For almost two decades now, we have been observing a persistent trend of dominance in the air defense segment of the world arms market of domestic anti-aircraft missile systems such as S-300PS, S-300PMU-2 Favorit, S-300VM Antey-2500 and S-400 " Triumph ", as well as American complexes" Patriot PAC-2 "and" Patriot PAC-3 ". This is not surprising, because simultaneously with the range of interception of aerodynamic targets (tactical and strategic aviation) of 90-250 km, all of the above complexes are also capable of processing operational-tactical enemy ballistic missiles, as well as high-speed elements of high-precision weapons (anti-radar missiles AGM-88E AARGM and X -58USHK) at a distance of 5 to 60 km.
Such anti-missile properties are acquiring more and more fundamental importance in the eyes of numerous foreign customers against the background of events taking place in the Golan Heights and the “western wing” of the southern “de-escalation triangle” in Syria (the cities of Tasil, Nava, Qasim and Quneitra). These territories, currently under the control of the opposition-terrorist paramilitary group "Free Syrian Army" and a small ISIS bridgehead (banned in the Russian Federation), are used by Tel Aviv as a 25-kilometer buffer zone to maintain a distance between the fortified areas of the Israel Defense Forces in the Golan and units of the Syrian Arab Army and Hezbollah in the Inhil and Kafr Shams areas. At the same time, the IDF literally on a regular basis inflicts artillery missile and air strikes on Syrian army brigades located at the contact line. Of course, a good half of the tactical missiles and rockets launched by the Israeli military are successfully intercepted by Pantsir-S1 and Bukami-M2E, which, for obvious reasons, inflates the attractiveness of the more serious S-300PMU-2 system and the more advanced military version of the S-300VM Antey-2500.
Yes, the more advanced S-400 Triumph complex has a new target illumination radar 92N6E, but it's still too early to talk about the super-merits of its export version, since we still haven't seen 9M96DM / E2 anti-aircraft guided missiles in its arsenal, equipped with a pulsed gas-dynamic rudders to destroy maneuvering ballistic missiles with a direct hit. The Americans, on the other hand, are doing just fine with the serial MIM-104F ERINT anti-missile missile, and this is a very bad sign for our defense industry: it's time to bring the 9M96DM series of missiles to mind; this will definitely preserve the export capabilities of Triumph, and will also allow the S-350 Vityaz air defense missile system to move forward. In the meantime, it is worth paying attention to such a unique system as the S-300VM Antey-2500, which Egypt has already acquired in the amount of three anti-aircraft missile batteries.
It differs from the S-300PMU-2 Favorit air defense system in several ways at once. First, the speed of the targeted target for this system reaches 17,300 km / h versus 10,100 km / h for the Favorite, which means that even medium-range ballistic missiles can be destroyed. Secondly, Antey-2500 is a more tenacious system, since instead of a single illumination radar (like the S-300PMU-2 / S-400), it uses both the 9S32M target designation / guidance station and individual illumination radars on each launcher 9A82M and 9A83M; due to this, it is several times more difficult to completely disable the S-300VM than the S-300PMU-2. Thirdly, the export version of "Antey" uses long-range high-speed anti-aircraft missiles of a completely different "type" 9M82M. Their flight speed reaches a staggering 2, 6 km / s, which in the presence of a 150-kilogram warhead of directional action inflicts significantly more damage on the target than the warheads of anti-aircraft missiles of other "Three hundred". Nevertheless, all anti-aircraft missiles with solid-propellant rocket engines have a significant drawback - after the solid-propellant charge of the engine burns out, the rocket moves by inertia, undergoing aerodynamic braking. When descending to an altitude of 10-7 kilometers or less, such missiles can slow down to only 2000-1500 km / h, after which it becomes almost impossible to intercept a maneuvering fighter. The rocket is losing its "energy".
The Indian Defense Research and Development Organization DRDO (Defense Research and Development Organization) decided to eliminate this shortcoming in the project of the promising XR-SAM / SFDR anti-aircraft missile, the first flight prototype of which was tested on May 31, 2018. In the photograph showing the launch of the first prototype, one can draw attention to a powerful and "long-playing" solid-propellant booster that accelerates the rocket to 2M and provides an altitude of 10-12 km, as well as to the combat stage, which is nothing more than a constructive an analogue of the European air combat missile "Meteor" from the MBDA concern.
The second (combat) stage, in fact, like the Meteor, has an additional accelerating solid-propellant engine and an integral ramjet rocket engine to maintain a high flight speed throughout the entire rendezvous trajectory with the target. Due to the presence of a system for regulating the intensity of the gas generator feed into the combustion chamber, XR-SAM can initially approach the target at a speed of 2, 5-3, 2M, saving fuel, and a minute before destruction it can accelerate to 4, 5-4, 7M, which is practically will not allow the enemy fighter to escape from the attack, in the old fashioned way relying on the "exhaustion" of a conventional solid-propellant anti-aircraft missile.
Apparently, the complex technology for the production of Meteors under the new name XR-SAM was purchased by the Indians from MBDA during the implementation of a contract for the supply of the Indian Air Force with the French Rafale multipurpose fighters, under which the Meteors are “sharpened”. And if Delhi really succeeds in bringing this project to serial production, at least within the framework of the national air defense, then the tactical aviation of China and Pakistan, which have territorial claims to India, will have a very serious threat, which will not be able to hide from even behind the mountain ranges of the Himalayas, because the missile The XR-SAM has a state-of-the-art active radar homing head that turns the product into a dangerous autonomous aerial predator.
