Russia Upgrades Air Defenses

By Maxim Pyadushkin, Moscow

The Russian air force took delivery of the first Pantsyr-S short-range air-defense systems in March. The Pantsyrs will gradually replace the old Tunguska antiaircraft weapons. The first 10 systems were released from KBP Instrument Design Bureau’s assembly site in Tula and transported to Alabino, near Moscow, and will be part of the Victory Day parade in Red Square on May 9.

What’s unusual is that the first Pantsyr systems are being deployed to protect high-end surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) against aircraft, missiles and bombs.

The Pantsyr battery will be deployed to the 606th air-defense regiment in Elektrostal, near Moscow, says Lt. Gen. Sergey Razygraev, deputy commander of air defense. A few years ago this regiment became the first to get the new S-400 Triumf long-range SAMs that will now be guarded by the Pantsyrs. “Each S-400 system will be protected by three Pantsyr launch vehicles,” Razygraev says.

KBP started to develop the Pantsyr in the 1990s, basing it on the Tunguska missile-gun system. The new air-defense weapon is designed to provide short-range protection from air attack to military units and strategic military and industrial sites. Its main task, however, will be to guard long-range S-300 SAMs, Triumf’s predecessors. The first Pantsyr prototype was completed in 1994 and unveiled a year later at the MAKS air show in Zhukovsky. But then development was almost entirely suspended due to insufficient government funding.

The program was revived in the early 2000s when the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ordered 50 Pantsyr-S1 export-modified weapons for $734 million, with an option for 28 more. Pantsyr thus became the first new Russian weapon system designed for export. Under the contract, KBP should have completed development within two years and delivered the system in 2005. The deliveries were delayed, however, because designers completed an improved version in 2006.

The improvements include enhanced firepower and a new radar system. Pantsyr’s launch vehicle received 12 new short-range 57E6 (SA-22 Greyhound) surface-to-air guided missiles with a range of 20 km. (12.5 mi.), combined with two rapid-fire, 30-mm. 2A38M antiaircraft guns. The designers replaced Pantsyr’s tracking radar, initially designed by Phazatron-NIIR, with a new multifunction tracking radar — including a millimeter-range phased-array antenna designed by KBP — with a detection range of 28 km. The installation enables the system to increase the number of simultaneously tracked and engaged targets to four from two, while the track-initiation area was expanded in altitude from 10 km to 15 km .

The system also has an ultra-high-frequency-band radar station that detects targets to 36 km. The new Pantsyr reportedly engages targets moving at 1,000 meters (3,280 ft.)/sec. (or Mach 3.5), at an altitude up to 15,000 meters and a range of 20,000 meters.

The early version was to be mounted on a tracked or wheeled chassis. The UAE opted for an 8 X 8 wheeled chassis from MAN of Germany. Another foreign component added to the Pantsyr-S1 was a thermal imaging system by Sagem of France. The Russian air force also specified the wheeled version, based on the locally produced 8 X 8 Kamaz-6350 platform.

Pantsyr’s trials started in 2006 with firings at the Kapustin Yar range in southern Russia, which tested the export version and the Russian air force system. Customer evaluation trials were conducted in the UAE in 2007. By that time KBP had increased its order backlog with Pantsyr contracts from Syria and Algeria. These countries preferred the weapon on the Kamaz wheeled chassis.

Syria reportedly became the first recipient of the weapon. Deliveries to the UAE began last year.

KBP plans more deliveries to the Russian military.

Credit: KBP