On December 5, 2006 Russia carried out a successful test of an interceptor of the A-135 missile defense system, deployed around Moscow. The test was conducted around 11:00 MSK (08:00 UTC) at the Sary-Shagan test site in Kazakhstan. The Space Forces announced that the test was part of the program to extend operational life of the interceptors.
It is not immediately clear whether it was a short-range 53T6 or a long-range 51T6 interceptor. Some reports indicate that the interceptor was of the same type as the one tested on November 29, 2004, which was believed to be a short-range 53T6. Earlier tests of A-135 interceptors took place on November 2, 1999 (53T6) and on October 2, 2002 (51T6).
UPDATE: Kommersant reported that it was a test of the short-range 53T6 interceptor. Moreover, according to Kommersant, all 32 long-range interceptors of the A-135 system have been already withdrawn from service.
The book
Comments
The Russian MoD website has a picture along with its press release on the test. I have no idea if this is in fact a picture of this launch or not, but maybe someone with a better eye and a tad more knowledge than I can tell what this is a picture of.
http://mil.ru/info/1069/details/index.shtml?id=19034
click on the little picture for an enlarged picture.
I bet the picture shows the short-range rocket climbing. Anyway it’s not possible to affirm this with certainty. It will be interesting to know more about the current status and readiness level of the system as well as future development prospects (expansion?, phasing out?, modernization? ...)
Is the US NORAD and/or US Space Command capable of tracking short range missile flights like this? If so, which organization does the tracking or is it both? Same for "war game" short range launches - I can't find any information on what each group tracks and at what level. Thanks for your help!
This is a good question. As I understand, DSP satellites can actually see launches of short-range missiles, but that would require lowering the detection threshold (which means raising the probability of false alarms). I'm not sure it can be done on day-to-day basis.
Hello everybody!
Short question to you experts: As far as I know there are four Launch Site Complexes at Sary Shagan (A: 46°26'3.25"N 72°53'42.09"E / B:46° 1'33.02"N 72°28'56.60"E / C: 45°49'19.24"N 73°24'59.15"E and D: 45°48'48.08"N 73°33'59.75"E which is the old Galosh Test Site directly at the Lake). Does somebody has informations at which launch site "Gazelle" missiles are tested? Thanks in advance and best regards from bernd reuter
I saw an article from RIA Novosti (Spanish language) with some interesting claims:
1- Long range interceptors are being retired. The A-135 system will use just the short range ones.
2- Future developments and modernizations include the use of missiles from Antey-2500 and S-400 in some kind of NMD.
3- Detonation point was located at 39 km altitude and the missiles reached this point in a 5 s flight.
These points raise some questions:
1- If the rocket travelled 39 km in 5 s, it would have a terminal speed of 8 km/s and an acceleration over 200 g (!!!!). Is that possible? If the answer is yes, PRS-1 will be a really awesome weapon.
2- Can missiles from the Antey-2500 and S-400 systems be used to down strategic warheads or they are talking to just intercept short-range missiles whit the aid of the Don-2NP radar?
3- What mean a Russian “national” ABM system? It seems near impossible to cover the whole Russian territory. Or they refer to protect just some important regions?
Link: http://sp.rian.ru/onlinenews/20061206/56563307.html
Regards
Hi!
->As I wrote somewhere in this blog previously: one 51T6 Site (Zhuklino) is definitely abandoned (see “http://photofile.ru/users/archvile/379598/7239518/”). And because it simply makes no sense to maintain only one Site with 8 msl it is most likely that they closed the second Site (Naro Fominsk) meanwhile, too.
That means: A-135 is indeed left alone with its 53T6 Component only.
->The Question is not "what sense makes S-400" but: Does it make sense to continue operation with a stationary stand alone Short Range ABM-3 System to defend Moscow (imagine Sprint without Spartan)?
->About the speed of 53T6: I read something about 5,5 km/s as average speed, thats about Mach 15 (this would be already 30% faster than Sprint).
-> PRS-1 or 5Ya26 was part of intended S-225 (ABM-2). I think if this missile ever became operational at all, this design was just taken as base to develop visual similar systems which in fact were far advanced in perfomance: 53T6"Amur" (stationary) and 9M82 for S-300V (mobile).
->Does someone has the exact coordinates of the Launch Site (at Sary Shagan)?
Best Regards
Regarding a proposed ABM site in Poland, is it possible (in terms of physics and geometry)that the anti-missiles based on polish soil can intercept SS - 19's and Topol - M's launched from their base in Tatishchevo ?