| Russia wants to defend its skies without Ukraine's help The time is not far off when Ukraine will be knocked out, probably, the last lever of at least some real influence on Russia. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Sergei Ivanov recently said that the Russian military department will be able to abandon the Dnepr radar stations of the missile attack warning system (SPRN), installed back in the USSR in Sevastopol and Mukachevo (Transcarpathia). The reason for such a decisive statement by Sergei Ivanov was his visit to a new station in the village of Lekhtusi in the Leningrad region.
This is the head radar of a new generation. It was called a high production readiness station (VZG). This name is explained by the fact that individual units of equipment are completed, assembled into containers, modules and macro-modules at defense industry enterprises, and at the deployment site it is enough to simply assemble them into a single whole. Another significant advantage of the new radar is that its tactical and technical characteristics can be quickly increased by changing the corresponding modules. According to the developers, a “minimum prepared site” is required to deploy the station. The new radars can be used in both missile defense and air defense systems.
The deployment of a new radar specifically in the Leningrad region is explained by the fact that this direction is not sufficiently covered - in the sense that there is not a sufficient radar field. The “hole” in the sky was caused by the fact that seven years ago a radar station working for Russia near the Latvian village of Skrunda was closed. Detecting the launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles has become difficult. Although in the north-west, the Minister of Defense admitted, the likelihood of using operational-tactical, tactical and cruise missiles is extremely low, in the south it is “very likely.”
Therefore, the military department plans to deploy a new UHF early warning station in the south of Russia. This will be followed by the abandonment of other stations in the CIS countries. This refers to radar stations in Kazakhstan (Balkhash), Azerbaijan (Gabala) and Belarus (Baranovichi). All of them have been in operation for three decades. During all this time, their design did not undergo changes. However, the timing of the abandonment of these stations has not yet been determined.
The advantages of new stations, and moreover on Russian territory, are obvious. The creation of the radar in Lekhtusi required 2.9 billion rubles, the cost of the serial model will not exceed 1.5 billion, while each of the Dneprs cost 4.9 billion rubles, and the Daryal in Azerbaijan cost a total of 19.8 billion rubles. The last-named stations consume power of 2 and 50 MW, respectively, the radar station in Lekhtusi consumes only 0.7 MW. The number of personnel at Dnepr is 39 people, at Daryal - 83, at the new station - 15 people. The creation of old radars took from five to nine years, but the Leningrad station was built in a year and a half. The viewing range is about 5 thousand km versus 6 thousand in Gabala.
“We will do everything possible,” said Sergei Ivanov, “to ensure that the missile attack warning system functions effectively under any conditions, and that the radar field does not have gaps in any strategic aerospace direction.” There is every reason to believe that this will be the case. Efforts to restore the radar field, which has become leaky in recent years, are being made not only by the Space Forces (which includes early warning systems), but also by the Air Force (which includes air defense forces). Recently, the aviation commander-in-chief, Army General Vladimir Mikhailov, explained to Vremya Novostei that a “program of reconnaissance and airspace control” was being implemented, which had been developed for five years. Nine new Lira-T radars have been installed in the Far East. The radar field will continue to improve, but at the expense of over-the-horizon radars. With their help, Russian air defense will be able to look outside the country. While there is one experimental over-the-horizon station, the results of its work are impressive. There will be several such radars.
The radar station in Lekhtusi, Colonel-General Vladimir Popovkin, commander of the Space Forces, promised that at the end of this year it will be put on experimental combat duty, and in 2007 - on full-fledged combat duty. Nikolay POROSKOV |
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