Wiki also lists Georgia as an operator of the Tor-M1 (SA-15) but, having looked through probably thousands of photos of the conflict (including hundreds of photos of captured Georgian equipment), I don’t remember ever seeing any Tors. Of course, my memory could be playing tricks on me or all the Tors (Wiki says they have six – systems/vehicles?) could have been destroyed prior to capture. Still, I would like to see proper confirmation that they were operated by Georgian air defence units. Wiki and strategypage are sources of questionable reliability in these matters and, what’s worse, tend to feed off one another.

In the class of weapons air-to-surface missile at MAKS-2009 will be submitted designs for missiles, general (multipurpose), as well as samples, specialized for specific purposes. This protivoradiolokatsionnye, anti-(on ships), and anti-administered funds.

Credit Crunch Special?

Ink you do realise that certain targets were off limits? NATO planners didn’t have full and free reign to attack certain targets that they wanted to. General John Jumper is on the record as being frustrated that political clearance was not granted to attack the most troublesome early warning radars in for example Montenegro. Civilian radars off the target list were also free to remain active and be utilised by the military. Even with those advantages in 78 days only two manned NATO aircraft were shot down.

TJ

On 2 May 1999, a USAF F-16CG was lost over Serbia. It was shot down by an S-125 Pechora SAM (NATO: SA-3 ‘Goa’) near Nakucani. Its pilot managed to eject and was later rescued by a combat search-and-rescue (CSAR) mission.
But that did change nothing about the outcome. The NATO had the air dominance over Serbia and no intention to invade Serbia with ground forces.
The Serbian AD was unable to prevent NATO air activity over Serbia nor fend-off a single attack on a choosen target= close to zero capacity.
At least most of the AD people did survive that time, when on the constant run. See the personal report of the commanding officer, whose unit was honored to bring down the single F-117A.

Last thing I want to do is make this into a discussion about Allied Force, which have been hashed and re-hashed on this and other forums a million times. I simply intended to illustrate that completely shutting down an air defence network is no mean feat. Indeed, NATO had months and months to prepare their intel and strikes on Yugoslav targets and still ‘had difficulties’ (a phrase we can hopefully agree on for the sake of brevity) well into its air campaign. It should come as no surprise then that the Russians, with much less time to prepare and build up intel and assets had even more trouble with the Georgian air defence network. That was the point I was trying to make initially and intended no digression from the original subject.

The Russians were not completely able to suppress Georgian SAM batteries, which were Russian made, i.e. SA-11 and SA-17 Gadflies, SA-15 Gauntlets i.e. they did not know how to counter their own SAM designs!

You’re over-stating it a little. The fact is that on day five of the conflict the Georgian AD network was dead. Its true that the Russians initially underestimated the capabilities of Georgian air defence units but this, it seems, was down to the conflict as a whole being a bit rushed and generally poor intelligence on the strength of Georgian forces. After that the Russians took no chances and, through a combination of ground forces, missile strikes and air attacks, killed the Georgian AD network.

For, a slightly unfair, comparison; the Yugoslav air defence network was still functioning (although obviously not at 100% capacity) after 78 days of air raids by overwhelming NATO forces.

Nice find. Thanks.

Cosmos satellite launch:

MOSCOW, July 6 (RIA Novosti) – A Rokot carrier rocket has orbited three Russian military satellites, a spokesman for Russia’s Space Forces said.

The Rokot, carrying three Cosmos-series satellites, was launched by Russia’s Space Forces from the Plesetsk space center in northwest Russia early on Monday, Lt. Col. Alexei Zolotukhin said.

Russia reportedly operates a network of about 60-70 military reconnaissance satellites. Some experts believe the new satellites could be part of Russia’s Oko (Eye) orbital missile early warning network.

The Rokot launch vehicle is a modified version of the Russian RS-18 (SS-19 Stiletto) intercontinental ballistic missile. It uses the two original lower stages of the ICBM, in conjunction with a Breeze-KM upper-stage for commercial payloads.

Russia has carried out 16 space launches since the beginning of 2009.