The 5P85S launcher (pictured) is equipped with a liaison container for controlling additional 5P85D launchers
Earlier, we several times examined the composition, as well as the anti-aircraft and anti-missile potentials of the 1st Leningrad Red Banner Air Force and Air Defense Command of the Western Military District, which today is the main structure in the Armed Forces that defends the country's airspace from NATO in the western strategic direction. We also returned several times to the issue of insufficient air defense and missile defense of air lines over the northeastern part of Siberia and the East Siberian Sea, where there is a threat of invasion by strategic missile carriers B-1B "Lancer" and other promising strategic aviation complexes. The threat is beginning to be partially stopped already today: the air harbor in Tiksi is being restored, which will soon turn into a large air base for the "Arctic forces", where the main air defense systems based on MiG-31BM interceptors and A-50U AWACS aircraft can be based.
Today, an equally important issue is being brought up on the agenda concerning the air and missile defense of the central part of Russia from the southern strategic direction (Central Asia, China). This became known on July 1, 2016 from the deputy commander of the 14th Army of the Air Force and Air Defense of the Central Military District, Andrey Schemelev. Several new divisions of S-300PS anti-aircraft missile systems were deployed in the capital of the Republic of Khakassia (Abakan). The republic is located close to the borders of Mongolia, China and Kazakhstan (deep in the Eurasian continent), which, at first glance, makes the region more or less safe in terms of possible MRAUs from the US Navy and Air Force in the future, but there are also some peculiarities that are ignored The Defense Ministries cannot stay.
The first progress in strengthening the protection of airspace in the southern strategic forces of Russia began in the framework of the Unified Regional Air Defense System with Kazakhstan at the beginning of this summer. On an absolutely gratuitous basis, on July 9, 2016, several similar S-300PS air defense systems were transferred to the Republic of Kazakhstan, which will close the sky over the southern regions of the CSTO. Another 5 S-300PS Kazakhstan received at the end of 2015. Then Shoigu drew attention to the numerous threats surrounding the Central Asian republic. According to the most presumed version, this threat is an actively developing radical cell of the terrorist organization ISIS in Western and Central Asia, which, with the support of Doha, Riyadai Ankara, is already slowly developing tactical ground-to-ground missiles and short-range missiles based on those that have used up operational resource of Western and Soviet missiles, which through various intermediaries in the Middle East are supplied from some African, European states and Ukraine. And with American assistance, these weapons may well get the parameters of high-precision operational-tactical air attack weapons with a range of up to 50 km, against which the "Three hundred" is an ideal asymmetric response.
But the second version, which is the main one, considers the resolution of more serious threats lurking in the unpredictable southern operational direction. Once we analyzed the purpose of the transfer of B-1B "strategists" with strategic air tankers KC-10A "Extender" to the Australian air base Tyndall. This is an ideal springboard for "force pressure" on the PRC due to constant combat alert over the waters of the South China Sea, as well as to achieve the launch lines of long-range tactical cruise missiles AGM-158B "JASSM-ER" at our military facilities in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. These borders are located over the territories of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
An even more suspicious and threatening fact is the transfer of a B-52H strategic bomber to the Qatar airbase El Udeid. The deployment of "Stratofortress" on this AvB is explained by the need for regular massive missile and bomb attacks on ISIS bases in Iraq and Syria, but in the event of a possible conflict between Russia and NATO, they will be able to use AGM-86B ALCM strategic cruise missiles at our strategic facilities in the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Novosibirsk region, because the range of these missiles is 2,780 km. Complicating the situation is that the missiles can be launched over the northern mountainous regions of Pakistan, and their flight path will pass over Tibet in the PRC, which will complicate their detection by both our and Chinese AWACS aircraft, and therefore several divisions of St. 300PS significantly increases the defense capability of Southern Siberia.
Yes, modifications of the S-300PS are early versions that have restrictions on the speed of targets hit and the interception range (1300 m / s and 120 km, respectively), but they cope with their tasks of destroying low-altitude ultra-small targets almost perfectly, and the performance of the C- 300PS practically does not differ from the performance of later versions of the S-300PMU-1/2. This most important indicator is influenced by 3 main characteristics: the target channel of the 30N6E MRLS (simultaneous capture and illumination of 6 targets), the speed of the 5V55R missiles is only 300 km / h less than that of the 48N6E2 (6, 25M versus 6, 6M), and the PBU 5N63S provides the same rate of fire (3 seconds) as the new PBU 83M6E used on the S-300PM2 air defense missile system. The interference immunity of the S-300PS is also at a very high level. All this keeps the PS version at the helm of the aerospace defense of the allied states and many regions and districts of Russia in the 21st century.
The presence of the 76N6 low-altitude detector keeps the S-300PS head and shoulders above the advertised American Patriot PAC-2 long-range air defense system, whose operators are afraid to even imagine the possibility of repelling a massive missile and air strike from one, let alone several directions.
