The Leningrad Region and St. Petersburg will be reliably protected from cruise missiles and drones. The 6th Air Force and Air Defense Army has created a unique mobile air defense regiment. The new military unit is fully armed with anti-aircraft missile and gun systems "Pantsir-S". Units can advance to a given area in a matter of hours and reliably cover it from air strikes. "Pantsiri" will cope not only with traditional planes and helicopters, but also with unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as with cruise missiles. According to experts, the formation of the regiment is an asymmetric response to the strengthening of NATO in the Baltic States — in particular, to the deployment of attack drones and long-range air-based missiles there.
The Leningrad Region and St. Petersburg will be reliably protected from cruise missiles and drones. The 6th Air Force and Air Defense Army has created a unique mobile air defense regiment. The new military unit is fully armed with anti-aircraft missile and gun systems "Pantsir-S". Units can advance to a given area in a matter of hours and reliably cover it from air strikes. "Pantsiri" will cope not only with traditional planes and helicopters, but also with unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as with cruise missiles. According to experts, the formation of the regiment is an asymmetric response to the strengthening of NATO in the Baltic States — in particular, to the deployment of attack drones and long-range air-based missiles there.
High mobility and compactness
The formation of the unit was completed at the end of last year, sources in the defense ministry told Izvestia. It is subordinate to the 6th Army of the Air Force and Air Defense of the Western Military District and will become its mobile reserve, constantly ready to move to a threatened direction on its own or with the help of aviation.
The regiments equipped with "Shells"are a new phenomenon for the Russian air defense. The high mobility and compactness of the wheeled chassis make it possible to quickly transfer them to objects that are expected to be hit by the enemy. As previously reported by Izvestia, the Ministry of Defense decided to include such a unit in each army of the Air Force and air defense.
The first experimental mobile regiment equipped with "Shells" was created as part of the Moscow region's 1st Air Defense-Special Purpose Missile Defense Army at the end of 2018. The following year, it was reported that he conducted the first training shooting at the Ashuluk training ground in the Astrakhan region. The head of the anti-aircraft missile forces of the 14th Army of the Air Force and Air Defense of the Central Military District, Colonel Gennady Schlag, also announced plans to form a similar unit in the Urals.
According to the Ministry of Defense, at the end of 2020, the troops have already received more than 200 anti-aircraft missile and gun systems (ZRPC) "Pantsir-S". All of them are sent to the VKS. Previously, they were assigned to one division per regiment of S-400 "Triumph" to cover long-range systems from air and ground threats. Individual parts with ZRPC were not formed.
- St. Petersburg is the second most important city in Russia, located close to the border. There are many important military and economic facilities there, " military expert Vasily Kashin told Izvestia. — And a modern air defense system that allows you to intercept cruise missiles and drones is urgently needed there. It is enough to recall the enterprises of nuclear energy. They need serious protection.
Recently, there has been an increase in tension. related to the expansion of NATO, it is happening in the Baltic direction, the expert noted.
- The alliance's partner countries are getting stronger. For example, Sweden, which is not formally a member of the bloc, but closely interacts with it and has recently sharply increased the military budget, - Vasily Kashin explained. — There is an approach of the military infrastructure to our borders, its build-up. The United States is building facilities in Norway, Poland, and other Eastern European countries. We must take this into account and take measures for our own defense.
Western reinforcement
The North-Western and Northern directions need to be strengthened also because the flight paths of ballistic missiles pass through the Arctic, former Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Sergei Ordzhonikidze told Izvestia. He noted that the Baltic region has recently been experiencing a difficult situation.
"The forces of Poland, Germany, and other European countries are based in the Baltic Sea," Sergei Ordzhonikidze said. — Let's not forget that we are facing not the United States, but NATO forces. The military contingents of the bloc are stationed at the Russian borders. If you add up their potential, you will see a colossal superiority. What, it would seem, should the Americans, the British, and the Germans do near our borders? Of course, this is not a million-strong army, as it was before the First World War. But if there are military personnel from non-neighboring countries at your borders, this naturally causes tension. And not only in military circles, but also in society.
In this region, in recent years, Poland has taken a course to rapidly increase its air defense capabilities. In 2020, the country's authorities announced the signing of documents for the purchase of 32 F-35A fighters from the United States. The life cycle contract will cost $4.6 billion. Deliveries are scheduled to start in 2024. Now the country's Air Force is equipped with three dozen MiG-29s and fifty light F-16s received from the United States, as well as a small number of Su-22 attack aircraft.
The US State Department has already said that the acquisition of the fifth-generation fighter jets will be a "quantum leap" in combat capabilities for Poland. They will have to replace the outdated aircraft of the Soviet era. For them, high-precision long-range weapons continue to be purchased.
Earlier, Poland ordered a batch of modern AGM-158 air-launched cruise missiles from the United States to equip the F-16 fighters. Depending on the modification, the range of the munition is from 370 to 1000 km, which allows you to keep under the gun not only the Kaliningrad region, but also the north-west of Russia.
The presence of the North Atlantic Alliance's aviation in the Baltic States has also increased. In 2014, a second air base was opened there to accommodate the aircraft of the "NATO mission to patrol the airspace of the Baltic States". In these states that do not have their own aviation, taking into account the rotation, a squadron of one of the countries of the bloc is constantly located. It is this unit that most often appears in the news about the interception of Russian aircraft over the Baltic Sea.
Units of the 6th Army of the Air Force and Air Defense of the Western Military District are located on the territory of 26 subjects of the Central and North-Western Federal Districts of our country. Its planes and helicopters are based at 11 aerodromes. The association consists of two air defense divisions.
In the area of responsibility of the army — St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, as well as the distant approaches to Moscow. If necessary, it can also provide military assistance to Belarus, with which Russia has signed an agreement on a unified regional air Defense system.
