So, it happened! On July 28, 2018, the St. Andrew's flag was raised on the frigate "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov" (hereinafter - "Gorshkov"). 12 years, 5 months and 28 days after the laying took place on February 1, 2006, the lead frigate of Project 22350 was accepted into the fleet. The ceremony was attended by Vice-Admiral Viktor Bursuk, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Alexei Rakhmanov, President of the United Shipbuilding Corporation (USC), Viktor Chirkov, USC advisor on military shipbuilding, and Igor Ponomarev, General Director of Severnaya Verf.
In February of this year, A. Rakhmanov expressed confidence that the frigate will be operational by the end of the summer of 2018, and it is very pleasant that his forecast has finally come true. I must say that as of February, "Gorshkov" was separated from the beginning of military service by two rather serious barriers. The first of these was the Polyment-Redut air defense missile system, all conceivable terms of development and adoption of which had long been disrupted, and there was no guarantee that in 2018 the complex would still be brought to mind. The second problem was a rather serious breakdown of one of the diesel engines of OJSC Kolomensky Zavod, which occurred on December 27, 2017. The unit had to be disassembled, and some of the parts (including the crankshaft) were sent to the manufacturer. Fortunately, apparently, the capricious diesel was repaired with little blood, without cutting the side, in order to remove the engine that had failed, and the repair was not delayed.
But what happened to Polyment-Redoubt? On the one hand, the admission of the Gorshkov to the fleet was supposed to indicate that the problems that plagued this missile system had been resolved and that our Project 22350 frigates still received a decent air defense system. Without a doubt, those who followed the misadventures of the Redut air defense system and the Polyment radar system remember how often assurances from responsible persons were heard in the media environment that just a little more, just a little bit more, and everything will work out, the complex will build. The latest news about Polyment-Redut sounded quite optimistic: in the same February 2018, Alexei Rakhmanov said that the commission that was dealing with the last series of unsuccessful launches had finished its work, and that technical fine-tuning would take no more than two months. after which the state tests of the complex will be resumed. It was understood that they were nearing completion … If there was anything to please that the ship did not “surrender” to the fleet for such a long time, it was only the principled and firm position of our admirals, who did not want to accept a ship with unfinished weapons. And finally, "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov" took his place in the ranks.
Perhaps this finally indicates that the difficult history of adopting the Polyment-Redut has come to an end?
But on the other hand, the history of the Russian fleet knows many cases when ships were taken over by the fleet with armaments not fully prepared. So, for example, it was with the "Dagger" air defense system - as you know, the "Novorossiysk" TAVKR, when it entered service, instead of "Daggers" had only "holes" cut for them, and the first serial BODs of Project 1155 received only one such complex instead of those laid down by the project two. And therefore, alas, the fact that the Gorshkov was adopted by the fleet does not at all guarantee that the Polyment-Redut complex has reached full (or at least partial) combat readiness. There is no information that this complex has been adopted for service, but on the other hand, this also does not mean anything - recently, the RF Armed Forces have clearly outlined a strong bias towards secrecy, alas, often designed to hide the real (and, to put it mildly, not always good) state of affairs. In general, they might not have disclosed.
How, then, to understand at what stage the work on the Redut air defense system and its Poliment radar are now? According to the author of this article, there is a kind of litmus test for this: her name is the S-350 Vityaz air defense system.
Recall that the history of this complex began at the very beginning of the 2000s, when Almaz-Antey won the competition for the creation of the KM-SAM air defense system for South Korea: this air defense system was equipped with a missile defense system with an active homing head capable of hitting air targets at a distance of 40 km and an altitude of 20 km. The use of missiles with AGSN was a fundamental difference from domestic medium and long-range complexes, which used a semi-active seeker. In 2007, Almaz-Antey demonstrated a KM-SAM sample to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, and at the same time, development work was opened on a similar medium-range complex for the domestic armed forces, which was named the S-350 Vityaz and was intended to replace SAM S-300PS and Buk M1-2.
