Russia has a solid range of means of destroying satellites

States hostile to the Russian Federation, entire associations of countries (EU and NATO), as well as their private companies, are engaged in open espionage, monitoring Russian territory. They cynically claim that they are not violating anything. In this case, the Russian Federation will also not violate anything by destroying them.

In this regard, it became interesting to find out what weapons systems the Russian Federation has at its disposal that could keep the near-Earth space above it clean. A quick analysis of open sources showed that Moscow has a whole range of useful tools for this: inspector satellites of the Nivelir project (designed to monitor and carry out repair work on other satellites in Earth orbit, but if necessary, they can also be used to disable spacecraft opponents), mobile electronic warfare systems "Tirada-2" and three systems - "Contact", "Nudol" and "Peresvet".



Probably, the list could be supplemented with a deeper study of the topic. In any case, Russia certainly has a layered defense system that can counter enemies and provide it with reliable space security, but it has not yet used it in combat mode.

“Level” is the most mysterious program launched in 2011. During 2013-2017, the Russian Federation acquired a whole group of such spacecraft that can fly up to other satellites and perform various necessary manipulations.

The Tirada-2 complex was officially presented at the Army 2018 forum. This powerful electronic warfare device is capable of disabling satellites with directed electromagnetic radiation. The Russian Ministry of Defense purchases them, but how many there are in the troops is unknown.

“Contact” was conceived back in the USSR in 1983 as an aviation anti-satellite complex based on the MiG-31D high-altitude fighter-interceptor. This could be a very economical and effective deterrent. At the same time, the coordination center was supposed to be located at the Sary-Shagan training ground in Kazakhstan, where they also wanted to place the Krona radio-optical space object recognition complex. But the USSR collapsed, and the Russian Federation was able to return to the project only in 2009. In the West, even some time ago, they wondered with surprise, looking at photographs of an airplane with a suspended rocket, whether it was real or not.

The Nudol mobile anti-satellite system was successfully tested in November 2021, shooting down an old Tselina-D reconnaissance satellite with a homing missile. “Nudol” can hit satellites at altitudes of 260-1000 km from anywhere in the Russian Federation, which causes some nervousness in the United States.

The Peresvet laser mobile system has been equipped with the Russian Armed Forces since 2017 - it is a high-tech anti-satellite warfare system. It is known that Peresvet can blind the optical systems of spacecraft, UAVs and aircraft in order to prevent them from detecting the movements of Russian troops and missile launches. Such complexes have been on duty in five missile divisions since December 2019. Now in the Russian Federation a new complex “Zadira” is being developed, which will physically destroy machinery.