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Post by TsarSamuil on Sept 20, 2013 12:47:14 GMT -5
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Post by TsarSamuil on Oct 4, 2013 12:50:04 GMT -5
Russia to Test Launch Newest ICBM by Year-End – Industry Official.
MOSCOW, October 3 (RIA Novosti) – The test launch of Russia’s newest intercontinental ballistic missile, codenamed Rubezh, could take place before the end of the year, a high-ranking defense industry official told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
The RS-26, a solid-propellant ICBM, will supplement the Yars and Topol-M missiles that are currently in service with Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces, the official said.
RS-26 specifications are currently classified, but an unnamed missile industry expert cited by Vedomosti newspaper said the new missile would most likely be equipped with a new warhead and system to override missile defenses.
The expert cited by Vedomosti also played down speculation that RS-26 was designed in violation of the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which prohibits the United States and Russia from owning ballistic missiles with ranges between 500 kilometers and 5,500 kilometers.
In June, Russia tested elements of a new ICBM that Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the defense industry, hailed as a “missile defense killer.”
The Defense Ministry was more reserved in its appraisal of the test, carried out at the Kapustin Yar facility, between Volgograd and Astrakhan, saying only “the [simulated] warhead hit a designated target within the set time frame.”
The missile is to be manufactured at the Votkinsk plant in the Urals republic of Udmurtia, where all solid-propellant missiles are made, the official said.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Oct 8, 2013 11:56:15 GMT -5
Russia to Up Nuclear Weapons Spending 50% by 2016.
MOSCOW, October 8 (RIA Novosti) – Russia is to increase annual spending on nuclear weapons by more than 50 percent in the next three years, a parliamentary defense committee said Tuesday.
In 2016, 46.26 billion rubles ($1.4 billion) is to be spent on Russia’s nuclear weapons systems, up from 29.29 billion rubles this year, according to the State Duma Defense Committee’s report on the draft federal budget for 2014-2016.
The draft federal budget provides for a 60 percent increase in overall national defense spending by 2016, according to the report, rising from 2.1 trillion rubles this year to 3.38 trillion rubles in 2016.
Defense spending in 2014 and 2015 will be 2.49 trillion rubles and 3.03 trillion rubles, respectively.
The government’s 2014 budget, which Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has described as “very harsh,” was submitted to the Duma last Monday. According to the budget, which also includes projections for 2015 and 2016, Russia is set to record a budget deficit of 391 billion rubles ($12 billion) in 2014, rising to 817 billion rubles ($25 billion) the following year.
Medvedev warned that budget cuts between 2014 and 2016 could amount to 5 percent in some areas. President Vladimir Putin has said that budget expenditure will have to be cut to take account of reduced growth forecasts, but that a sequester – a series of automatic budget cuts – is not on the table. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the budget would not mean any cuts in the Defense Ministry’s procurement plans.
Russia is currently in the midst of its biggest rearmament drive for a generation, part of a massive overhaul of the forces including a move toward all-professional services.
New nuclear weapons systems entering service include the navy’s Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile, the Kh-102 long-range cruise missile for the air force and new land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles for the Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN).
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Post by TsarSamuil on Oct 30, 2013 17:45:34 GMT -5
US, Romania break ground on missile defense system.
RT.com
October 28, 2013 12:15
The US and NATO have begun revamping a military base in Romania which will be a crucial part of the American-led anti-missile shield in Europe. The NATO missile defense system remains a bone of contention in US-Russian relations.
Romanian President Traian Basesku and US Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy James Miller attended the groundbreaking ceremony for the Aegis Ashore missile defense system at Deveselu military base in southern Romania on Monday.
"Construction of the base in Deveselu, as noted by [US] Minister of Defense Chuck Hagel, has begun despite a lack of mutual understanding on the issue with Russia," Romania's Minister of Defense Mircea Dusa said.
Dusa said Romanian construction workers were first tasked with converting the former Air Force base, and then the US campaign to install the missile defense systems would begin.
Earlier this month, Pentagon spokesman George Little said the “system represents an important component of the larger European Phased Adaptive Approach and is expected to be operational in 2015."
The issue of the US missile shield in Europe has been a longstanding bone of contention in Russia-US relations. Moscow has demanded legal guarantees from Washington that missile defense systems deployed in Europe would not target Russia's strategic nuclear deterrence capabilities. Washington has refused to grant Russia such assurances, citing a need to protect Europe from ‘rogue states' like Iran and North Korea.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov "missile defense remains a burning issue," adding that Russia’s position is well-known.
