The war, in which for the first time enemy aircraft began to pose a serious danger, is, of course, the First World War. At that time, the first means of dealing with aircraft appeared. With the development of rocket technology, the military had to acquire a shield also from enemy missiles. What is Russian missile defense today, how did it arise and develop, what tasks does it solve?
Threat from heaven
Even before the First World War, the troops of some countries used aircraft for reconnaissance purposes. From the side of the balloon, enemy positions were examined, and artillery fire was also adjusted. Slowly conquered airspace and vehicles heavier than air - airplanes. So, for example, Russia was armed with about 60 super-heavy military aircraft (now they would be called strategic bombers) "Ilya Muromets." The carrying capacity of such a machine, by the way, was in the region of one ton. So many bombs and a peak could be brought down from the board of this giant onto the heads of enemy soldiers.
The trouble with the first combat aircraft was the extremely low bombing efficiency. In order to bomb more or less accurately, the airplanes had to drop to a height of a couple of hundred meters. At this height, they became an easy target for rifles or machine guns mounted for the convenience of firing at air targets on a rotating platform. So the air defense was born - air defense. Russia, like other countries, had to join this race.
The first ever jet-powered challenges
Apart from the multiple launch rocket systems, the Third Reich was, of course, the first to start using rockets to fire large areas at great distances. With their first cruise missiles (an unmanned aircraft filled with explosives with a jet engine) that terrorized London, the FAU-1 successfully learned how to fight the English pilots.
The actions of the first missile defense in the history resembled an ordinary air battle - the FAU-1 was shot in the air or lost its course by touching the wing of a fighter, or even by a jet from a propeller (an explosion of a ton of explosive near the plane did not bode well for the car or the pilot).
But then, after many failures, the Third Reich received the FAU-2 ballistic missile at its disposal. This weapon worked differently. The word "ballistic" means that the apparatus moves along a ballistic trajectory, like a normal projectile fired from a gun. Only there are no guns firing at a distance of several hundred kilometers.
A ballistic projectile took off to a height of about 200 kilometers and from there it rushed almost vertically at tremendous speed into densely populated areas of England. Unfortunately, the interception of ballistic missiles was then beyond the power of any aircraft.
The birth of missile defense
The lessons of the Second World War showed that the only way to combat a missile can only be another missile, moreover maneuverable and possessing a higher speed compared to the target. So the missile defense system began to emerge (decoding - missile defense).
Almost simultaneously with the beginning of the era of atomic weapons in the late forties of the last century, the United States and the USSR began to search for a solution to how to defend themselves against enemy missiles.
However, the first anti-missiles became operational only in the 60s. There were too many technical issues to solve. After all, what is a missile defense? This is the mobility of the complexes, and the speed of anti-missile systems, and the perfection of missile guidance systems. It took about 20 years to solve these problems.
Ballistic goals
Fighting ballistic missiles is difficult primarily because of their enormous speed (up to several kilometers per second) and the altitude at which the flight takes place. The USSR missile defense was able to solve such a problem in March 1961. For the first time in the world, a missile intercepted and shot down a ballistic target in the stratosphere.
Then, after the Caribbean crisis, which almost served as the beginning of a war between the superpowers, the warring parties agreed not to develop missile defense systems. The meaning of the agreement was that none of the parties would start a nuclear war, because of the inevitable crushing retaliatory strike.
The ABM Treaty, as a result of the US unilateral withdrawal from it, no longer exists. But even now, with the modern development of technology, knocking down an intercontinental ballistic missile is a daunting task. Moreover, the missiles themselves are completely different, they are equipped with separable warheads with individual guidance, they can skillfully maneuver, throw away false targets.
Therefore, the cherished goal is to shoot down enemy missiles in the initial sections of the trajectory, that’s what a missile defense is, truly effective in understanding strategists. The missile is far from its territory, its working jet engine serves as an excellent target designator for anti-missile. This is precisely what the famous US missile defense system is designed for, elements of which are now so actively deployed in Europe.
Winged "monsters"
No less a headache is the military and modern cruise missile systems. Only now the “heirs” of the FAU-1, thanks to the latest technologies, have become much more perfect. The miniature jet plane, which has tremendous speed, moves at an extremely low altitude (sometimes it is only a few meters), rounding the hills, descending into the lowlands.
The body of such a missile is made using low-radar signature technology, and in the head part there can be either a conventional or a nuclear charge. And besides everything else, such missiles will most likely be hit on a massive scale. Is there an antidote? And what is a missile defense of the modern army can counter a flock of 100 or 200 flying to the target, and besides from different directions, cruise missiles?
As the experience of recent military conflicts has shown, using expensive advanced systems like the Russian S-300 and S-400 against flocks of cruise missiles is inefficient. Firstly, it’s like firing a cannon at a sparrow, and secondly, as soon as the missile defense system begins to work, its radar unmasking takes place, and it immediately becomes a target. Mobile systems, including cannon weapons, and conventional MANPADS proved to be an effective means against cruise missiles.
Shoot down without knocking down
An effective component of Russian air defense has recently become electronic warfare. It is no secret that using only an inertial guidance system will not provide the declared accuracy of cruise missiles. Hitting a target the size of a car or a small building at a distance of several hundred kilometers is possible only when adjusting the route of the projectile from space.
It is no accident that the US military is so jealous of the tests in China and Russia of anti-satellite weapons. But you can do without Star Wars. The signal that the missile receives from the GPS network can be distorted, transmitted in an altered form, and jammed by interference. It is no accident that electronic warfare systems are installed today on all types of military aircraft, warships, and even tanks.