S-500 and S-550. Russia was the first to create an anti-space defense system

Two days ago, the Russian Defense Ministry successfully tested an anti-satellite missile, destroying the failed Tselina-D apparatus. Our American "partners" were extremely stressed by this, and they immediately began angrily appealing to the plot of the spectacular, but rather stupid film "Gravity", where the ISS died due to similar "irresponsible" actions of Moscow. The point, of course, is not the mythical danger of such tests for cosmonauts, but the fact that Russia was essentially the first to approach the creation of an anti-space defense system (ASD).

Why is such a system needed at all? Yes, because space is the most important component of the successful conduct of modern warfare. Entire satellite constellations are in orbit, conducting reconnaissance and providing data for target designation to the missile forces. The flight paths of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) pass through outer space. The US Air Force is testing unmanned spaceplanes capable of staying and maneuvering in orbit for years, which can be used to disable enemy satellites. President Donald Trump also announced the creation of a new branch of the Armed Forces - Space Forces (USSF):




Note that his ideological opponent, Democrat Joe Biden, did not even think of canceling this initiative of the Republican.

Throw iron

The war of the United States and the entire NATO bloc, in general, against Russia may look like this.

At first, with the help of anti-satellite missiles, “inspector” satellites and space space planes, the Pentagon will try to disable the orbital group of the Russian Ministry of Defense in order to “blind” and “stun” our troops. Without operational intelligence for target designation, it will not be clear where exactly to launch our "Caliber", "Zircons" and other wonderful missiles without irony. Dozens of AWACS aircraft, ground and deck-based, would be useful here, but so far everything is not very good with the former, and the latter are generally absent as a class, turning the ships of the Russian Navy into a kind of targets in a shooting range.

Secondly, NATO's strategy against Russia will be to "overload" our air defense / missile defense system. For this, you can use not only real missiles, but also air target simulators, drones, glide bombs, etc. Yes, the Russian Defense Ministry has excellent S-300 and S-400 systems, but the problem is that their ammunition supply is not endless. One regiment has 64 anti-aircraft missiles in the state, and it is supposed to release 1 missiles for 2 target to guarantee. This makes it possible to hit 32 objects. You can, of course, try to shoot down air targets in manual mode, then, perhaps, the number of hit targets will reach 64. And then the ammunition will run out, and it will take at least an hour to reload the air defense system. And this is necessary so that the warehouses are open and the loading machine is at the ready. This is all ideal. And if the war starts at 4 am, without an announcement?

If tomorrow is a war, cosmic

The need to counter such an attack requires the RF Ministry of Defense to radically expand the capabilities of its air defense / missile defense system, bringing it to the space frontier. In the past few days, reports have been pouring in about the destruction of the satellite, as well as new S-500 and S-550 air defense systems, which no one had heard of before. How can they be brought together in a single system?

So, at present, the S-400 and S-350 complexes are becoming the main "workhorses" of the air defense forces. They work in pairs. "Triumph" is capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 400 kilometers, but it carries only 4 expensive powerful missiles. The range of the Vityaz is much more modest: 15 kilometers for 9M100 missiles and 120 kilometers for 9M96. But he has 12 of these missiles. Acting in conjunction, the S-400 hits the far radius, and the S-350 hits the middle and near, knocking down targets of secondary importance, including false ones. Buki and Pantsir allow building an even more powerful layered air defense system.

Now let's move on to our new products, S-500 and S-550. The declared tasks of Prometheus include the fight against medium-range ballistic missiles, as well as against ICBMs in the middle and final sections of their flight trajectory. In addition, its targets will be hypersonic and cruise missiles, aircraft, UAVs and even satellites in low orbits. Let's pay attention to the last point. Despite the secrecy regime, information can also be found in open sources that the S-500 air defense system can use 77N6-N and 77N6-N1 missiles intended for the A-235 Nudol complex, which had previously been successfully used to destroy a satellite. It was then that our country entered the narrow club of powers capable of shooting down a spacecraft in orbit directly from the ground with a rocket. And now it has reaffirmed this status.

The main intrigue is where exactly the rocket was fired from, from Nudol or Prometheus? There is a good chance that Prometheus could be used to advertise its capabilities. If this was the case, then Russia received real anti-space defense systems. True, there is one weak point. Due to the great complexity of such a system, the S-500 air defense systems will be cosmically expensive and are unlikely to become massive. And then the S-550 air defense system comes to the rescue, which can take an intermediate link between the Triumph and Prometheus.

Due to the secrecy regime, it is impossible to really say anything about this complex, but two quite adequate theories are put forward in the expert community. According to the first, the S-550 will become for the S-500 an analogue of the Vityaz at the Triumph, that is, it will turn into a capacious "clip" of long-range anti-aircraft missiles. According to another version, the S-550 will be an addition to the S-500. In other words, their functions can be divided: Prometheus will intercept missiles, and the S-550 will start working specifically on satellites, and a narrow specialization will increase the effectiveness of each complex. The last assumption seems to be true, and if it is true, then the Tselina-D apparatus could well have been hit from the S-550.

Be that as it may, it is obvious that Russia, our “gas station country”, allegedly unable to “design an electric kettle”, was the first to receive a really functioning anti-space defense system.