Russia’s Aerospace Forces (Russian acronym: VKS, Vozdushno-Kosmicheskie Sily) will receive a long-range interceptor missile being developed by the indigenous defense industry, according to the service`s Deputy Commander, the Head of the Air Defense Forces, Lieutenant General Viktor Gumenny.
“The new long-range interceptor missile is being intensively developed [by the Russian defense industry]. It will allow the accomplishing of combat tasks set by the Commander-in-Chief and the Defense Minister before the Air Defense Forces,” Gumenny said in an interview to the Russian News Service broadcasting company.
He added that the completion of a new anti-ballistic missile’s modernization was scheduled for 2016.
Russia’s defense industry (namely, the Almaz-Antey Concern) is known to be developing the S-500 (preliminary called ‘Prometey’ or ‘Triumfator-M’, no NATO reporting name yet) long-range air defense system (ADS) at a quickened pace. The demonstrator (or a mockup) of the ADS is believed to be unveiled at the Army 2016 military-technical forum outside Moscow.
The technical specifications of the system are classified. However, according to the open sources, S-500 will have an operational range of about 500 km (375 mi). The system is supposed to be able to destroy up to 10 supersonic ballistic aerial targets flying at speed up to 7 km/h (4.7 mph) simultaneously. The open sources suppose that S-500 will feature an X-band radar with integrated active electronically scanned array (AESA).
The system’s aerial targets detection range is not disclosed. According to the Vedomosti newspaper, it will be “150-200 km (94-125 mi) over the S-400 Triumf (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) long-range ADS”.
The S-500 system is planned to be based on the BAZ-6909 Voschina-1 (Beeswax Foundation) 8×8 wheeled tractor developed by the Bryansk Automotive Plant (Russian acronym: BAZ, Bryanskiy Avtomobilniy Zavod). BAZ-6909 has a full weight of up to 43 t, a payload of 18-24 t (depending on configuration), a maximum road speed of 80 km/h (50 mph) and an operational range of 1,000 km (625 mi). The tractor is powered by single YaMZ-8492.10-033 turbodiesel engine (470 h.p.). The vehicle’s cabin can be up-armoured to increase the survivability of the crew on the battlefield.
At present, Russia`s Armed Forces are operating a huge number of long-range air defense systems. According to the Military Balance 2016 report issued by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the Aerospace Forces had received 168 S-400 launching units by early 2016. As of March 2016, the Air Force (AF) of the VKS deployed 48 S-400, 400 S-300PS/PM (SA-10B Grumble/SA-20 Gargoyle) and 20 S-300V (SA-12 Gladiator/Giant) launching units.
The AF operated several S-300PM2 launching units, but IISS did not specify their quantity. The service also received 80 9K317 Buk-M1 (SA-17 Grizzly) medium-range SAM systems and 12 96K6 Pantsir-S (SA-24 Greyhound) self-propelled anti-aircraft gun-missile (SPAAGM) systems.
The Aerospace Defense Command (ADC) of the VKS deployed 120 S-400 and 120 S-300PM (SA-20 Gargoyle) launching units, as well as 30 96K6 Pantsir-S SPAAGMs. Several Pantsir-S systems were upgraded with a bidirectional radar station.