"We are ready for a constructive dialogue with the US and NATO and are open to finding a compromise, but let's not pretend that the incessant talks that there is nothing within the scheme of the American-led ABM that needs to be changed, nor that it’s not against Russia, that all this talk can somehow settle things,” Lavrov said.
Lavrov said Russia is interested in strengthening all aspects of strategic stability, regional stability the neutralization of threats through political and diplomatic means.
Earlier this month, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said there is yet to be mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia and NATO on the issue of the missile defense program, as not all the security concerns of Russia are being taken into account by its partners.
A bilateral agreement to deploy missile interceptors inside Romania was signed at the Pentagon one day after the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. The planned interceptors include the land-based SM-3 ballistic missile defense system.
Romania’s participation in the NATO missile defense system will constitute the second phase of the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA), which initially consisted of four stages.
On September 17, 2009, however, US President Barack Obama announced that the planned deployment of long-range missile defense interceptors and equipment in Poland and the Czech Republic had been scrapped, and that defense against short- and medium-range missiles using AEGIS warships would be deployed instead.
The first part of this revised system – an early warning radar station in Malatya, Turkey – went operational in January 2012. Apart from Romania, other elements of the system will be built in Portugal, Poland, and Spain.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Oct 30, 2013 17:47:45 GMT -5
Russia plans to bring more S-300 air systems to EU border in Belarus.
RT.com
October 30, 2013 15:19
Moscow is set to supply Minsk with more S-300 complexes to strengthen the external border under a project of merging the countries’ air defenses. The systems are to be deployed close to the Belarus border with NATO’s Poland and Lithuania.
The Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced plans after meeting with his Belarus counterpart, Yury Zhadobin, where they discussed development and enforcement of combat potential of the Joint Regional Air Defense system (JRAD).
“We plan to increase the capabilities of Belarus air defenses with four S-300 missile complexes,” the Russian minister said on Tuesday.
With the latest S-400 air defense systems currently being delivered to Russian troops, S-300 can no longer be viewed as a cutting edge technology complexes, but the latest versions of S-300 are capable of bringing down practically any flying target, be it a UAV, cruise missile, fighter jet or even a ballistic missile warhead flying at speeds of up to 2.8 kilometers per second.
In December 2009, then-President Dmitry Medvedev signed an agreement with Belarus, ratifying the joint external border air defense of the union state. The agreement implies unification of air defenses and creation of JRAD, currently headed by Belarus Major General Oleg Dvigalev.
Within the framework of this agreement, Russia and Belarus “are finalizing” documents to expand a former Soviet air base in Lidy, some 120 kilometers from the Polish border, which will host a squadron of Su-27SMZ fighter jets (with the latest modifications) and a certain number of assault helicopters.
A team of Russian engineers is conducting a reconnaissance survey at the site. This comes after the Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko ordered the country’s Defense Ministry, on August 20, to start implementing the practicalities of the air defense agreement with Moscow.
Some of the upcoming S-300 complexes are reportedly going to be deployed nearby to shield the base.
The squadron in Lidy is expected to be fully deployed in 2015, whereas the first fighter jets will arrive at the base’s airfield by the end of 2013.
