The attempt to find out what is the current status of the radar site in Armavir brought somewhat unexpected result - as it turns out, there are two radars there (my thanks to Bernd Reuter, who posted a link to the kosmosnimki.ru image and others who sent me their comments).
These appear to be identical decimeter wave band radars known as Voronezh-DM. One of them is almost completed - this is the one that is looking south-west (azimuth is about 230 degrees - it's hard to measure exactly). As I understand, it has been operating in experimental mode. The other, which will be looking south-east (azimuth about 120-125 degrees), is still under construction.
As can be seen from the picture on the left, the radars in Armavir radar will close the gap created by the loss of radars in Ukraine and will also be able to replace the old Daryal radar in Gabala.
The structure to the north of the site, which I thought might be the radar site, it is apparently something else.
UPDATE 02/14/09: Novosti kosmonavtiki published some information about the radars at Armavir back in September 2007 (EastView subscription).
UPDATE 02/14/09: The first radar is scheduled to begin operations in February 2009.
The book
Comments
Quite interesting! This explains the early termination of the agreement with Ukraine and the proposed “gift” of the Gabala radar to the US. The new early warning net based on Voronezh type tech is taking shape more or less on schedule. Do you know Pavel the prospect of further radars? I.e. will be built new ones to replace the LPAR in Kazakhstan and in the far north? Also it would be nice to know why the Lekhtusi radar operates in the metric band and those now ones in the decimetre-band.