war with advanced military power, Wilson told a Senate subcommittee in early May that, “Russian and Chinese air-to-air missiles have longer ranges, and our aircraft would be shot down on the first day of conflict.”
Meanwhile, the threat will be raised many times over for the US military's AWACS and aerial refueling aircraft. Both play an important role in air combat operations, without which the survivability of fighter aircraft will be greatly reduced.
US long-range strategic bombers such as the B-2 Spirit and B-52 Stratofortress are also extremely vulnerable, and their effectiveness will be significantly reduced as modern escort fighters are unlikely to be able to counter missile systems such as the S-500.
Thus, according to the CIA, if the S-500 is deployed, US Air Force operations worldwide will be seriously affected by Russia's "too scary" air defense system.