Missile Defense Radar Sites

Russia managed to do what the USSR failed in its time: to create a comprehensive missile attack warning system. In the Soviet Union, until its collapse, there was a serious gap in the northeastern direction, not covered early warning radars, the North Pacific Ocean and partly Alaska. Submarine missile carriers of a potential enemy in the event of a full-scale nuclear war would be able to strike from these areas at our cities and military facilities. This direction in 1980 was supposed to be covered by the Daryal-U radar station, which was being built just near Yeniseisk. However, in 1987 Mikhail Gorbachev, succumbing to pressure from the United States, suspended the project. And in 1989, 90 percent of the finished station was dismantled. The "Gorbachev Gap" remained open for 28 years.

The Aerospace Forces are proposing including the construction of radiolocation stations for the nuclear attack warning system as part of a new post-2025 state armament program. “It is crucial for us to receive data about adversaries from other strategic aerospace directions. We know these places and are working actively so that the Defence Ministry includes this point in a state armament programme”, Anatoly Nestechuk, head of the command unit of the 15th Army of the Russian Special Purpose Aerospace Forces, said 05 October 2019, adding that in line with the ongoing plan, that 2021 will see a new radiolocation point in Vorkuta in northern Russia, in 2022, such a station will be built in Olenegorsk in the Murmansk Region, and in 2024 – in Sevastopol, Crimea.

During the Cold War, both the United States and Russia built elaborate systems of spy satellites, radars, and computer networks to scan the skies for ballistic missiles and their deadly nuclear warheads. The US systems were pointed at the Soviet Union and the Soviet systems watched the Americas.

The Dnestr, Dnepr and Dauvaga radars at Skrunda, Mukachevo, Balkhash, Mishelevka, Olenegorsk, Sevastopol, known in the West as Hen House radars, were built in the 1960s and early 1970s. The Daryal radars, known in the West as the Pechora-type, were built at existing Hen House facilities at Skrunda, Mukachevo, Balkhash (Sary Shagan), Mishelevka and at new locations Baranovichi (Gantsevichi), Qabala (Gabala / Lyaki / Mingechaur), Pechora, Yeniseysk (Abalakova / Krasnoyarsk). These new radars were intended to replace the older Hen House radars.

Many radars no longer operate or suffer power outages. Only three of the nine modern large phased-array radars wre in service as of the late 1990s. Three have been deactivated or never completed, and three are inoperable or barely functional. Seven of the ten older, less capable Hen House radars are outside Russia in former Soviet republics, and some may be shut down for political reasons. The Soviet radar system was being modernized when the country fell apart. One of the new replacement radars, in Latvia, was torn down in May 1995. Russia won a temporary reprieve against closing two older Hen House radars in Latvia, but that agreement expired in August 1998. The radar was one of those covering the critical northwestern direction. Other radars used by Russia were in Ukraine, at Sevastopol and Mukachevo; in Azerbaijan, at Qabala; and Kazakhstan, at Balkash. Some are functioning, but there have been disputes over finances and personnel.

A coverage gap appeared after the closure of an obsolete Dnestr-M radar in the Latvian town of Skrunde, 150 km from the ex-Soviet Baltic country's capital Riga, in 1998. Russia leased ground-based radar stations in Baranovichi, Belarus; Sevastopol and Mukachevo in Ukraine; Balkhash in Kazakhstan; and Gabala in Azerbaijan. It also has radars on its own territory in Murmansk (arctic northwest), Pechora (northwest Urals), and Irkutsk (east Siberia).

Pechora LPAR	Hen House LPAR
LPARs - 2012	LPARs - 2013
LPARs - 2014	LPARs - 2015
Voronezh LPAR	Voronezh LPAR

Russian news reports indicate the presence of a radar facility at Solnechnogorsk [56°11'00"N 36°59'00"E], which is rather far from any reported radar location.

References

• All Quiet at `Shipka'? Radar Stations Impact Human Health , ZELENYY SVITF!, August 1994
• Command and Control System and Its Current Status by Center for Arms Control, Energy and Environmental Studies at MIPT
• Silent Space Is Being Monitored, Lieutenant Colonel Boris Kononenko, ARMEYSKIY SBORNIK, June 96 -- A Discussion of Russia's Outer Space Monitoring System.
• Russia Must Fully Fund Two Missile Warning Stations , Interfax, 3/3/1997 -- Russia will have to finance two missile attack warning stations in Ukraine near Mukachevo, Transcarpathia, and near Sevastopol, Crimea, in full.
• Acting Defense Minister Visits Missile Defense Unit , Mikhail Shevtsov, ITAR-TASS, 4/22/1998

Links

• Command and Control System and Its Current Status