The Russian military has deployed new S-500 Prometheus systems to the occupied Crimean Peninsula to cover important installations.
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This was announced by the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate Kirill Budanov.
The air defense system is being strengthened. Elements of the S-500 appeared. This will be their experimental use. But they have already appeared there,” Budanov said.
He stated this during a conversation with journalists about Muscovites’ attempts to protect critical facilities in Crimea and the logistics connections of the peninsula with the continental part of Russia from missile attacks.
Militarny notes that the S-500 Prometheus is a modern Russian long-range anti-aircraft system, which is intended to complement the existing S-400 systems, providing a new level of missile defense.
The first and only anti-aircraft complex of this type was handed over to the Russian army in October 2021. Then he went on combat duty, covering Moscow and the region.
Budanov noted that to date only some elements of the system have been deployed on the occupied peninsula, which may indicate that it was not used in full.
Conceptually, the development of the S-500 air defense system followed the path of dividing the tasks of air defense and missile defense, as a result of which the single complex included separate air defense and anti-missile units with their own command posts, radars, launchers and ammunition.
The anti-aircraft component of the complex continues to use 40N6 anti-aircraft missiles from the S-400 air defense system, so their appearance will not radically change the situation. At the same time, the anti-missile part of the S-500 can cover the discovered low ability of Russian systems to intercept ballistic missiles, in particular ATACMS.
The 77N6-N anti-aircraft missiles of the Prometheus complex are the main feature of the complex. They are equipped with a homing system based on their own on-board radar with an active phased array antenna.
Russian officials have stated that the S-500 interceptor missiles can intercept targets at a distance of up to 600 km and an altitude of up to 200 km. We are talking about ballistic and hypersonic targets at speeds up to 7 km/s.
In fact, the stated parameters should allow the complex to shoot down not only short-range OTRK missiles, like ATACMS, but also intercept medium-range missiles.
Source: Racurs
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