Another old article that may be of interest in this thread:
Plans to re-arm the air force surface-to-air missile (SAM) units with the S-400 remain highly dependent on the availability of funds, and the manufacturing capacities of the industry, according to RFAF officials,.
Colonel General Boris Cheltsov, RFAF chief of staff, said the S-400 would achieve full operational readiness in 2005 after receiving a number of upgrades. Gen Bizhev also confirmed that the upgrades would allow the S-400 and the A-135M to share target data information.
Together with upgraded variants of the in-service SAM systems, the S-400 is part of an effort to “solve the issues of non-strategic missile defence”. Gen Cheltsov, who headed the air force commission that supervised S-400 fire trials, said the commission has recommended to the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) that it accepts the S-400 in service “in a variant with a standard missile”. Earlier it had been recommended that the S-400 enter trial service with missiles already used by the S-300 series.
Gen Bizhev said the S-400 would initially be located to protect Moscow, St Petersburg and the Urals industrial region, as well as border stretches “where missile attacks can be expected”. He also said the S-400 could destroy cruise missiles and aircraft at a range of 250 km and at a range of heights from several dozen metres to the stratosphere.
The S-400, when operational with the new long-range missile (40N6), is claimed to have a range of 400 km and it is believed to have passed firing tests with all missile types.
The existing S-400s are currently undergoing capability enhancements for interoperability with the space forces assets.
The Russian armed forces say that the S-400 can potentially be used against strategic ballistic missiles after separation of warheads. In that role the S-400s will be co-operating with the A-135 anti-missile system in service with the Russian Space Forces. Provision is made for the S-400s to receive targeting information on approaching space threats from the Russian Space Forces in an automatic mode.
The S-400/A-135 will be the first block of the Air and Space Defence (ASD) system, a future structure concept recently formulated by the Russian defence ministry. The latter said that the MoD has recently approved the ASD concept and it is currently being improved for final validation by the Russian president.
Among other things, the ASD calls for a unitary radar field over Russia, similar to that which the Soviet Union had, but “on a new quality level”. To achieve this, a united air traffic control/air-defence radar field will be created, combining the means of civil and military structures. Almaz-Antei (Air Defence Concern or Kontsern PVO) has been selected to lead the effort. Almaz-Antei will act as systems integrator and also supplier of major elements such as phased-array radar systems and ‘identification friend or foe’ interrogators.
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