SAM "Vityaz" was to be equipped with three types of missiles:
1. 9M100 - short-range missiles, according to various sources, from 8 to 15 km, had a weight of 70 kg, was equipped with an IR seeker and an inertial guidance system, provided for the possibility of radio correction in the middle section of the trajectory;
2.9M96 (9M96M) - medium-range missile defense system weighing 333 kg, range up to 60 km (according to other sources - 40-50 km), height of defeat from 5 m to 20 km, guidance system - inertial with radio correction and AGSN in the final section … SAM speed - 900 m / sec., Warhead weight - 24 or 26 kg. Presumably, this missile was a modification of the missiles with which the KM-SAM was equipped;
3. 9M96E2 - "long arm" S-350, weight 420 kg, range up to 120 km (according to other sources - 150 km), reach in height - from 5 m to 30 km, capable of hitting not only aerodynamic, but also ballistic targets at a distance of up to 30 km and an altitude of 25 km. The speed of the missile defense system is 900-1000 m / s, the mass of the warhead is 26 (according to other sources - 24) kg.
All missiles have a super-maneuverability mode. According to the developer's data presented at MAKS-2013, the Vityaz air defense system can simultaneously fire on 16 targets, aiming 32 missiles at them.
The Poliment-Redut air defense missile system, mounted on frigates of type 22350, is, in fact, a "hot" version of the S-350 "Vityaz", using the same missiles as its land-based prototype. At the same time, the Redut air defense missile system is a vertical launch facility, with 4 or 8 modules in each: each module can house one 9M96 / 9M96E2 missile or four 9M100 missiles.
For fire control, the Poliment radar is used, consisting of four phased arrays, which can be placed on the ship's superstructure or on a tower-like mast, as was implemented on the Gorshkov frigate. This makes it possible to provide a 360-degree view: it is obvious that these phased arrays are created on the basis of the 50N6A multifunctional radar used for the guidance of missiles in the S-350 Vityaz complex. Each of these grilles is capable of firing eight missiles at four aerial targets. And this, frankly, is a completely unimaginable indicator, frankly low for a modern air defense system.
I must say that such a solution for the newest warship looks very budgetary and completely unjustified in tactical terms. In no case should one think that 4 simultaneously fired targets for one phased array represents the limit of domestic science and technology - even in the S-300V air defense system, adopted back in 1983, multichannel missile guidance stations (MSNR) 9S32 were used, capable of attacking 6 targets with 12 missiles. At the same time, one should not forget that the S-300V missiles were guided by missiles from a semi-active seeker, that is, the station had not only to control the position of targets and missiles in space, but also to illuminate targets, and the Poliment radar did not need to be done. … The fleet also managed to receive modified Volna stations - the new S-300FM Fort-M antenna post installed on the Peter the Great TARKR also had the ability to fire 6 targets with a dozen missiles in the 90-degree sector. As far as the author of this article is aware, after 2012, the S-400 MSNR complex has the ability to simultaneously fire on 10 targets.
Therefore, 4 targets for one phased array radar "Polyment" is frankly a little, and probably indicates a desire to minimize the development costs of the complex and its final cost. But such an indicator, alas, testifies to the inability of the air defense systems of the latest domestic frigates to withstand massive air strikes - after all, there are only two aircraft attacking in the sector of 90 degrees. goals, exceeding the limit of the capabilities of "Polyment-Redut". Therefore, we can only hope that subsequently the number of simultaneously attacked targets will be increased during the modernization of the complex. However, before modernizing something, it would not hurt to create this “something”.
As for the rest (theoretically), the Polyment-Redut complex consists mainly of advantages. Possessing a very impressive range and ceiling for the destruction of air targets, it is, nevertheless, relatively light - the mass of the SAM does not exceed 420 kg, while, for example, the SAM of the S-300 / S-400 complexes have a mass of 1,800 - 1,900 kg and more, and even the medium-range air defense missile system "Calm" with a range of 50 km have a mass of 690 kg. SAM "Redut" costs 9M96M, which, according to various sources, has a range of 50-60 km and half the mass - 333 kg, and this is extremely important for relatively small warships, which are frigates.