It is expected that in the future a united air defense will be created, consisting of Russia’s closest post-Soviet allies - Belarus, Kazakhstan, and others opting to cooperate with the three countries currently closely united economically within the entity of the Customs Union. Countries like Armenia and Tajikistan have already voiced their desire to be a part of the CU.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Nov 14, 2013 15:08:49 GMT -5
Russia Unveils New High-Precision Air Defense System. MOSCOW, November 14 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s Almaz-Antey defense corporation said Thursday that it had developed an advanced version of the Tor-M2 air defense system, featuring an extended firing range, improved precision and greater ammunition-carrying capacity. “We can say now that a unique air defense system in its class with an astounding precision and range has been created. Its performance surpasses all planned parameters,” said Sergei Druzin, head of research and development at Almaz-Antey. The Tor system is a low- to medium-altitude, short-range surface-to-air missile system designed for intercepting aircraft, cruise missiles, precision-guided munitions, unmanned aerial vehicles and ballistic targets. Tor-M1 and Tor-M2U variants, armed with 9M331 missiles, are currently in service with the Russian army. The new system, equipped with new 9M338 missiles, was successfully tested at the end of October. “We carried out five launches targeting highly maneuverable drones. Three of the targets were hit head-on, while the other two were destroyed by shrapnel from exploding warheads. It is an excellent result, astounding precision,” Druzin said. In addition, the smaller size of the 9M338 compared with its predecessor has allowed the carrying capacity of the launcher to be doubled, from eight to 16 missiles. The official said the improved Tor-M2 systems and 9M338 missiles have been approved by a state commission for mass production. “We can now start producing these missiles in quantities that would meet the demand of the Russian army,” Druzin said. According to Druzin, the next step in the improvement of the system would be for launching missiles at acquired targets while on the move. “The [mobile] launcher currently stops for two or three seconds to launch a missile, but it could be done on a move, without stopping,” Druzin said.  |
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Post by TsarSamuil on Nov 18, 2013 15:43:36 GMT -5
Vid, rt.com/news/russia-radar-jammer-drones-864/Advanced system to guard Russia from hi-tech surveillance, drone attacks. RT.com November 18, 2013 03:23 Russia’s Defense Ministry has received the top-notch anti-radar system Krasukha-4. The system is designed to guard against aircraft-based electronic surveillance - including that carried out by drones. Bryansk electromechanical plant has delivered 1RL257 Krasukha-4 broadband multifunctional jamming stations to the defense ministry, RIA Novosti reported on Sunday, citing a spokesman from the Radioelectronic Technologies group. The stations, which will complement Krasukha-2 units already in use by the Russian army, will provide the military with powerful radar jamming capability. While technical details of the units have remained top-secret, sources cited by Russian media have described the system as “unique.” Krasukha-4 is able to effectively shield objects on the ground against radio-locating surveillance satellites, ground-based radars, or aircraft-installed Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS), a source with knowledge of the system told Izvestiya. The protective jamming shield may span up to a 300-kilometer radius, he said. Moreover, interference caused by Krasukha-4 will render radio-controlled missile attacks ineffective. The system has been designed to counter attacks from enemies possessing advanced technologies, the source added. More specifically, the new Russian system has been described as a tool against “flying radars,” such as the USAF E-8 Joint STARS aircraft, or reconnaissance satellites - like the United States’ Lacrosse satellite - and a means of protection against surveillance and combat unmanned aerial vehicles, otherwise known as drones. Media sources named the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk and the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator as drones which Krasukha-4 could guard ground objects and troops against. |
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Post by TsarSamuil on Nov 20, 2013 20:51:15 GMT -5
Advanced Russian-Indian Cruise Missile Tested.
MOSCOW, November 18 (RIA Novosti) – The Indian army on Monday successfully tested an advanced version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, which destroyed a fortified target with high-precision, India’s The Hindu newspaper reported.
The missile, jointly designed by Russia and India, was fired from a mobile launcher at the Pokhran firing range in northwestern India.
“The Block III variant of BrahMos with deep penetration capability is fitted with a new guidance system, and the launch by the army has successfully validated the deep penetration capability of the supersonic cruise missile system against hardened targets,” The Hindu quoted officials from Russian-Indian joint venture BrahMos Aerospace Ltd. as saying.
The BrahMos missile has a range of 290 kilometers (180 miles) and can carry a conventional warhead of up to 300 kilograms (660 pounds). It can effectively engage targets from an altitude as low as 10 meters (30 feet) and has a top speed of Mach 2.8, which is about three times faster than the US-made subsonic Tomahawk cruise missile.
Sea- and ground-launched versions have been successfully tested and put into service with the Indian army and navy.
The flight tests of the airborne version are expected to start in the near future. The Indian Air Force is planning to arm 40 Su-30MKI Flanker-H fighters with BrahMos missiles.
Russia and India have also agreed to develop a hypersonic BrahMos 2 missile capable of flying at speeds of Mach 5 to Mach 7.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Nov 26, 2013 14:17:08 GMT -5
No need for Euro-missile defense if Iran deal success - Lavrov. RT Nov 25, 2013 www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCrYorpkzZUThe Russian Foreign Minister's comment that the Iran nuclear deal quashes the reasons for America to build a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe. Russia's long-regarded the radar as a national security threat, but the US thinks it necessary to protect against so-called 'rogue states' - like Iran. Anoush Ehteshami, a Professor of International Relations and Head of the School of Government and International Affairs at Durham University, joins RT to discuss this issue. ---------- Iran Deal Nullifies Needs for Europe Missile Shield - Russian FM. ROME, November 25 (RIA Novosti) – Implementation of a deal on Iran’s nuclear program reached in Geneva this weekend will make the US missile defense system in Europe unnecessary, Russia’s foreign minister said Monday. “If the agreement on Iran is implemented, the reason named as a necessity to establish a missile defense system in Europe will drop away,” Sergei Lavrov said while speaking at a media forum in Rome. Iran and six international negotiators struck a deal early Sunday to slow the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Tehran will get some $7 billion in relief from sanctions. The deal also stipulates that international observers will monitor nuclear sites in the country. NATO and the United States say the US missile defense system in Europe is designed to counter threats from North Korea and Iran. The system has been a sore point in US-Russian relations for years. Russia and NATO formally agreed to cooperate over the European missile defense system at the 2010 NATO summit in Lisbon, but talks foundered, in part over Russian demands for legal guarantees that the system would not target its strategic nuclear deterrent. |
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Post by TsarSamuil on Nov 27, 2013 16:35:19 GMT -5
Moscow Air Defenses Get New Short-Range Pantsir-S Systems.
