The Federation Council Committee held a visiting meeting on defense and security. The venue for the meeting was the Main Center for the Missile Attack Warning System. We will tell you about some of the details of the conversation below.
The senators were invited to a secret facility in Solnechnogorsk, a suburb of Moscow, by Oleg Ostapenko, commander of the Russian Space Forces. It was at the headquarters of the space forces that the conceptual issues of the formation of a new type of armed forces in the Russian Federation - the Aerospace Defense Forces - were developed. Visitors were interested in the question of what path the creation of the aerospace defense will take, which units and subdivisions will be included in it, and what tasks will be solved with its help. General Ostapenko gave the senators answers to all their questions.
According to Viktor Ozerov, chairman of the committee of the Council of Federations, the specialists of the headquarters of the space forces have already decided on the stages of this large-scale work. By December 1 of this year, they intend to report to the President of the country on the creation of the Aerospace Defense Forces and on their readiness to carry out combat duty. Ozerov said that in the formation of the VKO and the creation of a newly-made branch of the military, general principles and the same approaches are used that were once implemented when creating the country's air defense, but with adjustments to new realities and modern threats.
For obvious reasons, the military does not disclose the true number of equipment and personnel that will be transferred to the new troops. Nevertheless, it is known that the aerospace defense forces will include air defense brigades, as well as electronic warfare units, missile defense formations and objects that are part of the missile attack warning system. It is also possible that elements of the outer space observation system will be attached to them.
The Chief of the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces Nikolai Makarov said earlier that space forces are one of the elements of all components of aerospace defense. Aerospace defense is created at the General Staff of the country's armed forces, under his leadership, and the General Staff of the RF Armed Forces will manage the aerospace defense.
Makarov believes that the military has no right to make a mistake in this very important issue for the state. Therefore, the concept of the formation of the aerospace defense up to 2020 was developed, which determines the sequence and nature of actions. The Chief of the General Staff noted that the Aerospace Defense should integrate all available forces and means, which are currently few, and be multi-layered in range and altitude. Also, according to the Chief of the General Staff, the army will start receiving products for the needs of the East Kazakhstan region from next year. What kind of products are expected in the Armed Forces, the officer did not specify. We can only assume that we are most likely talking about the latest means of control over outer space and airspace, as well as new anti-missile installations and S-400 air defense systems. According to some reports, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has big plans for the entry into the troops of the promising S-500 anti-aircraft missile system, which is capable of destroying supersonic targets at a distance of up to 600 kilometers. The appearance of this system in the Armed Forces is expected by 2020.
It is pertinent to note that Makarov opposes VKO being built by eliminating equipment and weapons from military districts. He is convinced that the ideal option would be to equip the newly created structure with a completely new arsenal. But so far it is absent in sufficient quantity, therefore, some objects and some equipment will have to work both for the general aerospace defense system and for the districts. It should be borne in mind that individual elements of the future structure today are subordinate to the "space" command. In particular, all radars and satellites of the missile attack warning system, complexes and control centers for outer space, as well as the Don-2N radar stations and the installation of anti-missile missile defense systems are closed on it. Air defense assets and forces, which are currently commanded by the Air Force, will also be added to the VKO.
Valery Ivanov, the commander of the new troops, quite clearly defined the main functions of the aerospace defense. In his words, identifying the beginning of the attack and notifying the leadership of the state for further decision-making on the detection, destruction, suppression and cover of objects is the main task that is set before the VKO.
