Recent weeks have been rich in news regarding the Russian missile warning system. Several important events took place within a few days. At first, it became known that the newly built radar station would soon undergo state tests, and a little later, reports were received about the start of construction of a second similar facility.
In the first days of this August, the Russian media with reference to the Radio Engineering Institute. Academician A. L. Mints (RTI named after Mints) reported that during the completion of work on the second sector of the Voronezh-M radar station, located near the town of Usolye-Sibirskoye (Irkutsk Region), it went on the air for the first time. This means that the installation of equipment has been completed and the complex is ready to go. Also in early August, there were reports according to which state tests of the built second sector of this radar will begin in September. The exact timing of the completion of the tests and commissioning of the station has not yet been said, but based on earlier statements, it can be assumed that this will happen before the end of next 2014. Let us remind you that the first sector of the Voronezh-M radar station near Usolye-Sibirskoye has already been built and is functioning.
On August 13, near the city of Orsk (Orenburg region), a solemn ceremony of laying the first stone in the foundation of the future military facility took place. It is also planned to build a Voronezh-M-type radar station near Orsk. The exact dates for the completion of the installation of structures and the installation of equipment have not yet been announced. On the eve of laying the first stone, a representative of the Ministry of Defense, Colonel A. Zolotukhin, noted that the radar of the Voronezh family is much more convenient than the previous systems of this class in terms of time and construction costs. So, it takes no more than one and a half years to assemble all the necessary structures and install radio-electronic equipment. For comparison, Zolotukhin gave the terms of construction of radar stations of previous projects - from five to nine years.
The secret of such a short construction time for Voronezh lies in the applied concept of high factory readiness (VZG). This means that most of the structures and elements of the future station are assembled at the factory and the workers at the construction site only need to install them. Assembling the finished radar from the so-called. macromodules, manufactured at the respective enterprises, provides a significant acceleration of construction work. According to the current plans of the Ministry of Defense, it is the VZG technology that will allow in the next few years to build several new radar stations for the missile attack warning system and provide the aerospace defense forces with new modern means of monitoring potentially dangerous areas of the planet.
In accordance with the VZG concept, Voronezh stations of three types can be built:
- 77Ya6 "Voronezh-M", developed at the RTI named after Mints and working in the meter range;
- 77Ya6-DM "Voronezh-DM" decimeter range. Created at the Research Institute of Long-Range Radio Communication (NPK NIIDAR) with the participation of the V. I. Mints;
- 77Ya6-VP "Voronezh-VP". High-potential radar, developed at RTI.
At present, four of the nine planned radars of the Voronezh family are in operation. The first was the station in the Lekhtusi village of the Leningrad Region, the construction of which began in 2005. This radar of the Voronezh-M project was put into trial operation in the spring of 2007, two years later it was transferred to an experimental alert, and since February 2012 it has been on alert in the normal mode. In the spring of 2006, the construction of the Voronezh-DM radar station began near Armavir (Krasnodar Territory). Already in 2008, she began work in a trial operation mode, and in the first months of the next year she was transferred to an experienced combat duty. Full combat duty in the normal mode began in June this year. The third station of the Voronezh-DM type family was built in the Kaliningrad region, near the village of Pionersky. Construction began in 2008, and already at the beginning of 2011, test launches took place and trial operation began. Since the end of the same year, the station has been on alert. The last of the currently built radars is located in the Irkutsk region, near Usolye-Sibirskiy. The construction of the first stage of this complex began at the end of 2010, and in the spring of 2012, the first parts of the station were put on experimental combat duty. By the fall of next year, it is planned to complete the construction and testing of both phases of the facility and fully put it into operation.
According to the latest reports, by the end of 2013, active work will begin on the construction of two more stations of the Voronezh-VP type in the Krasnoyarsk and Altai Territories. In the future, it is planned to build "Voronezh" in the Murmansk region and the Komi Republic. Earlier, the possible construction of another such radar station in Azerbaijan was mentioned, but further confirmation of this information did not appear. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the construction of the first radar of the Voronezh family outside of Russia will begin only at the end of this decade. However, the rejection of such ideas cannot be ruled out.
According to the available data, the capabilities of the Voronezh family of radars make it possible to monitor the situation at ranges of up to 4000 km (Voronezh-M) or up to 6000 km (Voronezh-VP) in a sector with an azimuth width of 165-295 degrees (Voronezh- DM "near Armavir) or 245-355 degrees (" Voronezh-M "near Lekhtusi). The maximum elevation angle of the viewing sector ranges from 60 to 70 degrees. At the same time, it is necessary to take into account the fact that the characteristics of stations of even one model may differ, since in the course of serial production certain modifications and improvements are adopted.
Taking into account the available data on the characteristics and location of the stations of the Voronezh family, one can roughly imagine their general coverage area. Thus, the radar station, located in the Leningrad region, controls Europe and part of the neighboring regions (from Morocco to Spitsbergen, as well as a large section of the Atlantic). The facility near Armavir monitors the space between North Africa and Southern Europe. It should be noted that the Armavir Voronezh-DM duplicates the Dnepr-type stations located near the cities of Sevastopol and Mukachevo. A radar station from the Kaliningrad region also monitors the same areas as another object of a similar purpose (radar station in Baranovichi, Belarus) and monitors Europe. The sectors of the Voronezh-M radar station in Usolye-Sibirskoye are directed towards China (the first stage of the station) and southward (the second stage). Thus, the new radar stations of the missile attack warning system, partially overlapping the view sectors of the old systems, increase the overall capabilities of the Aerospace Defense Forces to detect potentially dangerous targets.
The "areas of responsibility" of the new stations, the construction of which is only planned, currently remain unknown. Most likely, during their construction, the same approach will be applied as in the case of those already in operation. They will partially overlap the survey sectors of the old model complexes and at the same time fill the gaps between the sectors of the already built new ones. As a result, over the next few years, it will be possible to almost completely renew the continuous field of view in several potentially dangerous directions, using modern systems and technologies. Thus, in the near future, it will be possible to update the means of detecting the missile attack warning system, and this can be done relatively quickly and cheaply. Thanks to the use of the VZG concept, all work will be completed by the end of the current decade, and not by a later date.
