Deployment of the marine space reconnaissance and target designation system "Liana"

http://www.sdelanounas.ru/blogs/46376/

Recently, the head of the Pentagon, Leon Panetta, stated a common truth: "Any fifth grader knows that the US aircraft carrier strike groups are not able to destroy any of the existing powers of the world." Indeed, American AUGs are invulnerable, because aviation "sees" beyond any ground (and sea) radar system. They quickly manage to "detect" the enemy and do whatever their heart desires with them from the air. However, ours managed to find a way to "put black marks" on the American fleet - from space. At the end of the 70s, the USSR created the Legenda marine space reconnaissance and target designation system, which could aim a missile at any ship in the oceans. Due to the fact that high-resolution optical technologies were not then available, these satellites had to be launched into a very low orbit (400 km) and powered from a nuclear reactor. The complexity of the energy scheme predetermined the fate of the entire program - in 1993, the "Legend" ceased to "cover" even half of the strategic sea areas, and in 1998 the last device stopped serving. However, in 2008 the project was revived and already on new, more efficient physical principles. As a result, by the end of this year, Russia will be able to destroy any American aircraft carrier anywhere in the world within three hours with an accuracy of 3 meters.

The United States made a win-win bet on the aircraft carrier fleet - "poultry farms", together with the missile escort of destroyers, became inaccessible and extremely mobile floating armies. Even the powerful Soviet navy there was no hope of competing with the American on an equal footing. Despite the presence in the USSR Navy of submarines (nuclear submarines pr. 675, pr. 661 "Anchar", DPL pr. 671), missile cruisers, coastal systems of anti-ship missiles, a large fleet missile boats, as well as numerous complexes of anti-ship missiles P-6, P-35, P-70, P-500, there was no certainty in the guaranteed defeat of the AUG. Special warheads could not correct the situation - the problem was in reliable over-the-horizon detection of targets, their selection and providing accurate target designation for flying up cruise missiles. The use of aviation to target anti-ship missiles did not solve the problem: the ship's helicopter had limited opportunities, moreover, was extremely vulnerable to carrier-based aviation. The Tu-95RTs reconnaissance aircraft, despite its excellent inclinations, was ineffective - the aircraft needed many hours to arrive in a given area of ​​​​the World Ocean, and again the reconnaissance aircraft became an easy target for fast deck interceptors. Such an inevitable factor as weather, finally undermined the confidence of the Soviet military in the proposed target designation system based on a helicopter and reconnaissance aircraft. There was only one way out - to monitor the situation in the World Ocean from space. The largest scientific centers countries - Institute of Physics and Energy and the Institute of Atomic Energy. I.V. Kurchatov. The orbit parameters were calculated under the guidance of Academician Keldysh. The design bureau of V.N. Chelomeya. The development of a nuclear onboard power plant was carried out at OKB-670 (NPO Krasnaya Zvezda). In early 1970, the Leningrad plant "Arsenal" produced the first prototypes. The radar reconnaissance apparatus was put into service in 1975, and the electronic reconnaissance satellite - in 1978. In 1983, the last component of the system, the P-700 Granit supersonic anti-ship missile, was put into service.

Supersonic anti-ship missile P-700 "Granit"

In 1982, the unified system was tested in action. During the Falklands War, data from space satellites made it possible for the command of the Soviet Navy to track the operational and tactical situation in the South Atlantic, accurately calculate the actions of the British fleet, and even predict the time and place of landing in the Falklands with an accuracy of several hours. The orbital constellation, together with ship information receiving points, ensured the detection of ships and the issuance of target designation to missile weapons.

The first type of satellite US-P ("controlled satellite - passive", index GRAU 17F17) is a complex of electronic intelligence designed to detect and find objects that have electromagnetic radiation. The second type of US-A satellite (“controlled satellite - active”, index GRAU 17F16) was equipped with a two-way side-looking radar, providing all-weather and all-day detection of surface targets. The low operating orbit (which excluded the use of bulky solar panels) and the need for a powerful and uninterrupted power source (solar batteries could not work on the shadow side of the Earth) determined the type of onboard power source - the BES-5 Buk nuclear reactor with a thermal power of 100 kW (electric power - 3 kW, estimated time work - 1080 hours).

