S-400 deliveries to India begin in December
Training of Indian personnel is underway in Russia, with the final assembly/testing of the system unaffected by the Covid-19 pandemic

At Almaz Antey in the northwestern Russian Federation, close to the historical and cultural capital of St. Petersburg, is where they build an air defence missile system ordered by India, something that has irritated the U.S., which was upset enough with Turkey for doing exactly the same that it kicked the NATO member out of the fifth generation F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, no less due to the U.S. Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

And while India is not a customer of the F-35, technically CAATSA could well apply over its orders for Russian kit like the S-400 Triumph missile defence system. India has pointed out that the order is a sovereign decision and, in any case, it’s not as if the U.S. has an exact alternative on offer, discussions over NASAMS notwithstanding.

Earlier this week, visiting U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken continued the expression of vague ambivalence on the applicability of CAATSA on India’s S-400 order.

The U.S. Secretary of Defence Lloyd James Austin III had been similarly equivocal during his visit to India in March, saying it hadn’t been delivered yet.

Well, S-400 manufacturer, the Almaz Antey Corporation confirmed to visiting Indian news media last month that — pandemic or no pandemic — deliveries of the system would begin in December.

Deputy Director General of the Almaz Antey Corporation, Mikhail Podvyaznikov told Indian reporters, “Not a single enterprise or workshop suspended their operations for even a single day.”

Reiterating that they expect to meet all their deadlines ‘to a single day’, he said that deliveries would begin by the end of 2021, as required by the contract.

Podvyaznikov is also the Director General of the North Western Regional Centre (NWRC) of Almaz Antey Corporation, where the final assembly and testing of the S-400 system is conducted.

Each system will be subjected to extensive tests that simulate varied environmental conditions across India, like extreme heat and cold, extremes of moisture and dust, as well as a spectrum of air pressure and altitudes to make sure they perform as intended, with all the tests being conducted at the Almaz Antey Corporation’s North Western Regional Centre (NWRC).

Pointing out that, especially, with the equipment having been tested and operated in high altitude areas in Russia, Podvyaznikov said, “The system will be able to provide one hundred percent defence and protection against missiles and other airborne targets, at the altitude up to 3000 metres.”

And Indian personnel are already on-site training to operate the system. Pointing to the ‘long history of military cooperation’ between the two countries, Podvyaznikov said the Indian personnel are ‘prepared’ and ‘training is going smoothly’.

“The Indian officers have experience dealing with Russian equipment and therefore as a result they mastered new equipment during the training program quite easily,” he said.

Podvyaznikov is also confident of the ability of the S-400 to defeat any fifth generation fighter capabilities that it might have to defend against.

“The system proved to be capable of dealing with airborne targets including fifth generation fighters and since the system has open architecture, it can be supplemented in future with new components, which will be able to address new, emerging threats, if required,” he said, pointing out that the ‘system is part of the Russian military complex’ and has taken part in ‘real-life combat operations and proved to be extremely efficient’.

The NWRC is a massive industrial facility at the site of what includes the original Obukhvskiy Plant which has been around since the 1863 and has manufactured all kinds of weapons and equipment besides civilian products as diverse as clothes irons and pianos (they also have their own label of vodka).

Today, the NWRC also includes research institutes for Radio Equipment, Radio-Navigation and Time Measurement, a design bureau for special engineering, and plants for radio engineering equipment and navigation. The Bryansk Automobile Plant has also been set up recently for the production of specialist, off-road vehicles.

Besides these, the NWRC has foundries that include a steel-melting and casting workshop and a galvanic and chemical plating workshop

The test facilities for the S-400 include ‘weather-proof testing of large-sized articles with a testing temperature range between minus 70 to almost 100 above zero’.

“The facility also has a rain chamber which makes it possible to recreate conditions which are peculiar to our southern areas as well as Asian and African countries,” said Podvyaznikov, explaining further, “There is also a thermal and altitude chamber which makes it possible to simulate conditions at high altitude — almost as high as cosmic space. And finally, there is a dust chamber which makes it possible to simulate dust storms, that might be common in some regions around the world.” The thermo-pressure chambers, for example, can lower the pressure to almost 1mm Hg.

The NWRC also has a site for mechanical and climate testing of products ‘including linear acceleration (centrifuge) tests, shock resistance tests (free fall copter), vibration tests (hydraulic shaker), high and low pressure chambers and testing of equipment in (outer) space conditions’.

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This is what the guide to Russian arms published by Rosoboronexport (Russia’s arms export agency) has to say about the S-400.

S-400 TRIUMPH mobile multi-channel air defence missile system (ADMS) is designed for up-to-date and advanced air threats interception: countermeasures aircraft, early-warning aircraft, reconnaissance aircraft that may be component of reconnaissance/strike systems, airborne missiles strategic carriers, tactical and theatre ballistic missiles, medium-range ballistic missiles and other threats at dense radio countermeasures scenario.

S-400 TRIUMPH ADMS provides combat operations conducting in autonomous mode and interacting with superior command posts or external radar data transmission systems:

– based on radar data received from neighbouring short, medium and long range air defence missile systems;
– based on data received from superior command posts interfaced with command and control elements (CCE);
-based on radar data received from attached acquisition radar with trace output and interfaced with 30K6E CCE.

S-400 TRIUMPH incorporates:

1. 30K6E control equipment comprising:
– combat control point 55K6E;
– radar complex 91N6E;
– single base SPTA set;
– external power supply equipment;
– additional equipment including a group SPTA set and also the antenna-mast assemblies and repeaters to increase a radio communication range.

2. Up to six 98Zh6E air defence missile complexes, each containing:
– multifunction radar 92N6E;
– up to 12 launchers 5P85SE2 (chassis-mounted) and/or 5P85TE2 (trailer-mounted with a prime mover) with four SAMs in each container-launchers;
– single base SPTA set;
– equipment for technical operation and storage of missiles;
– additional equipment including the external power supply facilities, group SPTA sets, radar 96L6E, training/operating missiles and towers for the antennas of the multifunction radars and 96LE radar to improve the detection of the low-altitude targets.

3. SAM ammunition comprising 288 missiles.

4. Maintenance complex incorporating an air services, a unified compressor station, a mobile vehicle-mounted repair workshop and other equipment.

ADMS S-400 TRIUMPH is capable of interacting with command and control elements, data link and combat vehicles and Customer air defence identification systems.

TRIUMPH S-400 ammunition includes the 48N6E3, 48N6E2, 40N6E, 9M96E2-2 surface-to-air missiles (SAM). The 48N6E2 missiles are similar to those the FAVORIT air defence missile system employs.

Engagement Range in Kms
Aerodynamic targets: 3-380
Ballistic targets: 5-60

Min/Max altitude of engaged target in Kms:
Aerodynamic targets: 0.01/30
Ballistic targets: 2/75

Maximum velocity of engaged target in m/s: 4,800

Simultaneously tracked target paths: up to 300

Simultaneously tracked engaged targets by ADMS: 80*

Simultaneously guided missiles by ADMS: 160*

System components deployment time from march column in minutes: 5

*If all AD system components are deployed.

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