In Russia, a unified air defense system is being created on the basis of the operational-strategic command (OSK). The decision, apparently, will be made in May. Recently, our freelance correspondent visited one of the usual, as they say, average air defense regiments, which in the future will become part of such a system. What does this regiment look like against the background of reforms carried out in the army and navy, what problems does it face?
The 108th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment, commanded by Colonel Oleg Chichkalenko, has a long history. In October 2012 he will be 70 years old. The regiment was formed by order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR in April 1941, during the war it defended Tula, for which it received the honorary title of Tula. He operated the S-75, S-200 air defense systems, now in service with the S-300PT and S-300PS.
THE EXPERIMENT WAS SUCCESSFUL
It has been deployed near Voronezh since 1949. For a long time (from 2002 to early 2010) it was cropped. Since December 1, 2009, in connection with a large-scale reform of the Armed Forces and the transition to a three-tier control system, it has been staffed up to wartime staff, and has become part of constant combat readiness. And now, within an hour after receiving the order, he is able to solve any problem as intended.
Another result of the transformations is the intercession from February 1, 2010 on combat duty. In this connection, the number of conscripts and the number of officers in the regiment increased - mainly junior officers. The regiment began to receive vehicles, equipment for the command post and household needs. At the end of the 2010 academic year, he managed to win first place, better than others in September to shoot at the Telemba training ground.
The regiment entered the air defense system of the Central Industrial Region (CPR) of the Russian Federation and the city of Moscow. He should be the first to meet an air enemy when approaching Moscow at a line of about 600 km. Its task also includes covering industrial facilities in Voronezh, military units located in this region. An experiment was carried out here this year. This happened during the large-scale operational and strategic exercises "Vostok-2010". Then the missilemen were transferred to the Far Eastern theater of operations, where they were equipped with standard equipment, and assigned the task of conducting anti-aircraft combat. The goals turned out to be not a gift. Especially one of them under the meaningless name "Armavir".
“The complexity of the target was that it was faster than all the others,” says regiment commander Colonel Oleg Chichkalenko. - But we coped with the task. In reality, the regiment hit several targets. In addition to "Armavir" I had to work on no less difficult - "Strizh" and "Pishchal".
At the Telemba training ground, targets were also launched that imitated the Lance tactical ballistic missile, a high-precision weapon. But "three hundred" coped with the task, and in a strictly allotted time. Why is it important? As a rule, air defense troops in battle (first squad) live no more than 15–20 minutes, since the enemy immediately fixes his location. As the missile men themselves say, "everything that you manage to shoot down in the first minutes is yours, and then they will start shooting you down, if you don't change your position." In the same Yugoslavia, the division survived that managed to shoot at least 1-3 times.
For obvious reasons, the regiment's leadership is reluctant to talk about problems. But what about without them? The former commander of the unit, reserve colonel Alexander Lavrenyuk, said that from 2002 to 2010 the regiment was not on alert, that is, it was not doing what, in fact, it was intended for.
And what is a military unit without normal combat training, you can imagine. During this period, as they say, it was cut off. The regiment first became part of the reduced composition, then - cropped. “Everything seemed to be on the decline, the mood of the people was not the best,” recalls Colonel of the reserve Alexander Lavrenyuk. - But nevertheless, all these years combat readiness was maintained here, all equipment was deployed in positions. About once every two years, live firing was carried out at the range. This, probably, is the secret of such a confident revival of the regiment as a combat unit: the most important thing has been preserved here - specialists and equipment."
THE RESOURCE IS NOT ENDLESS
Another bad thing. The fact that, along with positive trends, others can sometimes be traced. Yes, people were taken care of here. But in recent years, many highly qualified specialists have left the unit. Reserve Colonel Lavrenyuk believes that the military leadership of the Ministry of Defense in 2009-2010 was too categorical about their dismissal.
“Trained officers are fired at 42, 44, 53 years old - those who could still serve for a couple of years to prepare a young replenishment,” he says. - The plan was fulfilled, but now in their places young people are sometimes taken even from other branches of the military, without sufficient knowledge and work experience. And in order to train a good-quality officer of anti-aircraft missile forces after a military school, you need at least 4-5 years.
Although, in the opinion of the regiment's management, the graduates of 2009–2010 are still better than those of 2008. That is, shifts for the better in the training of young officers have already begun. Social issues are also being resolved. So, of the five young officers who arrived in 2010, all are provided with living space. And now people no longer write a letter of resignation, as it was five or six years ago.