On September 18, 1977, the Cosmos-954 spacecraft was successfully launched from Baikonur - an active satellite of the Legend ICRC. For a whole month, Cosmos-954 worked on space orbit, together with Cosmos-252. On October 28, 1977, the satellite suddenly ceased to be controlled by ground control services. All attempts to orient him were unsuccessful. It also failed to enter the "burial orbit". At the beginning of January 1978, the instrument compartment of the spacecraft was depressurized, Kosmos-954 was completely out of order and stopped responding to requests from the Earth. An uncontrolled descent of a satellite with a nuclear reactor on board began.

Spacecraft "Kosmos-954"

The Western world gazed into the night sky in horror, expecting to see the shooting star of death. Everyone discussed: when and where the flying reactor will fall. Russian Roulette has begun. In the early morning of January 24, Cosmos-954 crashed over Canada, showering Alberta with radioactive debris. Luckily for Canadians, Alberta is a northern, sparsely populated province, and none of the local population was hurt. Of course, there was an international scandal, the USSR paid symbolic compensation and for the next three years refused to launch US-A. Nevertheless, in 1982, a similar accident aboard the Kosmos-1402 satellite was repeated. This time the spacecraft sank safely in the waves of the Atlantic. If the fall had begun 20 minutes earlier, Kosmos-1402 would have landed in Switzerland.

Fortunately, no more serious accidents with "Russian flying reactors" were recorded. In case of emergency situations, the reactors were separated and transferred to the "burial orbit" without incident. In total, 39 launches (including test launches) of US-A radar reconnaissance satellites with nuclear reactors on board were carried out under the Marine Space System for Reconnaissance and Target Designation, 27 of them were successful. As a result, US-A in the 80s reliably controlled the surface situation in the oceans. The last launch of this type of spacecraft took place on March 14, 1988.

Currently in the space group Russian Federation there are only passive electronic intelligence satellites US-P. The last of them - "Cosmos-2421" - was launched on June 25, 2006, and unsuccessfully. According to official information, there were minor problems on board due to incomplete deployment of solar panels.

During the chaos of the 90s and underfunding of the first half of the 2000s, the Legend ceased to exist - in 1993 the Legend ceased to "cover" even half of the strategic sea areas, and in 1998 the last active apparatus was buried. However, without it it was impossible to talk about any effective counteraction to the American fleet at all, not to mention the fact that we became blind - military intelligence remained without an eye, and the country's defense capability deteriorated sharply.

"Cosmos-2421"

Reconnaissance and target designation systems returned to resuscitation in 2006, when the government instructed the Ministry of Defense to work out the issue in terms of using new optical technologies for accurate detection. 125 enterprises of 12 industries were involved in the work, the working name is Liana. In 2008, a detailed project was ready, and in 2009, the first experimental launch and launch of an experimental apparatus into a given orbit took place. The new system is more versatile - due to its higher orbit, it can scan not only large objects in the ocean, which the Soviet Legend was capable of, but any object up to 1 meter in size anywhere on the planet. Accuracy increased more than 100 times - up to 3 meters. And at the same time, no nuclear reactors that pose a threat to the Earth's ecosystem.

In 2013, Roscosmos and the Russian Ministry of Defense completed the experimental creation of Liana in orbit and began debugging its systems. According to the plan, the system will be 100% operational by the end of this year. It consists of four state-of-the-art radar reconnaissance satellites, which will be based at an altitude of about 1 thousand km above the planet's surface and will constantly scan the ground, air and sea for the presence of enemy objects.

“Four satellites of the Liana system - two Pions and two Lotuses - will detect enemy objects in real time - aircraft, ships, cars. The coordinates of these targets will be transmitted to command post, where a virtual real-time map will be formed. In the event of a war, these targets will be targeted with precision strikes,” a spokesman for the General Staff explained how the system works.

