MOSCOW. Jan 25 (Interfax) - The coronavirus situation has not led to delays in the modernization of the missile defense system around Moscow, the Russian military said.
"The system is being modernized by a number of large scientific organizations and defense-industrial enterprises. Despite the restrictive measures related to the anti-epidemic efforts to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, work is going to plan according to the deadlines," Maj. Gen. Sergei Grabchuk, commander of a division of the 1st Air and Missile Defense Army of the Russian Aerospace Forces, said in an interview with the Russian Defense Ministry's Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) newspaper.
The Army provides missile defense for Moscow and the Central Industrial District. Its missile defense system is undergoing a major overhaul.
"New systems of launch site control, communications systems, and automatic mobile measuring control stations have been manufactured and installed at units' infrastructure. Efforts are underway to prepare new types of weapons for preliminary tests. Prospective counter-missiles are being successfully trialed," Grabchuk said.
The Don-2N missile defense and early warning passive electronically scanned array radar, whose task is to detect and accompany ballistic targets, select and measure coordinates, and aim counter-missiles at them against the backdrop of a real space environment, has "now had its transmission and reception parts fully upgraded; the assembly and setup of new apparatus and equipment continue. The preparation of the Don-2N radar for preliminary testing is nearing completion," he said.
"The modernization of the missile defense system will raise its precision characteristics and make the operation of missile defense systems safer and more reliable. It will increase the length and height of engagement range, substantially expand combat capabilities and operational potential for ballistic missile warning and space control purposes, and reduce energy consumption and operational costs," Grabchuk said.
In June 2019, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the system's modernization was due to be completed by 2022.
Over the past years, the defense ministry has repeatedly reported on the successful tests of a counter-missile at the Sary-Shagan testing range in Kazakhstan. After ten successful launches, a missile is deemed acceptable for service.
Moscow's missile defense is provided by a second-generation system deployed since 1995. It includes A-135 anti-ballistic missile systems armed with short-range interceptor counter-missiles.
It was reported that Russia was developing a mobile long-range (exoatmospheric) interceptor counter-missile, 14Ts033 Nudol. According to media reports, the two-stage counter-missile could be the weapon on the new A-235 system currently developed in addition to A-135. The missile is designed for destroying the warheads of intercontinental ballistic missiles and spacecraft in low orbits.
In 2021, Russia is planning to deploy an improved ballistic missile early warning system (BMEWS), its designer Sergei Boyev, head of MAK Vympel, told Interfax earlier.
The system includes command and control systems and space and ground communication echelons. The ground segment consists of a network of Voronezh over-the-horizon radars operating in various radio frequency bands. The radars can detect space, ballistic, and hypersonic objects.
Voronezh radars are deployed in the Leningrad, Kaliningrad, Irkutsk, and Orenburg regions and in the Altai, Krasnodar, and Krasnoyarsk Territories. Two more are being built near Murmansk and Vorkuta, and there are also plans to build one in Crimea.
It was reported earlier that the BMEWS's orbital grouping will consist of ten Tundra satellites to be deployed by 2024.