The eighth wonder of the world or four-sided pyramid at Sheremetyevo airport

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Each passenger arriving at the capital's Sheremetyevo airport or taking off from there, when approaching and ascending from the eastern side, probably paid attention when looking through the window at a truncated four-sided pyramid towering in the Moscow region.

This is a unique object, a stationary multifunctional radar with a circular view of the centimeter range, created as part of the implementation of the tasks of the anti-missile defense of Moscow. Station "Don-2N" is part of the missile defense division of the 1st Army of the Air Defense Missile Defense (special purpose) of the Aerospace Forces. On the eve of the next anniversary of the formation of the command of the formation, its commander, Major General Sergei GRABCHUK, answered the questions of the Krasnaya Zvezda correspondent.

Sergei Petrovich, the missile defense unit is 58 years old. In what historical conditions was it created?

- In the early 1950s, when it became known that the United States was developing long-range ballistic missiles capable of carrying powerful atomic charges, the USSR decided to create an experimental missile defense system - system "A" on the shore of Lake Balkhash, near the village of Sary -Shagan. The chief designer of the system was Doctor of Technical Sciences Grigory Vasilievich Kisunko.

Five years of hard work of huge teams of scientists, engineers, builders, industrial enterprises and military personnel made it possible to complete the work on the creation of the experimental system "A".

Success came on March 4, 1961, when, for the first time in the world, the V-1000 anti-missile, equipped with a high-explosive fragmentation warhead, destroyed the warhead of an R-12 ballistic missile launched from the Kapustin Yar test site. The target was destroyed at an altitude of 25 km at a speed of over 3 km / s.

This event is commensurate in significance with the epoch-making achievements of mankind in the 20th century, such as the creation of nuclear weapons and the first manned flight into space. However, due to the closed nature of the topic, this achievement of Soviet science and technology was not widely presented to the international community. The information was the property of a limited circle of people.

The positive results achieved in the creation of the "A" system opened up the prospects for the development of a combat missile defense system designed to intercept small groups of ballistic missiles attacking the country's capital.

It was proved that the creation of a missile defense system is a reality, and the work began. A special directorate for the introduction of the combat missile defense system was formed on January 22, 1962. This date became the day of the formation of the management of the anti-missile defense formation.

What is the purpose of the missile defense compound?

- The anti-missile defense compound is part of the 1st Air Defense-Missile Defense Army (special purpose) of the Aerospace Forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

This is the only unit in the country that is designed to defend the city of Moscow from enemy ballistic missile attacks from any direction, to participate in the warning of a missile attack and control of outer space. The personnel of the compound ensure the operation of the missile defense system, their maintenance in good condition and constant combat readiness.

The compound is armed with an operating strategic missile defense system, capable of guaranteed interception of several dozen warheads, existing and promising types of enemy ballistic missiles of intercontinental and medium range, equipped with a complex of means of overcoming missile defense.

Every year, the combat crews of the formation take part in strategic command and staff exercises conducted under the leadership of the President of the Russian Federation

What is part of the missile defense system and what tasks does it solve?

- After the completion of the creation and successful testing of the experimental system "A" at the test site, the missile defense system in its development went through two stages. This is the deployment to protect Moscow of the first generation A-35M missile defense system, which was put on alert in 1978, and the creation of a new second generation missile defense system, which has been on alert since 1995.

The missile defense system is a set of geographically dispersed complex information and fire weapons, jointly functioning in automatic mode in real time. It includes: a command and control center, a Don-2N radar station, launch sites with silo launchers for anti-missile missiles, anti-missile missiles, and a data transmission and communication system. The system is controlled by a software-based combat algorithm.

In peacetime, the missile defense system solves the problems of maintaining the system's means in readiness for use, carrying out work to detect training and test launches of ballistic missiles, launches of space rockets, and tracking space objects. In wartime, the task of destroying the warheads of ballistic missiles attacking Moscow is automatically solved. The system's capabilities make it possible to intercept all types of warheads with a probability close to one.

What role does the missile defense system play for the defense of our country?

- The anti-missile defense system was created strictly within the framework of the 1972 ABM Treaty. Its composition and combat characteristics allow: to reduce the threat of the enemy's use of nuclear missile weapons, to ensure the protection of facilities of the highest levels of command for decision-making on retaliatory actions, and to increase the threshold of nuclear response.