Not without the "first pancake". “The first Lotos-S satellite with the index 14F138 had a number of shortcomings. After launching into orbit, it turned out that almost half of the onboard systems were not functioning. Therefore, we demanded that the developers bring the equipment to mind, ”said the representative Space Forces, which are now included in the Aerospace Defense. The specialists explained that all the shortcomings of the satellite were associated with flaws in software satellite. “Our programmers have completely redesigned the software package and have already reflashed the first Lotos. Now the military has no complaints against him,” the Ministry of Defense said.

Satellite "Lotos-S"

Another satellite for the Liana system was launched into orbit in the fall of 2013 - Lotos-S 14F145, which intercepts data transmission, including enemy communications ( electronic intelligence), and in 2014, the promising Pion-NKS 14F139 radar reconnaissance satellite will go into space, which is capable of detecting an object the size of a car on any surface. Until 2015, another Pion will be included in Liana, thus, the size of the system constellation will expand to four satellites. After entering the design mode, the Liana system will completely replace the outdated Legend - Tselina system. It will increase by an order of magnitude the capabilities of the Russian Armed Forces to detect and destroy enemy targets.

Recently, the head of the Pentagon, Leon Panetta, stated a common truth: "Any fifth grader knows that the US aircraft carrier strike groups are not able to destroy any of the existing powers of the world." Indeed, American AUGs are invulnerable, because aviation "sees" beyond any ground (and sea) radar system. They quickly manage to "detect" the enemy and do whatever their heart desires with them from the air. However, ours managed to find a way to "put black marks" on the American fleet - from space. At the end of the 70s, the USSR created the Legenda marine space reconnaissance and target designation system, which could aim a missile at any ship in the oceans. Due to the fact that high-resolution optical technologies were not then available, these satellites had to be launched into a very low orbit (400 km) and powered from a nuclear reactor. The complexity of the energy scheme predetermined the fate of the entire program - in 1993, the "Legend" ceased to "cover" even half of the strategic sea areas, and in 1998 the last apparatus ceased service. However, in 2008 the project was revived and based on new, more efficient physical principles. As a result, by the end of this year, Russia will be able to destroy any American aircraft carrier anywhere in the world within three hours with an accuracy of 3 meters.

The United States made a win-win bet on the carrier fleet - "poultry farms", together with the missile defense of the destroyers, became inaccessible and extremely mobile floating armies. Even the powerful Soviet navy had no hope of competing with the American one on an equal footing. Despite the presence in the USSR Navy of submarines (nuclear submarines pr. 675, pr. 661 Anchar, DPL pr. 671), missile cruisers, coastal anti-ship missile systems, a large fleet of missile boats, as well as numerous anti-ship missile systems -35, P-70, P-500, there was no certainty in the guaranteed defeat of the AUG. Special combat units could not correct the situation - the problem was in reliable over-the-horizon detection of targets, their selection and providing accurate target designation for incoming cruise missiles.

The use of aircraft to guide anti-ship missiles did not solve the problem: the ship's helicopter had limited capabilities, moreover, it was extremely vulnerable to carrier-based aircraft. The Tu-95RTs reconnaissance aircraft, despite its excellent inclinations, was ineffective - the aircraft needed many hours to arrive in a given area of ​​​​the World Ocean, and again the reconnaissance aircraft became an easy target for fast deck interceptors. Such an inevitable factor as weather conditions finally undermined the confidence of the Soviet military in the proposed target designation system based on a helicopter and reconnaissance aircraft. There was only one way out - to monitor the situation in the World Ocean from space.

The largest scientific centers of the country were involved in the work on the project - the Institute of Physics and Power Engineering and the Institute of Atomic Energy. I.V. Kurchatov. The orbit parameters were calculated under the guidance of Academician Keldysh. The design bureau of V.N. Chelomeya. The development of a nuclear onboard power plant was carried out at OKB-670 (NPO Krasnaya Zvezda). In early 1970, the Leningrad plant "Arsenal" produced the first prototypes. The radar reconnaissance apparatus was put into service in 1975, and the electronic reconnaissance satellite - in 1978. In 1983, the last component of the system, the P-700 Granit supersonic anti-ship missile, was put into service.

