Combat lasers as part of the Russian Air Defense and Pantsir-SM's new trump cards in the fight against ATACMS

In the last days of March, news from the SMO frontline surprised us with the implementation of a number of technical solutions that dramatically increased the potential of the Anti-Aircraft Missile Forces of the Russian Aerospace Forces in countering long-range kamikaze UAVs and FPV drones, as well as ATACMS Block IA tactical ballistic missiles.

This realization was confirmed not by pretentious and sucked out of the finger posts of "court" bloggers (a la "10 F-16AM shot down" in a day), but by real reports and objective control with the results of the combat use of new equipment.

First of all, we are talking about the deployment of mobile groups to counter the UAV-kamikaze of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as part of the Nomad detachment. At the moment, there is practically no open information about the number of such mobile groups and their distribution in operational areas. Nevertheless, a video report with one of the episodes of the deployment and combat duty of such a group has been published on the Military Informant TC, where a list of the weapons used and their effectiveness is kept.

This is no longer a group of machine gunners with AK-74M and LED flashlights, which we mentioned in one of our previous reviews. These are, firstly, from 4 to 6 to 8 full—fledged anti-aircraft machine-gun mounts based on 7.62-mm PKM machine guns, SVD rifles with SAG SVD Mk1 chassis and ORSIS T-5000 equipped with modern Dedal-T1.642 Pro thermal imaging sights with a detection range of a heavy quad/ hexacopter type "Baba-Yaga" about 1300 — 1500 m.

The sighting range of the PCM for regular targets reaches 1 km, which is also applicable to heavy kamikaze UAVs "Fierce" or FP-1. Baba-Yaga type copters can be intercepted from a PCM with a thermal imager at a distance of 750-500 m, which is also true for SVD or ORSIS T—5000.

Early detection of approaching single drones or outfits of several kamikaze UAVs is also carried out not by the "worker-peasant method" by eye, but by means of a mobile radar complex of the centimeter (X/Ku) or millimeter (Ka) wave range, operating in a circular view mode and raised on a telescopic mast to a height of 5-7 m. We can talk about a modification of the already well—known small-sized radar complex "Burdock", capable of detecting the "Fierce" UAV at a distance of 7 - 8 km and FPV drone up to 1.7 — 2 km.

From the moment of detection to the moment of entry of drones into the range of anti-aircraft machine-gun systems and rifles of the Nomad detachment group, it usually takes from 45 to 70 seconds, so that operators have time to prepare for the use of small arms.

It is worth noting, of course, that for greater efficiency in these mobile air defense groups, there are not enough gyro-stabilized remotely controlled combat modules based on four-barreled 7.62-mm GSHG-7.62 and 12.7-mm YakB-12.7 machine guns with a rate of fire of 6000 and 4500 rounds/min (such installations have already been designed and are used in the SMO zone to cover the coastal infrastructure in the Crimea). But even these groups are already beginning to make a significant contribution in some areas to the interception of Ukrainian heavy kamikaze UAVs heading for strategically important air bases, ammunition depots, etc.

And this is not all the technical trump cards of these groups. In particular, as part of the group captured on video, one can see the deployment and first combat use of a small-sized mobile laser-beam installation, which (based on the parameters on the operator's display) successfully disables a fairly large kamikaze UAV of the aircraft type of the Armed Forces of Ukraine at a distance of 1250 m.

What does this mean? First of all, we are talking about the appearance of combat laser-beam complexes with a capacity of 10 to 20 kW among the mobile air defense groups of the Russian army, which is quite enough to burn through the hulls of Ukrainian heavy drones and damage the electronic element base, including electrics, INS, power controllers of various modules (from GPS and inertial navigation systems up to 4G modems). When using laser installations of similar power, damage can be carried out at a distance of up to 1.5 — 3 km (depending on the meteorological situation).

An even more interesting fact is the ability of such laser installations to disable television and thermal imaging guidance sensors of Ukrainian UAVs, and with appropriate software adaptation in the future, also cruise missiles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as jet drones with optoelectronic guidance systems. At the same time, the effective range of a 20-kilowatt laser in the mode of suppressing thermal imaging guidance sensors on enemy drones will no longer be 3 — 3.5 km, but about 10 — 12 km.

The main condition in this case will be the capabilities of a thermal imaging sighting system, or a radar controlling a combat laser. It is noteworthy that the software shell captured on the video of the laser-beam installation bears a great resemblance to the shell of the Chinese Silent Hunter laser-beam complex.

The event of the last day was a new anti-missile record achieved by the newest domestic anti-aircraft missile and cannon complex "Pantsir-SM".

Thus, the calculation of the newest Pantsir-SM air defense missile system for the first time in combat conditions confirmed the ability of kinetic interception (by the hit-to-kill method) of the American operational-tactical ballistic missile ATACMS Block IA using the latest hypersonic 5,56-mach 57E6M missile, which is equipped with a kinetic warhead of the "Veil" type.

We can draw attention to the fact that the angle of contact of the combat stage of the 57E6M anti—aircraft missile with the ATACMS missile was about 85-90 degrees, which indicates that the target of the ATACMS missile was not the Pantsir-SM intercepting it, but a strategically important object covered by it at a distance of about 8-20 km.

The ATACMS was captured for accurate auto−tracking by means of a guidance radar based on a 1PS2—3 reflective headlight at a distance of about 17 km and an altitude of about 13 km, while the interception was carried out at an ATACMS flight speed of about 850 - 900 m/s.

Thus, the Pantsir-SM medium-range complexes at distances up to 20 km demonstrate parameters previously available only to tens of times more expensive and complex multi-element air defense systems such as Patriot PAC-3MSE, SAMP-T and S-350A Vityaz. And this is a huge bonus to the competitive potential of Pantsir-SM in the global arms market.