S-300P/400 News [Russian Strategic Air Defense] #3

Vladimir Putin: Tests of the S-500 air defense system are being successfully completed
May 25, 2021.

Tests of the S-500 anti-aircraft missile system are being successfully completed, the next step is the delivery of this system to the troops, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with the leadership of the Ministry of Defense and enterprises of the military-industrial complex.

“In the Aerospace Forces, more than 70% of anti-aircraft missile regiments have been re-equipped with modern S-400 systems. The next step is the delivery of the S-500 complex to the troops, the tests of which are already being successfully completed, "he said, reports TASS .

As Deputy Defense Minister Alexei Krivoruchko said earlier, the Russian Armed Forces plan to receive the first complexes of the S-500 long-range anti-aircraft missile system in 2021, serial delivery will begin in 2025.

The S-500 "Prometheus" anti-aircraft missile system (ROC "Triumfator-M") belongs to a new generation of surface-to-air systems. It represents a versatile long-range and high-altitude intercept complex with an increased anti-missile defense potential and is capable of intercepting ballistic missiles. A promising system is capable of striking not only ballistic, but also aerodynamic targets (aircraft, helicopters, other air targets), as well as cruise missiles.

The radius of destruction of the S-500 is about 600 km. In addition, the system will be able to detect and simultaneously hit up to ten ballistic supersonic targets flying at a speed of up to 7 km per second, as well as be able to destroy the warheads of hypersonic missiles. In terms of its characteristics, the S-500 will significantly outperform the S-400 and its American competitor Patriot Advanced Capability-3.

Text: Alina Nazarova

https://m.vz.ru/news/2021/5/25/1101025.html

S-500 or a variant of S-300?

https://twitter.com/benreuter_IMINT/status/1399104155634053121?s=19

Interesting discussion...I can't see the ranges if someone can help.

dino00 wrote:https://twitter.com/benreuter_IMINT/status/1399104155634053121?s=19

Interesting discussion...I can't see the ranges if someone can help.

I just see the already known ranges in the second picture

dino00 wrote:https://twitter.com/benreuter_IMINT/status/1399104155634053121?s=19

Interesting discussion...I can't see the ranges if someone can help.

It's set at 300 Km. With 50 km interval.

The table on the screen depicts one target is detected or being engaged at 166 km with angular position of 123 degrees (the "Beta" greek alphabet) and altitude of 7 Km (7000 m)

S-500 or a variant of S-300?

They said the S-500 would be a from scratch new design... which makes sense.

That image is clearly an S-300V based design... HATO codename SA-12 Giant and Gladiator.... basically the Army version of the S-300.

This is the bigger of the two missiles.... (note the S-300V has two missile TEL vehicles.... one with four missiles in a single row of four missiles and a bigger one with a single row of two missiles).



Here is a drawing of the system and as you can see the two missiles are different sizes but are basically the same with the bigger missile using a larger solid rocket booster for longer range and higher speed.

Fire will be added to Prometheus: S-500 will receive new interceptor missiles

The anti-aircraft system will be able to shoot down even hypersonic aircraft

Sources in the military department told Izvestia that the latest anti-missile missile for the S-500 is currently in a high degree of readiness. The ammunition was successfully tested at the Sary-Shagan training ground in Kazakhstan.

After a series of launches, he confirmed the inherent characteristics, and the combat crews successfully completed the task, hitting a conditional target with a given accuracy . True, the interlocutor of the publication refused to name the index, as well as the characteristics of the novelty.

According to him, in addition to "Prometheus", the same product will be used in the updated stationary anti-missile defense (ABM) system in Moscow.

Full article
https://iz.ru/1173752/anton-lavrov-anna-cherepanova/prometeiu-dobaviat-ognia-s-500-poluchit-novye-rakety-perekhvatchiki

"the same product will be used in the updated stationary anti-missile defense (ABM) system in Moscow"
This is new

For both the S-400 and S-500 the real deal is the missiles they deploy. There has been a miraculous persistence and advance of Russian missile tech
through the horrible 1990s and later. This was not supposed to happen. The 1990s were supposed to destroy the Russian military tech development
capacity. But Russian defense sector workers showed their patriotism and kept doing their vital jobs even as they were not paid for years.

This aspect is not discussed at all. The expectation of western destroyers was that Russians would behave like westerners and would scatter to
the winds without pay. How terminally wrong these clowns were. This is part of a long historical pattern of the west discounting Russia and then being
surprised when it hands western ass back to the west on a platter.

kvs wrote:For both the S-400 and S-500 the real deal is the missiles they deploy.   There has been a miraculous persistence and advance of Russian missile tech
through the horrible 1990s and later.   This was not supposed to happen.   The 1990s were supposed to destroy the Russian military tech development
capacity.   But Russian defense sector workers showed their patriotism and kept doing their vital jobs even as they were not paid for years.

