#8 - RW 269
Russian Military Officials Present Plans To Expand Radar Coverage at Conference
Izvestiya
August 9, 2003
Report by Dmitriy Litovkin:
"Skies Full of Air Defense Holes"

About half of Russian airspace is not controlled by radar tracking systems. This was declared yesterday (8 August) by Mikhail Kizilov, chief of the Defense Ministry's Airspace Utilization and Air Traffic Control Directorate. A "heroic deed" performed by German student Mathias Rhust, who flew over half of the Soviet Union and landed on Red Square 16 years ago, can be repeated by people who have much more serious intentions.

"The on-duty radar field exists mostly along Russia's western and southern borders. In other regions, it has a spotty nature. In the north, only one-third of air borders is covered. As a whole, the radar monitored field covers about 35 percent of the country's territory," Air Force Commander in Chief Vladimir Mikhaylov specified Kizilov's words.

In the USSR, the national airspace was reliably covered from air (or at least so it seemed before 1987, before Rhust). The air defense system was managed on a centralized basis and was deeply echeloned and highly automated. It included about 2,000 interceptors and 1,000 antiaircraft missile systems of various ranges. The Air Defense radiotechnical troops comprised more than 50 radiotechnical units and hundreds of subunits, whose weapons included several thousand radar stations. The sky was protected also by air defense troops and forces of military districts and fleets and with fighter aviation, which meant several hundred missile systems and about 1,000 aircraft more.

In 1991, the USSR started to fall apart and so did the Army. Units were scaled down massively, especially those located in hard-to-reach regions, and radar and antiaircraft systems were no longer modernized. Speaking more precisely, though, the air defense system started to collapse even earlier -- after a South Korean Boeing 747 that violated Soviet airspace was shot down in 1983. Bashed by the powerful international condemnation for downing a civilian aircraft, our military dashed to a different extreme. When Rhust's airplane violated our airspace, the Air Defense command did not dare to order its interception throughout its flight to Red Square.

When terrorists crashed two airplanes in New York on 11 September 2001, views again started to change. Then-Air Force Commander in Chief Anatoliy Kornukov even declared that he was ready to install an antiaircraft missile system on the roof of every house in Moscow and shoot down anything moving toward the Kremlin. Yet, as specialists say, the offer only indicated the lack of proper control over airspace over distant approach routes to the capital -- or on the borders (it takes slightly more than one hour for an intruder airplane and about 10 minutes for a cruise missile to reach Moscow from the northwest).

"Nevertheless, we do have a constructive approach to resolve this problem," Commander in Chief Mikhaylov says. In General Kizilov's words, not only is it possible to restore a single radar field but this process is even in full swing now -- upon personal approval of Vladimir Putin. An essential thing for us is to create a single system of modernized dual-purpose air traffic control stations. Today, these stations "lead" both civilian and military aircraft, and it has been proposed now that they assume a function of controlling airspace as a whole.

"State identification 'friend or foe' systems are installed in them," Kizilov explained to Izvestiya. "Thus, Russia will ensure a 100-percent coverage of its territory with tracking systems in the interests of air defense. This is about what the United States did on its territory after 11 September."

However, air defense does not consist of radar stations only, it comprises also antiaircraft missile systems, interceptors, and finally trained military servicemen. In the words of the Air Force chief commander, the Air Defense Troops will receive in 2004 a new S-400 antiaircraft system. By its tactical and technical characteristics, it surpasses the modern S-300 systems by 2.5 times. Also in progress is modernization of the fleet of fighters -- there is not enough money to buy new ones, which is why an option of profound upgrading was selected.

Another area is cooperation with neighbors. As part of the Collective Security Treaty (ODKB), Air Defense Forces of member countries of the treaty hold join exercises every year. Russia provides modern antiaircraft missile equipment to its ODKB partners at Russian internal purchasing prices.

Consultations are in progress on cooperation with NATO. At this point, the negotiations are rather in an embryonic stage, with terminology being specified and issues relating to compatibility of tracking systems studied. By the way, in NATO countries the modern air defense system has been at work since the early 1970's: 40 ground tracking stations in nine countries, 18 AWACS aircraft radars borne by U.S. E-3A airplanes. In the past decade, this system has been modernized at the cost of more than $5 billion, and in the next several years it will be covered with another, "antimissile" layer." In 2005, it is planned to commission a control system for the joint NATO Air Force and Air Defense in Europe (Air Command and Control System, ACCS), which will allow the Alliance to manage its air forces and air defense resources in any region of the world.

Until recently, the antimissile defense of Japan has been virtually under auspices of the United States. The Japanese have started building in earnest their own "defense line" only this year. In March, as the ITAR-TASS agency reported, Japan performed an unprecedented launch of two military satellites. They were put in orbit in a way allowing Japan to see twice a day territory of North Korea, where, the Japanese believe, a direct threat of unsanctioned launches may come from. In September, the Japanese plan to place in orbit another two satellites that would allow them to see their neighbors not only in the morning and evening, which is currently the case, but also in the day. By 2009, Japan plans to have as many as nine military satellites in outer space. In addition, the Japanese intend to buy the U.S.-made air defense system Patriot, which is also called PAK-3. Later, it may be integrated with an antimissile defense system of this region.

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