Until 2015, military experts from different countries ridiculed Belarusian defense industry specialists when they offered them cooperation in terms of creating new missile systems. Moreover, until recently, such a high-tech industry as rocketry was completely absent in the Belarusian military-industrial complex.
And in June of this year, as part of the transfer of the Polonez missile system to the Armed Forces, live firing was carried out at a training ground in the Gomel region …
"Polonaise" is designed to destroy openly located and sheltered enemy manpower, command posts, armored and unarmored weapons and military equipment, artillery, missile and anti-aircraft missile systems, aviation equipment at home airfields and other objects. The operating range is from 50 to 200 kilometers. Targets are hit with very high accuracy. According to the available information, one battery (four combat vehicles) "Polonaise" can carry out two missile salvos, each of which will consist of 32 rockets, hitting enemy targets in an area of almost 100 hectares with missiles deviating from the target no more than 30 m. accuracy in combination with other advantages allows this missile system to solve many combat missions typical of operational-tactical missile systems.
By the way, there may soon be many more potential targets in the region. They may well be places of deployment of new NATO battalions being created in the Baltic countries and Poland, or places of storage of military equipment, which the Alliance is deploying in violation of the NATO-Russia Treaty. In addition, the other day, the commander of the ground units of the German Air Force, Brigadier General Michael Gschosmann, said that Germany and the Netherlands plan to test a common Patriot air and missile defense system in October, which in the future could become a model for deploying these missile systems in Poland or the Baltic states.
In turn, the first division of the Polonez complex should become part of the 336th rocket artillery brigade in September this year.
In open sources, it is reported that the missile complex launches 301-mm rockets with a length of 7.26 m with a stabilizer span of 0.62 m, the flight of which is corrected using GLONASS / GPS. The unprecedented shooting accuracy shown by the Polonaise during the tests indicates the presence of an optical-electronic correlator.
The latter compares the display of the flown terrain with its reference digital image. To fix the underlying surface in the optical range, a special camera is used, the information from which is compared with a digital map obtained using satellites or aircraft and stored in the memory of the on-board computer of the rocket.
The initial information for such maps is satellite images obtained with the help of special equipment. By the way, Belarus is one of the few global manufacturers of it. Such equipment is installed on board the Belarusian spacecraft, which is in orbit.
With a total weight of up to 46 tons, the "Polonez" MLRS combat vehicle is easy to control. To deploy it from a traveling position to a combat position, it takes no more than 10 minutes. Loading time on BM of two launch containers using a transport-loading machine is no more than 20 minutes.
Launchers, equipment for charging / recharging BM, are located on the platform of the four-axle all-terrain chassis "Astrologer" - the power of the diesel engine is 500 hp. The brainchild of the MZKT is not only powerful, but also fast - capable of moving at a speed of 70 km / h. Firing from the BM "Polonaise" is carried out from a standstill, on four stabilizers.
Weapons with such high characteristics of accuracy, maneuverability and range of destruction in the territory of the post-Soviet space are not produced anywhere else.
At present, specialists of the Belarusian military-industrial complex are working on the creation of a missile with a range of destruction of 300 km. This limitation is due to the missile technology control regime, which was signed between the USSR and the United States. According to this document, the participating countries must refrain from exporting missile weapon systems with a launch range of more than 300 km and a warhead weighing more than 500 kg (with the exception of joint developments).
At the same time, many experts agree that the "Polonez" MLRS is only an intermediate step towards the creation of Minsk's own operational-tactical missile system, equipped, among other things, with Aist cruise missiles of its own production.
KR "Aist" is equipped with a turbojet engine MS-400, developed by the Ukrainian company "Motor Sich". It should be noted that a similar engine is used in the Chinese KR DF-10 (CJ-10) and the Pakistani Hatf-VII "Babur".
It is also interesting that, for example, the Pakistani KR "Babur" also has an airborne counterpart - "Raad ALCM", which has a range of 350 km. F-16, JF-17 fighters act as carriers of this type of missile (for example, as in the image, which is illusory in nature). This makes it possible to count on the possibility of integrating the Belarusian missile defense systems into the MiG-29 armament complex, and even more so on the Su-30 planned for purchase.
And if the acquisition of the Su-30 is announced by 2020, then the MiG-29 of various versions in the Air Force and Air Defense of Belarus today has more than 30 units.
Thus, the Belarusian defense industry has great opportunities and prospects for the implementation of their developments, which will significantly increase the potential of the Armed Forces, improve the security of the state, and, in addition, loudly declare themselves on the world arms market.
