JOINT CIS AIR-DEFENSE SYSTEM GOING STRONG
RIA Novosti, Russia
Feb 17 2005
MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti military commentator Viktor Litovkin)
The joint air-defense system is perhaps the only CIS military
organization that has not experienced any serious problems or
contradictions since it was established in 1995. “Due to a lack of
discipline among pilots, we register thousands of CIS air-traffic
violations, but CIS air space is violated very rarely,” General of
the Army Vladimir Mikhailov, the Russian Air Force commander, told
RIA Novosti at a press conference devoted to the tenth anniversary of
establishing the joint CIS air-defense system. The general also chairs
the coordinating committee for air-defense issues of the Council of
CIS Defense Ministers.
The CIS air-defense system was established on February 10, 1995,
and comprises ten countries: Armenia, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.
Although Georgian, Uzbek and Turkmen commanders did not attend the
Moscow celebrations, the joint system’s heads had a great deal to
tell reporters.
“First of all, we have restored complete radar surveillance outside
Russia,” General Mikhailov’s deputy, Lieutenant General Aitech Bizhev
told RIA Novosti. “Now, we scan 800-1,500km of air space outside our
external perimeter. Potential violators know this and do not risk
violating our country’s sovereignty and that of other CIS countries.
The only time this has happened was last year, when an American
light plane became lost over Mongolia and entered Russian air space.
Fighters escorted it to Chita airport, where it made an emergency
landing.”
General Bizhev continued that the Council of CIS Heads of State had
allocated two billion rubles on joint financing for CIS air defense,
which meant forces received state-of-the-art combat hardware and
equipment, including radars, surface-to-air missiles and aircraft.
The forces wield Osa, Buk, S-75, S-125, S-200 and S-300 SAM complexes,
and modified versions. Their fighter units fly modified versions of
the MiG-23, MiG-29, MiG-31 and Sukhoi Su-27. Apart from radars, CIS
electronic units are equipped with radio-electronic warfare systems.
In all, the joint CIS air-defense system comprises 19 fighter
regiments (11 Russian and two Belarussian), 29 SAM regiments (11
Russian), and 22 radar units (nine Russian and two other Russian
radio-electronic warfare battalions). Moreover, Russian air-defense
units are stationed in Armenia (102nd base), Tajikistan (as part of the
201st mechanized-infantry division, which has now been converted into
a Russian military base) and at the Kant air-force base in Kyrgyzstan.
Nonetheless, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are
the only countries to implement fully automated combat-duty programs
between national command centers, but interaction remains to be
streamlined in other CIS countries. According to General Bizhev,
these countries can buy and install new automated control systems at
domestic Russian prices. The coordinating committee for air-defense
issues is now tackling these problems.
Russian and Belarussian units and weapons have now been placed on joint
combat duty owing to the committee’s efforts and after the Council
of CIS Heads of State issued the relevant decision. An agreement on
joint combat duty operations by Russian, Kazakh and Kyrgyz air-defense
units has been signed. Armenian, Belarussian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and
Uzbek air-defense forces implement joint combat-duty programs. This
area of cooperation will continue to develop.
There are plans to set up regional air-defense systems in the
near future. In particular, the Russian-Belarussian air-defense
system will become the mainstay of the Eastern European theater
air-defense system. Russian and Kazakh forces will become the main
element of the Central Asian theater air-defense system. Meanwhile
Armenian air-defense units, the 3,624th Russian Air Force group,
a Russian SAM regiment featuring S-300V SAM complexes (partof the
102nd Russian military base in Gyumri) will be the Caucasian theater
air-defense system.
CIS air-defense units continue to streamline their interaction not
only during joint combat-duty programs and information exchanges about
national air-space situation reports and foreign air space. They also
do so during regular tactical exercises, headquarters exercises and
tactical war games with live ammunition. These exercises, codenamed
Boevoye Sodruzhestvo (Combat Cohesion), are regularly organized at
the Ashuluk firing range near Astrakhan. They involve virtually all
members of the air-defense system. Seventy SAM divisions, as well
as 60 fighter, bomber and ground-attack plane crews, have conducted
live target practice there since 1995. Dozens of electronic units
have facilitated their combat missions and missile launches.
The exercises will be expanded this year. Now, they will also be held
near Vorkuta above the Polar Circle, where combat hardware will be
tested in adverse conditions. Moreover, CIS units will train at the
Sary-Shagan firing range in Kazakhstan, where Russia’s S-300 Triumph
SAMs, developed by the Almaz-Antei concern, will be launched and
their maximum range evaluated. Ukrainian air-defense units will also
test-fire their missiles at Sary-Shagan, if Kiev and Astana sign the
appropriate agreement. The point is that S-200 system, with its long
range of 300km, cannot be tested in the Crimea, which is why Ukraine
is keen to attend the exercise in Kazakhstan.
Besides, the Sary-Shagan firing range, which was where Soviet
anti-aircraft weapons and ABM complexes (including those around Moscow)
were once tested, allows missiles to be launched against different
aerial targets, aircraft included, and the most difficult combat
environments simulated. It is unique in this respect.
Radio-electronic warfare systems will be used in April this year at
the test-firing exercises to create a difficult jamming environment.
SAM complexes will targetstrategic bombers, long-range cruise missiles
and unmanned air vehicles. Radio-electronic units will jam radars,
communications, reconnaissance and target-acquisition networks. Highly
effective, powerful and heterogeneous air-force units will “attack”
CIS air-defense units. So, how will the latter cope? General Bizhev
is highly optimistic: “I think we will prove the joint CIS air-defense
system’s reliability once again.”