It’s seen as being one of the most advanced upstanding defence systems stationed anywhere in the world at present and packs an capability to take on everything from drones to ballistic dumdums. Reports say that Moscow has dispatched the first of the S-400 Triumf bullet systems that India has spent USD5.5 billion to buy, the deal having been signed under a trouble of US warrants. Then’s all you need to know.
WHAT IS THE S-400 TRIUMF AIR DEFENCE SYSTEM?
The S-400 Triumf, which has the Nato designation of SA-21 Growler, is a mobile, face-to- air bullet system that’s” able of engaging aircraft, UAVs, voyage dumdums, and has a terminal ballistic bullet defence capability”, according to the Washington- grounded Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Development of this advanced bullet system is said to have been taken up in 1993, nearly in the immediate fate of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and borrows heavily from the before S-300 bullet defence system, including on aspects like bullet storehouse holders, launchers, and radars. Testing of the S-400 is said to have begun in late 1999 or early 2000 and the first of the munitions came functional in 2007.
Russia has stationed S-400s in a variety of areas, including for the defence of Moscow. Russia had also stationed the S-400 to Syria in 2015 with some units also placed in Crimea after it was adjoined by Moscow.
WHAT ARE THE CAPABILITIES OF THE SYSTEM?
Made by the Moscow- grounded Almaz Central Design Bureau, the S-400, saysarmy-technology.com, comes with a “ multifunction radar, independent discovery and targeting systems,anti-aircraft bullet systems, launchers, and command and control centre” The bullet system is able of taking on virtually any upstanding target within a range of 400 km and can “ contemporaneously engage 36 targets”. It can be actuated within five twinkles, is “ doubly as effective as the former Russian air defence systems”and has the inflexibility to be “ integrated into the being and unborn air defence units of the air force, army and cortege”.
To engage a multifariousness of targets, the S-400 uses four kinds of dumdums along with the dumdums of the before S-300 variant. So, first there’s the 48N6DM bullet, which can hit airborne targets within a range of 250 km while the 40N6 bullet has a range of 400 km and “ uses active radar homing to block air targets at great distances”.
The S-400 also comes with bettered electroniccounter-countermeasures to baffle attempts at jamming while its radars are able of detecting low- hand targets.
Also there are the 9M96E and 9M96E2 medium range ground-to- air dumdums that can strike “ presto moving targets similar as fighter aircraft with a high hit probability”. The range of the 9M96 dumdums is 120 km. CSIS adds that another bullet, the 77N6, is presently in testing, which comes a megahit-to-kill capability “ designed specifically to destroy ballistic bullet warheads”.‘ Hit-to-kill’implies the capability to take down a target through the use of kinetic power. That is, these munitions calculate on destroying a target by hitting it at high haste rather of packing an explosive warhead.
HOW DOES IT COMPARE WITH ITS Challengers?
A report onglobalsecurity.org said that the S-400 would probably serve as “ the foundation of Russia’s theatre air and bullet defences … and it’s possible that Triumf will come the only system being developed, furnishing defence both in the close- range andmid-range as well long- range zones”. It notes that Russia claims that the S-400 “ has no parallels across the globe in terms of combat capabilities”
The report says that in comparison, the US- made Terminal High Altitude Area Defence, or THAAD, “ has shorter range and is unable of hitting targets beyond the horizon”while also being just ananti-ballistic bullet system that can not engage other upstanding targets. Another much- touted capability of the S-400 is its “ fire-and- forget capability”with dumdums fitted with a homing device that locks on a target and destroys it.
Russian military experts are reported to have held that the S-400 is superior to the US system in terms of both the range and altitude at which it can operate. While it can launch dumdums at targets 400 km down, it can also baffle pitfalls at a height of 27 km. “ In terms of maximum target destruction range, the S-400 surpasses its counterparts by nearly two times … (and is) able of destroying a voyage bullet or any adversary aircraft at an altitude of 10 measures”.
“ Nothing flies below. The closest challengers lag behind our system in this index by two-and-a-half times,”globalsecurity.org quoted a Russian expert as saying An Observer Research Foundation (ORF) report notes that when it comes to India’s requirements, “ there is no indispensable system able of serving its long- range air defence conditions, from the viewpoint of either capability or cost”. It says that the capacities of the S-400 are “ unmatched by typical Western systems offered up as analogues”, similar western systems “ are primarily acquainted towards bullet defence with lower focus on the pureanti-aircraft part” Farther, ORF points out that the typical S-400 configurations bring around half of their western coequals.
WHICH COUNTRIES HAVE S-400S?
According toarmy-technology.com, Russian service was operating further than 20 hosts of the S-400 Triumf by 2015 and there were plans to take that up to over 50 by 2020 Some of the first countries to get the bullet systems were Algeria in 2015 and close Russian supporter Belarus in 2016. China acquired two systems reportedly starting in 2018 while Turkey entered its first legion in 2019. China and Turkey which, apropos, is a member of the US- led NATO, were slighted with warrants by the US for their accession of the advanced bullet system India had in 2018 inked a deal for the purchase of five S-400 Triumf systems at a cost of close to USD5.5 billion, which makes it one of the biggest defence accessions made by New Delhi with US, which has come to enjoy heightening defence ties with India, having hovered warrants in response to the deal. Still, in October, top Democratic Senator Ted Cruz introduced a bill which, if passed, would effectively help the US President Joe Biden from assessing any S-400-related warrants on India.
