In light of the escalating tension between Russia and the West over concerns about a possible invasion of Ukrainian territory, Moscow announced that it had conducted pre-scheduled tactical exercises using the S-400 missile defense system in Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.
The Russian forces also conducted training exercises on the "Iskander" ballistic missile systems in the Kursk province bordering Ukraine, confirming that they had also carried out a test of the supersonic "Zircon" missile.
guided missiles
Guided missiles are the most important tools of war in the 21st century, and they have become one of the means of killing enemies in modern day battles due to their accuracy in hitting and destroying their targets.
The world began developing missiles using guidance systems after World War II, and the Arab-Israeli wars of the 1960s and 1970s constituted the beginnings of the actual use of guided missiles.
During the decades of the Cold War, the traditional enemies of the United States of America and the former Soviet Union competed in the production and development of a large number of guided missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles, capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
The missiles were developed to have a range of thousands of kilometers to provoke terror on the other side, which made it possible to achieve a level of balance of fear between the two camps.
Various means are used to guide missiles, including satellites, radars, and lasers.
These missiles can capture their targets with thermal sensors that are provided with them, and through which they automatically detect hot objects such as tanks and planes through the infrared rays emitted by those objects.
Some of these missiles are equipped with television cameras that accurately photograph their targets before hitting them, and some are equipped with infrared cameras to photograph the targets and send them to the guidance station before striking them with extreme accuracy.
Guided missiles have many types that countries and military manufacturing companies have competed over decades in producing and developing their systems.
zircon missile
Zircon 3M22, a hypersonic anti-ship cruise missile currently under test in Russia.
October 7, 2020: Russia conducted a successful test of the winged hypersonic Zircon missile in the far north of the country.
The missile was launched from the frigate Admiral Gorshkov in the Mediterranean, traveled 450 km and successfully hit a sea target in the Barents Sea.
The average speed of the missile when launching is 1.6 km / s or 5,700 km / h, and at the height of the flight its speed is 9,500 km / h, i.e. Mach 8.
The missile flew at a maximum altitude of 28 km and lasted 4.5 minutes.
The missile entered active service in the Russian Navy after completing its tests.
The range of the missile authorized for export should be less than 300 km in line with the Missile Technology Management System, or even 400 km.
Russia's "Satan 2"...The King of Missiles
A new Russian nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile that Moscow says is so powerful it could wipe out most of the United Kingdom or France.
2011: "Sarmat", an RS-28 model, obtained the authorization of military authority and entered active service in the period from 2018-2020, within the Russian Strategic Missile Forces as an alternative to the "Vovoda" or "Satana" (Demon) missile.
The Sarmat has replaced the RS-36M missile from the 1970s, which NATO calls the Devil's missile.
According to the Russian Makeyev Center for Missile Design, the start of work on the Sarmat missile was based on the government's decision on defense contracts for 2010 and for the 2012-2013 planning period.
The missile weighs - according to Russian media - about 100 tons, and has the ability to carry a nuclear payload of 10 tons, and with this payload it can cause an explosion two thousand times more powerful than the nuclear bomb dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
The Sarmat, also called the "King of Missiles" by the Russians, operates on liquid fuel, and is launched from platforms hidden underground, and the energy storage allows the missile to fly across the north and south poles.
The missile has a new technology of its kind that differs from any missile defense system, and one of the advantages of Sarmat is that it is light in weight, and has a flight range of more than 11,000 km, according to the Russian “Sputnik” news agency.
According to the same source, the missile is equipped with 7 to 10 nuclear warheads, with independent guidance, capable of maneuvering in the air, and flying at subsonic and above speeds.
Satan 2 is distinguished by its ability to change altitude, direction and speed, and has a high level of active protection in the form of anti-missile and air defense systems, and a high level of security fortifications.
Patriot MIM-104 missile
It is a surface-to-air missile air defense system used by the United States and a number of its allies, and the system is manufactured by the American company Raytheon.
The Patriot has replaced the Nike-Hercules high and medium defense system and the MIM-23 Hawk tactical medium defense system, as well as its role as an anti-ballistic missile (TBM) system, which is its main mission at the present time.
The Patriot is designed to protect against attacking missiles and aircraft, as it hits them and detonates them in the air before they reach their targets.
These are high-tech guided missiles that rely on their own ground-based radar system to detect and track the target.
The radar scans a circle with a diameter of 80 km and at this distance the attacking missile is not visible to the naked eye.
The automatic system can launch an anti-missile at the aggressor missile, and detonate it before it reaches its target.
The radar system equipped with Patriot missiles uses modern technology based on an omni-directional antenna, where this system can track the path of 100 targets, and control the path of 9 Patriot missiles at the same moment.