The presence of small 9M100 missiles can significantly increase the ammunition load and echelon the ship's defense in the near air defense zone. For example, the Project 11356 frigate (the famous Admiral's series) has 24 Shtil-1 launchers and is capable of carrying 24 medium-range missiles. And the frigate Gorshkov, having 32 cells of the Redut air defense missile system, is capable of carrying the same 24 medium-range missiles and, in addition to them, 32 more small 9M100 missiles (four missiles in each of the remaining eight cells).
Despite the use of a new, in general, for the domestic air defense principle of targeting SAM (AGSN), the Vityaz air defense system was never considered as something super-secret, probably because its design was originally based on an export order. Accordingly, the air defense system was originally intended both for equipping the armed forces of the Russian Federation and for export sales. But, of course, selling a "raw" complex to foreign buyers, with the hope of someday finishing it up, will hardly work: it is obvious that for sale abroad, Almaz-Antey must present a fully operational complex to potential customers of the concern.
From this it is easy to draw a simple conclusion - until the S-350 Vityaz appears on sale, it seems impossible to say that Polyment-Redut has been brought to mind. The complexes are too unified to be able to put one of them into operation without completing, or at least not reaching the “home stretch” in the second. As a matter of fact, most likely it will be much easier to complete the S-350 Vityaz than the Polyment-Redut due to the sea's specifics of the latter - it is always more difficult to adapt a missile system for firing from a ship than from land. In addition, according to some reports, one of the key problems of the Polyment-Redut complex is the inability to qualitatively "transfer" the tracking of an air target and missiles attacking it when the latter pass from the "zone of responsibility" of one phased array to another.which is hardly necessary to implement in the S-350 "Vityaz" (although, perhaps, this judgment of the author is erroneous).
So, once again the promise to bring the S-350 to mind sounded in the second half of 2017, when Pavel Sozinov, the general designer of Almaz-Antey, announced that the state tests of the Vityaz should be completed in 2017, and that in 2018 the S-350 will be offered to foreign buyers. And if this happens, then it will be possible to reasonably assume that the Polyment-Redut has finally entered service, or is very close to it - so close that there are only a few months left before bringing it into a combat-ready state.
Alas, to our deep regret, it seems that P. Sozinov's forecasts turned out to be overly optimistic. The S-350 Vityaz has not yet been presented on the Rosoboronexport website. At the same time, Almaz-Antey took part in three international exhibitions in 2018:
1. The Second International Exhibition of Arms and Defense Technologies “ArmHitech-2018”, which was held at the “YerevanExpo” exhibition complex on March 29-31 of this year;
2. The 10th International Exhibition of Land and Naval Armaments "Defexpo India 2018", held from 11 to 14 April 2018 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu (India);
3. The first International Airshow Eurasia Airshow 2018, which took place from 25 to 29 April 2018 in Antalya (Republic of Turkey).
At these exhibitions, the air defense segment of the Almaz-Antey concern was presented very widely: the long-range air defense systems S-400 Triumph, S-300VM Antey-2500, S-300PMU2 Favorit, as well as anti-aircraft missile systems of medium and short-range Buk-M2E, Tor-M2E, Tor-M2K and Tor-M2KM, as well as the Osa-AKM1, Rif-M and Shtil-1 naval air defense systems. But the S-350 "Vityaz", alas, was not presented at any of these exhibitions. And this suggests that the complex did not pass state tests, and is not even at a stage in which the concern could at least begin negotiations on its delivery. This indicates that, with a high degree of probability, the main anti-aircraft armament of the frigate "Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union Gorshkov" is currently incapable of combat and extremely restricts the possibility of using this ship in conflicts of any intensity.
Well, we can only hope for the best - after all, 2018 is not over yet, and who knows, maybe the words of Pavel Sozinov will still turn out to be not an empty phrase.