Supersonic anti-ship missile P-700 "Granit"

In 1982, the unified system was tested in action. During the Falklands War, data from space satellites made it possible for the command of the Soviet Navy to track the operational and tactical situation in the South Atlantic, accurately calculate the actions of the British fleet, and even predict the time and place of landing in the Falklands with an accuracy of several hours. The orbital constellation, together with ship information receiving points, ensured the detection of ships and the issuance of target designation to missile weapons.

The first type of satellite US-P (“controlled satellite - passive”, index GRAU 17F17) is a radio intelligence complex designed to detect and find objects that have electromagnetic radiation. The second type of US-A satellite ("controlled satellite - active", index GRAU 17F16) was equipped with a two-way side-looking radar, providing all-weather and all-day detection of surface targets. The low working orbit (which excluded the use of bulky solar panels) and the need for a powerful and uninterrupted power source (solar batteries could not work on the shadow side of the Earth) determined the type of onboard power source - the BES-5 Buk nuclear reactor with a thermal power of 100 kW (electric power - 3 kW, estimated operating time - 1080 hours).

On September 18, 1977, the Kosmos-954 spacecraft was successfully launched from Baikonur - an active satellite of the Legend ICRC. For a whole month, Cosmos-954 worked in space orbit, together with Cosmos-252. On October 28, 1977, the satellite suddenly ceased to be controlled by ground control services. All attempts to orient him were unsuccessful. It also failed to enter the "burial orbit". At the beginning of January 1978, the instrument compartment of the spacecraft was depressurized, Kosmos-954 was completely out of order and stopped responding to requests from the Earth. An uncontrolled descent of a satellite with a nuclear reactor on board began.

Spacecraft "Kosmos-954"

The Western world gazed into the night sky in horror, expecting to see the shooting star of death. Everyone discussed: when and where the flying reactor will fall. Russian Roulette has begun. In the early morning of January 24, Cosmos-954 crashed over Canada, showering Alberta with radioactive debris. Luckily for Canadians, Alberta is a northern, sparsely populated province, and none of the local population was hurt. Of course, there was an international scandal, the USSR paid symbolic compensation and for the next three years refused to launch US-A. Nevertheless, in 1982, a similar accident aboard the Kosmos-1402 satellite was repeated. This time the spacecraft sank safely in the waves of the Atlantic. If the fall had begun 20 minutes earlier, Kosmos-1402 would have landed in Switzerland.

Fortunately, no more serious accidents with "Russian flying reactors" were recorded. In case of emergency situations, the reactors were separated and transferred to the "burial orbit" without incident. In total, 39 launches (including test launches) of US-A radar reconnaissance satellites with nuclear reactors on board were carried out under the Marine Space System for Reconnaissance and Target Designation, 27 of them were successful. As a result, US-A in the 80s reliably controlled the surface situation in the oceans. The last launch of this type of spacecraft took place on March 14, 1988.

At the moment, only US-P passive electronic intelligence satellites are part of the space constellation of the Russian Federation. The last of them - "Cosmos-2421" - was launched on June 25, 2006, and unsuccessfully. According to official information, there were minor problems on board due to incomplete deployment of solar panels.

During the chaos of the 90s and underfunding of the first half of the 2000s, the Legend ceased to exist - in 1993 the Legend ceased to cover even half of the strategic sea areas, and in 1998 the last active apparatus was buried. However, without it, it was impossible to talk at all about any effective counteraction to the American fleet, not to mention the fact that we became blind - military intelligence was left without an eye, and the country's defense capability deteriorated sharply.

"Cosmos-2421"

Reconnaissance and target designation systems returned to resuscitation in 2006, when the government instructed the Ministry of Defense to work out the issue in terms of using new optical technologies for accurate detection. 125 enterprises of 12 industries were involved in the work, the working name is Liana. In 2008, a detailed project was ready, and in 2009, the first experimental launch and launch of an experimental apparatus into a given orbit took place. The new system is more versatile - due to the higher orbit, it can scan not only large objects in the ocean, which the Soviet Legend was capable of, but any object up to 1 meter in size anywhere on the planet. Accuracy increased more than 100 times - up to 3 meters. And at the same time, no nuclear reactors that pose a threat to the Earth's ecosystem.