Being on alert, carrying out missions for the anti-missile defense of Moscow, the anti-missile defense system reliably guarantees the nuclear security of our state.

How does the system work when repelling a missile strike?

- Suppose that an enemy ballistic missile is launched from a missile base or from a submarine in the patrol area. After the completion of the active phase of the ballistic missile flight, a complex ballistic target is formed, consisting of warheads covered by several dozen decoys. Such a complex ballistic target moves towards the defended object at a speed of up to seven kilometers per second.

The fact of the launch of the rocket is recorded by our space echelon of the missile attack warning system, further tracking of a complex ballistic target is carried out by radar stations, which are the second ground echelon of the missile attack warning system, which are located along the border of our country.

If targets attack Moscow, the missile attack warning system generates target designations for the missile defense system, which begins its combat cycle.

The duration of the combat operation of the missile defense system is up to several tens of minutes. Target detection is carried out at ranges of several thousand kilometers. At the same time, the task of separating warheads from a set of false targets, clarifying their trajectories is continuously being solved, at the estimated time, antimissiles are launched and guided to the meeting points, where the warheads are destroyed. Anti-missile combat is fleeting and can last less than a minute.

What is the uniqueness of the Don-2N radar?

- Without a doubt, this is a great creation of the collective human mind. The station is intended for detecting ballistic and space targets, tracking them, determining coordinates, analyzing the composition of complex targets and guiding anti-missiles. It is capable of providing a simultaneous view of the entire upper hemisphere at ranges of several thousand kilometers.

The object in shape is a tetrahedral truncated pyramid with a width at the base of more than 140 m, at the top - 100 m and a height of more than 35 m.

The radar has implemented digital processing of various types of radar signals, which makes it possible to automatically detect and track several hundred elements of complex ballistic targets and simultaneously aim several dozen anti-missiles at them.

The station has a high power of the emitted signal, high noise immunity, multiple redundancy of equipment and equipment. This makes it possible to detect warheads of ballistic missiles against the background of heavy and light false targets, dipole reflectors, active jamming stations, at long ranges and accompany them with high accuracy. Our radar station has no analogues in the world.

By what means is the destruction of warheads of ballistic missiles carried out?

- The destruction of warheads is carried out by close intercept missiles, which are also unique in terms of their speed characteristics and have no analogues in the world. Suffice it to say that the flight speed of the anti-missile is more than 3 km / sec, which is more than four times the speed of a Kalashnikov assault rifle. Anti-missiles are kept in silos at launch sites around Moscow. In day-to-day activities, scheduled maintenance of anti-missiles is carried out at launch sites.

The media often mention the ODERAX experiment and the fact that only the Don-2N radar completely solved the problems of this experiment

- Indeed, in February 1994, the radar systems of the system participated in the Russian-American space experiment under the ODERACS program (Orbital Depis Radar Calipation Spheres). Translated - "Spheres for the calibration of radar observation and tracking of orbital debris."

The purpose of the experiment was to test the capabilities of Russian and US radar systems to detect small space objects. Three types of spheres with a diameter of 15, 10 and 5 cm were sequentially shot from the spacecraft "Shuttle". Spheres with a diameter of 10 and 15 cm were detected by all radars. Spheres with a diameter of 5 cm were detected only by the Don-2N radar. The results of this work have shown the superiority of our technology, a high level of professional training of the specialists serving it.

Does the missile defense system solve problems in the interests of other systems of the Aerospace Forces?

- Of course, in day-to-day activities, the results of the missile defense system's work on detecting ballistic missile launches, launching space rockets, tracking space objects are constantly in demand. The missile defense system is integrated into a unified information support system for missile attack warning and space control systems with the delivery of high-precision information to these systems in real time.

In the interests of the missile attack warning system, missile defense systems are regularly used to detect launches of space rockets and launches of ballistic missiles from the Plesetsk and Baikonur cosmodromes, the Kapustin Yar test site, Strategic Missile Forces position areas, ballistic missile launches from submarines from the Barents, White and Okhotsk Seas …

Every year, the formation's combat crews take part in strategic command and staff exercises, conducted under the leadership of the President of the Russian Federation, within the framework of which several land and sea-based intercontinental ballistic missiles are launched.

