45 years ago, a system was created in the Soviet Union that has no analogues to this day.
Command "Attention, start!" is formed at an early warning system only when there is a real danger of a nuclear missile strike on the territory of the Russian Federation. After this, events unfold rapidly. Automation decides everything, but the last word on retaliatory strike, of course, rests with the country's military-political leadership.
Check "for lice"
In 1995, the apocalypse did not happen, because the Norwegian rocket turned out to be meteorological, which immediately turned out. But the situation at the command post has escalated to the limit. “The missile launch was detected by three of our stations at once: in Skrunda, Murmansk and Pechora,” recalls Lieutenant General Anatoly Sokolov, at that time the commander of the SPRN army. - The information really immediately went to the "nuclear suitcase" of the president of the country. But the General Staff did not start work on it, because literally a few seconds later the early warning missile system rejected the first information: the trajectory of the missile is not directed to the territory of the Russian Federation. " Nevertheless, at that moment no one could unequivocally guarantee that the first command would not be followed by a second, even more serious command: "Missile attack!" And this is already a war.
“I still think that it was a cynical test of our combat readiness and equipment performance,” Lieutenant General Sokolov is convinced. “But the PRN System has shown itself from the best side.”
After the collapse of the USSR, Russia was still rather weak, nevertheless, the test for "lice" failed, and the Norwegian Foreign Ministry had to explain that the launch of the BR was carried out without official notification of neighboring countries and the United States, which was required in accordance with international treaties.
Another less alarming incident occurred on September 3, 2013. At 10.16 Moscow time, the early warning system detected the launch of two ballistic missiles in the Mediterranean Sea. He was spotted by the combat crew of a separate radio engineering unit in Armavir. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has informed President Vladimir Putin. As it turned out, the launch was carried out under the program of joint tests by Israel and the United States of the missile defense system. Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said then: the situation again showed that Russia is ready for all kinds of actions under any circumstances.
In February 2016, the PRN system turned 45. It works, as always, properly, and already on new algorithms and a microelectronic base.
The answer to the cannibals
The missile attack warning system was put on alert on February 15, 1971. At that time, it included ground-based radar stations, a data transmission system and a command post. The main task is to detect a possible ballistic missile raid on the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries, develop appropriate warning signals and bring them to the highest political and military leadership of the country.
"Created in accordance with the decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers, it was one of the first weapons systems in which the task of detecting ballistic missiles, generating warning information and bringing it to consumers was solved in a fully automatic mode," the retired major general says with some pride Viktor Panchenko, former deputy commander of an early warning system for armaments. He served in the system from its inception until 1992. He passed the positions of the head of the department of combat algorithms of the command post, the chief engineer of the unit (Murmansk), the division, the deputy commander of the PRN army for armaments. The birth and development of the system took place before his eyes. Its construction and putting it into combat mode was a retaliatory measure caused by the planning by the military-political leadership of the United States, starting in 1961, to launch more and more large-scale nuclear missile strikes on the Soviet Union.
Then the United States adopted a "flexible response" strategy, according to which, along with the massive use of nuclear weapons against the USSR, limited use was also allowed. The military-political leadership of the United States strove to create such a quantitative and qualitative composition of the strategic nuclear forces that would allow the "guaranteed destruction" of the Soviet Union. For this, in the middle of 1961, the Unified Comprehensive Operational Plan (SIOP-2) was developed, according to which it was supposed to inflict deadly strikes on about six thousand objects on the territory of the USSR. The air defense system and command posts of the state, military leadership were to be suppressed, the country's nuclear potential, large groupings of troops and industrial cities were to be destroyed.
By the end of 1962, the United States had adopted the Titan and Minuteman-1 ICBMs; on combat patrols in the North Atlantic there were up to 10 submarines with Polaris-A1 and Polaris-A2 ballistic missiles equipped with nuclear warheads. parts. Considering the submarine patrol areas and the tactical and technical characteristics of the BR, the raid was to be expected from the northern and northwestern directions.
The idea of creating a barrier for early detection of ballistic missiles, which belonged to Alexander Mints and was supported by Vladimir Chelomey, was approved by Dmitry Ustinov, at that time the chairman of the Military-Industrial Commission under the Council of Ministers of the USSR. Hundreds of different enterprises, which are part of more than ten all-Union ministries, took part in defining the principles of functioning, developing equipment and combat programs, building and supporting the project. The knowledge, enthusiasm and energy of tens of thousands of specialists were given to the creation, and then to the combat use of the early warning system. Constant control of the work was carried out by the military-industrial complex under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the General Staff, the commander-in-chief of the Air Defense Forces.
The first requirements for an early warning missile system were the highest reliability of detecting a missile attack by a potential enemy's ballistic missile, the exclusion of the formation and issuance of false information. Partially contradicting each other, these requirements are nevertheless successfully implemented in hardware and combat programs.