MOSCOW, November 27 (RIA Novosti) – Russian air defense forces have taken delivery of six Pantsir-S short-range air defense systems to be used by a new missile regiment formed to protect the skies over Moscow, military officials said Wednesday.
The Pantsir-S battalion is set to form part of a third S-400 air defense missile regiment deployed near the Russian capital.
The new regiment is expected to be put on combat duty in December, Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Dmitry Zenin said.
Pantsir-S is primarily designed to defend higher ranking air defense systems, such as the S-300 and S-400 regiments.
Two S-400 regiments currently deployed around Moscow include a Pantsir-S battalion each, according to the Defense Ministry.
Pantsir-S is a gun-missile system combining a wheeled vehicle mounting a fire-control radar and electro-optical sensor, two 30-mm cannon and up to 12 57E6 radio-command guided short-range missiles, and is designed to engage a variety of low altitude targets.
The Defense Ministry has reportedly ordered some 100 Pantsir-S systems for the Aerospace Defense Forces.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Nov 27, 2013 16:37:21 GMT -5
Russia to Deploy 22 New Ballistic Missiles in 2014.
SOCHI, November 27 (RIA Novosti) – Twenty-two land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles will next year be added to Russia’s nuclear arsenal, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.
“We intend to continue prioritizing the development of the main component of our strategic nuclear deterrent,” Putin said at a meeting on the development of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces.
Putin did not specify the type of new ICBMs to be deployed, but a source in the Defense Ministry told RIA Novosti on condition of anonymity that the missiles will be mobile and silo-based Yars ICBMs.
Yars is armed with the multiple-warhead RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile, which has considerably better combat and operational capabilities than the Topol-M (SS-27 Stalin).
Russia currently deploys an estimated 326 ICBMs with approximately 1,050 warheads, according to a June report by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.
In line with the New START treaty signed in 2010, Russia is allowed to add 227 delivery systems and 150 warheads to its stockpile of nuclear weapons.
According to the recent State Duma Defense Committee report on the draft federal budget for 2014-2016, Russia plans to increase annual spending on nuclear weapons by more than 50 percent in the next three years.
The report said 46.26 billion rubles ($1.4 billion) is to be spent on Russia’s nuclear weapons systems in 2016, up from 29.29 billion rubles this year.
The Defense Ministry earlier announced plans to retire most of its outdated SS-18 Satan, SS-19 Stiletto and SS-25 Sickle (Topol) ICBMs and replace them with SS-27 Sickle-B (Topol-M) and RS-24Yars missiles by 2021.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Nov 29, 2013 13:42:55 GMT -5
Russia to Deploy 3 New S-400 Air Defense Regiments in 2014.
SOCHI, November 28 (RIA Novosti) – Three new regiments equipped with S-400 Triumf air defense missile systems will be put in service with the Russian armed forces next year, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
“Two S-400 regiments were presented to the Russian military this year. Another three [regiments] should be put in service in 2014,” Putin said at a meeting on the development of Russia’s aerospace defenses.
Russia currently has a total of five S-400 regiments, with two regiments deployed around Moscow and the remaining units deployed near the port city of Nakhodka in the far eastern Primorye Territory, as well as in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad and in the Southern Military District.
The sixth regiment will join the two S-400 regiments based near Moscow by the end of 2013, according to the Defense Ministry.
The S-400 Triumf (SA-21 Growler) air defense system is expected to form the cornerstone of Russia's theater air and missile defenses by 2020.
The system can engage targets at a maximum range of up to 400 kilometers (250 miles) at an altitude of 40,000-50,000 meters (130,000-165,000 feet). The system uses a range of missiles, and is optimized for engaging ballistic and cruise missiles.