Worse with young specialist soldiers. According to the commander, now it is not possible to find a young soldier-driver with category C, D, E rights. But someone should be entrusted with a military bus with people. In general, the problem of training professionals is one of the most important not only for the division, but also for the Armed Forces as a whole. Old specialists left, quit, and the shift was far from being prepared everywhere. We can say that at some stage the connection between generations was interrupted. Therefore, now we must not dismiss everyone under the same rubbish, but, on the contrary, take care of the specialists, giving them the opportunity to serve for another two or three years, so that they can pass on their experience to young people. In the meantime, the level of professional training of young officers - graduates of universities is in clear contradiction with the increased requirements for the officer corps of the regiments of "constant readiness", especially in terms of special training.
Another equally important problem is that all military equipment is far from the first freshness. Even the one that is on combat duty has a term of 20 years or more. To maintain it in combat readiness, repairs and modernization are carried out annually, including under the Favorit-S program. This allows you to maintain the required level of serviceability of weapons.
“I would like to emphasize that our equipment is reliable,” says Lieutenant Colonel Viktor Rakityansky, deputy regiment commander for armaments. - Together with us, she went through, as they say, fire and water, more than once visited exercises and firing in various climatic conditions. But its resource has already been extended several times. A major overhaul has recently been carried out, the service life has been extended again, and at the moment the weapons and military equipment are fully operational. But this cannot go on indefinitely …
“If our regiment is included in the unified air defense-aerospace defense system, we, naturally, will tackle new tasks as responsibly as the current ones,” continues the regiment commander, Colonel Oleg Chichkalenko. - But this will require the appropriate weapons and military equipment …
According to the commander, the 300th complex is a good system that has no equal in the world. However, the element base itself, on which it was once made, is already becoming obsolete. She is over 28 years old. The terms for missiles are also being extended. At first they were 10 years old, then 15, 20, and now they are already 30 years old. But if the rocket is stored in a pencil case in its own microclimate and is less susceptible to external influences, then the rest of the equipment is affected by various temperatures and moisture.
Lieutenant Colonel Rakityansky has been in the Armed Forces for 31 years, he has been to Vietnam, where he operated and serviced the S-75, he has done dozens of combat firing on his account. But, according to him, the overhaul of equipment, which is done in Anakhoy (Buryatia), Lyubertsy and in one more place, leaves much to be desired. Once, for example, when one of the blocks malfunctioned, he found in it … a bolt left there. And it happens that something is soldered in the wrong place. And this, by the way, is also a problem not even of production discipline, but of personnel training. Take the same cab for interfacing with a higher command post (P53L6). There are no specialists left in the unit at all. The techie officers don't know her. The same Lieutenant Colonel Rakityansky had to study it himself, but he also leaves for the reserve.
Or such an example. Once at the training ground, when performing a combat mission, it was required to control the actions of subordinates in an automated mode. At one point, a problem appeared in the interface cab (between the gearbox and the automated control system). But then there was no specialist at the entire landfill to fix it. There were no representatives of the plant nearby, who left for another job or, alas, to another world.
And yet, progress is also being made here. In 2014, the regiment will have to re-equip with the more modern S-300PM Favorit air defense system. Therefore, we must now think about how to train officers for this technique.
… During combat work, we visited one of the F2K cabins (command post). The complex solved the problems of detection, guidance and target acquisition. Thanks to combat coordination, the missilemen succeeded, when declaring combat readiness, to transfer the missiles on the launchers to a combat position in a matter of minutes. This showed once again: the equipment is combat-ready, and the people are trained. But the creation of an aerospace defense, of course, will require all new knowledge and skills.
RESPONSE MEASURES
You don't need to be a great analyst to understand why it was in 2009 that a part was revived, and not abolished, like some others. The United States was going to place its third positional missile defense area in the Czech Republic and Poland. So if it were not for these movements at our borders, perhaps the regiment would have remained cropped. Now, however, the question of creating an aerospace defense has been raised quite specifically. Although if we recall the history of the issue, then back in the 90s, the President of the Russian Federation issued a decree "On Air Defense in the Russian Federation", which provided for the creation of an aerospace defense system on the basis of the Air Defense Forces.