This aspect is not discussed at all.   The expectation of western destroyers was that Russians would behave like westerners and would scatter to
the winds without pay.   How terminally wrong these clowns were.   This is part of a long historical pattern of the west discounting Russia and then being
surprised when it hands western ass back to the west on a platter.  

It is amazing that Russia maintained its intellectual and technological base, but had Putin not come along when he did, in another 5 to 10 years it would have been game over.

Which is perfectly logical if you think about it as the S-500 is essentially a mobile ABM system for use against ICBMs and SLBMs so a static version located in Moscow makes sense and in fact eventually they should be locating such systems at each major city and port really...

GarryB wrote:Which is perfectly logical if you think about it as the S-500 is essentially a mobile ABM system for use against ICBMs and SLBMs so a static version located in Moscow makes sense and in fact eventually they should be locating such systems at each major city and port really...

It's more than an ABM system, is also an air defense system

It's more than an ABM system, is also an air defense system

The missiles will be optimised to hit very high speed and high altitude targets.... so if it was a transport plane it would be an An-225.

Using it alone as an air defence system would be like using an An-225 to deliver 3 tons of post.

Having said that, it will most likely be incorporated with other systems to provide ABM and anti satellite capability to air defence networks across Russia and potentially abroad.

It would be the sort of system that provides top cover and obviously critical defence to an air defence network from threats like ICBM and SLBM and hypersonic missile attack intended to degrade an air defence network.

For instance right now THAAD and Patriot wont stop Iskander and Zircon and Kh-32 and other similar high speed missiles, and once those threats are taken down then HATO air defence becomes pretty non existent.

In comparison adding S-500 on top of Russian land based air defence networks caps them off and makes them rather solid when faced with any current or projected future attack from anyone including Russia itself.

Once they have new cruisers and new destroyers in production of course they will also have naval versions of their land based systems up to an including S-500 as well to protect large ships from hypersonic missile attack.

I am kind of confused. There are 2 systems A-235 and S-500. And each time i read about them, i get conflicting info about one being terminal ABM defense (THAAD equivalent) and the other being midcourse defense (GBI equivalent). And i tend to think that the A-235 is the midcourse defense and that S-500 is THAAD equivalent? So it could reach near space but it was not designed to shoot objects in space lite satellites?

Correct me if i am wrong?

A-235 is the designation of the modernised strategic ABM system based around Moscow, currently only with fixed launchers.

S-500 is a mobile air defence/ABM/ASAT system. To compare it with THAAD is an insult to the russian developers.

Then there is Nudol, a mobile ABM/ASAT system, propably the mobile part of the A-235 system.

Also it seems that there a some missiles that at least two, maybe all three systems share. We will have to wait until all systems are operational until we fully see trough it.

I do not believe nudol will share missiles as it's ranges exceed that of S-500. It may be more specialized.

S-350 is more short range, S-400 medium/semi long range, s-500 is long range to very long range and nudol is specialized specifically for ABM and ASAT roll. S-500 is more ABM roll.

They should add an A-235 system to St. Petersburg as well.
Now that the ABM Treaty is gone there are no limitations on sites.

Hole wrote:A-235 is the designation of the modernised strategic ABM system based around Moscow, currently only with fixed launchers.

S-500 is a mobile air defence/ABM/ASAT system. To compare it with THAAD is an insult to the russian developers.

Then there is Nudol, a mobile ABM/ASAT system, propably the mobile part of the A-235 system.

Also it seems that there a some missiles that at least two, maybe all three systems share. We will have to wait until all systems are operational until we fully see trough it.

From what i read before A-235 was designed from bottom up to be mobile. Making a stationary weapon from a mobile system is much more easier than the other way arround. Nudol is a designation given to the A-235.

lancelot wrote:They should add an A-235 system to St. Petersburg as well.
Now that the ABM Treaty is gone there are no limitations on sites.

That's what they are more or less gonna do with Nudol and S-500. Have missile defense around major cities without a hard installation. Cheaper and just as effective.

lyle6 wrote:

miketheterrible wrote:
That's what they are more or less gonna do with Nudol and S-500. Have missile defense around major cities without a hard installation. Cheaper and just as effective.

All mobile SAM systems are transportable via strategic aircraft. In less than 24 hours you can probably reinforce say, faraway and lightly defended Vladivostok with several divisions of S-400s, S-500s and Nudol turning the region into a fortress that can eat entire air forces on its own.

Yes but not Russia's current ABM structure. It's hard installation. These new systems will completely obsolete the hard installations.