Russia plans to have 28 S-400 regiments by 2020, each comprising two or three battalions (four systems each), mainly in maritime and border areas.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Nov 29, 2013 13:49:26 GMT -5
Russia Begins Deployment of Aerospace Defenses in Arctic.
MOSCOW, November 28 (RIA Novosti) – Russia has started the deployment of aerospace defense units in the Arctic and construction of an early missile warning radar in the country’s extreme north, the commander of Aerospace Defense Forces said Thursday.
“The expansion of [missile early warning] radar coverage is one of the key areas of our work, especially when it comes to [Russia’s] extreme north – we have already started the deployment of electronic warfare units in the Arctic,” Maj. Gen. Alexander Golovko said.
Golovko also said construction of an advanced early missile warning radar site has started near the town of Vorkuta, situated just north of the Arctic Circle.
Russia is planning to complete its comprehensive missile early warning network by 2018. Four Voronezh-class radar stations that can easily be relocated are already part of this network.
A Voronezh-DM radar is on combat duty in the Krasnodar Territory and a Voronezh-M radar is in the Leningrad region. The Voronezh-DM radars in the Kaliningrad and Irkutsk regions are in the testing stage of operation.
In addition to the Vorkuta radar, the preparations for construction of new-generation radars are underway in the Krasnoyarsk and the Altai territories, as well as in central Russia (the Orenburg Region), Golovko said.
Voronezh-class radars have an operational range of 6,000 kilometers (3,700 miles). They are more energy-efficient, can be quickly redeployed to a new site and require a smaller crew to operate, compared to previous generation stations.
President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia will put on combat duty seven Voronezh-class radars in the next five years.
The new radars will eventually replace the outdated Dnepr- and Daryal-class radars and close all gaps in radar coverage on Russia's borders.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Nov 29, 2013 13:59:54 GMT -5
Russia Announces Development of Unmanned Arctic Radars.
MOSCOW, November 29 (RIA Novosti) – Russia plans to develop fully automated air defense radars and deploy them to the Arctic, a senior aerospace defense official said Friday.
“We are significantly cutting the number of service personnel operating air defense equipment,” Maj. Gen. Kirill Makarov, deputy commander of the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces, said in an interview with Rossiya 24 television.
Makarov said R&D work is under way to develop unmanned radars for specific deployment in Russia’s Far North.
Maj. Gen. Alexander Golovko, commander of the Aerospace Defense Forces, said Thursday that the Arctic is a key area that demands a high degree of protection from airborne and missile threats.
Russia has started the construction of an early missile warning radar site in the country’s Far North, along with the deployment of aerospace defense units in the Arctic, including electronic warfare facilities, he said.
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Post by TsarSamuil on Dec 3, 2013 14:07:00 GMT -5
‘Absolute killer’ air-to-air missile readied for Russian 5G fighter jet. RT.com December 03, 2013 16:36 Russia is finalizing an advanced air engagement system combining “fire-and-forget” guidance and “single-shot kill” ability within a single air-to-air missile. The system aims to frustrate any missile evasion maneuvers enabling a target to escape. The K-77M air-to-air missile with this advanced guidance system will be fitted on to the fifth-generation fighter jet PAK-FA (advanced frontline aircraft system, also codenamed T-50) and it will start to be delivered to the Russian Air Force by 2017. The major innovation of the K-77M air-to-air missile is its guidance system, based on an active phased array antenna (APAA) of its own, Izvestia daily reports. With APAA onboard, the missile has zero reaction time to unexpected evolutions of the target, which means that once it locks on an aircraft, it would hit it no matter what aerial acrobatics the target would perform to shake off the inbound killer missile. The APAA guidance system for K-77M missiles has been elaborated by the Detal design bureau, based in the town of Kamensk-Uralsky in Russia’s Urals. The enterprise is a subdivision of Russia’s state-owned Tactical Missile Munitions Corporation. Mikhail Vershinin, chief engineer of the Detal design bureau, told Izvestia that the enterprise is currently looking for a contractor which would install a state-of-the-art production line at the facility so that the system could start to be manufactured as soon as 2015. An active phased array antenna consists of a large number of cone-shaped cells installed under a transparent-to-radio-waves cap on the nose of the missile. Each cell receives only a part of the signal, but once digitally processed, the information from all cells is summarized into a “full picture,” enabling the K-77M missile to immediately respond to sharp turns of the target, making interception practically inevitable. A similar technology is used in widely known Patriot surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, manufactured by Raytheon in the United States. But the K-77M missile is much