Russian S-400 air defense missile fired (Photo: Telegram).
Russia's S-400 missiles are increasingly formidable
Recently, in the Northern Military District, units of the Russian Armed Forces conducted interesting tests in conditions close to real combat conditions, the Topcor military information site reported.
They used the S-400 long-range air defense system in the Ukrainian theater, combining the firing of missiles with active seekers with the coordination of the A-50 AWACS airborne early warning and command "flying radar" complex.
Military Watch magazine describes that with this groundbreaking new method of combat, the Russians have turned the state-of-the-art S-400 missile system into an even more formidable air defense weapon.
Military Watch notes that the missile used by the Russians fully matches the capabilities of the 40N6, a unique anti-aircraft missile with a range of up to 400km. The missile has unprecedented destructive capabilities thanks to its special flight trajectory, it soars to great heights in near space before plunging down on its target flying about 5m above the ground.
This allows S-400 missile units to attack low-flying aircraft and enemy cruise missiles at long ranges, which no foreign air defense system can do due to the limitations of the Earth's curvature on such projectiles following conventional trajectories.
At the final stage of the flight of the 40N6 missile pair, the Russians paired the projectile with a long-range radar-controlled aircraft, successfully hitting one of the Ukrainian planes.
Moreover, the missile carrying the “new warhead” can fire at maximum range and hit targets at an altitude of about 1,000 meters. The Russians have relatively few A-50 aircraft and do not use them often.
However, Russian fighters carry early warning radars nearly twice as powerful as their Western counterparts, which partly makes up for the lack of AWACS deployment. For example, the MiG-31 is equipped with a radar six times more powerful than the AN/APG-68 radar on the US F-16, designed to provide very high airborne situational awareness.
This also makes the MiG-31 a "mini AWACS" to interface with long-range ground-based air defense systems, especially with S-400 units using 40N6 missiles.
Military Watch also drew attention to statements from senior Russian officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, who asserted that Russia now produces more different surface-to-air missiles than all other countries in the world combined.
At the same time, the production of S-400 air defense systems has accelerated since 2016, Russia is building a number of new industrial facilities and modernizing most of the old ones. The scale of production of S-400 air defense systems and missiles now allows the Russians to annually introduce several new air defense regiments, along with S-300V4 missiles (for the army), S-500 and other systems.
The new S-500 system expands these capabilities and while it is not optimized to defeat tactical fighter aircraft, it provides defense against intercontinental ballistic missiles, satellites, space planes and faster hypersonic weapons, and provides a large number of hypersonic weapons, with a connection range of up to 600km.
By 2027-2028, the number of S-400 units in Russia will exceed 60, and the production rate of 40N6 missiles will exceed 300 per year. The media believes that what is happening reflects the fact that for decades the Russians have spent more money on ground-based air defense systems than on tactical aviation.
What do experts say about S-400 missiles?
Retired Colonel Victor Baranets, a leading Russian military analyst, commented: "The West has repeatedly acknowledged the unique features of the S-400. Even if there are many missiles, drones, enemy aircraft attacking at the same time, the complex's "eyes" will see everything, and the automatic equipment will determine the most suitable missile for these targets.
If we characterize the S-400 as a whole, this system combines all the best features of the Russian defense industry today: from engines, guidance systems, to unique radars.
In fact, most international air defense experts, including Dr. Carlo Kopp of Monash University (Australia), co-founder of the famous analysis site Air Power Australia, admit that the S-400 missile is a killer of all types of flying targets, especially 5th generation stealth aircraft such as the US F-22 and F-35.
The S-400 Triumf air defense missile system can launch various types of interceptor missiles, including the super long-range 40N6E (400km), long-range 48N6 (250km) and 9M96E2 (120km), and short-range 9M96E (40km). Meanwhile, the US Patriot PAC air defense system has worse indicators.
The S-400 Triumf's anti-ballistic missile capability is one of the decisive factors that many countries are interested in. At the same time, this complex has radars designed to detect and control missiles to destroy modern stealth aircraft targets such as the F-22 and F-35.
In addition, the S-400 Triumf complex can also threaten targets such as early warning aircraft, which often operate out of range of enemy air defense systems. Currently, after being optimized and perfected, the S-400 is even more terrifying.
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