S-350 "Vityaz" SAM System

First S-350 medium-range air defense system arrives for Russia’s Aerospace Force

The training center has already held an exercise to detect and eliminate a notional enemy aircraft

GATCHINA /Leningrad Region/, February 26. /TASS/. The teams of air defense troops have started to learn to operate the S-350 ‘Vityaz’ medium-range anti-aircraft missile system at the Gatchina training center in Russia’s northwest, the Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.

"The first most advanced S-350 ‘Vityaz’ system of anti-aircraft missile troops has arrived for the Aerospace Force. It has arrived at the anti-aircraft missile troops’ training center in Gatchina," the ministry said.

In Gatchina, the combat teams will be learning to operate the latest weapon system. In particular, the training center has already held an exercise to detect and eliminate a notional enemy aircraft, the ministry specified.

"The combat team of the S-350 surface-to-air missile system demonstrated its skills, eliminated the notional enemy by electronic launches and made a march to a new positioning area," the ministry’s press office said.

Russia’s Aerospace Force earlier test-fired the S-350 ‘Vityaz’ surface-to-air missile system at a practice range in the southern Astrakhan Region during the system’s acceptance, the ministry said.

The first set of this system was transferred to the Russian troops in December 2019.

The S-350 ‘Vityaz’ mobile multi-channel surface-to-air missile system has been developed by the Almaz-Antey defense manufacturer. The system is designated to defend state, industrial and military facilities and force groupings against the strikes of modern and future air attack weapons. The system is capable of striking targets within a range of over 120 km and at altitudes of more than 30 km. The system can be deployed from a march within five minutes.
Russia’s Aerospace Force to receive 144 S-350 ‘Vityaz’ launchers by late 2027

Almost 150 S-350 ‘Vityaz’ anti-aircraft missile launchers will be delivered to Russia’s Aerospace Force by the end of 2027, the Defense Ministry said.

"Until the end of the existing state armament program for 2018-2027, the industry is due to deliver 12 battalions of S-350 systems to the Aerospace Force’s surface-to-air missile troops. Each battalion includes 12 launchers of 12 missiles each," the ministry said.

Each S-350 battalion also includes up to three multi-functional radar stations and a combat command and control post. Automated reconnaissance and target acquisition systems and combat vehicles of the Pantsyr-S anti-aircraft missile/gun system can also be assigned to an S-350 battalion, the ministry specified.

George1 wrote:

First S-350 medium-range air defense system arrives for Russia’s Aerospace Force

The training center has already held an exercise to detect and eliminate a notional enemy aircraft

GATCHINA /Leningrad Region/, February 26. /TASS/. The teams of air defense troops have started to learn to operate the S-350 ‘Vityaz’ medium-range anti-aircraft missile system at the Gatchina training center in Russia’s northwest, the Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.

"The first most advanced S-350 ‘Vityaz’ system of anti-aircraft missile troops has arrived for the Aerospace Force. It has arrived at the anti-aircraft missile troops’ training center in Gatchina," the ministry said.

In Gatchina, the combat teams will be learning to operate the latest weapon system. In particular, the training center has already held an exercise to detect and eliminate a notional enemy aircraft, the ministry specified.

"The combat team of the S-350 surface-to-air missile system demonstrated its skills, eliminated the notional enemy by electronic launches and made a march to a new positioning area," the ministry’s press office said.

Russia’s Aerospace Force earlier test-fired the S-350 ‘Vityaz’ surface-to-air missile system at a practice range in the southern Astrakhan Region during the system’s acceptance, the ministry said.

The first set of this system was transferred to the Russian troops in December 2019.

The S-350 ‘Vityaz’ mobile multi-channel surface-to-air missile system has been developed by the Almaz-Antey defense manufacturer. The system is designated to defend state, industrial and military facilities and force groupings against the strikes of modern and future air attack weapons. The system is capable of striking targets within a range of over 120 km and at altitudes of more than 30 km. The system can be deployed from a march within five minutes.
Russia’s Aerospace Force to receive 144 S-350 ‘Vityaz’ launchers by late 2027

Almost 150 S-350 ‘Vityaz’ anti-aircraft missile launchers will be delivered to Russia’s Aerospace Force by the end of 2027, the Defense Ministry said.