smaller, because it is supposed to fit into the interior bays of the PAK-FA fighter jet to ensure its stealth capabilities. Yet for the K-77M missile itself, a stealth aircraft or a UAV is a legitimate target it would track and destroy ordinarily. The advanced missile system is fully compatible with the digital communication system of the fifth generation fighter jet, but also could be used on modernized fighter jets of the previous generation. The Active Phased Array Antenna is the most modern radar technology today, and every such device is extremely expensive to produce. Yet the price of the target a missile equipped with APAA can destroy is much higher, so if the K-77M missile can guarantee hitting the target, it is worth the cost, Aleksandr Khramchikhin, an expert from the Institute of Political and Military Analysis, told Izvestia.  Photo from militaryrussia.ru --------- Bad News for U.S. Warplane Pilots: Russia’s New Dogfighting Missile Can’t Miss - Moscow’s new active-array missile could be the most accurate ever. War is Boring ^ | 12/04/2013 | David Axe By combining two existing technologies, Russian engineers have devised what could be the world’s deadliest air-to-air missile. And the U.S. military doesn’t have anything like it … or adequate defenses. Designers at the Detal bureau, part of the state-owned Tactical Missile Munitions Corporation, added an active electronically-scanned array radar—a so-called “AESA”—to the nose of a long-range R-77 missile to produce the K-77M model. Thanks to its new guidance sensors, the K-77M is way more accurate than other missiles. How accurate? Flying 40 miles or more, the K-77M should be able “to maintain lock on even the most agile maneuvering target,” according to one scientist and defense specialist in the Pacific region whose country’s laws prohibit him from speaking on the record about weaponry. In light of the scientist’s expertise, War is Boring agreed not to publish his name. With enough funding, the K-77M could enter service as early as 2015, in time to be fitted to the first combat-ready versions of Russia’s new stealth fighter, the powerful T-50. The combination of T-50 and K-77M could match or even best America’s own F-22 stealth fighter, which is fast and hard to detect but lacks an advanced air-to-air missile. And the T-50 with its new munition is sure to vastly outclass the U.S. F-35, a smaller, less capable stealth fighter meant to comprise the bulk of the American warplane fleet in coming decades. Smarter missile Traditional air-to-air missiles include a small mechanical radar antenna in the nose. These mechanical radar missiles have a major weakness that occurs in the final seconds before the munition reaches its target. “The angular motion—and specifically the angle rate of antenna movement as the missile closes on the target—can be so high that the seeker cannot keep up and the target slips out of the antenna beam, causing missile lock to be broken,” the scientist explains. In other words, if a pilot turns quickly in any direction right before a missile hits his plane, he stands a good chance of slipping outside the field of view of the missile’s radar, causing it to fly harmlessly away. The inability of most munitions to cope with violent maneuvers helps explain why radar-guided air-to-air missiles typically have very low hit rates. But the K-77M could change all that. Gone is the mechanical array. In its place, Detal’s engineers have added what Russia Today describes as “a large number”—possibly hundreds—of individual digital arrays, each pointing its own radar beam essentially at the speed of light. “Each cell receives only a part of the signal,” RT reports, “but once digitally processed, the information from all cells is summarized into a ‘full picture,’ enabling the K-77M missile to immediately respond to sharp turns of the target, making interception practically inevitable.” That’s not hyperbole, according to the scientist. “Because an AESA or phased array is steered electronically, the antenna beam can be adjusted in direction several thousand times per second and is not limited in angle rate, thus allowing an AESA-equipped missile to maintain lock.” Considering the huge advantage an active-array missile has over older munitions, it’s perhaps surprising that Russia is the only country developing one. Amid budget reductions, the U.S. and Europe have essentially stopped investing in new seekers for air-to-air missiles. Almost all of America’s aerospace capital is being poured into fixing problems with the F-35 as well as developing a new stealth bomber. But Russia typically exports its missile technology to China—and the K-77M should be no exception. “We should not be surprised to see the AESA seeker sold to China for use in Chinese-built PL-12 [missile] in 2015 or 2016,” the scientist warns. To survive a dogfight with a foe armed with K-77Ms, an American plane needs to be stealthier or employ better radar jamming, the scientist advises. Considering the F-35's many design compromises, U.S. stealth technology probably reached its pinnacle with the F-22, which ended its production run two years ago. And as for jamming … the Pentagon for years has struggled to develop new electronic countermeasures, with the Air Force in particular having all but abandoned electronic warfare in favor of spending more money on stealth. |
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