The first stage of the Missile Attack Warning System consisted of two powerful radar nodes located in the Baltics and the Murmansk region, and a command post in the Moscow region, connected by a high-speed data transmission system and constituting an early detection complex. Organizationally, he was part of the formed warning division.
The nodes were created on the basis of the Dnestr-M radar, developed at the Radio Engineering Institute under the general supervision of Academician Mints. Structurally, it consisted of two "wings", united by a computing complex and a control center, which together with the engineering complex constituted a radar center. The radar equipment and equipment were located in a stationary two-story building. On both sides of the annexes, transceiver horn antennas 250 meters long and 15 meters high were mounted. The coverage area of each radar was 30 ° in azimuth and 20 ° in elevation. The detection range of the warheads of ballistic missiles is up to three thousand kilometers. At the same time, the unit recognized and accompanied 24 targets, transmitting information about them to the command post in the current time mode. It took only a few tens of seconds from the moment the threat was identified at the nodes to the report to the top political and military leadership of the country.
The entire volume of information from all stations of the USSR was updated in five seconds. The performance of the computing systems ensured the processing of the incoming information in real time. The speed of the computer was billions of operations per second. Moreover, it was provided by domestic machines of the M series of chief designer Mikhail Kartsev.
Of course, there were also problems. For example, the operation of the Murmansk node was greatly hampered by the aurora, which blocked the radar, as a result, it was possible to miss the passage of an enemy missile. I had to deal with the development of special programs for suppressing the signal from this natural phenomenon. And at the Sevastopol station - to solve the issues of refraction from the Black Sea.
Interestingly, all the components were actually created without prototypes. Installation, tuning, docking of equipment was carried out directly at the nodes, and the equipment and combat programs were fine-tuned. The work was attended by the personnel of the units, who received additional knowledge of the structure and operation of the radar. This system of training officers, and subsequently junior specialists, turned out to be very effective.
Unshakable echelons
After the creation of the Aerospace Defense Forces in 2011, the early warning missile (missile defense) formation was transformed into the Main Missile Attack Warning Center (GC PRN), which is now part of the Space Forces of the Russian Aerospace Forces. Here, the tasks of issuing a warning of a missile attack on points of state and military control, the formation of the necessary information for the Moscow missile defense system, data on space objects for the corresponding control system are solved.
The early warning system includes two echelons - space and ground. The first includes a constellation of spacecraft designed to detect launches of ballistic missiles anywhere in the world in real time. They are detected using telescopes and infrared spectral analysis. Figuratively speaking, the entire territory of the United States is divided into regions, each of which is looked after by a certain satellite, and with it a specific officer. Let's say Sidorov is in charge of California, Petrov is in charge of Virginia. They determine from which base of which region of the United States the rocket was launched. Experts know that, for example, there are only ballistic missiles based on Mayonot. And if the start is from there, then the combat BR has started. The spacecraft determines the launch site, and the combat crew determines the type of rocket.
The second echelon includes a network of ground-based radar stations (radars), which today detect objects in flight at a distance of up to six thousand kilometers. In comparison with the Soviet period, it has doubled.
In order to improve the capabilities of the early warning system on the territory of the Russian Federation, a new generation radar network is being built, created using high factory readiness technology (VZG). They will create an impenetrable radar field around the borders of Russia, which tracks the launches of ballistic missiles from different directions. Thus, the losses of similar stations in Skrunda (Latvia), Gabala (Azerbaijan), as well as those that were on the territory of the Russian Federation, but fell into disrepair or were destroyed during perestroika, as near Krasnoyarsk, will be compensated for.
VZG provides for the design, manufacture and testing of structurally and functionally complete radar components directly at the enterprises. The station is assembled from unified container-type macromodules and full inspection is carried out at the place of deployment. At the same time, for the deployment of the radar, only a minimally prepared site is required. Construction takes a year and a half, while the reinforced concrete predecessors took five to nine years.
The open architecture implies the creation of various stations based on typical components that can be changed, increased, re-formed in relation to the purpose of the complex and the tasks set. This is the main difference between the new technology and the old one, where the design did not change until the end of operation.
Modern radars have higher technical and tactical characteristics. They have much lower power consumption and equipment volume. The service process has been optimized, as a result of which the number of employed personnel is several times lower than before.
Currently, four new Voronezh radar stations deployed in the Leningrad, Kaliningrad, Irkutsk regions and Krasnodar Territory are on alert for radar control of missile-hazardous directions in the established areas of responsibility. Two more stations - in the Krasnoyarsk and Altai Territories - have begun experimental combat duty. Preparations for preliminary tests of the VZG radar in the Orenburg region have been completed. In 2015, construction began on a station in the Arctic. The question of deploying another country in the European north is being worked out.
