Iskander-M/K (SS-26 Stone):

The INF Treaty ended in time. The wreckage of the Iskander launched from the Russian Federation fell on the territory of Kazakhstan outside the missile range, this is +620 km from the border of the Russian Federation

Putin said Russia would not develop or deploy missiles that violated the INF treaty until the US did... the US has developed such missiles and is deploying them so Russian hands are free to do the same.

Rostec announced the modernization of Iskander missile systems

In Russia, the Iskander-M missile systems are being modernized. This was reported on June 24 by Interfax with reference to a representative of Rostec.

According to him, the potential of existing complexes will allow them to serve at least 25-30 years, so it is irrational to create them every 5-10 years.

“As a rule, the creation of new complexes entails the preparation of new infrastructure for their deployment, and this is a significant expense,” he said. Arms modernization is ongoing in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense.

In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about the creation of the Iskander. According to him, “a group of young people has come” and made this complex.

The Iskanders are designed to destroy targets such as missile systems, multiple launch rocket systems and long-range artillery, airplanes and helicopters at airfields, command posts and communication centers.

https://iz.ru/1027489/2020-06-24/rostekh-soobshchil-o-modernizatcii-raketnykh-kompleksov-iskander?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fzen.yandex.com

I am assuming probably with technology they developed from Kinzhal. Maybe newer sensors and guidance system? Maybe modernized motor that will allow it to fire quicker?

miketheterrible wrote:I am assuming probably with technology they developed from Kinzhal.  Maybe newer sensors and guidance system?  Maybe modernized motor that will allow it to fire quicker?

Maybe an additional first stage, just in case US continues rejecting the INF moratory?

Maybe upgrade Iskander to be able to engage sea-borne targets, ie a land-launched Kinzhal, and a new-generation solid propellent booster would be nice too. I'd develop an extended-range Arctic-version and deploy them to the island bases of the Siberian shelf (eg northern tip of Novaya Zemyla, Severnaya Zemyla, Kotelny, Wrangel etc) just to send a pointed message to the thrice-damned Muricanz.

I would say a good first step would be a second stage... a solid rocket stage that lifts the whole missile up and accelerates it to perhaps mach 4 or 5 at 30km altitude would effectively give it more of a range boost than launching it from an MiG-31 so its flight performance should immediately go from 490km range and mach 6-7 speed to probably mach 10 flight speed and a range of perhaps 2,500-3,000km without too many other changes.

The materials the front is made from might need some upgrades to cope with the higher temperatures... much like the Kinzhal missile probably needed too because they are not only flying much faster, but also for a much longer period of time.

In the longer term however they will probably keep that solid rocket extra stage and replace the main missile propulsion with a scramjet motor to maintain speed better and use fuel much more efficiently... perhaps lower flight speeds for the early portion of flight to save fuel but then faster in the terminal phase when fuel weight has plummeted but thrust is still fully controllable.

Arctic based anti ship models are a good idea and models based in the far east able to target much of Americas west coast would be interesting too... with scramjet propulsion it becomes more like a cruise missile which is excellent for extending range... just add external fuel tanks for the first 1,000km and then drop them and fly a further 4-5,000km to targets deep in enemy territory... (more than 5,500km and they are considered strategic weapons... but with no new START planned that wont matter either...

AEGIS ships in the Arctic or Pacific or Atlantic coasts would need powerful radars to detect overflying BMs so perhaps an anti radiation variant might be the best solution...

Detachable warhead like Oka... Maybe was that what Borisov meant when he said Russia would build a missile with the Oka achievements in mind.
This is the only thing that Oka is better than Islander.

Missile brigades are being trained to strike at amphibious assault forces and ships, sources in the Ministry of Defense told Izvestia. A matter of minutes will pass from target detection to destruction by the Iskander operational-tactical missile system

https://iz.ru/1040269/anton-lavrov-roman-kretcul/iskandery-ne-daiut-dobro-novye-raketnye-kompleksy-zashchitiat-poberezhe-rossii

dino00 wrote:Missile brigades are being trained to strike at amphibious assault forces and ships, sources in the Ministry of Defense told Izvestia. A matter of minutes will pass from target detection to destruction by the Iskander operational-tactical missile system

https://iz.ru/1040269/anton-lavrov-roman-kretcul/iskandery-ne-daiut-dobro-novye-raketnye-kompleksy-zashchitiat-poberezhe-rossii

There's some speculation that the Iskander will receive missiles with EO homing head enabling it to target moving targets including ships

Cyberspec wrote:

dino00 wrote:Missile brigades are being trained to strike at amphibious assault forces and ships, sources in the Ministry of Defense told Izvestia. A matter of minutes will pass from target detection to destruction by the Iskander operational-tactical missile system

https://iz.ru/1040269/anton-lavrov-roman-kretcul/iskandery-ne-daiut-dobro-novye-raketnye-kompleksy-zashchitiat-poberezhe-rossii

There's some speculation that the Iskander will receive missiles with EO homing head enabling it to target moving targets including ships

If they make it hypersonic then all targets will be effectively still. Given the Kinzhal, I think a hypersonic Iskander is the next logical step.

kvs wrote:

Cyberspec wrote:

dino00 wrote:Missile brigades are being trained to strike at amphibious assault forces and ships, sources in the Ministry of Defense told Izvestia. A matter of minutes will pass from target detection to destruction by the Iskander operational-tactical missile system

https://iz.ru/1040269/anton-lavrov-roman-kretcul/iskandery-ne-daiut-dobro-novye-raketnye-kompleksy-zashchitiat-poberezhe-rossii

There's some speculation that the Iskander will receive missiles with EO homing head enabling it to target moving targets including ships

If they make it hypersonic then all targets will be effectively still.    Given the Kinzhal, I think a hypersonic Iskander is the next logical step.    