Very true. With the infrastructure already in place, it probably isn't that costly to maintain. And acts as a semi underground base and could be center point for all of Russia's ABM structure overall.

I'm looking forward to seeing s-500 and nudol.

I am kind of confused. There are 2 systems A-235 and S-500. And each time i read about them, i get conflicting info about one being terminal ABM defense (THAAD equivalent) and the other being midcourse defense (GBI equivalent).

Both are essentially evolutions, the A-235 is the latest iteration of the moscow based ABM system which is designed to be fixed and launched from silos and has been in operation and is regularly tested every year or every other year to make sure it works.

THAAD is not even better than S-400 and is not really comparable... it is a mobile battlefield system designed to engage extended range Scud missiles.

THAAD could not handle Iskander let alone intermediate range missiles or SLBMs or ICBMs.

GBI is a silo based missile system that the A-235 could be compared with, except A-235 works and is in operational service and it is the latest missile in a range of missiles that have been operation around moscow for half a century... the A-35 entered service in 1971 and the A-135 entered service in about 1996 to replace it, and now the A-235 replaces this system...

The difference is that GBI is designed to be located in Europe so any debris is isolated from the US. The Soviet ABM system follows the rules of the 1972 ABM treaty... meaning it has to be located either around the capital city of the country that operates it or around an ICBM field.

The US system was of course put around their ICBM field and was open for one day before being closed.

The S-500 is a mobile system intended to operate near airfields for the Air Force or near HQs and comms centres and major bases or ports or on capital ships eventually.

It is the top coverage system that prevents your air defence system from being defeated by the enemy simply launching huge ballistic missiles from subs or land... which would be the wests only sensible way of effectively dealing with the extreme Russian air defence network...

And i tend to think that the A-235 is the midcourse defense and that S-500 is THAAD equivalent?

Well the A-235 is fixed and silo based so it is operational around Moscow, but they have four military regions so they might build one ABM system with A-235s around one centre in each military area, plus perhaps Leningrad.

S-500 is portable and mobile and will likely be based at strategic airfields and ports and other things that are critical and need protecting... and in that sense it is very much like THAAD.

How it is different of course is that S-500 can stop anything from Scuds theatre ballistic missiles (TBMs) to Minuteman ICBMs, and Trident SLBMs.

It is fully mobile and will have a range of missiles which will likely also allow it to engage satellites too.

It would be a total waste to use such missiles against fighter planes and cruise missiles etc etc so it will likely be based with TOR and Pantsir as well as S-350 and S-400 systems so they could take out any threats and other targets while the S-500 focusses on the hypersonic ballistic and hypersonic manouvering targets.

So it could reach near space but it was not designed to shoot objects in space lite satellites?

A-235 is an ABM system launched from fixed silos and intended to defend against ballistic missiles of all types. S-400 would likely also be there to take on cruise missile and enemy aircraft based threats too.

The last model S-400 reportedly can reach targets at 185km altitude which is in low earth orbit.

The S-500 will likely reach much higher and be able to take down objects in stable low orbit, as well as ballistic targets like ICBMs and SLBMs moving at up to 7km/s.

The S-400 can already hit targets moving at 4.8km/s which would include most SLBMs and many IRBMs.

They should add an A-235 system to St. Petersburg as well.

They were talking about that, and also one in Vladivostok too....

From what i read before A-235 was designed from bottom up to be mobile. Making a stationary weapon from a mobile system is much more easier than the other way arround. Nudol is a designation given to the A-235.

The designation gives it away... A-35 and A-135 and A-235.... they are all related and were all carted around on the back of a truck and are all silo launched.

They are not mobile, nor do they need to be... if they wanted a mobile ABM system they would develop one... and they have and it is called S-500.

All mobile SAM systems are transportable via strategic aircraft. In less than 24 hours you can probably reinforce say, faraway and lightly defended Vladivostok with several divisions of S-400s, S-500s and Nudol turning the region into a fortress that can eat entire air forces on its own.

The point is that while you could move Nudol all round the place, the huge radar and the command and control infrastructure is around moscow and is not mobile.

My understanding is that Nudol is A-235 and is silo launched.

If you need to defend a location from ballistic missile attack then the S-400 and S-350 and S-500 and TOR and BUK and Panstir are all fully mobile and I would add S-300V4 would be an excellent ATBM system too... rather better than THAAD or Patriot PAC-3... or both together.

S-500 is going to allow Russia to defend most major cities and military bases from ballistic missile attack... thanks to the US withdrawing from the ABM treaty of course.

They will be able to put S-500s near their OTH radar stations to keep them safe and providing quality target information regarding every enemy platform approaching Russian territory by sea or land or air or in space...