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FROM AIR DEFENSE TO AEROSPACE DEFENSE
Red Star. September 25, 2004. By Anatoly Dokuchaev
Issue of every volume of the Encyclopedia "Russia's Arms and Technologies. The
XXI century Encyclopedia" becomes an event in the country's defense sphere because
it provides with food for thought about the present state of Russian arms and
prospects for their evolution. The 9th volume called "Air and Ballistic Missile
Defense" is not an exception. The 750-page book professionally covers details
of air defense systems used by all kinds of military forces, as well as missile
defense systems.
Traditionally this edition is a result of collaboration between competent experts
and specialists from enterprises and companies of the Russian defense industry,
scientific-research organizations of the defense ministry, historians and journalists
of the Publishing House "Arms and Technologies" under common supervision of
Defense Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Ivanov.
AT FIRST, I will cite a following interesting fact. Russia was one of first
countries, which began to create air defense. On December 8, 2004 it will be
90 years since the air defense organization has been created in our country.
First practical steps were made during the First World War. A project of a special
instruction has been drawn up in the headquarter of 6th Army defending the Russian
capital (Petrograd) by the middle of November 1914. The instruction defined
an order of notifications (warnings) about our own aircraft flights in the zone
of 6th Army's responsibility, and an order to involve field units into fighting
against enemy's aircraft. This instruction defined cooperation between pilots
and ground forces during the defense of Petrograd against air attacks, first
of all by German air forces.
The commander of 6th Army, general of artillery K. P. Fander-Flit has signed
a secret order on November 25. The Order number 90 approved the document mentioned
above, identified as "Instruction on aeronautics in the zone of 6th Army", and
defined the date to put it in force by November 25 (in new style - December
8).
It will be the first time when the Russian Armed Forces mark by celebration
this glorious date in the current year. Thus the 9th volume of the Encyclopedia
"Russia's Arms and Technologies. The XXI century Encyclopedia" comes on the
threshold of 90 years since the country's air defense has been established and,
I have to emphasize, 50 years since Special-purpose Command Forces (former Moscow
Air Defense District) have been organized.
Reading the volume issued, one can see how far air defense facilities, which
must be always in time with attack facilities, went during 90 years. There are
stable tendencies observed in evolution of military forces in leading countries
to develop first of all forces for air and space attacks. Activities to work
up and improve forms of their application in battles are in progress now. Programs
to create and take in service new generations of strategic air-, ground-, sea-
and space-based weapons are being implemented. Due to this fact there are activities
carried in Russia to improve efficiency of facilities for fighting against newest
air and space weapons and to create fundamentals of air and space defense.
"Evolution of attack facilities, their penetration into air and space spheres,
as well as stipulated search for ways to counteract against these facilities,
caused creation of Aerospace Defense fundamentals in countries leading in the
military sphere" - noticed in his foreword article the Chief of the Armament
Directorate of Armed Forces, Deputy Defense Minister of the Russian Federation,
General of the Army Aleksei Moskovsky, - "This process is objective and naturally
determined, that was confirmed by the practice of creation and application of
military forces during last military conflicts ("Storm in Desert", Yugoslavia,
Afghanistan, and others)."
"At current circumstances no one kind of military forces or defense system,
acting alone in atmosphere or space, could avoid all threats of attacks from
air and space" - emphasizes in his article, published in the volume, the Chief
of the Main Operative Directorate, the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of
Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General Alexander Rukshin, -
"In order to ensure security of the Russian Federation in the aerospace sphere
common elaboration of all kinds of various forces and means is required. The
most optimal solution for this purpose is joining up all information and reconnaissance
systems and all fairing facilities of air defense forces and missile defense
forces into an Aerospace Defense System of the Russian Federation, and concentrating
the main elaboration onto combined and mutually complementary application of
existing and envisaging further development facilities and systems."
And, nevertheless, the volume editors named it simply "Air and Ballistic Missile
Defense" providing specialists with a chance to analyze the current state of
weapons for air and space defense independently, and to think about ways to
create and develop aerospace defense systems. The authors inform readers about
certain models of air and missile defense facilities and provide with knowledge
about material and intellectual components of aerospace defense of Russia as
a whole.
