Project 2038.0: Steregushchy Corvette

I suspect they are working on rather powerful AESA radar arrays... but it will likely take time for production to reduce the cost of each module, and also reduce the dud rate of modules (duds cost the same as working modules), while over time with experience the software will also improve and performance and capabilities will expand... the thing is that the best way to reduce costs and improve design and manufacturing is mass production... which will be expensive at first but costs will go down because you can pretty much use the same TR modules on any AESA radar.... from ship antenna array, to missile antenna array, to SAM radar antenna array, to vehicle and aircraft antenna array, and beyond.

Price per module comes down, weight comes down, size comes down, performance goes up, efficiency goes up...

Late model Pantsir has a similar range to the short range Redut 40-60kms... and the missiles themselves are relatively cheaper with no terminal guidance equipment (in the Pantsirs) like AESA radars (in Redut missiles)... the main problem(for the Pantsirs) is their length. A vertical launch system with a side thruster to turn the missile in the appropriate direction before the main solid rocket booster lights up would make them rather more stealthy and also allow rather larger numbers to be carried ready to fire... and their command guidance makes them rather cheaper.

Also important to point out that while the Pantsir missiles are cheap command guided missiles, the related Hermes ground to ground missiles use terminal guidance options of quite a few different types that could be used in a surface to air role to make them more potent if needed, so they offer low cost and flexibility of terminal guidance as a mixed bag...

Should point out the land based Redut (S-350) is not in service either yet.

One potential solution for the AESA radar antenna arrays is to only put half the number of AESA elements in the systems and leave the rest blank. It should not effect performance that much initially but will halve the cost of each antenna array.

Later when production kicks into higher gear the other elements can be added to increase the performance of the systems in operation without costing too much...

An array half filled is still better than no radar, or a cheaper substitute...

The more they produce these antenna elements the cheaper they will get and the better quality and performance they will get from them...

Note the four warhead Pantsir missile would be ideal for facing mass attacks of anti ship missiles...

However once the S-350 and Poliment-Redut systems are working they seem to be rather more capable and with a much greater effective range, that would also be powerful and useful for a small naval vessel.

Can those ships only use the 40km 9m96 missile or is it possible to use the longer version with 120km range ?

AFAIK they can use both as they each fit the same sized tube... the longer ranged missile is just longer.

Also AFAIK it was the longer ranged missile that was not performing properly... and I would say the shorter ranged model would be the more important weapon... it is likely they would use 4-6 times more of the smaller lighter missile than the longer ranged weapon most of the time.

Any citation of 9M96E2 carrying AESA radars? I thought that was the 9M100 for Morfei. Thanks

Sorry, I confused AESA with ARH...

Interesting, but as I see it they will be converting all their radar to AESA type array antennas as the AESA modules become cheaper and more widely available... so expect such antenna arrays to appear all over ships and soon aircraft and land vehicles...