The launch platform contains 16 launchers carrying a Patriot missile, and each launcher is connected to the control system through optical fibers or through radio communication, and the control system is the one that sends instructions to launch the missiles.
Patriot missiles are of two types: the first type is the old one called "PAC-2" and the second type is "PAC-3", the newer type that appeared in 2002.
The second type of Patriot "PAC-3" is equipped with a radar receiver and a computer to control the Patriot's guidance towards the target, and here the Patriot has to collide directly with the target through the missile's radar receiving information from the platform's radar, and accordingly the missile computer controls the guidance wings so that the Patriot missile reaches target and hit it.
Winged missile "Caliber"
Russian guided missiles, which are of the second generation of Russian strategic winged missiles, comparable to the American Tomahawk missiles. The length of the missile is 6.20 meters, and its weight at launch is about 1770 kilograms.
Its range ranges between 2,000 and 3,000 km at a maximum, and its warhead carries between 1,600 kilograms of high-explosive TNT, with an accuracy of 3 meters.
The Kalibr missiles are carried through the Caspian Sea Fleet, which includes 5 ships.
The wingspan of the Caliber is about 3.3 meters, the length of the missile is 6.20 meters, and its weight at launch is about 1,770 kilograms, and the Caliber missile flies at a speed of 240 km at a maximum.
The Kalibr is characterized by its ability to fly low as a winged missile, and its ability to fly at a high altitude as a ballistic missile.
The Russian army supplied the small frigates of the Caspian Fleet with Kalibr missiles, as well as the "Irkutsk" and "Admiral Nakhimov" cruisers in 2018.
One of the winged "Caliber" missiles is the "3M 14" missile, which is the upgraded version of the "3M10" missile of the "С-10 Гранат" system, which entered military service with the Russian Navy in 1984.
The 3M 14 missiles are launched with 533 mm torpedoes, with a maximum range of 3,000 km, and are divided, according to specialized experts, into two types, but they operate with a single use system.
Russia used these missiles in its attacks against the Islamic State in Syria, and the missiles traveled about 1,500 km.
These missiles were launched from the Caspian Sea Fleet, passed through Iranian and Iraqi territories, and hit 11 ISIS targets in Syria.
AIM-54 Phoenix missile
A long-range air-to-air missile carried on the F-14 Tomcat aircraft, which is used to attack multiple air targets, and can hit up to 6 targets simultaneously.
1974: This missile began to be used, and 3 upgraded versions were issued: "AIM 54E", "AIM 54C", and "AIM 54 ACCM".
The AIM-54 Phoenix missile is a radar-guided missile with a special guidance and thrust system.
Unit cost: 477 thousand and 131 dollars.
Length: 13 feet.
Weight: 1024 lbs.
Diameter: 15 inches.
Range: more than 100 nautical miles.
Speed: more than 3,000 miles per hour.
Explosive warheads: a proximity fuse, high explosive.
Warhead Weight: 135 lbs.
"Tomahawk cruise"
The Tomahawk cruise missile is the most important and most prominent guided missile in the world and has been repeatedly modernized.
1983: The Tomahawk cruise missile was put into service.
January 17, 1991: The Tomahawk cruise missile was used for the first time in the war on Iraq.
March 2011: Dozens of it was released during the military intervention in Libya.
The price of one missile ranges between $600,000 and $2.1 million.
Among those missiles is the BGM-109, which is launched from submarines and large ships, and is traveling towards its target at a speed of 880 kilometers per hour.
It can have a range of 2500 km, and it can hit its targets with a specific accuracy of a few meters.
It was originally designed to carry nuclear warheads, but it proved its effectiveness in the 1991 and 2003 wars on Iraq. It was also used to strike Serbian targets in the Balkan war. It was loaded with conventional explosives, as it could carry half a ton of explosives to destroy solid concrete sites and buildings.
-Some of these missiles have become sometimes described as super-smart because of their enormous ability to determine their targets with great accuracy, and even to reveal the means of camouflage and deception used by armies and countries to hide their military arsenals.
"Hwasong-14" .. North Korea
"Hwasong (Mars)-14" is an intercontinental ballistic missile, which belongs to the Hwasong missiles that North Korea has produced since 1984 and developed after that.
July 4, 2017: Pyongyang announced the launch of this type of missile, which had a maximum range of about 1,000 km, and could carry conventional, chemical and possibly even biological warheads.
The North Koreans developed the Hwasong missiles, and produced the Nodong missiles, with a range of 1,300 km.