In 2013, Roscosmos and the Russian Ministry of Defense completed the experimental creation of Liana in orbit and began debugging its systems. According to the plan, the system will be 100% operational by the end of this year. It consists of four state-of-the-art radar reconnaissance satellites, which will be based at an altitude of about 1 thousand km above the planet's surface and will constantly scan the ground, air and sea for the presence of enemy objects.

“Four satellites of the Liana system - two Pions and two Lotus - will detect enemy objects in real time - aircraft, ships, cars. The coordinates of these targets will be transmitted to the command post, where a virtual real-time map will be formed. In the event of a war, precision strikes will be delivered to these facilities, ”a representative of the General Staff explained the principle of the system.

Not without the "first pancake". “The first Lotos-S satellite with the index 14F138 had a number of shortcomings. After launching into orbit, it turned out that almost half of the onboard systems were not functioning. Therefore, we demanded that the developers bring the equipment to perfection, ”said a representative of the Space Forces, which are now included in the Aerospace Defense. The experts explained that all the shortcomings of the satellite were associated with flaws in the software of the satellite. “Our programmers have completely redesigned the software package and have already reflashed the first Lotos. Now the military has no complaints against him,” the Ministry of Defense said.

Satellite "Lotos-S"

Another satellite for the Liana system was launched into orbit in the fall of 2013 - Lotos-S 14F145, which intercepts data transmission, including enemy communications (electronic intelligence), and in 2014 a promising radar reconnaissance satellite will go into space " Pion-NKS 14F139, which is able to detect an object the size of a car on any surface. Until 2015, another Pion will be included in Liana, thus, the size of the system constellation will expand to four satellites. After entering the design mode, the Liana system will completely replace the outdated Legend-Tselina system. It will increase by an order of magnitude the capabilities of the Russian Armed Forces to detect and destroy enemy targets.

Partners

A little more than 60 years have passed since the flight of the First Artificial Earth Satellite (AES). The space program for the development of near-Earth space has always been supported not only by the governments of technologically advanced states, but also - first of all - by their military departments. Until 1991, the number of military spacecraft (SC) of the USA and the USSR was in the ratio of about three to one.

The quantitative superiority of the United States was due to the fact that more than 60% of their constellation of military satellites were communication and relay devices. This was due to the need to provide secure stable communication channels and data transmission of numerous military bases and ship groups of the US Navy around the world, relaying data from reconnaissance satellites.

US military satellites

The first reconnaissance satellites of the Americans were spacecraft for specific (optical-electronic) reconnaissance. They were equipped with special analog (film) cameras with powerful optics, which made it possible to obtain high-resolution images of the Earth's surface.

On June 25, 1959, as part of the CORONA program, the United States for the first time tried to launch the KH-1 reconnaissance satellite (Key Hole - "keyhole") into orbit. Although the launch was unsuccessful, work on the creation and removal of military spacecraft was continued. Having followed the path of trial and error, the United States nevertheless managed to create a constellation of KN-2 satellites (the second version of the spacecraft) in orbit, which dropped the information obtained in special capsules. These capsules were supposed to pick up C-130 aircraft in the air or remove US Navy ships from the water.

Over time, both cameras and optics improved - the resolution of images increased from 7.5 meters (KN-2) to 0.2 meters (KN-11), and with the advent of optoelectronic digital cameras operating in the entire spectrum of the optical range, the quality and efficiency of the information obtained have increased significantly. At the same time, information could be transmitted by an encoded digital signal through relay satellites to the AFSPC information processing centers (US Air Force Space Command).

The first experience of large-scale use of spacecraft in the interests of reconnaissance support for military operations was the 1991 US Army operation "Desert Storm" against Iraq, where the KN-11 and KN-12 satellites were involved. To increase the efficiency of the space reconnaissance echelon, the AFSPC command increased the constellation of satellites to 29 spacecraft in advance, of which four were specific reconnaissance (KN-11 and KN-12), and the rest were equipped with radar (RLR) and electronic intelligence (RTR).

