For several decades, or to be more precise, since 1950, a whole air defense complex was created around Moscow. Over the past twenty years, this kind of "umbrella" has been virtually destroyed. But now the Russian Ministry of Defense promises to restore the entire complex in full. This was stated by General Valery Ivanov, appointed head of the newly created command of the State's Aerospace Defense. He also pointed out that the new system will be able to repel the attacks of cruise missiles and enemy aircraft in the established four sectors, which are divided into echelons by range and height.
The basis of the new protection complex will be air defense regiments armed with S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft missile systems. The first to go on alert 18 months ago near Elektrostal were units of the 606th Air Defense Regiment, consisting of 16 missile launchers. In May, it will be strengthened by the 210th Air Defense Regiment with a similar number of Triumphs, positions for which are being prepared today near Dmitrov.
Of course, this is extremely small for building a full-fledged and impenetrable "umbrella" over Moscow. When the new S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems become the guardians of the Moscow sky, the military is keeping a secret. And rightly so. After all, they talked about this a lot, but for the most part this information did not coincide with reality. We can recall the adoption of the State Armament Program of the Russian Federation for the period 2007-2015. During this period, it was planned to purchase 18 Triumph divisions, but only two were purchased, as mentioned above.
Back in August 2009, when North Korea stepped up testing its own ballistic missiles, Nikolai Makarov, Chief of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces, announced that the S-400 battalion would be deployed in the Far East. It is not clear what Makarov meant by this. At the moment, not a single copy of the S-400 has appeared on the territory of the Far East. There is information that the third regiment of "Triumphs" is only going to be redeployed there. But when this will happen is unknown.
Little of. The mastering of the S-400 system, which is the best according to the declared tactical and technical data, and in the troops today is extremely difficult. Which, however, is a familiar thing for any new high-tech weapon. There were reports in the press that at the end of 2008, due to the discovered design flaws, the first division of the S-400, which was purchased by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, had to be removed from combat duty. The main difference between the Triumph and its predecessor, the S-300 of various modifications, according to the designers, was to be the ability to destroy targets in near space. If everything works out, then Russia will receive an analogue of the THAAD anti-missile system, which is in service with the US army and is capable of hitting ballistic missiles at an altitude of 150 kilometers in near space. According to the assurance of Yuri Solovyov, deputy general director of the Almaz-Antey design bureau, Russia already has a rocket for this. At the moment it is being tested and in 2015 it should enter the troops.
Triumphs' troubles and shortcomings irritated the Kremlin. Whatever it was, the country spent 15 billion rubles on the development of the S-400, and so far, by and large, there is nothing at the output. As a result, Igor Ashurbeyli, who was praised as a national hero and awarded in April 2008 for the development of a new weapon, was dismissed without explanation of the reasons.
But these are far from all the problems that may arise when creating a reliable air defense over Moscow. Triumphs alone will not be able to provide protection, primarily due to the peculiarities of the modern tactics of conducting an aerospace attack. All modern wars begin with the suppression of air defense systems with large-scale attacks from military aircraft and low-flying cruise missiles. Even if we take into account that both S-400 regiments near Moscow have already been brought to perfection, they cannot shoot down more than 32 targets with 32 missiles. After that, it is urgently necessary to change the starting positions and recharge. During this time, "Triumphs" seem to be easy prey for enemy aircraft, and in order to avoid this, it is necessary to use an additional protective complex that can hit air targets at close range.
Such combat vehicles are at the disposal of the Russian army. They were created in 1994 at the Tula Instrument-Making Design Bureau in Tula and are called the Pantsir-S1 self-propelled ground-based anti-aircraft missile and cannon system. The complex was created in two modifications. The first serves to cover the air defense positions, the second - to protect ground units. The systems differ both in the load-bearing chassis and in the armament. In the first version, the Pantsir air defense missile system is armed with 12 9M335 missiles and two 2A72 cannons. In the second version, the system is equipped with 8 missiles, but has 2A38 rapid-fire cannons, which are similar to the guns installed on the Tunguska complex. The firing range is 4 kilometers with cannons and 12 kilometers with missiles (for both options). The main targets for destruction are unmanned aerial vehicles, cruise missiles, aircraft and corrected aerial bombs.
Obviously, for the defense of the positions of the Triumph complexes, this is the most acceptable means of defense. Moreover, considering that the stock of anti-aircraft missiles in one ammunition load of the "Pantsir" is sufficient to cover the positions of the S-400 regiment with the forces of one division. But in this situation there is one circumstance that practically destroys all plans. A significant part of the Pantsir-S1 air defense missile system, namely 175 units, were manufactured for export abroad, in the arsenal of the Russian army there are only ten such complexes, and this is not enough to create a reliable air shield.
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