Russia has tested its S-500 air defense system with interceptors capable of eliminating hypersonic targets, Izvestia reported.
Trials were conducted at the Sary-Shagan training ground in Kazakhstan, where the missile interceptors successfully neutralized targets, the Moscow-based outlet added citing sources.
The system’s “first samples” will enter service this year while its serial delivery is scheduled for 2025, according to Sergei Chemezov, head of Russian state defense manufacturer, Rostec.
Uses Range of Interceptors
“The S-500 Prometheus mobile air defense missile system is being created to destroy rockets and spacecraft in near-earth orbits. It can eliminate targets flying in hypersound,” Lieutenant General Aytech Bizhev, ex-deputy head of the Air Force for the Commonwealth of Independent States air defense system, told Izvestia.
The mobile system can be transported by ground or air around the country and deployed depending on the threat, Bizhev added.
The S-500 utilizes a combination of missiles to intercept a variety of aerial targets. It employs the 40N6, which is also installed in the S-400, to neutralize “aerodynamic targets.” For ballistic missiles, the system uses the 77N6 with “conventional and nuclear warheads” to destroy targets in the ”transatmospheric sector and in near space,” the outlet wrote.
New Jam-proof Radar Station
The system has received a jam-proof radar station, the Yenisei, Russian news outlet Gazeta.Ru reported, citing a source last month.
The Yenisei radar station has locators equipped with remote posts that help the system avoid being jammed by enemy systems.
The system is also capable of uninterrupted operation for a longer period of time than other air defense radar systems, according to Gazeta.Ru. The Yenisei’s fully automatic function reportedly excludes the possibility of human error.
It is an active-passive radar system, which allows it to conduct “reconnaissance and detect air objects and issue target designations to air defense weapons without broadcasting.”
Another key feature of the Yenisei is its ability to scan a sector, unlike most other radar that scans in circles, the outlet wrote, referring to the S-400’s 96L6 all-altitude detector radar station, which does not include the Yenisei’s sector scanning capability.