The RLR and RTR satellites of the "Lacrosse" and "Shallet" types were transferred to a round-the-clock operation mode (the regular operating time of these spacecraft is 8 hours a day). Such an "emergency regime" of operation made it possible not only to detect air defense radars in the southern part of Iraq, but also to monitor radio exchanges between command posts, tank and artillery units of the Iraqi army in near real time.

In 2003, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, US reconnaissance spacecraft through INMARSAT communications satellites and TDRSS repeaters were integrated into the theater combat planning and aviation control system - TVMSS (Theater Battle Management Core Systems) and the automated tactical command and control system ground forces FBCB2 (Force XXΙ Battle Command Brigade or Below). Data exchange was carried out over the LandWarNet tactical military Internet network. Thus, the command of the US Army worked out the technical basis of the concept of "network-centric wars" in Iraq, creating a prototype of a future global automated system command and control (ACCS). The commanders of the forward units of American divisions on the battlefield were able to interact directly with artillery, tactical and strategic aviation.

However, during the campaign in Iraq in 2003, the integration of the spacecraft and the TVMSS system showed insufficient effectiveness. This was caused by the low bandwidth of the information channels of the spacecraft themselves. Therefore, units of the US Army and Corps marines were forced to use traditional means of communication.

The experience of using spacecraft to support combat operations in Iraq prompted the US Army command to use civilian satellites more widely as additional sources of information about the ground situation. In particular, Earth remote sensing (ERS) satellites Landsat were used.

The modern aerospace echelon of the reconnaissance and information field, which provides for the needs of the US Army command around the world, consists of unmanned vehicles intelligence such as Global Hawk, Reaper, Predator-2; reconnaissance aircraft P-8 Poseidon, Lockheed EP-3, Boeing RC-135, Boeing 737 AEW KN-11/12 optical-electronic reconnaissance spacecraft, Lacrosse and Topaz radar reconnaissance, Magnum, Mentor, Intruder electronic reconnaissance, as well as communication satellites and relay QUASAR, TDRSS, DSCS, UFO, Milstar.

Taking into account 31 satellites of the global navigation system NAVSTAR ("military" GPS), 66 IRIDIUM satellites and 20 civil sector satellites involved in solving certain tasks, the total number of military satellites currently operated by the US Air Force Space Command reaches 310 satellites. They occupy the entire range of orbits - from low reference (LEO) to geostationary (GSO). The US Space Command plans to increase this grouping by 100 units. It is possible that within the framework of the adopted concept of "instant global strike" among the newly launched spacecraft will be satellites created under the Falcon HTV-2 and AHW projects.

The statement by US Joint Chiefs of Staff Deputy General Paul Selva on scenarios for war against Russia and China, as well as the words of AFSPC Commander General John Raymond about "readiness to wage war in space if necessary," confirm the fact that the US views the militarization of space as an important aspect of the confrontation between Russia and China.

Russian military satellites

On May 22, 1959, the Decree of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 569-264 on the creation of the first Soviet reconnaissance satellite 2K (Zenit) was issued, and in 1964 the Zenit-2 survey photo reconnaissance complex was put into service. Unlike the American KN-1, the Soviet reconnaissance satellite, having completed the assigned program, returned to earth itself. Its capsule with photographic equipment and films was structurally similar to the descent capsules of Vostok rockets and landed using a similar parachute system. In total, more than 500 Zenit-type spacecraft of various modifications were launched into space.

In the USSR, radio-technical reconnaissance from space was carried out by Tselina-type spacecraft, which performed the tasks of survey and detailed reconnaissance of the radar station of a potential enemy. In total, from 1967 to 2007, 130 Tselina satellites were launched into orbit, 15 of them after 1991.

After the collapse of the USSR, the program for the development of military spacecraft was sharply reduced. Since 1991, military satellites (numbering about 60 units) have basically only gone out of orbit, and the military space constellation has been replenished, often spontaneously.

A vivid example of the plight of "military space" in these times is the grouping of spacecraft included in the missile attack warning system (SPRN). In the USSR, the SPRN space constellation consisted of 9 spacecraft: four geostationary US-KS and five highly elliptical US-KMO. In 2017, there were only two such satellites left ...