The missile covered a distance of 933 kilometers, and accurately hit its target 39 minutes after its launch, before falling into the Sea of Japan.
Anti-aircraft missiles
Anti-aircraft missiles are missiles that target planes and helicopters with a flight range of 500 meters up to 6 kilometers.
It is characterized by its effectiveness and efficiency in hitting the target, and there is a feverish competition between the United States and its allies, Russia and China in the development of this system.
- Since 2012, shoulder-fired missiles have received great attention in Syria, precisely because the opposition brigades need them to balance with the regime's aviation, which has been using its air forces - it and its allies - to inflict heavy losses on its opponents, and civilians often die.
2016: Demands to provide these missiles to the armed Syrian opposition intensified, after an unprecedented rise in the number of victims of Syrian and Russian air attacks on civilian areas in most of Syria's cities and villages.
Stinger: The most famous anti-aircraft missile, carried on the shoulder, was associated in memory with the Afghan war against the Soviet occupation, as it was the most prominent weapon that helped - along with other factors - to expel the Soviets after years of war on Afghan soil.
The development of the missile began in 1972, and it contains an identification device called "IFF", an anti-electronic countermeasure device "ECCM" and an infrared countermeasure device "IRCM".
The Stinger has a length of 1.52 meters, a diameter of 70 millimeters, a weight of 15.7 kilograms, a range of 5 kilometers, a height of 4,800 meters, and a warhead of 3 kilograms. , with a separate booster for the first stage of the track.
FN6: A Chinese missile, one of the most important shoulder-fired weapons, specialized in targeting low-flying targets with a range of about 6 km, a height of 3.5 km, and a weight of about 16 kg.
It is used by many countries, including Sudan, Peru and Malaysia, and it appeared in the hands of some of the armed opposition brigades in Syria.
- Igla: a surface-to-air missile that is also carried on the shoulder, and it adopts an effective system against radar jamming, and it travels at about 320 meters per second.
It is directed by an infrared and ultraviolet system, and is equipped with an intelligent system that distinguishes the aircraft's fingerprint to avoid interference, and its effective range ranges between 500 and 5200 meters.
The missile was developed into "Igla-S", with a range of 6 kilometers, and it works with a fully digital system that allows the weight of its explosive head to be increased to 2.5 kilograms.
Equipped with metal pieces with a laser detonator that explodes 5 meters near the target, and the pieces are thrown towards it to ensure its detonation.
Verba: A sophisticated Russian missile system, media reports say, with a range of 6.5 kilometers and a height of 4.5 kilometers, and it is capable of addressing the target on opposite trajectories. Anti-aircraft missiles, but rather follow the heat emitted from the wings and body of the plane during its resistance to the air.
The Verba missile can see the target through 3 spectra, it can bypass the interference of laser lamps that usually blind the self-guided head with its rays, and it can also detect weak flying targets by the heat radiation emitted by any unmanned aircraft or from winged missiles.
Rotating Structure Missile (RIM-116): This anti-aircraft missile is characterized by its large 360-degree rotation, and is used in ships and aircraft carriers.
The missile is American and also manufactured by Germany, and besides them, it is used by several countries, including Turkey, Greece and South Korea. It was mainly made to protect warships from attacks by warships and helicopters.
Strela: a surface-to-air missile that is effective at short distances, and operates according to the thermal guidance system, with a range of about 3700 meters, a height of 1500 meters, and a speed of 430 meters.
The effective range of the “Strela 10” ranges between 800 and 5,000 meters, with a height of between 10 and 3,500 meters, and it operates with a guiding indicator up to 3,000 meters, and at a launch speed of 420 meters per second.
The "Strela 10" air defense system was produced at the Russian "Touchmash" office in the early 1970s.
Tor-M2 system: a Russian system characterized by its ability to destroy air targets in different directions, thanks to the presence of a circular radar monitoring system, a guidance station and vertically launched anti-missiles, where the military vehicle can stop for about 5 seconds and launch the missile.
The system can track targets at a range of 30 km and simultaneously target 4 air targets at an altitude of about 10 km.
The missiles of this system are equipped with a digital infrared seeker, the launcher is equipped with an “IFF” antenna or an optical system, and it is a missile capable of attacking from any side, while the rate of hitting the target is about 70%.
The Roland 2 system is a low-altitude surface-to-air missile that was widely used in the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), a joint project between Germany and France.
The missile has a range of 6.3 kilometers, a height of about 3 kilometers, and a minimum effective range of 500 meters.
The system, which carries 12 missiles, is managed by a crew of 3 (the dashboard controller, the missile shooter, and another observer).
The system includes guidance radars to detect air targets with a radius of 16 km.