Iskander has always been hypersonic. As far as Iskander with a EO homing head goes, apparently it already exists but we've never seen it (publicly) deployed, but it goes by the designation 9M723TL.

The Tochka and Iskander come with alternative seekers... the original and also cheapest is basically using intertial guidance which results in a 200m CEP at 300km range (note these are export numbers). With GLONASS the accuracy improves to a CEP of less than 30m (note was 50m in 2001 but should be much better now) which is good enough for a cluster munition warhead. The optical homing warhead brings the CEP below 10m.

There is an active radar seeker model and I think its accuracy is comparable to the optical homing but obviously all weather day night capable...

Seeing that 9M714V Volga in the drawing, one would think Russians don't need to look much further for a post-INF Iskander

Edit: system reported here as 9K716 Volga

http://militaryrussia.ru/blog/topic-223.html

LMFS wrote:Seeing that 9M714V Volga in the drawing, one would think Russians don't need to look much further for a post-INF Iskander

Most definitely, especially if you include the grid-fins that Elon Musk invented circa 1371 B.C.

GarryB wrote:The Tochka and Iskander come with alternative seekers... the original and also cheapest is basically using intertial guidance which results in a 200m CEP at 300km range (note these are export numbers). With GLONASS the accuracy improves to a CEP of less than 30m (note was 50m in 2001 but should be much better now) which is good enough for a cluster munition warhead. The optical homing warhead brings the CEP below 10m.

There is an active radar seeker model and I think its accuracy is comparable to the optical homing but obviously all weather day night capable...

These CEP numbers imply:

1) All the BS about "poor" Soviet and Russian missile accuracy is pure propaganda. The inertial guidance has intrinsic limitations on the
accuracy most likely thanks to atmospheric perturbation during flight.

2) Due to the real world limitations of inertial guidance, some active correction mechanism is required. Satellite positioning data seems
like the most straightforward option. But I think there are other variants. There was a discussion of stellar navigation on another
part of this board a while back.

LMFS wrote:Seeing that 9M714V Volga in the drawing, one would think Russians don't need to look much further for a post-INF Iskander

Edit: system reported here as 9K716 Volga

http://militaryrussia.ru/blog/topic-223.html

The specs given in the link are ancient. With the more than doubling of the solid rocket fuel propulsion characteristics the
range of the Volga is likely over 1200 km.

The critical thing for accuracy is precision timing.

Work out what the direction to the target is and determine the amount of time it would take to get there at x speed... but German buzz bomb had a simple jet engine and flew on a compass bearing and then after x number of seconds the motor was cut off and it would fall to the ground and explode.

Totally useless as anything other than a terror weapon because it could operate 24/7 in the worst weather... the problem was that you needed a target the size of London to make it effective.

Most strategic bombing was done the same way at the time, and though they claimed the norden bombsight was sophisticated and amazing... they still needed thousand bomber raids to hit one factory that might be the size of four city blocks....

These accuracy figures are for export versions of these weapons and were published at a time when GLONASS was not as accurate simply because it was not totally complete and it consisted of older satellite models with less precise clock on board. The newer models are rather more accurate, and as they repopulate the cluster it is only going to get better.

Of course 250m CEP is actually already good enough for a chem or bio or nuclear attack... and ironically we have just seen the potential power of a bio attack... it clearly exceeded the power and lethality of any nuke, but it is always the N in NBC that scares most people when the B is the one we should really be afraid of.

Imagine a bio weapon that has no symptoms and is easily passed from person to person and makes all men and women sterile...

Regarding that Volga missile it should have a decent range even allowing for manouvering performance... the solid rocket booster should get the missile up and moving to high altitude and high speed, which means the missile itself is basically the same as being launched from a high flying fast flying MiG-31 if not faster, so 2,000km-3,000km should be easily achievable... and if you sling it under a MiG-31 or Tu-22M3 to launch it... its performance should be even better...

^^^
First time shown on video I think

They showed a similar turn last year https://www.russiadefence.net/t75p325-iskander-m-k-ss-26-stone#265289
It is an impressive turn but definitely not 90deg.

From the recent Algerian exercise:


Someone thinks this a HE-Frag explosion, but if anything this looks like a thermobaric explosion.


At the 13:46 mark.

Regarding the speed of the Iskander, it is less than Mach 7. Cranking up the speed to over Mach 10 like with the Kinzhal is more than
worthwhile since it reduces the response time. The US is banking with its tearing up of the INF treaty at getting a faster first
strike ability on Russia. Russia needs to be able to target all such US assets in Europe in very short periods.

magnumcromagnon wrote:From the recent Algerian exercise:


Someone thinks this a HE-Frag explosion, but if anything this looks like a thermobaric explosion.


At the 13:46 mark.

Correction it was not Iskander-M, but a Iskander-K strike. The image is from the Algerian exercises:

kvs wrote:Regarding the speed of the Iskander, it is less than Mach 7.    Cranking up the speed to over Mach 10 like with the Kinzhal is more than
worthwhile since it reduces the response time.    The US is banking with its tearing up of the INF treaty at getting a faster first
strike ability on Russia.   Russia needs to be able to target all such US assets in Europe in very short periods.

From my understanding the average speed of Iskander-M traveling is Mach 7, but in a steep dive it reaches Mach 8 as it's peak speed.

Speed for Iskander is supposed to be mach 6 to 8 depending on target range... there are no low level attack profiles... all involve a high speed near vertical dive on the target.