S-350 "Vityaz" SAM System

Hunting with a change of places: anti-aircraft missile systems S-350 will travel around Siberia
Air defense systems "Vityaz" master new tactics

Aleksey Ramm
Bogdan Stepovoy

The divisions of the 24th Mobile ZRBr deployed in the capital of Khakassia, Abakan, will become real “nomads” who can be transferred to any region in the east of the country

https://iz.ru/876166/aleksei-ramm-bogdan-stepovoi/okhota-s-peremenoi-mest-zenitno-raketnye-kompleksy-s-350-budut-kolesit-po-sibiri

Austin wrote:Disclosed the characteristics of the S-350 "Vityaz"

https://iz.ru/868801/2019-04-17/raskryty-kharakteristiki-s-350-vitiaz


Is there any information what kind of guidance does 9M100 uses is it command guidance or ARH homing ?

That article is severely munged.
9M100 is a 15km IR homing missile.
9M96 has 2 versions 60 & 120km, both with active (possibly AESA) seeker.

Yes, the 9M100 is supposed to be an interservice weapon, so for the Army it will be used with the S-350 system as a lock on after launch short range guided self defence missile using IIR seeker technology and a datalink. For the Air Force it will be a short range AAM that can be launched from inside and internal weapon bay as used on a stealth fighter or indeed a conventional or stealth bomber that uses an internal weapon bay because its lock on after launch design means it does not need to have a lock before it can be launched. Note the AIM-9X needs to be extended out of the internal weapon bay of the F-22 to get a lock on the target before it can be launched... not very stealthy...

And the Navy will use the missile as a CIWS type weapon where its lock on after launch capability means it can be stored vertically in low RCS bins and launched in any direction at enormous numbers of incoming threats in a fire and forget mode.

There have been photos of a 9M100 missile with a radar nosecone that might be an alternative command or ARH guided model... we will need to wait for more details, but it is known to be part of the S-350 land based system with four 9M100 missiles per 9M96 tube so each vehicle can carry up to 12 9M96 missiles of 50km or 150km range, or four 9M100 missiles for each 9M96 tube for up to 48 missiles per launch vehicle.

The naval Redut system shown so far has had a large fairing for each launch tube when launching 9M96 missiles where each tube could launch a much larger S-300 missile. They have stated Redut can carry 400km range missiles which suggests full sized S-400 or S-300 missiles could be loaded too, so each redut hatch cover could hold a 400km range S-400 or four 150km or 50km range 9M96 or 16 9M100 missiles... assuming only a single layer of missiles is used.

I believe when they were first revealed the figures were 40km and 120km for range for the two missiles, but they changed them to 50km or 60km and 150km or 160km for the new land models, so I figure 50km and 150km is about right with improved rocket fuels and lighter smaller more compact electronics.

Tests of S-350 Vityaz-PVO missiles completed - Putin

https://www.militarynews.ru/story.asp?rid=1&nid=508043&lang=RU

Some suorces said that 9M96 has a 150 km range ? I did not read that ARES radar in 9M96.

Yeah there are a bunch of different ranges variously quoted (also shorter numbers come from Export version data-sheets at Industry shows), point is one version of 9M96 is in the 40-60km range, the other in longer 120-150km.

I'd thought I saw a pic of an AESA head but seems to be not necessarily for 9M96, it should be at least PESA.

There have been photos of a 9M100 missile with a radar nosecone that might be an alternative command or ARH guided model

Thats the one that looked nearly exactly like a TOR missile wasn't it? (implied older version might have been abandoned)
Personally I have my doubts about an IR seeker for a point-defense missile, seems like there would be quite a few modern threats that'd be hard for an IR seeker to find eg modern low-speed small drones & un-powered precision glide bombs.

Actually I would say the opposite... an imaging IR sensor is ideal for finding low RCS targets... we have seen video from the Farnborough airshow showing the B-2 and F-22 and F-35 clearly visible in IR frequencies, so a sophisticated IIR sensor with a digital database of three D models of objects would pretty much allow the missile to determine what it was looking at in terms of aircraft or missiles on its own would be perfect... a datalink used to change targets if necessary of course...

All matter gives off IR radiation except when cooled to absolute zero so any bomb or missile or tiny electric powered UAV is visible and able to be targeted by this sensor.... and over short ranges it would be totally all weather.

They have shown a rather small ARH seeker for some time now... I think it was an AGAT sensor... It was on that Aussie website by Carlos Kopp, there was a lot of speculation about what it was developed for... perhaps for upgrades for OSA or TOR...

Personally I think a QWIP chip based IIR sensor is the cheapest and most effective option for missile guidance for such weapons as ARH is not cheap... effective but not cheap.

IIR and ARH could be totally fire and forget, while backup missiles with command guidance could also be an option to allow enormous numbers of missiles to be used without being too expensive, but I suspect a QWIP based IIR sensor, which is just like a CCD CMOS chip that can detect light in IR and UV as well as visible light would be an enormous step forward in terms of cost of production and performance...

