S-500 missile system

S-500 Prometheus C-500 Прометей
Launch vehicle of the S-500 air defense system
Type	Mobile surface-to-air missile
Place of origin	The Russian Federation
Service history
In service	16 September 2021
Used by	Russian Space Forces
Production history
Designer	Almaz-Antey
Manufacturer	Almaz-Antey
Unit cost	$2.5 billion[1]
Produced	2021–present
No. built	10 battalions planned. First battalion entered service in 2021.[2][3]
Specifications
Operational range	600 km[4]

The S-500 Prometheus (Russian: C-500 Прометей), also known as 55R6M "Triumfator-M",^[5] is a Russian mobile surface-to-air missile/anti-ballistic missile system supplementing the S-400 and the A-235 ABM missile system.^[6] The S-500 was developed by the Almaz-Antey Air Defence Concern. Initially planned to be in production by 2014, the first unit entered service in 2021 with the 15th Air Army.^[7][8][9] The S-500 is reportedly capable of intercepting all types of modern hypersonic weapon systems.^[10]

History

Although sharing a similar designation with the S-500U project of the late 1960s, the relationship between the two remains unclear.^{[citation needed]}

According to the original plans, ten S-500 battalions were to be purchased for the Russian Aerospace Defense (VKO) under the State Armament Programme 2020 (GPV-2020).^[11]

As of 2013, the S-500s were intended to work in parallel with S-400s and together were planned to mostly replace the S-300 missile systems.^[12] The first units are^[when?] planned to be deployed around the Moscow oblast and the country's central area. A naval version is the likely armament for the new Lider-class destroyer, which was to enter service after 2020 but was not operational as of 2022.^[13]

CEO of Rostec Corporation Sergey Chemezov declared the beginning of S-500 production on 30 June 2019. Despite that, serial production of the first 10 systems (ordered in late 2020) only began in 2021.^[14][15] In summer 2020 Sergei Surovikin, the commander of the Aerospace Forces, seemed to confirm that the S-500 system can be used to kill satellites.^[16]

A new contract was signed in August 2022.^[17] In October 2023, Defense News claimed that production of S-500 remained behind, being negatively affected by the sanctions against Russia and labor shortages.^[1]

The cost for one S-500 system was estimated be around $700-$800 million dollars in 2020, and up to $2.5 billion in 2023.^[1]

Testing

In May 2018, Russia conducted the longest range surface-to-air missile test to date with the S-500. According to reports citing unnamed sources familiar with U.S. intelligence on the program, the S-500 was able to hit a target 482 km (300 mi) away, which is 80 km further than the previous record.^[18]

On 4 June 2019, the Russian Ministry of Defense posted a video showing the successful launch of a new anti ballistic missile system in the form of a long range surface to air missile. Though the nature of the air defence system which was being tested was not mentioned it has been widely speculated to have been a test of the S-500 Prometheus long range surface to air missile system.^[19]

In July 2021, the Russian MOD released the first public footage of a live-fire test of the new S-500 anti-ballistic missile system at Kapustin Yar.^[20]

Operational history

The first S-500 regiment went on combat duty in Moscow on 13 October 2021.^[21] However, it did not yet meet the full set of requirements specified by its operator, the 1st Special Purpose Air and Missile Defense Army.^[1]

Design

The S-500 is designed for intercepting and destroying intercontinental ballistic missiles, as well as hypersonic cruise missiles and aircraft,^[22] for air defense against Airborne Early Warning and Control and for jamming aircraft.^{[citation needed]} With a planned range of 600 km (370 mi) for anti-ballistic missile (ABM) and 500 km (310 mi) for air defense,^[23] the S-500 was envisaged to be able to detect and simultaneously engage up to 10 ballistic hypersonic targets flying at a speed of 5 kilometres per second (3.1 mi/s)^[24] to a limit of 7 km/s (4.3 mi/s).^[25][26] It also aims at destroying hypersonic cruise missiles and other aerial targets at speeds of higher than Mach 5, as well as spacecraft. The altitude of a target engaged can be as high as 180–200 km (110–120 mi).^[27] It was planned to be effective against ballistic missiles with a launch range of 3,500 km (2,200 mi), the radar reaches a radius of 3,000 km (1,300 km for the EPR 0,1 square meter).^[28][29] However, as of 2023, the S-500's ability to intercept hypersonic missiles had not yet been tested.^[1] Other targets it has been announced to defend against include unmanned aerial vehicles, low Earth orbit satellites, space weapons launched from hypersonic aircraft, and hypersonic orbital platforms.^[30]

The system is mobile and has rapid deployability. Experts^[who?] believe^[when?] that the system's capabilities can affect enemy intercontinental ballistic missiles at the middle and end portions of flight,^[23] but reports by Almaz-Antey say that the external target-designation system (RLS Voronezh-DM and missile defence system A-135 radar Don-2N) will be capable of mid-early flight portion interceptions of enemy ballistic missiles, which is one of the final stages of the S-500 project. It is to have a response time of less than 4 seconds (compared to the S-400's of less than 10).^[31]

Components

The S-500 consists of:^[32]

• 77P6 launch vehicle, based on the BAZ-69096 10x10 truck
• 55K6MA and 85Zh6-2 command posts, based on BAZ-69092-12 6x6
• 91N6A(M) acquisition and battle management radar, a modification of the 91N6 (Big Bird) towed by the BAZ-6403.01 8x8 tractor
• 96L6-TsP acquisition radar, an upgraded version of the 96L6 (Cheese Board) on BAZ-69096 10x10
• 76T6 multimode engagement radar on BAZ-6909-022 8x8
• 77T6 ABM engagement radar on BAZ-69096 10x10

The missiles used by the system are:^[33][34]

• 40N6M - anti-aircraft role
• 77N6 / 77N6-N1 - anti-ballistic or anti-satellite role

Export

In September 2021, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov said that India could be a prospective, and probably the first, S-500 customer.^{[35][36][37][38][39]}

See also

• List of medium-range and long-range SAMs
• A-135 anti-ballistic missile system
• A-235 anti-ballistic missile system
• Arrow (Israeli missile)
  • Arrow 3
• Ground-Based Midcourse Defense
• Medium Extended Air Defense System
• S-300VM missile system
• Vityaz missile system
• THAAD

References

External links

Media related to S-500 at Wikimedia Commons

• Kopp, Carlo (16 June 2011). Technical Report APA-TR-2011-0602 Almaz-Antey S-500 Triumfator M. Air Power Australia. p. 1.
• S-500 "Prometheus", CSIS Missile Threat.
• First S-500 missile complex to be put on combat alert in central Russia ITAR-TASS News Agency, 20 August 2014.