The range of 300 million kilometers is not the limit
The 15th Army of the Aerospace Forces (special purpose) includes the Main Center for Missile Attack Warning, the Main Center for Space Situation Intelligence, and the Main Test Space Center named after G. S. Titov. Let us consider the tasks of the technical capabilities of the ground component of these forces.
GC PRN with the main command post in Solnechnogorsk organizationally consists of separate radio engineering units (ortu). There are 17 such units. The ground echelon of the PRN has radars "Dnepr", "Daugava", "Daryal", "Volga", "Voronezh" and their modifications.
Since 2005, the creation of a network of ortu with Voronezh radars has been going on. Currently, 571 ortu are on combat or experimental combat duty in Lekhtusi, Leningrad Region, with the Voronezh-M radar, Voronezh-DM in the Pionersky settlement of the Kaliningrad Region, Barnaul (Altai Territory) and Yeniseisk (Krasnoyarsk Territory). In Armavir (Krasnodar Territory) there are two sections of the Voronezh-DM system (818 ortu), the viewing sector is 240 degrees, and in Usolye-Sibirskoye, Irkutsk Region, there are two sections of the Voronezh-M. Voronezh-M is under construction in Orsk (Orenburg region), Voronezh-DM in Pechora (Komi Republic) and Zeya (Amur region). In Olenegorsk, Murmansk region, there will be "Voronezh-VP". All these radars are to be commissioned in 2018, after which there will be a continuous PRN radar field over Russia. It should be noted that the Soviet Union did not fulfill a similar task.
Radar "Voronezh-DM" operates in the decimeter range of radio waves, "Voronezh-M" - in the meter. The target detection range is up to six thousand kilometers. Voronezh-VP is a high-potential radar operating in the meter range.
In addition to the Voronezh, Soviet-era radars are in service. In Olenegorsk (57 ortu) there is a "Dnepr" as a transmitting part for reception by the "Daugava" system. In 2014, the 808 Ortu in Sevastopol also returned to the GC PRN with Dnipro. It may be returned to a functional state with the aim of additional creation of a radar field in the southwest direction. One more "Dnepr" is available in Usolye-Sibirskoye.
Outside the Russian Federation, the early warning system uses two radars. In Belarus, near Baranovichi, there is a Volga of the decimeter range, near Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan, there is another Dnieper. The last of the monsters of the Soviet era "Daryal" is in Vorkuta. It is the world's most powerful VHF radar. They plan to modernize it, as well as other Soviet-built radars, before the planned replacement with the VZG radar.
In 2013, the deployment of over-the-horizon detection radars (OGO) of air targets of the "Container" system began. The first object with such a radar was the 590 ortu in Kovylkino (Mordovia). The site will be fully completed this year. Currently, this radar operates in the Western strategic direction, it is planned to expand its capabilities to the South. The radar station of the ZGO system "Container" is being created for operation in the Eastern direction in Zeya in the Amur Region. Completion of work is scheduled for 2017. In the future, such radars will form a ring capable of detecting air targets at a distance of up to three thousand kilometers. The "Container" over-the-horizon detection unit is designed to monitor the air situation, reveal the nature of the activities of aircraft in the area of responsibility in the interests of information support for military command and control bodies, and also detect cruise missile launches.
"Windows" of opportunities
GC RKO with the Central command post in Noginsk provides planning, collection and processing of information from existing and prospective specialized means of the KKP. Among the main tasks is maintaining a unified information base, otherwise referred to as the Master Catalog of Space Objects. It contains information about 1500 characteristics of each space object (number, signs, coordinates, etc.). Russia is able to see objects with a diameter of 20 centimeters in space. In total, there are about 12 thousand space objects in the catalog.
The Krona radio-optical complex for recognizing space objects, which is one of the main assets of the RCR GC, is located in the village of Zelenchukskaya in the North Caucasus. This ortu operates in the radio and optical bands. He is able to recognize the type of satellite and its affiliation at altitudes of 3500-40,000 kilometers. The complex was put on duty in 2000 and includes a radar of centimeter and decimeter ranges and a laser-optical locator.