The truck has been modified.


First version, without crane for reloading.

PapaDragon wrote:

Hole wrote:The truck has been modified.

http://i.servimg.com/u/f10/19/89/13/22/001716.jpg

First version, without crane for reloading.

What's the point of using reload vehicles in the first place? You still need a truck of identical size.

Just use the extra trucks to build more launch vehicles, reload them at the depot.

I cant say for sure how they'll operate, but the creator (Almaz Antey) made the Buk-3's loader vehicle capable of launching missiles, and because Vityaz is also a medium range SAM and is also designed by the same scientific/engineering bureau, it may or may not have the same ability.

Shoigu announced the completion of the development of the latest VRS S-350 "Vityaz"

https://iz.ru/890709/2019-06-19/shoigu-zaiavil-o-zavershenii-razrabotki-noveishei-zrs-s-350-vitiaz

The transloader for the S-400 can reload two missile at the same time.

That is the transloader for the Buk-M3:


It travels between the supplies unit and the launch vehicles. The vehicle for the S-350 will look similar. Together with the crane on the launch vehicle the reloading time will be reduced considerably.

Depends on mobility too... at a fixed site like an airbase the S-350 could have a building full of missiles, remember S-350 is a replacement for old model S-300s for the Aerospace defence force... the Army might have to drive deep in to enemy territory to operate so it will need to be able to transport supplies to forward deployed units.

The Army version of S-350 is BUK-M3, and the BUK family had both standard launchers with four ready to fire missiles, and transporters/loaders that carried two layers of four missiles... but lacked the tracking radar to guide its own missiles.

In effect the transloaders were an extra ammo magazine of ready to fire missiles that could be used by the launcher it was paired with AFAIK... the transloaders are called launcher loaders so I assume they launch the 8 missiles they carry and the TEL they are supporting guides the missiles...

I guess they would also need to be able to load single missile in those boxes of 12 cells in case they didn't fire all the 12.

Each of the cells can take one of three types of missiles so they would need to be able to load them individually... one tube at a time... with either the big 9M96 or the small 9M96 or the 9M100 in packs of four.

Russian PVO always had multiple prepared PVO positions like the one you have described still for the reasons GarryB mentioned you also have reloads to give shooting untis multiple shots which increases mobility and endurance on the battlefield. So by combining both Russia has increased complexity i.e. number of options in the changing environment. Reloads have the shorter time to reload than when prepared positions would not exist still you can use air or rivers or roads to deliver or altogether rapidly redeploy to another position.

The video on the link shows S-350 with 60km range

https://www.armyrecognition.com/army-2019_news_russia_online_show_daily_media_partner/index.php

Expected more.

The S-350 has three missiles it uses, two versions of the 9M96 and a smaller missile called 9M100.

The 9M96 is designed to fit four tubes into the space of one S-300 missile, but on the S-350 all the tubes are the size of the 9M96.

This means that the S-350 can carry 12 9M96 missiles in its 12 tubes, or it can carry 48 9M100 missiles in its 12 tubes (4 missiles in each tube).

That video was talking about the middle sized missile of the S-350 system which I describe above as having a range of 50km.

The bigger 9M96 missile has a range of 150km, though if the smaller missile has a range of 60km perhaps the bigger missile is a 160km range weapon.

When first revealed the smaller missile was described as having a range of 40km and the larger missile 120km.

Note these missiles are intended to replace early model S-300s in the Russian inventory with ranges of about 90km so these new missiles are much more capable.

This is what redut VLS should have been instead of the 8 cells that are way too big for 9M96 and unable to hold 48N6. Gordhkov would be holding 48 missiles right now while Steregoutchy could have 24.

Redut is a ship based system... these land based S-350 systems will likely be based with S-400 systems to fill out numbers so they don't need the bigger missiles.

The naval systems need to be able to use the full sized S-400 missiles in the 250km and 400km flight range sizes. Each tube can either take a 400km or 250km range S-400 missile or 4 x S-350 missile of either 60km or 160km range, or 16 missiles of the 9M100 type that are short range CIWS type missiles.

That will be the case with UKSK-M. I was talking about the redut launcher already produced which can hold only 9m96.

Do you think it is an accident that the Redut system is sized to allow much bigger missiles to be loaded in to it?

The Redut system was intended for all Russian ships, just like the UKSK launcher was supposed to replace all the primary weapon missile launchers, like those for Granit, and Vulkan, and Onyx, and also Moskit and Metel and Calibr.

The Redut system was supposed to carry all the SAMs from the S-300 and S-400 and S-350 families.

For the smaller vessels carrying the larger SAMs made little sense but being a standard missile system of course they are going to have it anyway.

Ironically the Rif only had a range of about 75km, and the improved Rif-M extended that to only 120km, so the long range 9M96 actually has a better range performance than the old S-300s used at sea anyway, so it would not make sense to make the redut tubes 1m square so it could carry old Rif and Rif-M missiles simply because they are totally inferior to the bigger 9M96 missile in terms of range and altitude and speed and performance.