Army units of the Air Force and Air Defense of the Eastern Military District received new radar stations (RLS) "Niobium" and "Casta", the Russian Defense Ministry said.

“The new Kasta and Niobium radars are capable of operating both under normal conditions and in difficult jamming conditions and allow obtaining objective information about aircraft overflights, determining their coordinates and identifying air targets at different altitude ranges,” the website says. departments.

Both radars will provide the issuance of coordinates and parameters of the movement of air objects to air defense control systems.

It is noted that data transmission occurs "simultaneously to two consumers via radio channels and cable communication lines with the possibility of digital-to-analogue pairing."

In an RT commentary, the founder of the Military Russia portal, Dmitry Kornev, explained that mobile radars play an important role in providing Russia's air defense.

According to him, radars make it possible to detect air threats in a timely manner, transmit data to fire weapons, and also determine the type and nationality of aircraft.

“Without a radar, a truly effective operation of anti-aircraft systems and fighter aircraft, which are designed to protect Russian borders and, if necessary, destroy violators, is impossible.

At the same time, the requirements for radar stations are constantly growing, as foreign states are improving the means of aerospace attack and passive and active jamming systems.

Russia cannot ignore this and is expanding the capabilities of its radars, ”Kornev emphasized.

"Unique family"

According to experts interviewed by RT, Niobium is the most modern representative of Russian mobile radars operating in different ranges.

According to a number of characteristics, these radar stations are superior to the best foreign models, analysts say. 

"Niobium" is a further development of the systems of the "Nebo" family developed by the Nizhny Novgorod Research Institute of Radio Engineering (NNIIRT).

Now this enterprise is a federal research and production center and is part of the Almaz-Antey concern.

  • Radar family "Sky"

  • © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

According to the Ministry of Defense, "Sky" and "Niobium" are capable of detecting, tracking, recognizing and measuring the coordinates of large and inconspicuous air targets "operating at a distance of up to 600 km, at an altitude of up to 50 km and at a speed of more than 3000 km / h."

The basic version of the Sky complex was created in the 1980s.

After the collapse of the USSR, the Russian army began to receive an improved modification under the name "Nebo-U".

Currently, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation are armed with another modernized version of the radar - "Nebo-M".

Deliveries of serial samples of this system began in 2017.

The radar is mounted on the chassis of the Bryansk Automobile Plant.

In a circular view, the complex is capable of detecting aircraft at a distance of 10-600 km, in a sector view - 10-1800 km.

The deployment time of the Nebo-M radar equipment is 15 minutes.

The radar can perform non-strategic missile defense tasks and is considered the record holder in terms of early target designation information for long-range anti-aircraft missile systems (SAM) of the S-300V4 and S-400 Triumph types.

In addition to air defense weapons, Nebo-M is capable of reporting air threats to fighter aircraft.

Also, the advantages of this radar include significant fixation zones for low-observable and small-sized targets, a high rate of updating and issuing information on high-speed maneuvering targets.

"Sky" is a completely unique family of stations, providing almost 100% target detection.

Its continuation was the Niobium family of mobile radars, ”Yuri Knutov, director of the Museum of Air Defense Forces in Balashikha, noted in a comment to RT.

"Niobium", or "Sky-UM", the interlocutor of RT called one of the most modern developments of Nizhny Novgorod engineers to date.

The RF Ministry of Defense signed a contract for the supply of these systems in 2017.

According to the military department, "Niobium" is designed to monitor the airspace, detect various aircraft and determine their coordinates.

The radar can find and track both aerodynamic objects (aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles) and ballistic targets (missile warheads).

  • Modern Russian mobile radars

  • © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

“The station equipment allows you to detect a target, determine its coordinates and nationality, and transmit data to a command post or anti-aircraft systems.

In addition, it is possible to find sources of interference and determine their location, ”the materials of the Russian Defense Ministry say.

There are no detailed performance characteristics of Niobium in open sources.

However, you can get an idea of ​​the capabilities of this type of radar thanks to information about the export version, which is published on the Rosoboronexport website.

So, the company noted that Niobium combines the advantages of the meter and decimeter frequency ranges and is ideal as a source of radar information for air defense systems.

Like Nebo-M, the radar is effective for detecting small and inconspicuous airborne objects.

Also, the Niobium equipment can be used for direction finding of "radiation sources of radio interference and the issuance of radar information to consumers."

“The radar is independent of weather conditions, which is inherent in the meter range, and it is possible to create a narrow needle beam with a significant concentration of energy in the direction of the tracked target and high-precision measurement of coordinates in the decimeter range,” the Rosoboronexport materials say.

The Niobium has a target fixation range of 10-600 km, an altitude of 80 km, and an information output rate of 10 seconds.

The station is capable of detecting aircraft moving at a speed of 8,000 km/h, which exceeds the hypersonic threshold.

At the same time, as experts explain, any export modifications of military equipment of the Russian Federation are a priori inferior to samples that the Russian army operates.

Thus, the RF Armed Forces are equipped with Niobium radars with higher performance.

“For obvious reasons, Russia keeps the best weapons.

The Niobium family can be attributed to a new generation of mobile radars.

It is important that these radars can work in conjunction with a wide variety of radar stations.

This significantly increases the potential of the air defense system, ”says Knutov.

Mobility and automation

In addition to the Aerospace Forces, "Niobium" is also received by air defense units of the Russian Ground Forces.

For them, the Niobium-SV enterprise has developed a modification "Niobium-SV", which in documents and specialized literature is designated by codes 103Zh6 and 1L125.

"Niobium-SV" is placed on a cross-country vehicle chassis.

This allows you to deploy the station on a variety of types of terrain.

Naturally, such a system is in great demand in the ground forces, ”said Dmitry Kornev.

  • Station "Niobium-SV"

  • RIA News

  • © Sergey Guneev

Judging by the tender materials and messages on the website of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the supply of this system to the troops began several years ago.

In the course of practical measures, the military found that the use of new mobile radars, including Niobium-SV, significantly increases the detection range of cruise missiles.

The equipment of the "Niobium-SV" complex is mounted on five transport units.

Each module of this product is a multifunctional active phased array radar (AFAR).

System modules interact with each other, which allows you to combine the advantages of different ranges.

The main advantages of the radar for the ground forces are usually attributed to high noise immunity, mobility, the presence of integrated communications equipment and life support modules for combat crew integrated into the complex.

The performance characteristics of the Niobium-SV modification, which is supplied to the RF Armed Forces, were not disclosed, however, the operating parameters of the export version of the station are known.

The radar is capable of detecting subtle airborne objects at a flight altitude of 4 km and at a distance of at least 250 km.

The maximum airspace scanning range of the radar is 400 km, altitude - 40 km.

An important feature of the Niobium-SV radar and other newest Russian mobile radar stations, Yuri Knutov, calls the high level of automation of operations performed.

"Niobium-SV" in a number of technical solutions differs from modifications for VKS.

But it fully complies with all current requirements, which are aimed at reducing the response time to a threat as much as possible.

Therefore, the emphasis in the modernization and creation of new Russian radars is on increasing the speed of processing and transmitting data and increasing the automation of control processes, ”summed up Knutov.