Today, a real movement has begun in this direction to transform some air defense formations into aerospace defense brigades. But there are many problems along the way. One of them is that our radio-technical troops today do not provide control over most of the territory of the northern regions of the Far East and along the coast of the Arctic Ocean from the Yamal Peninsula to the Chukotka Peninsula. In this regard, it is not always possible to timely detect and suppress violations of the state border of Russia in the airspace by aircraft of neighboring states. Lieutenant-General Valery Ivanov, the commander of the Strategic Command of the Aerospace Defense Forces, spoke about this with concern when he was still the commander of the Far Eastern Air Force and Air Defense Association.
To this must be added the problem of low altitudes. Since 2010, it is not necessary for our small aircraft to obtain permission to fly at these altitudes: they will be of a notification nature. So this is another "headache" for the VKO command, especially in the Central Industrial Region, which is saturated with such aircraft.
- As you know, some parts of the anti-aircraft missile forces of the Operational-Strategic Command of the Aerospace Defense (OSK VKO) were parts of the frame, - Colonel Chichkalenko recalls. - But in connection with the reform of the Armed Forces and the implementation of the decree of the President of the Russian Federation on giving a new look to the modern Russian army, all parts of the USC have become parts of constant combat readiness.
The 108th air defense missile system, we repeat, is an example of this. After the organizational and personnel measures carried out by the command of the USC, the unit took its strong place in the defense ring of the Central Industrial Region. Its personnel took up combat duty to protect the air borders of the Russian Federation in the western strategic direction.
The main combat mission of the regiment today is to cover the most important state and administrative command and control bodies and facilities on the territory of the Voronezh Region from air attack. Including the aviation group of the Western Military District, stationed in the city and the Voronezh region. Finally, the regiment is an integral part of the air defense ring of the city of Moscow and the Central Industrial Region of the Russian Federation. Numerous command posts, forces and means of air defense missile systems, RTV, in total - more than 1000 people take up combat duty in the USC VKO every day. They control the airspace on an area of 1, 3 million square meters. km. They ensure the safety of 30% of the population of Russia, covering 140 objects of state administration, industry and energy, transport communications, nuclear power plants, as well as 23 regions and 3 republics.
In service here are the S-300 air defense systems, which have repeatedly shown high efficiency. And also the newest air defense system developed by GSKB Almaz-Antey S-400 Triumph. All this suggests that the air defense forces as a whole are moving to a qualitatively new level. And their numerical reduction should be compensated for by a qualitative component. According to Major General Sergei Popov, Chief of the Air Force Anti-Aircraft Missile Forces, we are currently at the stage of creating highly mobile, well-equipped and modern anti-aircraft missile forces. The implementation of each of these characteristics requires the solution of a whole range of issues and, first of all, rearmament with new models of air defense missile systems, an increase in the level of training of servicemen, an improvement of the normative base for combat training and the combat employment of the type of troops.
Presumably, for the same purpose, at one time a decision was made to transfer anti-aircraft missile units armed with S-300V systems to the Air Force air defense missile system from the military air defense. They were able to shoot well at the exercises on target missiles "Kaban" - analogues of operational-tactical ballistic missiles. This also speaks of the considerable combat potential of the structure being created. In general, the effectiveness of combat firing of air defense missile systems in 2010 was more than 85%. This is a good start, from which, like from a stove, you can dance further.
Previously, our air defense was created according to the territorial-object principle. That is why, according to the leadership of the Air Force, there will be no need for any special practical measures to adapt the anti-aircraft component to the new structure of the districts. Only individual demarcation lines between air defense zones and areas will be revised, as well as issues of subordination of individual aerospace defense brigades and anti-aircraft missile units. The anti-aircraft missile forces will continue to be part of the VKO brigades to carry out combat missions for the anti-aircraft missile defense of the designated most important state military facilities.
These positive trends are gaining momentum. According to the chief of the Air Force Air Defense Forces, Major General Sergei Popov, the procurement of air defense equipment is one of the priority areas of the State Armament Program. Since 2011, it is planned to massively supply new types of weapons and military equipment to the air defense missile forces of the Air Force, and by 2020, it is planned to bring their share in the combat composition of the air defense missile forces of the Air Force to 100%.
In this case, the East Kazakhstan region, apparently, will be given special attention. According to the Air Force leadership, in the period until 2020, the troops will receive the latest S-500 missile defense (ABM) system, capable of hitting ballistic targets in the stratosphere and near space. And in the next 10 years, all anti-aircraft missile regiments of the Russian Air Force are planned to be re-equipped with S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems and Pantsir-S complexes.