In the course of the Thunder-2019 command and control system, in accordance with the exercise plan, the Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome along the battlefield on the Kamchatka Peninsula, ballistic missiles of the Sineva submarines from the Barents and Okhotsk seas were launched against the battlefields located on the Kamchatka Peninsula and Kanin nose, respectively.

The means of the missile defense system detected the start of all ballistic missiles and confirmed that their warheads reached the specified aiming points at the set time.

In the interests of the space control system, on an ongoing basis, the solution of tasks for the detection and tracking of space objects is carried out, the collection of various information on them and the determination of the parameters of their orbits to ensure the safety of the international space station, operating spacecraft, as well as in the event of emergency situations in space.

The unique characteristics of the information facilities of the system allow detecting small space objects, which makes it possible to solve the problem of monitoring space debris pollution.

There is no other such universal system in the Aerospace Forces.

Station "Don-2N" has a high power of the emitted signal, high noise immunity, multiple redundancy of equipment and equipment

How is the constant readiness of the missile defense system achieved and maintained?

- In order to maintain the constant readiness of the military units of the formation to perform combat and other tasks, combat training of personnel has been organized, carried out during the implementation of daily activities and combat duty.

In the military units of the formation, using the means of the system, combat duty for anti-missile defense is organized, which is the fulfillment of a combat mission. It is carried out continuously, around the clock, both in peacetime and in wartime.

According to the results of training in the 2019 academic year, our unit traditionally took first place among the units of the 1st Air Defense-Missile Defense Army (OSN). During the operation of the system assets, accident-free operation was ensured, and there were no violations of the combat readiness of the system assets. The whole complex of works on carrying out maintenance and keeping the system facilities in good condition has been completed. The correct functioning of the entire system is checked several times a day by monitoring the functioning of means of various levels.

In 2019, with the combat crews of the formation, more than 600 training exercises were carried out to detect the launches of conventional ballistic missiles, accompany them, measure coordinates, analyze the composition of complex targets, aim anti-missiles, followed by an analysis of the results of the functioning of the means and actions of personnel.

In the interests of assessing the combat readiness of the missile defense system and information support of the outer space control system, the combat crews of the compound performed control missions of more than 300 space objects, of which more than 60 were of particular importance.

In the interests of the missile attack warning system, the missile defense system detected 17 launches of ballistic missiles and space missiles from Russian cosmodromes, training grounds, as well as from sea areas.

With the involvement of the combat crews of the military units of the formation, successful launches of new anti-missile missiles were carried out at the Sary-Shagan training ground. All this testifies to the fact that the personnel of the formation are able to fulfill the assigned tasks, and the means of the system are kept in the established degree of readiness.

How is the training of military personnel serving in the formation carried out?

- Maintenance and maintenance of the system in constant combat readiness is the work of the unit's personnel and requires highly qualified command, operational and engineering personnel.

More than ten military educational institutions and military training centers at civilian higher educational institutions that train anti-missile defense specialists and small-numbered specialties, such as specialists in the rear, defense of state connections, connections and others.

The main ones are the A. F. Mozhaisky (St. Petersburg), VA EKR named after Marshal of the Soviet Union G. K. Zhukov (Tver) and MSTU named after N. E. Bauman (Moscow). Last year 72 graduates arrived at the compound.

To what extent do the technological solutions incorporated in the creation of the missile defense system correspond to modern conditions?

- 24 years have passed since the missile defense system was put into operation and put on alert. The design solutions incorporated into the system during its creation were much ahead of their time, and this allows at present to successfully expand the range of tasks to be solved and adequately respond to the emergence of promising enemy aerospace attack weapons.

Let me note that decades of real operation of the system have made it possible to gain invaluable experience, which helps to solve problems of improving the technical means of the system and methods of its application. During the operation of the system, a lot of work was done, during which several stages of modernization of the funds were carried out. Currently, work is underway to deeply modernize the entire missile defense system without removing it from combat duty. There is a transition to a modern element base, high-performance specialized electronic computing facilities are being put into operation.

Work is being successfully carried out to develop promising interceptor missiles. This will allow in the near future to expand combat capabilities and improve the characteristics of the new missile defense system.

I can state with full responsibility that the missile defense system is functioning reliably and is being successfully modernized.