The newest mobile radar stations (radars) "Kasta-2-2", "Gamma-C1" and "Podlyot" were used by military personnel of radio engineering units during a training session to detect the most complex air targets, which took place in the Leningrad region.

This was reported by the press service of the Western Military District.

The military practiced methods of detecting "low-flying, high-speed, aerodynamic, ballistic targets."

At the same time, self-propelled radars provided control of the airspace, reconnaissance and determination of the "route characteristics" of the simulated enemy's aircraft.

“Particular attention was paid to the detection of small targets that simulate the flight of unmanned aerial vehicles.

At the same time,

there were more than 40 targets

in the area of ​​responsibility of the RTV (radio-technical troops. -

RT

)

units

that performed flights in various ranges of altitudes and speeds, "the website of the RF Ministry of Defense says.

"Important direction"

As experts explained to RT, all three stations work in a single reconnaissance loop, providing air defense firepower with information about dangerous air targets.

"Kasta-2-2" and "Gamma-S1" are all-round viewing complexes, and "Podlet" is a radar for searching aerodynamic and ballistic objects.

“These radars are needed to increase the field of view.

They have different ranges and they complement each other - this is called aggregation.

This is a normal story, since heterogeneous targets are encountered in the modern theater of military operations, and there is no universal platform for detecting them, "Dmitry Kornev, founder of the Military Russia portal, told RT.

In December last year, Major General Andrei Koban, the chief of the radio-technical troops of the Russian Aerospace Forces, said in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper that the practice of using mobile units, that is, formations equipped with self-propelled radars, is expanding in RTV.

This approach makes it possible to quickly build up combat capabilities in threatened areas.

According to the commander, each such unit of the radio-technical troops "is capable of conducting radar reconnaissance over an area comparable in area to France or Germany."

“An important direction in the development of radar weapons systems is increasing their mobility.

Today the military equipment of RTV is the implementation of the latest developments in the field of radar and information processing, ”said Koban.

The military commander attributed the "Kastu-2-2" to the number of modern reconnaissance means.

As follows from the information of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, this radar is necessary to "determine the range, azimuth, flight altitude and route characteristics of air objects: aircraft, helicopters, remotely piloted aircraft and cruise missiles, including those flying at low and extremely low altitudes."

The complex is also capable of detecting "moving objects on the surface of the sea" and aircraft made using stealth radar technologies.

The station equipment is located on three KamAZ-4310 off-road vehicles.

In operation, "Casta-2-2" is distinguished by high reliability, convenience and ease of maintenance.

According to the military department, in terms of the totality of its characteristics, the radar has no analogues in the world.

According to Rosoboronexport, the station can be used in air defense systems, coastal defense, border control, air traffic control and airspace control in airfield zones.

Its main advantage is its ability to detect low-flying targets.

"Casta-2-2" operates in the decimeter range.

The radar coverage area is 5-150 km in range, up to 6 km in height, and 360 degrees in azimuth.

The station is capable of tracking at least 50 targets.

  • Russian President Vladimir Putin and representatives of the military leadership at the exposition of the latest radar stations, including the Kasta-2-2 radar

  • RIA News

  • © Ramil Sitdikov

The developer of the "Caste" is "AO All-Russian Research Institute of Radio Engineering" (VNIIRT).

The same company has created the Gamma-C1 centimeter range radar.

This station is mounted on three vehicles on the KrAZ-260G or BAZ-69092-013 chassis.

Its equipment consists of a phased array antenna (PAA), a digital data processing system, interference suppression equipment, equipment for automating the processes of target detection and control of operating modes.

As reported on the website of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, "Gamma-C1" is able to accompany a wide class of modern and promising air targets, "including aircraft missiles, in the presence of natural and deliberate interference."

The target detection range of the "Gamma-C1" is from 10 to 300 km, the number of tracked targets is at least 100 units, the deployment time is 40 minutes, the number of crew is three people.

"Get more information"

Station "Podlyot" is another brainchild of VNIIRT specialists, which is widely used by radio engineering troops.

The complex equipment is mounted on the KamAZ chassis.

It includes a post with an antenna radar equipped with a phased array, a control box (box body) and an electric generator.

In the training manual "Air Force Tactics", published on the website of the Moscow Aviation Institute (MAI), it is reported that the radar uses the decimeter wavelength range.

The station is used for fixing airplanes, helicopters, missiles and stealth targets.

The received data is transmitted to command posts, fighters and anti-aircraft units.

Several modifications of this radar are in operation in the RF radio-technical troops.

The newest of them is "Podlet-K1".

Radar "Podlyot-K1" is designed to detect aerodynamic and ballistic objects, determine their range, speed, altitude and nationality.

The station is distinguished by high noise immunity, maximum automation of all processes and operations of combat work, "- says the materials of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

The range of the Podlyot-K1 radar is 10-300 km, the maximum scanning altitude of the airspace is 200 km.

According to the expert, radar reconnaissance remains of great importance for ensuring the security of Russia's air borders.

According to the official information of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, in 2020 mobile units of RTV recorded more than 2 million aerial objects and revealed more than 1,000 facts of flights of foreign reconnaissance aircraft near the borders of Russia. 

  • Training of RF radio-technical troops

  • © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

As Kornev emphasized, without radars, including self-propelled ones, the organization of air defense is impossible in principle.

The role of radars is very important, primarily as a means of target designation to launchers of anti-aircraft missile systems (SAM), said the interlocutor of RT.

“Without radar, there can be no air defense system.

Fortunately, the Russian radio engineering school allows the creation and modernization of stations that detect targets at various distances and heights, from small to large, ”said Kornev.

According to the expert, at present the impetus for the improvement of domestic radars is the proliferation of foreign aircraft manufactured using stealth technologies.

In addition, the modernization of RF radar is aimed at creating a unified information field within the layered air defense system. 

In turn, the director of the Air Defense Museum in Balashikha, Yuri Knutov, believes that one of the main trends in the development of radar reconnaissance in the Russian Federation is to increase the possibilities of fixing hypersonic vehicles and stealth drones.

In a conversation with RT, the expert emphasized that already now, domestic radar intelligence has a number of major achievements.

“In my opinion, in general, the problem of detecting stealth objects has been solved, and great progress is being observed in the field of combating hypersonic targets.

Intensive work is underway to improve noise immunity, increase the speed and volume of radar data transmission, "Knutov said.  

According to the expert's forecast, in the near future the radio-technical troops of the Russian Federation will begin to receive modernized and new stations with a higher level of automation, and computers with artificial intelligence elements will appear at the air defense command posts, capable of instantly choosing the most optimal way to eliminate the air threat.

In addition, Knutov expects an imminent breakthrough in the field of radio photonics - a field of physics focused on technologies for transmitting information inside a radar station via optical channels.

In Russia, such work is carried out by JSC Concern RTI Systems.

“A larger-scale use of the optical range will significantly increase the noise immunity and speed of working with data.

I think that Russia will have radars with elements of radio-photon technologies in the next few years, "Knutov summed up.