All military actions of the last decades, in which large powers and small states took part, proceeded according to one scenario: everything began with the implementation of the suppression of the air defense of the more vulnerable side, which led to the liberation of the sky for aviation. At the same time, for a small country that could not pay with the same coin and did not own the means that hit remote enemy launch sites, even the presence of modern air target detection systems was not a salvation. After all, using radars, it is almost impossible to detect small, low-flying cruise missiles. In this case, even over-the-horizon radar is powerless, since it is designed to track the launch and flight of exclusively intercontinental ballistic missiles, the Belarusian portal TUT. BY reports.
However, is the first strike weapon so inevitable? So, in Belarus, where since Soviet times the most powerful intellectual capabilities have been focused on the creation of air defense systems, they found an answer to this question. This answer indicates that even without the use of radars, it is possible to detect a cruise missile in time, calculate its speed and predict the route.
After detecting an enemy missile, it will not be difficult to organize its meeting at the calculated time and in the expected place. Indeed, to break the radio-transparent cap of the homing head and blind the rocket, only one bullet will be enough. And rapid-fire systems that are controlled by computers and capable of destroying low-flying targets are in service.
According to Professor Sergei Geister, Chief Researcher of the Research Institute of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus, Doctor of Technical Sciences, the use of acoustoseismic sensors developed by Belarusian scientists will help to detect cruise missiles. They are capable of capturing and recognizing at a great distance the characteristic noises produced by the propulsion engines of a rocket and aircraft, helicopter blades, and at the same time, they do not react to other random sounds. A network of such acoustoseismic sensors, which are placed on the ground, is capable of solving the problem, while this project is not incredibly complex and very expensive. After all, these devices can be installed not throughout the territory, but only in dangerous directions. The thing is that the laying of routes for cruise missiles in order to hide their flight from air defense means takes place in areas where there is minimal radar visibility, and possible corridors are well known. The missile, of course, is capable of going beyond the boundaries of the corridor, but then it can be detected by conventional radar stations. An important point is the enormous survivability of this airspace reconnaissance subsystem in the fight against precision weapons. Designed according to the network principle, this subsystem is able to remain operational even if some of the sensors fail.
Belarusian scientists believe that this method of protecting their territory is especially appropriate for small countries. And it is no coincidence that Russian specialists, whom the Belarusians showed in action in 2006, the prototype of the system, giving a high assessment of this development, doubted whether to actually implement it in the vast expanses of their country. On the territory of Russia there are a lot of directions and objects that would have to be covered using acoustic seismic sensors, and a huge number of such devices would be required. And for such a small country like Belarus, scientists believe, such a solution with the additional use of conventional radar and radio jamming means will be very effective.
Belarusian scientists are not going to make any secret of the fact connected with the development of the acoustic seismic system. In their opinion, only that information that concerns the characteristics of the air defense subsystem, algorithms and methods of signal processing, as well as the locations of the sensors is classified. The principle of operation of such reconnaissance signaling devices, which were created in the United States of America during the Vietnam War, is well known. The Americans placed the sensors secretly in the ground in the direction where the transport and military equipment of North Vietnam was supposed to move, and when the sensor was triggered, they struck this square. This principle was also used by Belarusian scientists, however, in order to detect low-flying targets.
Colonel Nikolai Buzin, who is the head of the Research Institute of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus, said that this research program is one of many carried out at this institute. The staff of the institute are mostly engaged in developments related to the field of the theory of military art and the construction of the Armed Forces, and not the creation of technical systems. Work is also underway concerning the scientific examination of the statutory documentation of the Armed Forces, the analysis of military conflicts in the world. The Institute develops automated control systems of various levels, geoinformation systems, communication facilities and other projects. In addition, the specialists of the research institute train highly qualified scientific personnel, implement in the practice of the troops what has been accumulated by the scientific subdivisions.
For a decade of its activity, the Institute has managed to carry out over one hundred and fifty research projects related to practically all spheres of interests of the Armed Forces. The extremely high percentage of researchers who have a scientific degree makes it possible to conduct analytical research at a very high level, scientifically accompany the development of military-industrial complex enterprises in the interests of equipping the troops with the most modern technology that fully meets all the requirements and capabilities of the country.
