Russia Will Receive Almaz-Antei S-350E Vityaz (50R6) in 2016

Almaz-Antei plans to start delivering the first of its S-350 Vityaz (50R6) surface-to-air missile (SAM) air defense system now in development in 2016. The S-350 Vityaz will replace the earliest versions of the S-300 such as the S-300PS.

While technically a new system, the S-350 Vityaz makes heavy use of components that had been developed earlier. It is a lighter and scaled down version of the S-400 which it will complement.

The S-350 also incorporates lessons from South Korea's KM-SAM Cheongung which Almaz-Antei helped co-develop. The S-350 Vityaz system consists of:

• 50K6E command post
• 50H6E phased-array radar system
• 50P6E transporter-erector launcher (TEL)

A single command post can control two radar systems and eight TELs. The system can be set up in 5 minutes and can engage up to 16 aircraft or 12 missiles.


Each TEL can carry up to 12 vertically launched 9M96E2 missiles that are guided by an active radar seeker. The 9M96E2 specifications are:

• Length of 5.65 m
• Diameter of 0.24 m
• Range of 120 km
• Ceiling of 30 km
• Speed of Mach 3
• Weight of 420 kg
• Warhead of 24 kg
• Maximum overload of 60G

The S-350 is also compatible with the shorter 9M96E missiles with a reduced range of 40 km. Both missiles were orginally developed by Fakel for the S-400.

Also compatible will be the short-range 9M100 infrared missile with a range of 10 km that is now under development for the Morfey (Morfei) system. Unlike the S-400, the S-350 Vityaz is not backwards compatible with older missiles used by the S-300 series such as the 48N6E2 used by the S-300PMU2.


http://en.rian.ru/military_news/20130911/183358914/Russian-Army-to-Receive-Vityaz-Air-Defense-Systems-in-2016.html

By Vitaly V. Kuzmin [CC-BY-SA-3.0], via Wikimedia Commons