The Krona-N radio-optical complex, designed to detect low-orbit spacecraft, is being created in the area of the city of Nakhodka in the Primorsky Territory (573rd separate radio engineering center).
In Tajikistan, near the city of Nurek, there is the 1109th separate optoelectronic unit operating the Okno complex. It was put on alert in 2004 and is designed to detect space objects in the field of view, determine the parameters of their movement, obtain photometric characteristics and issue information about all this. Last year, the modernization of the unit under the Okno-M project was completed. Now the complex allows detecting, recognizing space objects and calculating their orbits in automatic mode at altitudes of 2-40,000 kilometers. Low-orbit flying targets will also not go unnoticed. The Okno-S complex is being created in the area of the town of Spassk-Dalniy in the Primorsky Territory.
In the prospects for the development of the GC RKO, the creation of a radar center for space control in Nakhodka (ROC "Nakhodka"), the development of the "Krona" complex, the creation of a network of mobile optical survey and search complexes "Sight", a radar for detecting and monitoring small space objects "Decoupling" based on radar "Danube-3U" in Chekhov near Moscow. For the network of control systems for radio-emitting spacecraft "Pathfinder", objects are being created in the Moscow and Kaliningrad regions, Altai and Primorsky regions. It is planned to put into operation a complex of computing facilities of the fourth generation to replace the Elbrus-2 computer. As a result, by 2018 GC RKO will be able to observe objects less than 10 centimeters in size.
Mirror of the world
The main test space center with a command post in Krasnoznamensk solves the tasks of providing control of orbital groupings of military, dual, socio-economic and scientific spacecraft, including the GLONASS system.
About 900 satellite control sessions are carried out by the GIKTS on duty every day. The center controls about 80 percent of domestic spacecraft for military, dual, socio-economic and scientific purposes.
To supply consumers of the Russian Ministry of Defense with navigation-time and, if necessary, precision information from the GLONASS navigation system, an applied consumer center has been created.
In 2014, the long-range space communications center in Yevpatoria was returned to the Space Forces. The most powerful and equipped are 40 OKIK in Evpatoria and 15 OKIK in Galenki (Primorsky Territory). In Evpatoria there is a RT-70 radio telescope with a mirror diameter of 70 meters and an antenna area of 2500 square meters. It is one of the largest fully-movable radio telescopes in the world.
This OKIK is armed with a space radio-technical complex "Pluto", equipped with three unique antennas (two receiving and one transmitting). They have an effective surface area of about 1000 square meters. The radio signal power emitted by the transmitter reaches 120 kilowatts, which allows radio communication at a distance of up to 300 million kilometers. This OKIK got from Ukraine in extremely poor technical condition, but it will be equipped with new command and measurement control systems and complexes for controlling outer space.
There is also a RT-70 radio telescope in Galenki.
OKIK GIKTS (14 nodes in total) are located throughout the country, in particular in Krasnoe Selo of the Leningrad Region, in Vorkuta, Yeniseisk, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Ulan-Uda, and Kamchatka.
The operation and composition of the OKIK equipment can be assessed using the example of the Barnaul node. With his radio equipment and a laser telescope, he conducts up to 110 sessions of spacecraft control per day. From here comes information to control the launch of spacecraft launched from Baikonur into orbits, provides voice and television communication with the crews of manned spacecraft and the ISS. Currently, a second laser telescope with a diameter of 312 centimeters and a mass of 85 tons is being built here. It is planned that it will be the largest in Eurasia and at a distance of 400 kilometers will be able to distinguish the design features of parts of spacecraft measuring eight centimeters in size.
In the interests of the GIKTs, the ship of the measuring complex of project 1914 "Marshal Krylov" - the last representative of the KIK ships, can be used.
