The A-135 (

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

: ABM-4 Gorgon) is a Russian

anti-ballistic missile An anti-ballistic missile (ABM) is a surface-to-air missile designed to Missile defense, destroy in-flight ballistic missiles. They achieve this explosively (chemical or nuclear), or via hit-to-kill Kinetic projectile, kinetic vehicles, which ma ...

system deployed around

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

to intercept incoming warheads targeting the city or its surrounding areas. The system was designed in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and entered service in 1995. It is a successor to the previous A-35, and complies with the 1972

Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, also known as the ABM Treaty or ABMT, was an arms control treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union on the limitation of the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems used in defending areas against ball ...

. The system is operated by the 9th Division of Anti-Missile Defence, part of the Air Defence and Missile Defence Command of the

Russian Aerospace Defence Forces The Russian Aerospace Defence Forces (VVKO) () was a branch of the Russian Armed Forces responsible for aerospace defence, operation of Russian military satellites and the Plesetsk Cosmodrome. It was established on 1 December 2011 and dissolved ...

History

A memo from the archives of Vitalii Kataev, written around 1985, had envisaged that the system "will be completed in 1987 to provide protection from a strike of 1–2 modern and prospective

ICBM An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range (aeronautics), range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more Thermonuclear weapon, thermonuclear warheads). Conven ...

s and up to 35 Pershing 2-type intermediate-range missiles". The A-135 system attained "alert" (operational) status on February 17, 1995. It is operational although its 51T6 component was deactivated in February 2007. A newer missile (PRS-1M) is expected to replace it. There is an operational test version of the system at the Sary Shagan test site in

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

Testing

In November 2017, a successful test of the 53T6 interceptor was carried out. Target speed up to 3 kilometers per second (53T6 speed 3), acceleration overload – 100 G, preload maneuvering – 210 G.

Structure

A-135 consists of the Don-2N battle management radar and two types of ABM missiles. It gets its data from the wider Russian

early-warning radar An early-warning radar is any radar system used primarily for the long-range detection of its targets, i.e., allowing defences to be alerted as ''early'' as possible before the intruder reaches its target, giving the air defences the maximum tim ...

network, that are sent to the command centre which then forwards tracking data to the Don-2N radar. The Don-2N radar is a large battle-management

phased array In antenna (radio), antenna theory, a phased array usually means an electronically scanned array, a computer-controlled Antenna array, array of antennas which creates a radio beam, beam of radio waves that can be electronically steered to point ...

radar with 360° coverage. Tests were undertaken at the prototype Don-2NP in Sary Shagan in 2007 to upgrade its software. Russian early-warning radar network consists of: * Daryal bistatic

active phased array An active electronically scanned array (AESA) is a type of phased array antenna, which is a computer-controlled antenna array in which the beam of radio waves can be electronically steered to point in different directions without moving the ant ...

early-warning radars * Dnepr/Dnestr

space surveillance Space domain awareness is the study and monitoring of satellites orbiting the Earth. It involves the detection, tracking, cataloging and identification of artificial objects, i.e. active/inactive satellites, spent rocket bodies, or fragmentatio ...

early-warning radars *

Voronezh Voronezh ( ; , ) is a city and the administrative centre of Voronezh Oblast in southwestern Russia straddling the Voronezh River, located from where it flows into the Don River. The city sits on the Southeastern Railway, which connects wes ...

early-warning radars *

US-KMO US-KMO (), an abbreviation for Upravlyaemy Sputnik - Kontinenty Morya Okeany () meaning ''Controllable Satellite - Continents, Oceans, Seas'' is a series of Russian, previously Soviet, satellites which are used to identify ballistic missile launch ...

US-K Upravlyaemy Sputnik Kontinentalny ( meaning ''Continental Controllable Satellite'') or US-K () is a series of Russian, previously Soviet Union, Soviet, satellites used to detect missile launches as part of the Oko system. It consists of a constell ...

and EKS early-warning satellites * Command, control, communications and intelligence services

Deployment

There are at least 68 active launchers of short-range 53T6 endoatmospheric interceptor nuclear armed missiles, 12 or 16 missiles each, deployed at five launch sites. These are tested roughly annually at the Sary Shagan test site. In addition, 16 retired launchers of long-range 51T6 exoatmospheric interceptor nuclear armed missiles, 8 missiles each, are located at two launch sites.

Successor (A-235)

The successor system, dubbed 'Samolet-M' (and more recently A-235) will employ a new, conventional, variant of the 53T6 missile to be deployed in the former 51T6 silos. The new PRS-1M is a modernized variant of the PRS-1 (53T6) and can use nuclear or conventional warheads. It can hit targets at ranges of 350 km and altitudes of 50 km.

Gallery

File:Anti-MissileExercise2018-12.jpg, ABM missile silo under snow, transporter for 53Т6 missile in background File:Anti-MissileExercise2018-13.jpg, Transporter for 51Т6 missile File:Anti-MissileExercise2018-05.jpg, Don-2N anti-ballistic missile radar

References

External links

* . * . {{DEFAULTSORT:A-135 Anti-Ballistic Missile System Anti-ballistic missiles of the Soviet Union Anti-ballistic missiles of Russia Missile defense NPO Novator products Military equipment introduced in the 1990s