MATERIALS of the book are divided by sections. The division is based on functional
features, as it is common in Russia's Armed Forces: air defense systems of the
Air Force, weapons of the Land Force, weapons of the Navy, systems and facilities
of space defense.
Air defense of the Air Force is a complicated system considered a successor
of the former country's Air Defense Force (radio-technical forces monitoring
the space, detecting air attacks, and providing air missile systems and pursuit
aviation with information about enemy; air missile forces repelling air attacks;
pursuit aviation of the Air Defense Force destroying manned and unmanned enemy's
aircraft in air). Its systems and facilities are described in 9 subsections.
The description begins with air defense aviation of the Air Force. We can know
specifications of the fighter-interceptor MiG-31, fighters Su-27 and Su-30,
and the aircraft for radiolocation patrol, detection and guidance A-50.
Air missile weapons are represented by all air missile systems and facilities,
which are in service now including the well known in the world air missile system
"Favorite" manufactured by the well known in the world company NPO "Almaz" after
A. A. Raspletin. By the way, this section contains an article of the General
Constructor of NPO "Almaz", Doctor of Technical Sciences Alexander Lemansky
about directions of evolution of air missile facilities and air defense systems
for the Air Force. There is an article of the General Constructor of MKB "Fakel",
Doctor of Technical Sciences Vladimir Svetlov about main directions of guided
air missiles development.
Radar stations and systems are widely represented - from the radar station
"Oborona-14" to the radar station for programmed observation with a circular
phased array "Koltso" and the radar meteorological system "Ulybka". The reader
can know details of facilities for radio-electronic warfare and radio-technical
surveillance, of automated control systems and facilities, of targets and target
systems used by forces, of training facilities, of experimental and testing
bases, and of military repair facilities. Air defense of the Land Force now
includes air missile systems and anti-aircraft artillery, which mutually defend
air defense systems and facilities with high efficiency. It also includes a
radiolocation surveillance system disposed in depth.
Air defense of the Land Force ensures disposed in depth cover of military alignments
and objects against enemy's air attack facilities. It directly covers military
formations during their advancement, occupation of destination areas, and during
military operations (battles). It is represented by air missile systems and
anti-aircraft artillery, by radiolocation stations for reconnaissance, guidance
and target pointing (from radars P-15 and P-19 to the optoelectronic round-view
station "Phoenix"), as well as by automated control systems.
It is the first time in the newest history when Air defense of the Navy was
described including ways of its evolution and weapons in service. Today air
defense forces of the Navy represent a kind of naval forces and are parts of
naval territorial formations. They are armed with various air missile systems
and anti-aircraft artillery of high efficiency, with detection, target pointing
and information display facilities, as well as with radio-electronic warfare
systems. The book contains all this stuff.
At the present time Space Defense Forces include: a system for early warning
about attacks from the space, designed to detect a rocket attack in time; an
anti-rocket defense system around Moscow; and a space monitoring system tracking
objects in the space. The volume published covers some white spots in this field.
In particular, it is the first time when there were described capabilities of
spacecraft "Oko" and "Prognoz" included into the system warning about rocket
launches, as well as the structure of facilities for countermeasures against
space defense systems. Scientific and experimental facilities of space defense,
a naval and space system for reconnaissance and target pointing are described
as well.
A separate section describes defense industry enterprises designing, manufacturing,
upgrading and repairing air and space defense systems and facilities. There
are 18 federal state unitary enterprises, 30 open joint-stock companies and
4 closed joint-stock companies described in the book. Models of military equipment
are designated according to the Common Classifier of Supply Items, worked out
by the Ministry of Defense, which is compatible with foreign classifiers by
its parameters.
In conclusion, I would like to notice that materials contained in the book
allow the reader not only to know about certain models of air and space defense
weapons, but also to get a view on the level of our country's material and intellectual
base readiness to organize the aerospace defense of the Russian Federation.
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