Russia: Hey, We'll Shoot Down That North Korean Missile

Unlike the Obama Administration's tepid (non)reaction to the lead up to last April's Taepodong-2 launch, the Russians just throw this out there:

North Korea is unlikely to fire a missile rocket in the direction of Russia, but if it does, the anti-missile defense system would destroy the missile in seconds, Russia's General Staff of the Armed Forces said Friday, as Japan voiced concerns that North Korea may be preparing for new missile launches.

“We are sure the rocket will not go in our direction,” deputy head of the General Staff, Alexander Burutin, was quoted by news agencies as telling reporters on Friday.

But if it does, he added, Russian radars are capable of registering North Korea's rocket in the very first seconds of its launch, and its missile defense systems would immediately destroy the missile.

Unless the North Korean ICBM is headed straight for Red Square and the antique A-135 missile defense ring around Moscow, Russia won't have a chance to live up to this bravado. And even if it were headed for Moscow, Pravda(!) says that Russian missile defense around their capital is "poor":

Anatoly Kornukov, the former Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force, and Leonid Ivashov, the former chief of Russia’s Military Staff, believe that Moscow’s air defense system is outdated and therefore incapable of executing its goals. Mr. Ivashov believes that Russia needs to either make huge investments in the development of its air defense system or move the capital to the east of the country.

A missile defense system so poor that they have to consider moving their capital? That's worse than I thought. In any case, the Russians should be more worried about Moscow-reaching Iranian missiles.

Comments

[sherlock]

But they had better hope that Nork missile does not have the performance capabilities of that notorious Soviet defense system-buster, the dreaded Cessna 150.

[ewok40k]

US is better protected from those dreaded Boeing jetliners?
thats the problem with asymmetric BTW

[2Hotel9]

This is the same Russia who keeps having its state of the art fighter aircraft committing epic fails because of their piss poor guidance and control systems, is it not?

[sherlock]

ewok40k, please consult Wikipedia articles:

"Humor, Sense of"

also "Bluster, Soviet Union master of"

also "Tragedies, Pranks vs."

and "Up, the lightening of".

[Ryan Crierie]

John, this may not be as laughable as initially thought.

During the Cold War; there was a lot of fear of a USSR "breakout" of ABM, in which the Soviets simply upgraded the datalinks and radar feeds to their advanced SAM systems, which by dint of being able to intercept very high flying aircraft, which could aggressively manouver in response to incoming fire; gained a automatic capability against non-manouvering ballistic targets.

The one thing preventing these advanced SAMs from being effective in the ABM mission was the lack of quality radar feeds and good systems integration -- the datalinks and target motion track software which worked just fine for targets moving at 1,400 MPH -- or about 0.64 kilometers a second; now had to deal with targets moving at 7 kilometers a second.

Lets say it takes half a second for your SAM battery to acquire a target track from a remote radar site, calculate the trajectory needed to fire the weapon to intercept the target, and then send it to the missile for firing. A Mach 2 target (1,400 MPH) would have moved about 300 meters by then. A incoming ballistic missile/re-entry vehicle would have moved by comparison, some 3,000 meters.

This is why in so many tests of our ABM system, actually hitting the target is SECONDARY to the actual mission objectives of the test -- which is to prove that different radars, ships, missiles, and computers of different configurations, separated by thousands of miles, can talk to each other and do so successfully -- one of the big problems in one of the early SDI test programs in the 1980s was that a radar at Kwajalein and another radar somewhere else in the program actually transmitted their data in completely different formats -- so making the two work together was a technical challenge in itself.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand -- dual use SAM/ABM. During the 1970s and 80s there was a lot of fear that the Soviets had secretly laid together datalinks between the HEN HOUSE radars and various SA-5 (S-200) and SA-10 (S-300) missile sites; allowing them to work in a limited ABM role.

[Ryan Crierie]

Also; some history of the precursors to PATRIOT from a book I found at the Historical Electronics Museum near BWI Airport:

Incarnation 1
FABMDS, standing for Field Army Ballistic Missile Defense System, which was to be mobile and enter operational status in the early 1970's was dropped early in its development stage and is now, function-wise, being developed under AADS-70.

Incarnation 2
The AADS-70 project is concerned with conceptual realization of a field army ballistic missile defense system. It is the successor of the FABMDS which was discontinued in early stage of development. Funding of the AADS-70 system is still quite low — $5 million in fiscal year 1965— because brass is not yet convinced of practicability of the concept which if OK'd will easily cost hundreds of millions of dollars in development alone.

Simplified, AADS-70 is slated to replace Hawk and Hercules missiles and to incorporate within its confines the Mauler weapon system. Not much more has been declassified.

What must be remembered is that AADS-70 will not have anti-ICBM capability -- does not therefore compete with systems in that strategic area. It is also expected that in addition to handling more efficiently the targets of Hercules and Hawk, AADS-70 will have provision for countering the threat of shorter range ballistic missiles.

At this time competitive development contracts are being held by Hughes Aircraft, Douglas Aircraft, FMC (one team); and RCA and Beech.

These contracts are designed to firm concept so that system definition studies can be awarded in the fiscal year 66/67 period.

Incarnation 3 (From Wikipedia)

On 15 October 1964 the Secretary of Defense directed that the Army Air Defense System for the 1970s (AADS-70s) program name be changed to Surface-to-Air Missile, Development (SAM-D).

Incarnation 4 (From Wikipedia)

In 1975 the SAM-D missile successfully engaged a drone at the White Sands Missile Range. In 1976, it was renamed the PATRIOT Air Defense Missile System.

----------------------------------------------------

You can see from the start that PATRIOT had ABM capability inherent in it -- it just got cooled down quite significantly in the 1970s to comply with the damned ABM Treaty; the most worthless piece of paper signed, other than the various "Arms Control" Limitations like the Washington/London Naval Treaties, and the various SALTs.

[Col.Smeag]

I recently read a study made by Russian Scientist who tested missile officers on a annual bases they determined that the more vodka the officer drank the better the results "looked" when they reviewed test fire data. A similar test was done during Spring Break around the USA however pictures of Janet Napalitano were used for the test subject. Drunk Frat boys will slobber over just about anything.

Humor~noun:a comic, absurd, or incongruous quality causing amusement: the humor of a situation.

[Col.Smeag]

White House to Abandon Spy-Satellite Program

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124572555214540265.html

Janet Napolitano keeping the country safe from us.

[firehand]

what is the application process to become a russain?

http://elmtreeforging.blogspot.com/