The creation of a network of new high-tech VZG radars will allow to increase the capabilities of the domestic early warning system and strengthen continuous radar control in the shortest possible time.
Hour X: Count by Seconds
When preparing and carrying out combat duty with the help of special software, the most difficult conditions of the radar situation in the established areas of responsibility of ground assets are simulated, as it was at the time of my stay at the main center of the PRN in Solnechnogorsk. The combat crews worked out the fulfillment of strict standards for the detection, classification, tracking of ballistic targets and space objects, and the generation of warning information.
In accordance with the received introductory radar "Voronezh" of the Irkutsk separate radio engineering unit, at 11.11 a.m., it discovered a ballistic missile, which was immediately assigned No. 3896, the type M1 (ballistic missile) was identified, the start was in the Sea of Okhotsk, the point of impact was the Alien battlefield (Russian Federation). After that, a report was sent from the commander of the duty forces to the head of the Center that there were no comments on the functioning of the detection means. At 11.12, that is, less than one minute later (escort time 56 seconds), the command “Attention, start! Second echelon, doing analysis."
After high-speed computers such as "Elbrus" mathematically confirmed that the trajectory ends on the territory of the Russian Federation, the command appeared on the scoreboard: "Missile attack!" The commander of the duty forces of the Main Center of the PRN reported the result of an express analysis for target No. 3896: the exact time of launch and fall, firing range (3600 km), flight altitude (845 km). The head of the Main Center of the PRN immediately gave the order to submit a report to the command post of the army of special purpose …
In a real situation, a report to the military-political leadership of Russia about a missile attack is made by the general on duty, who is at the Central Command Center of the General Staff of the Russian Federation (now - NTSUO).
One can imagine what kind of responsibility these people will be held in at X hour: on the basis of their report, the president of the country will have to make a decision on a retaliatory strike. The error is invalid. And although the complex, we repeat, is automated, the role of the combat crew does not diminish: the system then works well when all the equipment is in good working order and follows the specified algorithms, information links are not broken.
But even this is not the most important thing. There may be several missile strikes, they will be carried out from different directions, and the number of warheads can reach tens, even hundreds. Then the moment of truth will come. Of course, human capabilities do not allow us to identify and identify all targets, choose the most important among them, and determine the sequence of defeat. This can only be done by a supercomputer.
The signal of a missile attack will also go to the central, reserve and alternative command posts of the highest command and control levels, branches of the Armed Forces, headquarters of military districts, naval fleets and the missile defense system of the Moscow region. With the help of special equipment, the President of Russia will establish contact with the Minister of Defense, Chief of the General Staff and the Central Command Center of the General Staff. During such a session, the situation is assessed, a decision is made on the necessary actions.
All over
For 45 years of the existence of the early warning system, there have been no false positives. They are impossible, since the development of combat algorithms imposes very high requirements for the reliability of information; there are many different filters and limiters on its way.
There are, for example, the so-called combustible satellites, which are dangerous in that they can theoretically qualify as a ballistic missile. When the system detects a BR, it automatically compares its characteristics and trajectory with those included in the catalog. In addition, the early warning system does not work on its own, but in cooperation with the Outer Space Control Center, which takes into account all objects in orbits.
When the USSR created this system, it did without imports and developed unique equipment itself. In many respects, this is precisely why only Russia, recalls the general director of JSC RTI, Sergei Boev, owns the technologies for creating VZG radar stations.
Over the past years, without interrupting combat duty, the early warning missile system has gone through several stages of modernization using the latest element base. It included more powerful radars with a phased antenna array and a space echelon, which includes a grouping of special spacecraft and ground control points.
In the interests of the early warning system, a new satellite was launched, consisting entirely of domestic components, and the most complex collective display panel, which was also created entirely on the basis of the Russian element base, was replaced at the GC PRN. Today only our chips are used in complex and critical units.
During the period of reforms that were carried out even before Sergei Shoigu came to the post of Defense Minister, due to insufficient funding, the rhythmic cycle of commissioning new facilities and launching satellites was partly disrupted. As we remember, about 40 thousand officers were fired from the army and navy. The recruitment of cadets and students was stopped for two years in schools and some academies. However, thanks to skillful leadership and a built-in margin of safety, the system withstood all this.
An eloquent figure: in 2015, 39 targets of launching ballistic missiles and space rockets were detected by means of the Main Center of the PRN, of which 25 were foreign-made, 14 were domestic.
“In 2015, we held a special command and staff training on real launches, which were carried out from the Okhotsk, Barents Seas and Plesetsk,” said Major General Igor Protopopov, head of the Main Missile Attack Warning Center, to the Military Industrial Courier. - To work on three targets, three nodes were involved. Passes were not allowed: everything that was included in the area of responsibility was taken for escort."