"Until the end of the existing state armament program for 2018-2027, the industry is due to deliver 12 battalions of S-350 systems to the Aerospace Force’s surface-to-air missile troops. Each battalion includes 12 launchers of 12 missiles each," the ministry said.

Each S-350 battalion also includes up to three multi-functional radar stations and a combat command and control post. Automated reconnaissance and target acquisition systems and combat vehicles of the Pantsyr-S anti-aircraft missile/gun system can also be assigned to an S-350 battalion, the ministry specified.

https://tass.com/defense/1124013

The S-350 (50P6A) air defense system, using 9M96 series anti-aircraft missiles, includes
50P6A 12-container self-propelled launchers,
50N6A multifunctional radar,
50K6A combat control station, and
92N6 multifunctional detection radar (also used in S-400 air defense systems).

Hole wrote:

George1 wrote:

Hole wrote:

is there any difference between these two units? One has missiles with white upper and the other with red

GarryB wrote:

Russia can only buy the launchers and use them with s-400. They share the same search radar and also use the 9m96 family.

The plan all along was to increase numbers of missiles in the long range SAM battery to make it better protected from swarm attack, the S-350 is expected to replace the oldest S-300 batteries first, and its better radars and improved missile numbers and range mean a significant improvement in performance over the missiles they will be replacing.

The S-350 can also be attached to an S-400 battery to enhance its performance against a range of targets where the smaller shorter ranged missiles are more efficient and can be carried in greater numbers because of their size.

It's a cheap way to increase the self protection of a s-400 armed with 48n6 family.

No. In terms of missiles I would expect its active radar homing missiles of 9M96 will be rather more expensive than Pantsir, though pantsir does cost a bit because of all the optical and radar sensors on each vehicle, their missiles are super cheap command guided missiles with impressive performance against a wide range of targets.

It will be a great way of upgrading backwater S-300 batteries with a capable system that exceeds the performance of the old S-300 missiles while probably not costing quite as much as a new S-400 or S-500 battery.

I wonder if the missiles share a lot with the new r-77M to reduce production costs.

I would suspect they are totally unrelated except perhaps possibly sharing a new high tech ARH seeker.

They can put the missiles on the vehicles of the S-400 family. That is the point of the S-350 system, it is bought in addition to S-400 to replace old S-300 versions = more missiles!

Indeed, once all the S-300s are replaced they will likely add them to S-400 and S-500 batteries to boost missile numbers... but I do suspect they will continue to use Pantsir and TOR to support the bigger SAM systems too.

GarryB wrote:The thing is that Israel and the US for all their faults don't really do carpet bombing any more so the targets will be very specific buildings in a city rather than the entire city itself.

You could probably determine what targets they would be interested in and situate a TOR battery or Pantsir battery there and then have perhaps one S-350 to try to get any launch platforms, though obviously the longer range of the S-400 missiles (250km and 400km) means they would be much more useful in dealing with enemy aircraft.

A few MANPADs units around the place tied in to the air defence network on likely approach directions could certainly thin the attack quite efficiently too... with them being part of the IADS they will get early warning of the approach of targets and can be set up and ready and looking in the correct direction to engage targets, which would make them several hundred times more effective than a guy with a shoulder fired missile and a radio in the middle of no where looking and listening for engines...

With Igla-S and Verba with proximity fuses most drones and cruise missile type targets would be terribly vulnerable on their flight to the target area...

In comparison TOR and Pantsir and even SOSNA-R are much cheaper and easier to mass produce in enormous numbers, while being effective against a range of targets.

. I remember in Desert Storm some commends about how effective the OSA was in taking down US cruise missiles... which effectively are relatively slow low flying easy targets... their powerful feature is surprise... but early detection and SA-8 can mow them down in numbers... with the required warning.