Starting this year, the Ground Forces ' rocket scientists will work closely with the Navy. The Iskander-M operational and tactical complexes (OTRK) will be able to support the Navy's operations at a range of up to 500 km and destroy the objects of a possible enemy with great accuracy. Such joint training has become a trend in combat training in recent years. The main target for the complexes may be priority coastal structures and equipment: air bases, radars and command centers, experts say.
Starting this year, the Ground Forces ' rocket scientists will work closely with the Navy. The Iskander-M operational and tactical complexes (OTRK) will be able to support the Navy's operations at a range of up to 500 km and destroy the objects of a possible enemy with great accuracy. Such joint training has become a trend in combat training in recent years. The main target for the complexes may be priority coastal structures and equipment: air bases, radars and command centers, experts say.
Interspecific groupings
The missile brigades of the Ground Forces, equipped with Iskander-M complexes, will begin to work closely with the Navy this year and support its operations with fire. The new concept will be worked out at the upcoming strategic exercises "West-2021", sources in the defense ministry told Izvestia. At the same time, large reconnaissance drones, such as the "Outpost" of naval aviation, will be able to directly provide target designation to the rocket launchers.
Work in this direction has already begun. Earlier, the commander of the Western Military District, Colonel-General Alexander Zhuravlev, spoke about the military-technical experiment conducted in early July 2020. The calculation of one of the missile brigades of the Ground Forces hit unnamed targets at the Central Naval training ground in the Arkhangelsk region. In the same month, the "Iskanders" in the exercises on the Black Sea conditionally reflected the landing of the enemy, helping the fleet.
Most of the Iskander-M complexes are in service with the Ground Forces. In the composition of the Coastal Troops of the Navy, there is only one of their missile brigade. It is located in the Kaliningrad region and is part of the 11th Army Corps, which protects the region.
In December, the head of the military department, Sergei Shoigu, noted that in 2021, the organization of interspecific exercises will be among the priorities of combat training. On them, the Ground Forces, the Navy and the Aerospace Forces will act together and under a single leadership. According to the Ministry of Defense, the number of such maneuvers has tripled in the last eight years.
Earlier, the commander-in-chief of the Navy, Admiral Nikolai Evmenov, said that already now the fleet has created 20 ship tactical groups prepared for actions as part of interspecific groups. It was reported that a few months ago, the Baltic Fleet, which will take part in the exercise "West-2021", on command and staff maneuvers, already practiced joint actions with the 6th Combined Arms Army.
When operations are being developed with the coastal flank of the army, the fleet forces are always involved and interaction is organized, said the former chief of the General Staff of the Navy, Admiral Valentin Selivanov.
- The Iskanders can work in the interests of the fleet for coastal purposes. For example, the complexes that stand on the Baltic Sea reach almost all the shores of the water area, " the admiral said. — It is not necessary to send planes to bomb some objects, but you can use Iskanders and Bal and Bastion missile systems. If necessary, the rocketeers can also provide amphibious operations. After all, the landing of the Marines is only the first throw. Behind it, parts of the Ground Forces are unloaded. And their missile brigades can be used in joint operations wherever needed.
Impact force
Against the ships, the Iskanders will not be much more effective than the specialized Bastion-P complexes. But they can be useful against stationary targets, Mikhail Kofman, a leading expert at the Center for Naval Analysis, told Izvestia.
For the effective destruction of surface targets by OTRK, Russia currently does not have enough capabilities to detect them at distances of more than 200 km. The resources of the satellite exploration is limited. Not enough for long-range naval aviation and drones with a long flight duration. Therefore, it would be more appropriate to use missiles on ground targets, the expert believes.
"Iskanders can be used for strikes on stationary and semi-stationary targets —" Mikhail Kofman explained. - For example, on radars, naval aviation bases, headquarters and communication centers, objects that are well protected by air defense systems. Of course, the Kalibr cruise missiles can also be used for this task. But domestic vehicles are only 8 to 16 launchers with them. And the ground missile brigade can be quickly reloaded. And its survivability in the event of a retaliatory strike is higher.
In Russia, the Iskander-M operational and tactical complexes have been in service since 2010. They replaced the outdated "Tochka-U", which were inferior to them in all respects. By 2020, all the existing missile brigades had switched to the new weapons and several additional ones were formed. The total number of such connections in the Armed Forces reached thirteen.
According to the developer-the company NPK "KBM" - the complete set of the missile brigade for the Armed Forces consists of more than 50 vehicles. These include 12 launchers, 12 transport-loading, 11 command-staff, 17 life support and auxiliary vehicles. In one salvo, the compound can launch 24 missiles.
The complex can fire two types of missiles at a maximum range of up to 500 km. Ballistic missiles with supersonic speed fall on targets from a great height almost vertically. The winged ones fly directly above the ground, making them invisible to radar and difficult to intercept. The combination of two completely different ammunition makes it very difficult to defend against them. In previous years, the United States and NATO stated that in fact, these RTRS are armed with a much longer-range version. This claim is refuted by the Russian Defense Ministry.
"Iskander" refers to high-precision weapons. The deviation from the aiming point, even at the maximum range, is only a few meters. This is an order of magnitude better than the previous generation of OTRK-Soviet "Tochka-U", not to mention older complexes, such as"Elbrus".
The Iskander launchers deployed by the air force to Syria struck militant targets, demonstrating their accuracy in practice.
