Editor-in-Chief of the TASS magazine "Military-Technical Cooperation"
Dmitry Litovkin — what is known and what can be assumed about the missile system being developed for the Russian Navy
The Russian military-industrial complex continues to surprise with new developments. As TASS sources have learned, a new Serpentine missile system with a hypersonic striking element capable of destroying an enemy aircraft carrier group almost anywhere in the World Ocean is being developed in the country. It is assumed that the missile will enter service with coastal missile and artillery units of the Navy (Navy). And that, in fact, is all — so far no other information has been disclosed.
Smoke of fire
Statements (they are also considered to be almost presentations) about the creation of new weapons systems in the Russian Federation are usually made by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. One of the most extensive was the announcement in 2018 by Russian President Vladimir Putin in a message to the Federal Assembly of the appearance of the Zircon hypersonic missile, the Dagger aeroballistic complex, the Burevestnik and Poseidon nuclear drones, as well as the Avangard maneuvering nuclear unit.
The Zircon missile should be put into service with surface ships very soon. The Dagger is actively used by MiG-31K high-altitude interceptors. For example, according to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, with the help of these weapons, a large underground warehouse of missiles and aviation ammunition of Ukrainian troops was destroyed during a special operation in the village of Delyatin in the Ivano-Frankivsk region — a former underground nuclear ammunition storage in the mountains. Following this, a large storage base of fuel and lubricants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was destroyed in the area of the settlement of Konstantinovka of the Mykolaiv region.
Little is still known about the nuclear-powered cruise missile "Burevestnik", but it was reported that it is already being tested. Meanwhile, on July 8 of this year, the Navy received the first possible carrier of Poseidon underwater nuclear drones — the BS-329 Belgorod submarine.
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| Launch of the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile at the Plesetsk cosmodrome. |
As for the Avangard hypersonic maneuvering nuclear unit, the first regiment of UR-100 missiles is already in the Yasnensky missile compound in the Orenburg Region. In the near future, they will be joined by new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missiles, which, according to the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, Colonel-General Sergei Karakayev, will have not one warhead, but several.
Avangard will create conditions for the development of new types of combat equipment for modern and promising strategic missiles," Karakayev said in an interview. He stressed that Russia was the first to receive strategic hypersonic nuclear weapons, "a real-life aircraft that develops a speed more than 20 times the Mach number and implements all of the above capabilities."
At the "Turn" by analogy with the "Avant-garde"?
What can the new Serpentine missile system, which is reported by TASS sources, represent? Judging by the information received by the agency, and interpreting the statements of Karakayev, I come to the conclusion that it will be a ballistic missile with new combat equipment — most likely similar to the Avangard (or similar to it). The main question here, in my opinion, is which missile will become the carrier of the anti-ship version of the hypersonic maneuvering unit. There may be several options. I propose to consider them.
UR-100 and Sarmatians are not suitable for this role — they are too large, they are launched exclusively from rocket silos. And the missile units of the Navy need mobile installations, since they have to solve tasks at various points of the Russian coast. Today there are complexes "Bal" with X-35 missiles and "Bastion" with "Onyx". However, the range of these missiles is only 300-500 km, that is, they can only hit those targets that directly approached our coast.
And here I remember the seemingly forgotten RS-26 "Frontier" complex. Back on March 18, 2015, the Ministry of Defense announced successful tests of this missile. The message said that it was a "solid-fuel ICBM with advanced combat equipment and a separable warhead". The commander of the Strategic Missile Forces Karakaev also reported that the RS-26 will be lighter than the Yars: "If we are talking about a mobile ground Yars, then today we have a launcher that weighs more than 120 tons. With the new improved rocket, we will achieve weight characteristics of up to 80 tons."
According to him, the machine should be launched from a mobile ground complex; there is no mine-based option for it. The rocket carrier, as in the case of the Topol-M and Yars complexes, was the Belarusian tractor MZKT-79291, built according to the 12x12 formula (the two previous complexes had a 16x16 wheel formula).
Like a "Mosquito" or the targeting of a "Vine"
The last open question is about the combat unit. To effectively defeat an aircraft carrier group, it needs to have an accurate target designation. Unlike cities and industrial facilities, ships are moving, and even knowing the exact coordinates of the target at the time of launch, by the time the ballistic missile of the combat unit is launched, it is impossible to be sure that the hit will be exactly at the right point. In Soviet times, there were two ways to solve this problem.
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| PKR "Mosquito" ZM-80. Photo: www.warlib.ru . |
First, cruise missiles with their own homing heads were to be launched into the target area. At that time, one of the most advanced supersonic cruise missiles 3M-80 "Mosquito" was considered as a strike weapon — they fly at a distance of almost 200 km. They were originally designed to destroy enemy aircraft carriers. Each missile can have a nuclear or high-explosive warhead weighing up to half a ton.
The speed of the missiles makes it possible to be invisible to radars. In addition, the projectile constantly changes the altitude and direction of flight, writing out an intricate "snake" over the water, as a result merging with the surrounding environment. According to the sailors, it is possible to notice the "Mosquito" only at the very side of the ship, when it is physically impossible to dodge it. For the speed, unpredictability of flight and destructive power in the West, the car was nicknamed Sunburn — "Sunburn".
The second method of aiming warheads at a moving target turned out to be somewhat simpler, but significantly more expensive. This is a space reconnaissance and targeting system "Liana", which includes satellites of the type "Lotus-S" and "Peony-NKS". The first one is designed for passive electronic reconnaissance, the second one is for active radar reconnaissance. The resolution of the "Pion-NKS" is about 3 m, which makes it possible to detect ships, even those built using stealth technologies.
Currently, the only country that has claimed to possess ballistic missiles capable of sinking an aircraft carrier is China. Beijing has demonstrated DF-21D and DF-26 systems with a flight range of up to 4 thousand km several times during various parades. Interestingly, the mobile launchers of these systems are very similar to those that were proposed to be made for the Russian Rubezh complex. The similarity of the characteristics of the "Serpentine" with Chinese missiles of a similar class was also stated by one of the TASS sources close to the military-industrial complex. However, it is possible that my assumptions may be far from reality.
Dmitry Litovkin