Things are better than others in the field of global space navigation. The GLONASS global positioning system in the interests of the Russian Ministry of Defense provides 24 satellites of the GLONASS-M type, providing accurate coordinates for all types of troops of our Armed Forces.

Satellites "Tundra", included in the "Unified space system for detection and combat control"(a segment of the Russian early warning system), are capable of determining the parameters of the flight trajectories of any ICBMs and the probable area of ​​destruction. Elements of an automated combat control system are installed on the Tundra, that is, signals can be transmitted through the spacecraft for strategic nuclear forces Russia.

The remaining groupings and types of military satellites are only at the beginning of a renaissance period. For example, optoelectronic reconnaissance satellites have a constellation of two Persona and two Bars-M satellites. This constellation can be increased by means of small satellites of the "Yantar" and "Orlets" type, launched into low orbit, with a period of operation from 60 to 120 days.

In part, the tasks of space specific reconnaissance can be solved by remote sensing satellites "Resurs-P" (created on the basis of the Persona spacecraft) and "Electro-L" located in geostationary orbit. Indeed, "Resurs-P" can view a strip of 950 km with detailing of objects in a zone 38 km wide, while providing digital images with a resolution of 12 meters. "Electro-L" produces high-quality panoramic images of the visible disk of the Earth with a resolution of 1000 x 1000 meters. This is not bad for beautiful photo wallpapers on a computer desktop, but not enough for intelligence tasks. For specific reconnaissance, a Bars-M satellite is needed. It surveys a strip of 1340 km, with a detail of a sector 60 km wide and can produce images with a resolution of 1.1 meters, that is, 12 times better than Resurs-P!

RTR tasks are performed by two Lotos-S/S1 spacecraft and two Pion-NKS spacecraft, which are part of the Liana marine space reconnaissance and target designation system. Despite their "marine" purpose, the Liana ICRC satellites can also work on land facilities, providing high-precision information to Russian air, ground and sea-based strike systems.

Great hopes are pinned on the new Repey spacecraft (RTR and RLR). A constellation of 12 satellites (six Repei-V and six Repei-S) will be able to record the operation of enemy radio equipment, identify them, determine coordinates and transmit information through the Harpoon spacecraft to the command posts of the Russian Armed Forces.

Relay satellites (SR) "Harpoon" were created to transmit large amounts of digital information received from satellites for visual and electronic intelligence. Two such spacecraft were sent from the Baikonur Cosmodrome to geostationary orbit.

The Russian Defense Ministry, like the US Space Command, can also use "dual-purpose" civilian satellites to its advantage. These include the Luch-5 type SR, which provide communication with objects moving in space (space stations, upper stages, launch vehicles) out of sight from Russian territory. AT this moment a satellite constellation of seven Luch-5 satellites serves the Russian segment of the ISS, relays corrective signals from GLONASS satellites.

Checking the real deal

During the operation of the Russian Armed Forces in Syria, the concept of an aerospace reconnaissance and strike circuit was practically worked out.

It consisted of intelligence units of the Forces special operations(MTR) with complexes of reconnaissance control and communications (KRUS) "Sagittarius", reconnaissance drones ("Orlan" and "Outpost"), reconnaissance aircraft (Tu-204R, A-50), spacecraft for visual and electronic intelligence ("Persona ", "Bars-M", "Lotos-S/S1", "Pion-NKS"). All information in real time was centrally collected and processed in National Center Defense Administration (NTSUO) of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

The ACCS segment of the Russian armed forces, deployed in a specific theater of operations (Syria), has demonstrated its high efficiency. The accuracy and timeliness of target data allowed our VCS to apply precision weapons and cruise missiles, and the Russian Navy to ensure the destruction of ground targets with the help of Caliber cruise missiles.

At present, the Russian constellation of military spacecraft has over 20 satellites. It certainly needs to be strengthened. Development, manufacture and launch of modern satellites in the interests of providing communications and various kinds intelligence is provided for by the current State Armaments Program for the period up to 2027.

It can be confidently stated that the Russian military space programs have reached the stage of sustainable development.